That was the least enjoyable Spring Game I’ve seen since 2010. I sure hope that doesn’t translate into a 2010 type season for Bama. Look, I know they’re young and had a lot of players out with injuries but man they didn’t look sharp very often. I came wanting to see which QB, Milroe or Simpson, would play better and if the O-line had improved. Well, it turned out the best looking QB that afternoon was the freshman Lonergan. Holstein on the other hand played like a true freshman. He certainly looks the part of a prototypical big time QB or at least what prototypical QB’s used to look like … but he didn’t play well.
As for the O-line, Saban had split up who I thought were going to be the starting five so it was impossible to see any of the cohesiveness I was hoping to see. Granted you can’t tell much from the Spring games but you can get a feel for some intangibles. Like seeing if any alpha’s on the defense had emerged. That’s something that’s been missing for several seasons. Too many of the potential alphas were out so it’s impossible to say none exist on this team. Though, I can say none of the ones who played Saturday fit that bill. To me, if this team competes for the NC this season, Saban should several COY’s this season. If they win the NC then Saban should take home every COY award out there.
The pundits and haters think Bama should always have a NC caliber team because they recruit so well year after year … but it takes a hell of lot more than great recruiting classes to win NC’s. That’s especially true in the era of the transfer portal. Many of the great recruits from the past few classes have already transferred out. Remove them from the recruiter site calculations and suddenly they’re no longer top 3 classes. Nonetheless, I put my trust in the GOAT. Saban seems to love rising to a steep challenge and this season will be a challenge for sure.
The pups will have the bullseye on their back this season which will take some of the load off of Bama. Fortunately for the pups though, they’ve got a super easy schedule. Now, I live in Georgia so of course, I wear my Bama gear every chance I get. Up until last season, my fellow Georgians rarely if ever commented on my attire. This year though, they’re all ten foot tall and bulletproof. In Lowe’s yesterday, one of the pup fans said “So you’re a Bama fan? I laughed and said what gave it away Columbo? My bright crimson and white t-shirt with 2020 NC on it? He responded by saying “I’ve just got two words for you: three-peat. And that’s something your precious Bama has never accomplished”. I didn’t correct him on his word count faux pas. I just laughed and told him to look me up when his pups had won 13 NC’s in 60 years. To my delight, my final comment brought about a chorus of boos from peanut gallery. I say all of that to say, I’m hoping the pups lose a handful of games. Which means, I’ll probably be pulling for the vile’s and cow patty u folks to upset them. 99.999 % of the time I do not pull for either of them unless their winning demonstrably helps Bama. So, I guess this looks to be a .001% type of season! RTR!
