Cecil Hurt
TideSports.com Columnist
What would the Alabama secondary have looked like last week if Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Vinnie Sunseri had been a part of the rotation? That's not an excuse for Alabama's performance, which could have been better (although it was nowhere near the disaster it has been called in some circles). That's not ignoring the fact that, in modern-day college football, all of the best teams have early entrants into the NFL Draft.
LSU has has even more than Alabama over the past four years, and it has affected the Tigers, too. It's just to make a point about the narrow window of career time Nick Saban has to put together a secondary that is expected to play perfectly from the first game of the season.
There is a squeeze going on at both ends. At the top of the experience scale, you have players leaving. No one can fault them, not if they are first-rounders (Clinton-Dix) or if they fight their way onto a roster from a lower draft position, like Sunseri did with the Saints. Now, neither one of those two was a cornerback but do you think the back of the defense would have been daunting, especially in a nickel or dime package, with those two alongside Landon Collins?
On the other side of the squeeze are the incoming players. When Alabama's cornerbacks began to struggle against West Virginia, the cries to put in highly-touted freshman recruits Tony Brown and Marlon Humphrey were instantaneous. Part of that is the natural infatuation with things that are shiny and new and, in this case, particularly glossy due to the recruiting hype. But Saban didn't make that move, for reasons that he expounded upon earlier this week.
"It's not one particular thing," Saban said when asked about West Virginia's explosive plays last Saturday. "Most of it was not created by lack of knowledge or ability, but by confusion."
Obviously, Saban didn't think that pulling players who have been in the system for two years and replacing them with freshmen was going to reduce that confusion, especially not in an opening game. What's more, events seemed to support that notion, with Alabama defending better in the second half than it did the first.
Over the next two weeks, many players may get an opportunity at gaining that experience. Most of the spotlight has been on quarterback Jake Coker getting reps, but it is equally true at other positions. The defense isn't simply frozen at its West Virginia levels. That was, as Saban stated, a starting point.
Given current circumstances, though, it is hard to have a great secondary, year in and year out, especially by Saban's standards. Earlier this fall, he talked about not even liking to classify a player as "very good" until he had two years under his belt. Landon Collins would fit that description this season, but everyone should enjoy it while they can because Collins is a probable first-rounder who is unlikely to be around for the 2015 season. The stars simply don't align where you have four or five such players, all at once, in the same secondary. Alabama has some, but is counting on others to mature into those roles, and that doesn't happen from Game One. The same thing happens at other places. Ask South Carolina.
"I'm not disappointed in it," Saban said. "We are where we are. It's a starting point."
Comforting words? Probably not for fans. But the days of having it all, in terms of talent and experience are over in college football, even at Alabama.
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1677872
TideSports.com Columnist
What would the Alabama secondary have looked like last week if Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Vinnie Sunseri had been a part of the rotation? That's not an excuse for Alabama's performance, which could have been better (although it was nowhere near the disaster it has been called in some circles). That's not ignoring the fact that, in modern-day college football, all of the best teams have early entrants into the NFL Draft.
LSU has has even more than Alabama over the past four years, and it has affected the Tigers, too. It's just to make a point about the narrow window of career time Nick Saban has to put together a secondary that is expected to play perfectly from the first game of the season.
There is a squeeze going on at both ends. At the top of the experience scale, you have players leaving. No one can fault them, not if they are first-rounders (Clinton-Dix) or if they fight their way onto a roster from a lower draft position, like Sunseri did with the Saints. Now, neither one of those two was a cornerback but do you think the back of the defense would have been daunting, especially in a nickel or dime package, with those two alongside Landon Collins?
On the other side of the squeeze are the incoming players. When Alabama's cornerbacks began to struggle against West Virginia, the cries to put in highly-touted freshman recruits Tony Brown and Marlon Humphrey were instantaneous. Part of that is the natural infatuation with things that are shiny and new and, in this case, particularly glossy due to the recruiting hype. But Saban didn't make that move, for reasons that he expounded upon earlier this week.
"It's not one particular thing," Saban said when asked about West Virginia's explosive plays last Saturday. "Most of it was not created by lack of knowledge or ability, but by confusion."
Obviously, Saban didn't think that pulling players who have been in the system for two years and replacing them with freshmen was going to reduce that confusion, especially not in an opening game. What's more, events seemed to support that notion, with Alabama defending better in the second half than it did the first.
Over the next two weeks, many players may get an opportunity at gaining that experience. Most of the spotlight has been on quarterback Jake Coker getting reps, but it is equally true at other positions. The defense isn't simply frozen at its West Virginia levels. That was, as Saban stated, a starting point.
Given current circumstances, though, it is hard to have a great secondary, year in and year out, especially by Saban's standards. Earlier this fall, he talked about not even liking to classify a player as "very good" until he had two years under his belt. Landon Collins would fit that description this season, but everyone should enjoy it while they can because Collins is a probable first-rounder who is unlikely to be around for the 2015 season. The stars simply don't align where you have four or five such players, all at once, in the same secondary. Alabama has some, but is counting on others to mature into those roles, and that doesn't happen from Game One. The same thing happens at other places. Ask South Carolina.
"I'm not disappointed in it," Saban said. "We are where we are. It's a starting point."
Comforting words? Probably not for fans. But the days of having it all, in terms of talent and experience are over in college football, even at Alabama.
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1677872
