| NEWS Why Nick Saban's 2021 team will be one of the biggest mysteries in Alabama football history







The 2020 college football season was supposed to be the hurdle.

No one expected to clear it as smoothly as Alabama running back Najee Harris leaping over a linebacker, but the general attitude was if the storm could be weathered until a vaccine for COVID-19 was available, things would be fine in 2021.

It hasn’t exactly worked out that way. The light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be a bulb illuminating the entrance to another tunnel. How many twists the 2021 tunnel will have remains to be seen.

The focus this year, unlike last year, isn’t so much on the football players passing the COVID on to other players on the team. Alabama’s team, according to athletics director Greg Byrne, is at “northwards of 95 percent vaccinated.” Assuming 35 walk-ons and a 120-man squad, and depending on the precise meaning of “northwards,” that’s five or six players who will have to go through stringent testing protocols equal to last year’s at least.

"I acknowledge the fact that we have talent on our team, but I think we can't win with talent alone,” coach Nick Saban said at a Nick’s Kids event Thursday. “Everybody has to have a commitment to the standard of excellence, a commitment to doing the right things on and off the field."
As usual, there might be more than one meaning packed into that statement.

One thing is certain: the team that takes the field against Miami in the season opener on Sept. 4 will be one of the least-known in Alabama history. That doesn’t mean the names won’t be familiar. It’s just that part of UA’s necessary precautions include a return to 2020 media viewing policies.

Now, I get that everybody knows a player’s parent or has a cousin who is dating one of the managers and therefore knows what’s going on. But in terms of being able to view practice, even in short segments, and form an independent analysis, that’s not happening.

That didn’t happen in 2020, which also didn’t have an A-Day Game, unlike spring 2021. Despite that, 2020 was more of a known commodity.

Quarterback Mac Jones had full-game starting experience against Auburn and Michigan. Most of the team’s other prominent players were juniors or seniors. Without going so far as to call 2021 a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma, since there are familiar faces, especially on defense, there will also be more young contributors than a year ago.

One thing is certain: there will be masks.

The two major uncertainties will be these:

First, if Bryce Young performs at an All-SEC level at quarterback, Alabama probably wins the College Football Playoff national championship again.
If he has a “pretty good” year, the Crimson Tide will be back in contention. If he struggles to match blue-chip expectations, all bets are off. The quarterback roster is completely inexperienced, not because of the transfer portal, but because the recruiting at the position has been structured for orderly transition.

One other quarterback certainty, though. Young, like almost every other Alabama passer since Harry Gilmer, is about two interceptions away from hearing the perennial backup buzz from a segment of the fan base

Second, things aren’t “back to normal.” Alabama under Saban handled changing circumstances better than any team in the country, but does psychological fatigue eventually set in?

The team may be in Atlanta before it starts to find out.
 
An 18+ point dog is going to give Bama all they want? Besides you and someone like Barrett Sallee, who else believes such? How on earth are they going to give Bama all they want?
I do believe it will take the offense some time to gel especially in the first game. That may show up in a 1st and 2nd quarters of game 1 before they knock the rust off and relax and play. Hopefully the defense will start out lights out and it will give the offense time. They can still pull away and win by 18 but the game could be closer than desired for awhile.
 
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