Yes the end of the season was disappointing, but we need to look at the facts:
1. Of the 55 athletes that Coach Saban recruited that were in the junior and senior class, we had 20 on campus to begin the season.
2. We were hit hard by the transfer portal when Coach Saban retired and due to the fact that the portal was already closed when we finished playing, except for players from Michigan, Texas, Washington and Alabama, we had a limited number of potential replacements to draw from. We were successful in garnering 8 replacements; however, we lost over 30. We lost at least two first round draft choices.
3. We brought in a new coaching staff with a completely different philosophy and the period of adjustment was hard. shortly before the start of Spring Practice we lost our new Offensive Coordinator to the Seahawks.
4. During the brief time we were hunting for a head Coach, we lost two starters, one an All American, and our top recruit to the Portal/NIL machine at tOSU. We were able to replace one of the starters with a better relacement.
5. We finished the season without three of our key Defensive starters, those players being injured. Noted: every team has injuries.
With all of our problems, we still finished 9-3 and number 11 in the country. Was it the season we wanted? No. The season although not a success was pretty good. We will add a bunch of pretty good players in the recruiting class and we will surely spend the next three weeks in the portal getting more. We will lose some that we do not want to lose, players that do not feel they got enough playing time this year, we already appear to be losing some good ones. The problems with five star freshmen is that they expect to start on day one and they are not ready and then you have upper classmen that think they are not used properly or want more money, I have confidence in this staff and I believe that by the 2026 season, we will be championship ready.
If Coach finds some depth at Linebacker, Offensive Line, and Defensive line positions, next years team should be special.
1. Of the 55 athletes that Coach Saban recruited that were in the junior and senior class, we had 20 on campus to begin the season.
2. We were hit hard by the transfer portal when Coach Saban retired and due to the fact that the portal was already closed when we finished playing, except for players from Michigan, Texas, Washington and Alabama, we had a limited number of potential replacements to draw from. We were successful in garnering 8 replacements; however, we lost over 30. We lost at least two first round draft choices.
3. We brought in a new coaching staff with a completely different philosophy and the period of adjustment was hard. shortly before the start of Spring Practice we lost our new Offensive Coordinator to the Seahawks.
4. During the brief time we were hunting for a head Coach, we lost two starters, one an All American, and our top recruit to the Portal/NIL machine at tOSU. We were able to replace one of the starters with a better relacement.
5. We finished the season without three of our key Defensive starters, those players being injured. Noted: every team has injuries.
With all of our problems, we still finished 9-3 and number 11 in the country. Was it the season we wanted? No. The season although not a success was pretty good. We will add a bunch of pretty good players in the recruiting class and we will surely spend the next three weeks in the portal getting more. We will lose some that we do not want to lose, players that do not feel they got enough playing time this year, we already appear to be losing some good ones. The problems with five star freshmen is that they expect to start on day one and they are not ready and then you have upper classmen that think they are not used properly or want more money, I have confidence in this staff and I believe that by the 2026 season, we will be championship ready.
If Coach finds some depth at Linebacker, Offensive Line, and Defensive line positions, next years team should be special.
Last edited:
