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Yes. At the end of the day, I believe we get the W because of our defense, but this one is a potential trap game. A healthy Florida with Lagway is a good team and the swamp isn't an easy place to play.

We’re still arguing about Florida? lol I don’t see how a team Texas obliterated last year is going to suddenly become their hardest game. Give me Texas all day.

Let them work the bugs out for a few games. Opening the season against another top 3 team on the road has a way of making a team look worse than they are. We have the speed, but the processing/timing needs to get there with Arch. Several times we had a TE or WR open, but Arch didn't find them. Hopefully this stopped all the Arch to the draft talk for a while. I agree on returners. Weird choices there. Sark understands he's going to need to lean on his defense while the offense figures out who it is under Arch. We'll probably see what Clark and Mosley bring on Saturday.

Would you feel the sane if Arch went 19/25 2tds and a Texas win last week?

The Swamp isn't easy to play in. Florida could be healthier. Florida is hoping to get to Texas without any injury issues from a tough stretch. If they can avoid injuries, it will be a dog fight.

Germie Bernard is pretty good. I think he is of the caliber that he would have been at least a top 4 receiver on that UW team.

The only teams Bama had any business losing to last season were UGA, LSU and Tennessee (not even really Tennessee given their struggles). Realistic expectations for DeBoer would have been lose 2 of those 3 and make the CFP, or even all 3 and miss the CFP (they probably would have made the CFP if those were the 3 they lost). But to lose to Vandy and OU just shows an immense change in culture for the worse. 4 losses to unranked teams, matching the total number Saban had his whole time there. And again, Bama has never been less penalized than their opponent under DeBoer yet. That is wild. It goes beyond the record. If DeBoer pulls it out and goes 8-4 or better, props to him because that will be a hard earned 8-4. But I really do think he could go 6-6 or worse this year.

Part of the issue is that we don’t know what DeBoer is really capable of when he doesn’t have a deeply experienced qb who is likely the best in the country (Penix) along with a stable of dangerous and experienced WRs like he had at UW. I know he’s won big everywhere he’s been, but he never had to rebuild at UW. He had all the pieces for an elite offense. Even with all the talent he has at Bama, he’s never had a truly elite QB. And aside from Williams, what WR even comes close to the dudes he had at UW? If he’s not able to recreate the same kind of dominant offense that he had at UW, it means he needs his defense to be incredible—and they are far from that. These are the things that concern me about his ability to take Bama back to the heights they reached under Saban.

One game into his second season is barely a sample size, especially at a program with the expectations DeBoer inherited. Knee-jerk reactions like that are wild when you think about it. If this were any other coach at a program not named Alabama, people would laugh at the idea of firing them after a 9-4 year one and 0-1 start into their tenure.

Also, DeBoer left a team that made the natty to take over for a guy that just made the semis and won 6 titles for the program. I think not losing to OU or Vanderbilt was an ok expectation to have of him.

If they bounce back and make the CFP, I would agree with you, but the difference is they are regressing as a program. Sark has improved the program every year he's been here and we'll see if that trend continues or if he's plateaued. The culture that Saban had built is quickly eroding under DeBoer.

Sark has improved in every season and took over from a rotten culture situation. DeBoer could fall HARD this season, and took over one of the best and most talented programs/cultures of all time. Monumental difference there.

Totally agree. Sark is excellent at creating amazing game plans when he has film to work with. When he has to adapt and adjust in game, we know that he struggles. I wonder if the reason his script was so uninspired is because he was flying blind with what Patricia would do. I suspect if Texas and OSU play again later this year, Sark will call a MUCH better game with more tape on Patricia’s D.

I disagree with your win expectations for Bama this season, but agree with many of your points. People assumed they were gonna get great, improved QB play and heavily de-emphasized how much of a cheat code Jalen Milroe’s running ability was. They play a very tough schedule this season. UGA in Athens, LSU and @ SC were gonna be tough no matter what. So 9-3 would have been an ok season in my book. But now, they are looking like they could lose 6 or 7 games this season with the schedule they have. In addition to UGA, LSU and SC (which they are likely betting underdogs now), they could lose vs Tennessee, OU or Auburn playing the way they did. Vandy and Mizzou aren’t even gimmes playing the way they did.

Deboer went 9-3 in year one with a loss in the bowl game. 9-3. He’s 0-1 in year two, give the man some time. Sark went 5-7 and then 7-5 for comparisons. Accountability is important, but patience is too. Deboer deserves a little breathing room to see how the season unfolds. Odd how some are held to unrealistic and unreasonable standards but others aren’t.

Completely agree. Simpson might be okay, but for all his uneven play the one thing Milroe gave them was a complete freak with his legs and a devastating deep ball. They don’t have either of those weapons this year, which means they might be average or below-average on both sides of the ball. They might be in trouble. Also, losing Jam Miller just devastates their run game. They will be very one-dimensional on offense.

It’s not just the defense. It’s discipline. Kalen DeBoer is used to coaching Midwest and west coast players. IMO, Southeastern players are more talented, but play with more attitude and “swag”. I think Kalen DeBoer got away with lackadaisical discipline coaching players that naturally had more even keel attitudes. Now he’s at Bama (lot of alpha types). They have just been unyoked from one of the biggest disciplinarian coaches in history to be coached by a much easier going coach, and I think the players are responding by being much more loose and undisciplined than they were under Saban. Under DeBoer, Bama has never had fewer penalties than an opponent to date. Completely wild stat that illustrates the lack of discipline.

It's not a talent issue. It's not an NIL issue. It's a coaching issue. Last season, Bama should've went 11-1 in the regular season, played Texas in the SEC title game, and been a CFP lock. This season, Bama should go 10-2 in the regular season at worst, but more likely to go 8-4 and miss the SEC title and CFP once again. I know Saban is gone, but this team is good enough to be a perennial playoff contender, even if they're no longer a national championship contender. DeBoer is too "buddy buddy" with his players and coaching staff for this to work. LSU, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Auburn, and even Georgia are licking their chops to play this Alabama team. This guy is spot on with the issues happening in Tuscaloosa rn

I think the issue is that DeBoer didn’t make the right hires on the defensive side of the ball. That’s a huge difference between DeBoer and Sark: one still thinks of himself as primarily committed to constructing a dominant offense, while the other has brought in some of the best defensive coaching in the game and generated increasingly dominant defenses. Alabama is a top-5 most talented roster in the country. Losing to Vanderbilt, OU, and FSU is just unacceptable. This is NOT a Saban defense.

Would have preferred dialogue and mutual respect. Be well.

Exactly. Butler is probably that guy but he’s struggling to be consistent to catch the ball. hopefully Clark will have some of that juice in the sense of quickness to make people miss

https://www.si.com/fannation/college/cfb-hq/aj-mccarron-sounds-alarm-alabama-nil-reality-after-florida-state-loss Bama is the #2 team in talent composite with 14 former 5* and 50 former 4* on roster. FSU is 19th with 1 former 5* and 36 former 4* on roster. It ain't NIL or recruiting. He's just sad that it would cost $20 million just to have the RB depth Bama used to have. That's a Bama education at work, folks.

I guess you have to have a subscription or something. Can’t find that. It would be interesting to track though. Thanks

That’s a manly throw. Don’t think Patricia is getting enough credit for causing Arch issues. That was a helluva game plan Arch was navigating without any tape history of him at OSU.

Good stuff by Chase Daniel to breakdown the quarterback position this weekend.