Cecil Hurt
TideSports.com Columnist
The 2015 offseason probably isn't one that Nick Saban will cherish, at least from a football viewpoint. On a personal level, with a small Saban granddaughter growing up and his daughter having what he has called a "great" wedding, things were wonderful. He seems as pleased with the character of this team, and its off-season work, as he has been with any Alabama team.
But there is always "that game." For seven long months, Saban (along with everyone else connected with UA, player, fan or bemused citizen) has had to live with the recapitulation of the Crimson Tide's last game, a seven-point semifinal loss to Ohio State in a college playoff semifinal.
No other game from the 2014 season is discussed remotely as much on the national stage. This is an informal impression, not a scientific poll, but I would estimate that there has been five times as much written and said about Alabama-Ohio State than Ohio State-Oregon which was, technically, the championship game. Sweeping conclusions have been drawn from the result. Like a convention of overactive coroners, observers have been busy issuing toe tags and writing death certificates for everything in sight. The SEC? Deceased? Alabama's dynasty? Defunct. Saban's reign as the top college coach? Gone like the hand-held Blackberry. Or so we have been told. A season that would have been celebrated almost anywhere else - an SEC title, a playoff berth, a Heisman finalist, a feel-good story at quarterback - has somehow become a tragedy.
Today begins Alabama's chance to write a new chapter. It's self-perpetuating insanity to make this one more season that can be defined only as "national championship" or "failure," but showing yet again that it is a contender is important for Alabama. The season opens against another team from the Big Ten, and while Saban has said little about Wisconsin so far, there will be some built-in motivation against the Badgers, perhaps more than Wisconsin realizes.
Alabama has things to work on for the next month. The quarterback situation has been discussed incessantly. Now, Alabama has to not only find one out of a half-dozen candidates. It has to prepare one to win. The offensive line is in development, albeit with a strong foundation. The secondary will be talented but young. And then there is the paradox that Alabama cannot escape: even if, as some people say, the Crimson Tide didn't meet expectations last season, there is no subsequent lowering of expectations for 2015.
It is an anachronism, a throwback to the days of Grantland Rice and Dixie Howell, to call today a starting point on a road to some sort of redemption. That started the day Alabama returned home from New Orleans and proceeded on the recruiting trail and the weight room, spring practice and summer drills. If Alabama were just starting today, they'd be doomed already.
What today, the first day of practice represents, isn't a new start. It does mark the first time that the 2015 Crimson Tide is a fully unified team, one that shouldn't have to look far for motivation. Chemistry and energy are the keys for the next four weeks, just as much as which five-star name steps in at which position.
- See more at: https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1789410#sthash.h1d0NlHE.dpuf
TideSports.com Columnist
The 2015 offseason probably isn't one that Nick Saban will cherish, at least from a football viewpoint. On a personal level, with a small Saban granddaughter growing up and his daughter having what he has called a "great" wedding, things were wonderful. He seems as pleased with the character of this team, and its off-season work, as he has been with any Alabama team.
But there is always "that game." For seven long months, Saban (along with everyone else connected with UA, player, fan or bemused citizen) has had to live with the recapitulation of the Crimson Tide's last game, a seven-point semifinal loss to Ohio State in a college playoff semifinal.
No other game from the 2014 season is discussed remotely as much on the national stage. This is an informal impression, not a scientific poll, but I would estimate that there has been five times as much written and said about Alabama-Ohio State than Ohio State-Oregon which was, technically, the championship game. Sweeping conclusions have been drawn from the result. Like a convention of overactive coroners, observers have been busy issuing toe tags and writing death certificates for everything in sight. The SEC? Deceased? Alabama's dynasty? Defunct. Saban's reign as the top college coach? Gone like the hand-held Blackberry. Or so we have been told. A season that would have been celebrated almost anywhere else - an SEC title, a playoff berth, a Heisman finalist, a feel-good story at quarterback - has somehow become a tragedy.
Today begins Alabama's chance to write a new chapter. It's self-perpetuating insanity to make this one more season that can be defined only as "national championship" or "failure," but showing yet again that it is a contender is important for Alabama. The season opens against another team from the Big Ten, and while Saban has said little about Wisconsin so far, there will be some built-in motivation against the Badgers, perhaps more than Wisconsin realizes.
Alabama has things to work on for the next month. The quarterback situation has been discussed incessantly. Now, Alabama has to not only find one out of a half-dozen candidates. It has to prepare one to win. The offensive line is in development, albeit with a strong foundation. The secondary will be talented but young. And then there is the paradox that Alabama cannot escape: even if, as some people say, the Crimson Tide didn't meet expectations last season, there is no subsequent lowering of expectations for 2015.
It is an anachronism, a throwback to the days of Grantland Rice and Dixie Howell, to call today a starting point on a road to some sort of redemption. That started the day Alabama returned home from New Orleans and proceeded on the recruiting trail and the weight room, spring practice and summer drills. If Alabama were just starting today, they'd be doomed already.
What today, the first day of practice represents, isn't a new start. It does mark the first time that the 2015 Crimson Tide is a fully unified team, one that shouldn't have to look far for motivation. Chemistry and energy are the keys for the next four weeks, just as much as which five-star name steps in at which position.
- See more at: https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1789410#sthash.h1d0NlHE.dpuf
