With this schedule, QB will make or break 2-3 games for us this year.
I've said something similar to this more than a handful of times during the spring and summer. One exception.
With this schedule, QB
could possibly make or break 2-3 games for us this year which Killer touches on here...
Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss and Auburn will force us to throw the ball. We'd better to be able to do it effectively and consistently or we'll take a loss in two of those games.
Out of those four teams, only one returns a QB with experience; Arkansas. But there's a caveat here. What do we know about Brandon Allen and his ability to pass the ball? Ole Miss isn't in any better of a situation at QB than Bama. LSU is worse than that. Auburn? A better shot here of having to score but still there's questions unanswered with Johnson. It'll take more than one half of a game against Arkansas at the beginning of last season for me to give the same "kudo's" we're seeing national pundits give him.
Are you suggesting we'll have trouble running the ball on these teams? LSU was a middle of the pack team (conference wise) when it came to defending the run last season and their depth is worse this fall than last season. Arkansas? Lost their playmakers on their DL. Auburn was worse than LSU last season. Ole Miss? Okay, there's a good DL coming back but an offense that is looking for ... a damn QB.
Alabama returns 40 starts, 113th in the country, 12th in the conference.
A very deceiving stat, in my opinion. We're just a few years removed from UT having more starts than any other team in the SEC. It numbered in the hundreds. Yet, they only won one conference game that season; against UK.
On the other side of the ball ... remember CJ wasn't considered a starter on defense but how much action had he seen before that season?
Although I do think this 5 QB scenario is much of his and Saban's own doing.
In my opinion, that's painting with too broad of a brush stroke. Quite frankly, I don't see QB development at the high school level, at all. Their game simply doesn't require a passing QB having to make the same decisions.
I believe it's even more evidenced by looking around at other schools and seeing their QB development and the number they have on their depth chart/roster.
It's so ironic that the term "game manager" was a bad thing but now we're looking at more than half of the teams in this conference that would kill to have a game manager on their roster.
I HATE making this comparison but it holds true. J Winston threw how many INT's over the last two seasons? 28. Yet, there's a national title and only one loss due to the talent he had around him.
Granted, he did have to make some plays in some games. But, he also made some bone headed mistakes while making those plays.
Mariotta didn't make those mistakes but where has that got the Oregon program?
Bottom line: A lot of questions but none that aren't shared by the majority of the teams the Tide will face. If the fretting that followed the WVU game didn't cause people to pause ... don't know what will.
I'll remain cautiously optimistic.
