Apologies in advance for the TLDR.
I have been searching and searching for some concrete answer to the question of what's gone wrong with the Tide. And the answer doesn't just jump out at you. Recently a few of my fellow Bama alums and I spent a while talking about these past three games and we started to come up with a number of different issues: (1) penalties and situation awareness; (2) both lines of scrimmage are weak; (3) the defensive scheme is wrong; (4) Milroe is too erratic (we had to say erratic instead of bad, because if you are being objective you will agree that he has had some very good games, including our Vandy loss and for much of the South Carolina Game. The Tennessee game was all-time bad; (5) DeBoer is too calm (this last one is a joke and only the most irrational person thinks this is a real issue). But, none of these are correct and none are wrong (except the DeBoer one, that's just stupid). It's somewhat a mixed bag. I think the real answer lies in what's happened over the past few years - yes, I am going to place a little blame on Saban and most on the new era of transfer portal NIL football. The light at the end of the tunnel is not blowing everything up again and starting over. Rather, it's staying the course and giving DeBoer the same amount of time we gave the GOAT. Implementing a whole new system, offense, defense, etc. takes time and we owe it to this staff to give them that time. Saban didn't leave cause he was tired of working; he spends as much time now with TV, commercials, speaking engagements, lobbying congress on NIL issues, as most current college coaches spend running their team. He left because he was acutely aware that this team was no longer capable of winning at the highest level and performing to his standard. Part of that was due to recruiting misses (just got the evaluation wrong) and much of it was due to the new landscape of pay to play wherever you want college football.
So let's get into each of the above problem areas:
(1) Penalties. Anyone who calls themselves a true Bama fan knows that penalties and discipline have been an issue since at least 2022 (by way of reminder we had two more penalties - 17 - in the 2022 Tennessee game). So its tough to say this is a DeBoer coaching issue. Rather, I think this one comes down to the new CFB landscape and the need to play far more inexperienced and underdeveloped players. This gets amplified even more when players are playing in an entirely new offensive and defensive scheme;
(2) The lines of scrimmage. If we are being honest with ourselves - and I think Saban might admit this privately - the offensive and defensive lines have been a shit show since 2021. I don't know if the issue is that these players were each recruited for a different offensive scheme (which has changed each of the past 3 years) or recruiting misses, or poor development. I tend to think regardless of star rating, this is mostly on Saban and his staff either missing on their talent evaluations or poor development once at Bama. On defense, the performance of a transfer, LT Overton, shows us what a recruiting hit looks like. I'm putting a lot of this on Saban though because sometimes just recruiting the best ranked player doesn't mean you've recruited the best player for your offense.
(3) The defensive scheme. The scheme (4-2-5) itself is not the problem. However, the coaches preparation and in-game play calling may be. Go back and watch the first half of Tennessee, we line up in a 3-3-5 almost every time it's a running down, and IT WORKS. We then use the 4-2-5, typically with an extra rusher to add pressure on passing downs... it also mostly works in the first half. Then in the second half we start using the 4-2-5 on many more downs and UT starts breaking big runs and exploiting our D. Of course, this leads to the pass game opening up as well and the second half becomes more like the Vandy game.
(4) Milroe -- I don't know entirely what to say here. I'm a huge fan. But if I'm being honest, he sucked this past week. Now, I don't think that means it's time to go into crisis lockdown mode. There are plenty of great QBs throughout history that simply had an awful game and then rebounded to have great games. I don't think injury was the issue, I think the bigger problem was that Sheridan convinced himself that passing 20 times to the same incredible true freshman was good for at least 4 touchdowns (which he figured with Tennessee's issues on Offense was easily enough to win... it would've been too). This is not what Milroe has looked like in the previous games though. Yes, he had a couple of big mental errors in the South Carolina game, but otherwise he has looked lights out. Not making excuses for how bad his throwing and decision making was against UT, but it is incredibly difficult for a QB when there is simply no threat of a consistent run game. I have no answers for what has happened there (other than to say that even at Washington, DeBoer used the run as an accessory, not a feature). (5)
(5) The DeBoer thing. His personality and lack of sideline emotion has zero to do with our current issues. Maybe I'm wrong here, but I don't think the Saban approach and what many of us grew up with (Coaches screaming and yelling, making you run laps until you threw up or pushups until you collapsed) works with this generation. DeBoer is going to be DeBoer and that is how I prefer it. If he started screaming and yelling at players it would be inauthentic and then we would all call him a fake and blame losses on that. The reality is that DeBoer is coaching players who have either played or were recruited to play a very different offense and defense. It's simply square peg, round hole. Let's give him a few years, and if by season 3 of his tenure he's not taking us to the Championship, then we can pay a much lower buy out and try something else.
Finally, Saban is not coming back. It's time to say goodbye to him (for many of you) and to say thank you to him for the greatest 17 year run in college football history.
Roll Tide!
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