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Bama News
Preseason SEC favorite Alabama seeks its sixth national championship during Nick Saban's tenure this fall, hoping to get back to the College Football Playoff after a one-year hiatus. Equipped with a roster comparable to any of the nation's elite, the Crimson Tide will take the field with several projected early-round selections on both sides of the football with the biggest challenge coming under center as Mac Jones officially takes over for Tua Tagovailoa.
Alabama's junior quarterback played well in spots following Tagovailoa's season-ending injury in November last fall, enjoying his best career game in the Crimson Tide's bowl win over Michigan. While SEC Network analyst and former Alabama standout Greg McElroy doesn't believe Jones ranks among the elite realm, one anonymous SEC coach told Lindy's Sports shares a much different view of the Crimson Tide's potential at the position.
"At quarterback, Mac Jones is a very good football player. It's a team sport, and not to take anything away from Greg McElroy at all, but he's not playing in the NFL, he's an announcer, and Alabama won a national championship with him because they've got a lot of really, really good players. A lot," one SEC coach said about the Crimson Tide's new starting quarterback. "And they have a coach that knows how to win. The defense will be better than last year. No doubt.
"The coordinator (Pete Golding) will have been there a year longer to adjust to Coach Saban's way and they were hit with a lot of injuries — not a tot of teams could have done what they did with as many injuries. At the end of the year, they were playing with several guys that wouldn't have been on the field. Not that they were bad players. It just wasn't their turn.”
Golding certainly took his lumps last season during his first campaign as Alabama's defensive coordinator. From Paul Finebaum's hot takes to regional analysts wondering about his future, Golding's defense didn't perform up to the standard previously set at the Capstone by other units of equal talent level.
Part of the issue was season-ending injuries to star linebackers Dylan Moses and Josh McMillon. Alabama was forced to play inexperienced defenders in key spots and growing pains were evident.
Golding said before the bowl victory he planned on simplifying Alabama's scheme a bit and put his athletes in position to make plays. Against the Wolverines, the Crimson Tide had a more vintage feel on that side of the football and controlled the line of scrimmage in the second half.
