| FTBL Eye opening article by Cecil Hurt

bamafan4ever

Staff
Member
Well, maybe not an eye-opening article to a lot of us in here but it will be for the overly-optimistic group that is part of every BAMA message board.

http://www.tidesports.com/article/20070815/NEWS/70814035/1067/NEWS

The analogy of the 1969 team is quite good in my opinion. He made it a point to make it clear to the reader that we had a pretty good coach in '69 and got spanked a few times.

A few questions have arisen in my mind since the scrimmage on Saturday. It has been an old adage, at least around my house, that defenses should always be ahead of offenses, especially early in the year. Apparently that is not going to be the case with the Tide in '07 and that's why I still think that going 8-4 would be quite optimistic, especially with the very good defensive teams that are on our schedule. 7-5 would not surprise me at all and we can keep on building for the next two years which should be exceptional at the rate we are raking in blue chippers.

It has crossed my mind that are offense just may be that good. Then I have my second cup of coffee and save my dreams of grandeur for probably another season or two.

No matter what, we will be more competitive than we would have been had there not been regime change. Could you imagine what this season had been without a true teacher of the game not on the field with our young defense? No knock on Joe Kines because I feel he saved his best for the Tide in his last three years of coaching but Nick Saban, whether we go 7-5 or not this year, is exactly what the Crimson Tide needed in this part of her long and succeful history.

RTR!
 
I think you will go 8-4. Some of the teams you are going to play (LSU) are a little overrated IMO. I also think Saban will pull off a win he probably should not. Saban basically runs a pro defense so it is very complicated and will take your players som time to understand it. What I really like about him is that he is not afraid to gamble and take calculated risks on defense. If you remember during the OU-LSU Sugar Bowl, Saban would leave one side of the field undefended at time and have the CBs blitz Jason White leaving the WRs uncovered. He knew he was going to have to pressure White to win b/c LSU was not going to outscore LSU. He figured his DBs mgith get to White before White figured out where the blitz was coming from. You saw the results.
 
Yeah, my thoughts on this season have been the same all along. I think that 7-5 is expected, 8-4 would be outstanding but not impossible, anything better would warrant Coach of the Year consideration. We are about 2-3 years away from being a consistent contender in the SEC and nation. I also agree that if recruiting continues at the current rate, we will be an outstanding program again in the very near future. The biggest upside to the hiring of Saban, to me, is I expect us to return to the same level we were in the mid 90's before all the issues with the program.
 
I believe Bama will end up 7-5 or 8-4 if we get a few breaks. The defense is just too depleted to make a 9-3 or 10-2 run. I think their is a possibility that we lose a few early games and end the year strong. To be honest if we go 6-6 I will be ok as long as I see week to week improvement.
 
With less talent and desire to win than he has here at Bama, Coach Saban has improved the win total by at least 3 games in the first year of EVERY team he has EVER coached, including the hapless Dolphins. Don't look for that to end this year. All he has to do to keep that going is not lose the 3 games that Bama should have won last year. He inherited a 9-4 team that was coached down to a 6-7 record. He will coach it back up to at least a 9-4 record. Minimum of 9 wins this year sports fans.
 
Honestly , this year I'm not that worried about the offense being ahead of the defense in the first scrimmage. For these reasons:

1. The offense returns more starters with experience.

2. Wilson is more comfortable with a spread style offense and working from the shotgun as he did at Hoover.

3. The overall defensive scheme that Saban is bringing is a lot more complex than probably any of the current defensive players have ever seen.

That being said, I still think 7 to 8 regular season wins is the best we will do. I also think that there will be improvement each week. While we may have to trust the offense to outscore opponents earlier in the season, I think , if we stay healthy, the defense will catch up and come on strong at the end of the season.
 
Wiseace615 said:
Honestly , this year I'm not that worried about the offense being ahead of the defense in the first scrimmage. For these reasons:

1. The offense returns more starters with experience.

2. Wilson is more comfortable with a spread style offense and working from the shotgun as he did at Hoover.

3. The overall defensive scheme that Saban is bringing is a lot more complex than probably any of the current defensive players have ever seen.

That being said, I still think 7 to 8 regular season wins is the best we will do. I also think that there will be improvement each week. While we may have to trust the offense to outscore opponents earlier in the season, I think , if we stay healthy, the defense will catch up and come on strong at the end of the season.

I agree 100%!!!
 
Wiseace615 said:
Honestly , this year I'm not that worried about the offense being ahead of the defense in the first scrimmage. For these reasons:

1. The offense returns more starters with experience.

2. Wilson is more comfortable with a spread style offense and working from the shotgun as he did at Hoover.

3. The overall defensive scheme that Saban is bringing is a lot more complex than probably any of the current defensive players have ever seen.

That being said, I still think 7 to 8 regular season wins is the best we will do. I also think that there will be improvement each week. While we may have to trust the offense to outscore opponents earlier in the season, I think , if we stay healthy, the defense will catch up and come on strong at the end of the season.

I agree with all of your points, WiseAce, however it doesn't diminish the fact that the offense is way ahead of the defense and that is still not good imo. I understand the reasons why the offense is ahead of the defense. After all, if you think our offense is that good and you really were not worried about the defense, then why do you come to the same conclusion that I do that we will win only 7 or 8 games?
Please don't take that as a flame because it just seems that you reached the same end sum that I did but stated that you were not worried about our "D". Just curious.
 
bamafan4ever said:
Wiseace615 said:
Honestly , this year I'm not that worried about the offense being ahead of the defense in the first scrimmage. For these reasons:

1. The offense returns more starters with experience.

2. Wilson is more comfortable with a spread style offense and working from the shotgun as he did at Hoover.

3. The overall defensive scheme that Saban is bringing is a lot more complex than probably any of the current defensive players have ever seen.

That being said, I still think 7 to 8 regular season wins is the best we will do. I also think that there will be improvement each week. While we may have to trust the offense to outscore opponents earlier in the season, I think , if we stay healthy, the defense will catch up and come on strong at the end of the season.

I agree with all of your points, WiseAce, however it doesn't diminish the fact that the offense is way ahead of the defense and that is still not good imo. I understand the reasons why the offense is ahead of the defense. After all, if you think our offense is that good and you really were not worried about the defense, then why do you come to the same conclusion that I do that we will win only 7 or 8 games?
Please don't take that as a flame because it just seems that you reached the same end sum that I did but stated that you were not worried about our "D". Just curious.

My response was actually geared more toward the article than toward your post. It seemed that Cecil Hurt was sounding a bit of a death knell for the season. Now, understand I am a big fan of his and I did enjoy the article it just seemed to me he was putting a lot of stock in the first scrimmage. I could have misinterpreted it. While I do belive the offense is going to surprise a lot of people this year, I feel like the defense just has more learning to do, comparatively speaking. I also think that the first scrimmage cut into the pride level of some of the players and I think they are determined to improve. For that reason I'm not ready to call it a season just yet ( Again that was in reference to the article) and I'm looking forward to seeing the difference in the "D" in the next scrimmage.

Anyway, I did not take your response as a flame and I did not mean to come across as attacking your post. Anytime you see a flaw in my logic ( :D and there will probably be several :D ) please let me know. All in all I'm just looking forward to the season.

RTR
 
Wiseace615 said:
bamafan4ever said:
Wiseace615 said:
Honestly , this year I'm not that worried about the offense being ahead of the defense in the first scrimmage. For these reasons:

1. The offense returns more starters with experience.

2. Wilson is more comfortable with a spread style offense and working from the shotgun as he did at Hoover.

3. The overall defensive scheme that Saban is bringing is a lot more complex than probably any of the current defensive players have ever seen.

That being said, I still think 7 to 8 regular season wins is the best we will do. I also think that there will be improvement each week. While we may have to trust the offense to outscore opponents earlier in the season, I think , if we stay healthy, the defense will catch up and come on strong at the end of the season.

I agree with all of your points, WiseAce, however it doesn't diminish the fact that the offense is way ahead of the defense and that is still not good imo. I understand the reasons why the offense is ahead of the defense. After all, if you think our offense is that good and you really were not worried about the defense, then why do you come to the same conclusion that I do that we will win only 7 or 8 games?
Please don't take that as a flame because it just seems that you reached the same end sum that I did but stated that you were not worried about our "D". Just curious.

My response was actually geared more toward the article than toward your post. It seemed that Cecil Hurt was sounding a bit of a death knell for the season. Now, understand I am a big fan of his and I did enjoy the article it just seemed to me he was putting a lot of stock in the first scrimmage. I could have misinterpreted it. While I do belive the offense is going to surprise a lot of people this year, I feel like the defense just has more learning to do, comparatively speaking. I also think that the first scrimmage cut into the pride level of some of the players and I think they are determined to improve. For that reason I'm not ready to call it a season just yet ( Again that was in reference to the article) and I'm looking forward to seeing the difference in the "D" in the next scrimmage.

Anyway, I did not take your response as a flame and I did not mean to come across as attacking your post. Anytime you see a flaw in my logic ( :D and there will probably be several :D ) please let me know. All in all I'm just looking forward to the season.

RTR

No, no problem at all. As a matter of fact, I have to agree with you about Cecil being negative at times but then again, he has had to cover this team for the last 10 seasons so I guess that will do it to you! :wink: :lol:
 
bamafan4ever said:
No, no problem at all. As a matter of fact, I have to agree with you about Cecil being negative at times but then again, he has had to cover this team for the last 10 seasons so I guess that will do it to you! :wink: :lol:

Yeah, that would be enough to make you pessimistic for sure. :lol:
 
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