🏈 What do you think Alabama's most challenging month will be?

[rick4bama]

 

[Justneedme81]

November is always difficult month to get though as players are beat up and tired

 

[alabama mike]

Have to agree with @Justneedme81, November gets my vote as well due to the length of the season and possible injuries.

 

[BamaFan615]

November for sure.

 

[TerryP]

November is always difficult month to get though as players are beat up and tired

Three of four at home and what is essentially two bye weeks in November.

 

[Justneedme81]

Three of four at home and what is essentially two bye weeks in November.

And? November is always rough anyway

 

[rammerjammer]

I know this is all fun and games and speculation at this point, but who knows. Some one said it in an earlier thread. Auburn always seems to rise from the dead when everyone is piling the dirt on their grave. While I hope it is the case, it would be the most Auburn thing ever for them to have a decent run late. I know there was a lot of growing pains for Bama last year and we were so bipolar between games. Should not have lost to Vandy and the OU game should have been a lay up. I hope for a lot more consistency this year. Having said all that. Bama is still Bama and everyone will still show up and play their ass off to say the beat them. I can see November being a tough month, especially if Freeze finds that horseshoe Malzahn had stuffed up his ass for 8 years while coaching the boogs.


On a side note, I am looking forward to see how Wommack's defense matches up to Malzahn calling the Offense at FSU. As awesome as Saban was (even with Smart at DC) we always seemed to struggle with the HUNH offense and gassing our defense. I'm interested in seeing how this plays out.

 

[64Tide]

Someone wrote on here before he was hired at *aU about Freeze's late season failures. The crux of the comments was it is better to play a Freeze team late as opposed to early in the season ala Ole Miss in 14 and 15. Have not looked at his record at his previous stop, maybe this holds true. Historically, UA plays an error prone game at the lowliest village on the plain in Lee County....

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

Someone wrote on here before he was hired at *aU about Freeze's late season failures. The crux of the comments was it is better to play a Freeze team late as opposed to early in the season ala Ole Miss in 14 and 15. Have not looked at his record at his previous stop, maybe this holds true. Historically, UA plays an error prone game at the lowliest village on the plain in Lee County....

I pointed out (at the time and a few times since), even as someone who thought Freeze was a really good hire for them, that he had a career losing record in the month of November, an issue that continues to plague him... it's one of many areas where he is the exact opposite of DeBoer. But Freeze has had some bad losses in that final full month, which is one thing I was going to being up (again) after reading @rammerjammer's post above. This season, auburn has as soft of an SEC landing as possible in November with Kentucky, @ Vandy, Mercer, and Alabama. If Pavia is still upright at that point of the season, Vandy could obviously give them some issues. I don't count on Kentucky doing much at auburn other than maybe Stoops playing for a late FG to cover. Obviously, they'll have their hands full with Bama. While all starting QB play is important in the SEC, I'm not sure there is another team that will rise or fall as much as auburn will on the shoulders of theirs... Jackson Arnold in aubnrn's case. If he has a turnround and plays to his potential, they have an OL good enough and a WR group talented enough to keep them in most games. But if he's just average at best, or gets dinged/hurt. their ship is likely to fill with water rather quickly, IMO. Rammerjammer touched on it, but as it pertains to the matchup with Bama, I really like that Bama's strengths match up very well with their strengths...


As for the original thread question... while there are different ways to slice it up and look at it, I put November slightly above October as the most difficult 4 games.

 

[UAgrad93]

October for that 3 game stretch but November when you factor in the nicks, bruises and then potential depth depleting injuries.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

October for that 3 game stretch but November when you factor in the nicks, bruises and then potential depth depleting injuries.

Yes... and I sorta think we have a decent feel for what Vandy, Mizzou, the Vols, and South Carolina are going to be. I said when the schedule released, and stand by it, I don't like where the SC game sits... on the road after Tennessee and before a bye week... and that's without taking into account a team that will be pretty talented with a dynamic QB. But LSU and OU... their ceilings are high IMO. Will either or both be playing to it come November? We shall see, but potential wise, those could be/should be 2 really good teams... though Bama gets both at home. Already commented on what auburn could be... but then, they could also be broken by then too.

 

[TerryP]

Already commented on what auburn could be... but then, they could also be broken by then too.

Changing the subject slightly ... I'm interested on who much and where they start spending their money on players. While we're smack dab in the middle of summer I wouldn't be too comfortable as an Auburnite if I had the best writers telling me to hold my chin up.