Alabama is a 6.5 point favorite against LSU, and that means nothing

No. 2 Alabama has been installed as a 6.5-point favorite over top-ranked LSU in an SEC showdown potentially featuring two Heisman Trophy frontrunners at quarterback on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has been out since suffering a high ankle sprain in a win over Tennessee on Oct. 19. He underwent surgery the next day and missed Alabama's win over Arkansas before returning to practice in a limited capacity last week.
Alabama coach Nick Saban has maintained that Tagovailoa's availability against LSU will be a "game-time decision."

Via ESPN.

The good news: LSU hasn't played a team this good all season.

The bad news: Alabama hasn't played a team this good all season, either.

Both of these teams feature offenses that are capable of overwhelming the other team's defenses. As a result, many are expecting a high scoring game. Mac Jones is a QB like AJ McCarron. He's more than capable behind a great offensive line and using great offensive weapons. Joe Burrow is a QB a lot like AJ McCarron... and you know.

Auburn had trouble moving the ball but that team was one play away from a win against LSU. In Baton Rouge. After dark (by the 4th quarter). Auburn's offensive line sucks. Bama's doesn't.

The Tide's defense has assignment discipline issues at safety and left outside linebacker. LSU never got going against a very good (but not great) Auburn defensive front that has its own assignment issues.

Joe Burrow has two very good receivers and a very good offensive line.

Mac Jones has four great receivers, a very good pair of tight ends and an improving (still!) offensive line.

Tua Tagovailoa is listed as maybe in/maybe not just to keep the LSU braintrust uncertain. Mac could start the first series and Tua could wreck then LSU's dreams like he did to UGA in the Big One.

Alabama leads the conference in the turnover game.

The game is in Tuscaloosa but home field is no advantage in this series.

The betting line is never a prediction by oddsmakers. It's just a number that keeps betting money going equally each way. The price to bet on Alabama and get paid for being right is 6.5 points. If people keep choosing the Tide the price (line)goes up.

Watch this game be a low scoring affair. In this series, it always seems that when the stakes are this high, so is the effort.

Not all fans are happy that Alabama will play ACC opponents in future non-conference games

The Alabama football program has inked deals to play ACC opponents Florida State and Virginia Tech in future years. Alabama agreed to a home-and-home series with the Seminoles for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The Hokies games aren't set until the 2034 and 2035 seasons.

Not all fans are happy about it.

Bama fans are ok with it, In fact, we're rather tired of the whining from other teams' fans about the Crimson Tide's "weak schedule." We'd like to see Bama play anyone, anywhere. It's not Bama's fault that no one of national consequence wants a high risk game on their schedule.

It's the fans of the other schools that aren't too keen on a Bama home-and-home.

Hokies:

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Atc4vt
Oct 31st, 10:32 AM

Maybe saban will be retired by then
17 upvotes


vtfan 90
Oct 31st, 10:33 AM

Atc4vt said... (original post) Maybe saban will be retired by then

well he would be mid 80's so he probably will be.

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Seminoles:

Why would we do this??? Do we not remember that playing bama last time literally ruined our team?

— Joey Planz (@Broseph_Planz) October 31, 2019

Joey is right. During the second half of the 2017 season opener, Alabama's relentless pass rush left FSU without their starting QB and the 'Noles saw a complete breakdown on special teams. Alabama won 24-7 and went on to win the National Championship. Florida State rashly fired Jimbo Fisher during the season, and sent the program into a downward spiral that hasn't yet hit rock bottom.

In the 2013 season opener, Alabama rode three non-offensive touchdowns to a 35-10 victory over the Hokies. The two-time defending national champions finished that season with a disappointing 11-2 record, losing the Iron Bowl and the Sugar Bowl.

To their credit, many of the Hokies' fans welcome the opportunity to play one of college football's titan programs.

So... why doesn't Alabama schedule Clemson? The answer is, Bama has tried to. The last time the teams met during the regular season, Alabama walloped the Tigers 34-10 to open the 2008 season. IBCR has learned that the Alabama Athletics Dept has reached out "more than once" to Clemson since current head coach and Alabama grad Dabo Swinney was hired. Clemson has been "not very keen" on playing two SEC opponents every season (Clemson faces South Carolina every year in their regular season finale).

It's also worth noting that both Clemson and Florida State ended up firing their coaches after disappointing seasons that started with lopsided losses to Bama. Maybe Dabo's onto something...

More Bama navel gazing on the second bye week

We have nothing else better to do, so why not meditate on where the 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide is and where it might be going?

First, when it comes to the "quarterback situation," let there be no doubt that the Tide is just fine. If there were any questions about the potency of Sarkisian's offense sans Tua Tagovailoa, handy backup Mac Jones couldn't have answered them any better against Arkansas. In three full quarters of play, he had a workmanlike afternoon going 18 of 22 for 235 yards and three TD's. Not flashy, but still very effective. He hit the quick passes and threw the ball downfield with all the confidence of a veteran. He never made any potential game changing mistakes. He never held the ball too long, usually found the right receiver and ran the run-pass option calls just as designed. The angst of having to rely on a gimpy-legged Tua has faded. If faced with a choice between a 90% Tua vs 100% Mac, I'm ambivalent. How about you?

The offensive line and the Tide ground game have gotten more comfortable to watch all season long. The return of Deonte Brown to the starting lineup and the shift of Landon Dickerson to center has put the unit in just the right gear going into the most challenging part of the season. Brown is a beast--he is routinely knocking his guy down and getting out to the linebacker, making  holes that Najee Harris and Brian Robinson Jr hit for an average of about 5.2 yards per carry. Any football team that can legitimately choose to either throw or run the football on 3rd and 4 will keep drives alive and wear out any other defense. 

Even with a slightly sore Devonte Smith, Alabama has the best receiving corps in the country and it's a long, long way to second place. Pick any one and you'll have a guy who has great hands, runs routes right, blocks well downfield and can just flat outrun anybody on the other team.

Early in the season, the Tide defense was a unit that had no place to go but up. Thankfully, they have. Last season's defense saw a ton of talent and experience take their skills to Sunday play. The exodus was so great that there are five true freshman in critical defensive roles this year. DJ Dale, Justin Eboigbe, Christian Harris and Shane Lee all played high school football last year and are starters for Nick Saban in 2019. Jordan Battle comes in in dime situations.

Terrell Lewis is finally hitting his stride. Anfernee Jennings is a beast. Raekwon Davis is a monster. Christian Barmore is a terror when subbing in for Dale. Best of all, the defensive backfield are taking away the middle and doing what a 3-2 over/under defense is supposed to do--make the QB patiently beat you play after play in the face of a relentless pass rush.

There is a weakness, though. The left side is still having difficulty staying home, biting on RPOs to their right, getting stuck out of position and leaving the edge soft. LSU, Auburn and any future post-season opponents will try to exploit that. All Lewis and defensive backs Patrick Surtain and Shyheim Carter have to do is pursue a tad bit to the right and a play for a loss can get the first down (ore more. Gulp).

Even special teams are showing marked improvement. We no longer hold our breath (much) on field goals and points after. Freshman punter Ty Perine has become a coach and fan favorite, too.

Alabama is now 8-0. With the exception of Tua's ankle sprain, The team has escaped the injury bug and faces the toughest part of the schedule in good shape. At +13 in the turnover ratio, Alabama leads the nation and the SEC.

LSU's visit to Tuscaloosa on November 2 is probably the game that determines who represents the SEC West in Atlanta on December 7. LSU struggled to put away a middlin' Auburn team, had some defense issues against Florida and really hasn't faced a complete, deep roster on the road.

Not too surprisingly, Georgia has an uphill struggle to get to Atlanta--they will meet a very good Florida Gators team on the same day Bama hosts LSU. Having been upset at home against South Carolina, Georgia needs to beat the Gators at neutral Jacksonville.

Can there be a better time of the year than this?

Can we give Tua Tagovailoa a break, please?

Why are people angry or resentful towards a 21-year old football player who has yet to make a real adult decision in his whole life? Can any of those venting frustration at him remember when they were 21? When that's all they ever were was 21 at the time?

Just in case you're a cave dweller who hasn't heard, Tua Tagovailoa suffered a  dreaded "high ankle sprain" late in the second quarter last Saturday night when a Tennessee defender tried to tackle him from behind. He left the game walking on his own two feet, but sat out the second half and will miss the game this Saturday.

Man... the angst of the Bama Nation is so thick you can taste it. No, it's so thick you can wear it.

The chief lines of complaint from some Bama fans is that the phenom tries too hard. He therefore puts himself at risk of serious injury when he doesn't have to. When he tries too hard, he makes mistakes. His impetuousness is selfishness manifested when he tries to make something out of nothing. He's hurting himself and his NFL draft prospects because he makes himself injury prone.

Stop lying. Stop lying to yourself, and stop pretending that the only reason for your concern is that you're thinking of him. No, you're not. You're whining because when he's not playing, the Tide's chance of winning every single game  and winning a championship for your tribe favorite football team goes down. You aren't anxious for Tua. You're anxious for yourself.

You've waited since January to get the chance to cheer and brag and strut again. You realize that a healthy Tua is a big reason why you've been able to relax and enjoy a 7-0 record and No. 1 ranking in the polls. Bama's doing the work. They're getting ish done and he's kickin' ass and takin' names and he's why.

Then Tua goes and does something hasty or, in your estimation, "ill-advised." As if you had taken that snap, rolled to your left and would not have gotten your ankle rolled up a split second after your "well-advised" decision to hold that ball just one more fraction of a second.

There are 10 other gifted athletes sharing the field with Tua Tagovailoa. They make him better; he makes them better. It's a team. They play together. You're on the team, too. You cheer and they play. Coaches make judgments and decisions and you don't. You're ok when they're ok. What?

Tua is the most remarkable athlete to play quarterback at Alabama in my memory. He may be the best ever. He's certainly the most selfless I've ever seen, so the selfishness of fans venting on talk radio, social media and even water cooler soapboxes is appalling. For cripes sake... the guy is trying to make a play against Alabama's most storied rival. At home. In a night game. With 100,000 or so watching in person and millions more watching via live TV. At age 21. Would I be brave when I was that age...

You have the gall to complain? You act like your real concern is his health and well-being. Be honest. Your real fear is that without Tua, your team isn't good enough to win it all. By extension, you might look bad and you might have to face tribes fans of other teams if your tribe team isn't the very best.

Thankfully, Tua is not seriously injured. He will heal. He's under the care of the best physicians in college sports medicine. His tenacity and spirit is unquestionable. He'll be fine, but I seriously wonder whether some fans are healthy enough not to look for a scapegoat if the tribe doesn't finish first.

It's just a game. He's just 21. He'll be fine and so will you. If you want to be.

Roll Tide.

Alabama Crimson Tide is becoming the team the nation feared it would be

Giving up 28 points to a "middlin'" Texas A&M team would have led to pearl clutching and hauling out of the fainting couches just 10 years ago. I admit to feeling a little light-headed after the Aggies' opening drive. That drive ate half of the first quarter, took 14 plays and resulted in the first opening drive TD Bama has given up all season. But by the time the teams trotted into the locker room with the Tide up 24-13, you knew that this was gonna be one for the good guys.

Aggie QB Kellen Mond was the only real weapon Jimbo Fisher had in his arsenal and he got 90 yards on the ground and 264 through the air. Most of it was in garbage time and stats don't tell the story of how the Tide defense handled him. Terrell Lewis, Christian Barmore and Anfernee Jennings weren't letting the Aggies do anything when they needed to. There's no substitute for the combo of depth and experience in the front seven and Alabama is developing both. Splendidly.

On the other side of the ball, the gradual change from the pass-first attack of early September into the deadly efficient balanced pro set we'll need in November and beyond is nearly complete. As this space predicted weeks ago, guard Deonte Brown is changing the whole texture of the Tide ground attack. Alabama ran the ball when they wanted to and threw it when they wanted to, mostly with positive results. Brown was 350+ pounds of murder against Aggie defenders and regularly terrorized the second level. Accordingly, Najee Harris and Brian Robinson combined for 165 yards.

Tua Tagovailoa made only two mistakes, but both were in the red zone. One was a failure to read a fake blitz and resulted in the season's first INT. The other was a miscommunication with WR Jerry Jeudy. Other than that, he was Heisman efficient. He hit seven different receivers for 295 yards and three scores and set a school record for career TD passes. What's scariest for all future opponents is that he's getting even better. He's checking down his receivers to find the open man and he's gaining more confidence. He's improvising as the play develops and making stuff happen instead of panicking ala the 2018 SEC Championship and that Clemson nightmare.

Bama needs to tweak the red zone performance. We need to see fewer penalties--especially the ones that suggest a lack of composure and personal discipline. Defensive consistency needs to improve--there's no such thing as taking a play off and letting the other guys break out and make a play.  Yes, there's lots of young blood on the D side of the ball but a missed tackle is a lack of effort, not a lack of ability. These are not fatal flaws though, and they can all be outgrown.

What we're seeing is a talented, well coached and very deep football team hitting mid-season stride just in time. With LSU, Auburn and Georgia or Florida still ahead, we're about where we'd like to be.

Bama faces a bit of a test on the road

After a week off, Alabama takes a rested team into Kyle Field, taking on the Texas A&M Aggies in CBS' Game of the Week. If this game is still competitive at halftime, the Tide could be in for its first real challenge.

Last season in Tuscaloosa, the Aggies' QB Kellen Mond rolled up almost 300 yards of offense and A&M scored 23 points. Mond has shown bursts of greatness so far in 2019 amid long stretches of ho-hum. At home and with almost half of the season under his belt, he faces a defense with questions at right defensive end and an inside linebacking corps that's still finding itself. Coach Jimbo Fisher is a well-respected offensive mind and we can expect him to probe Saban's 3-4 Over/Under scheme for weaknesses. We shouldn't be surprised if A&M puts 20 or more on the board again.

As we explored in this space just before the Ole Miss game, Alabama's offense is changing in a potentially profound way. What we didn't know then was that Center Chris Owens is nursing a leg injury that will surely keep him out, causing a shift that gets Deonte 'Cornbread' Brown a lot of time at guard or tackle. Deonte is a true difference maker in the running attack and his continued improvement and enmeshment into the offensive line rotation is a key to building the balanced attack Alabama will need later in the season. A respectable runnung game is important to keeping the ferocious defenses of LSU, Auburn and maybe Georgia and Clemson out of QB Tua Tagovailoa's face.

We also know that Tua is nearly perfect now with 1,700+ passing yards, 23 TD's, 0 INT's and an eye-popping 76% completion rate. We further know that Alabama has an NFL-caliber receiving corps and Tua's newest ability to check through receivers after the snap has them at the top of college football.

This game shouldn't be competitive at halftime. But if it is, and Kyle Field's legendary 12th Man comes roarin' out later in the game, we might just see what the 2019 installment of the Crimson Tide is really made of.

Alabama has a bye week. We do some navel gazin'.

What a yawner. For five straight weeks we've been treated to the pleasure of watching the Crimson Tide dismantle, dismember and dispose of its competition. The average score is 52-15. Alabama has not scored fewer than 40 points in any contest. They've scored 50+ twice and 60+ once. 

QB Tua Tagovailoa is 113-148 for 1,718 yards, with ZERO interceptions and 23 touchdowns. That's a sizzling 76.35% completion rate and an average of 343.60 yards per game.

This week, we get to gripe a little about what needs improvement while our rivals duke it out with each other. The most meaningful games this weekend are (in order of importance) Auburn in the Swamp at Florida, Georgia at Tennessee and Utah State at LSU. It's a real test for the Tiggers because they're traveling to a much more hostile road venue and the Gators have a real offense, a real QB and a salty defense (relatively new in Gainesville). Tennessee is a dumpster fire; UGA will demolish them. Utah State has a good offense and LSU gave up 38 points to Vandy, so...

What's up with the right side of the Alabama defense, and why are our LB's not making the big plays that we're used to from Saban-coached teams? Opposing teams--starting with Duke and going right through Ole Miss--are cuttin' hay and converting third downs by either throwing to their left or running that way, and not much has gotten better over there. It's frustrating that edge containment over there seems nonexistent. It's also frustrating to see stars like Anfernee Jennings and Terrell Lewis out of position and playing catch up to the ball carrier.  Fortunately, none of the teams Bama has faced had the horses to threaten an upset.

Unfortunately, future opponents are astute students of the game tape. LSU, Auburn and Georgia (should we be so fortunate to meet them again in Atlanta) have seen this weakness, and all three teams have enough horsepower to embarrass Bama if this problem doesn't get fixed. We could see a close win against LSU in Tuscaloosa, a convincing loss to the Tiggs in Auburn and get relegated to a New Year's Day date with some nobody.

Such a revolting development would, of course, result in the talking heads and Twitterati wondering aloud: Has the game passed Nick Saban by? Is it Clemson's dynasty to lose, now?

Ugh.

I am fairly confident that we should start to see some improvement between now and next Saturday's visit to the venerable Kyle Field in College Station. Nick Saban is at his very best when he is given time to prepare. He is a bona fide defensive genius. His 3-4 Over/Under defense is being copied throughout the country. He sees what we see and he sees stuff we mortals will totally miss.

I am equally confident that the offensive line will see marked improvement, and we'll see more of the power-driven pro-set offense that can make Tua shine even better. We saw the return of monster-man Deonte Brown to the OL last week and his impact was felt almost immediately. If Bama's running game takes it to the next level... and the right side of the defense and LB's step it up... Alabama won't have to worry about not making the playoffs.

Deonte Brown could be the difference between an Alabama Championship and another year of coming up short

His teammates at Alabama nicknamed him 'Cornbread.' When he brought is 6' 4" frame and his appetite to Tuscaloosa, he weighed a scant few ounces shy of 400 lbs. His high school coaches called him 'Diesel' because of his size, strength and ability to just knock defenders down in the dirt.

"He’s a large human being,” said Jeremy Perkins, Brown’s former coach at Austin High School in Decatur, Ala. “He’s like a diesel truck coming through when he was out there. He was knocking people down left and right.”

He was beginning to show some of that promise in the 2018 season, but ran afoul of Coach Nick Saban and the NCAA and was forced to miss the college football playoffs last season and the first four games of 2019. His suspension is now over, and the question is whether he can get into the starting lineup early enough for the Tide offensive line to gel as a unit in time for the late season matchups against LSU, Auburn and (presumably) Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.

TideFans.com's Jess Nicholas notes that Brown has added a lot of weight over the offseason and hasn’t taken it off yet. Nicholas also notes that who he’d replace is up in the air, as both Evan Neal and Landon Dickerson have played well and shown improvement, and mentions that Brown doesn’t play center, which is where the offensive line is weakest.

 “The plan for every player on our team is the guy’s got to beat someone out if he wants to play,” Saban said earlier this week. “If he gets in shape, he does what he’s supposed to do, he shows he’s better than somebody else who’s playing, that’s the plan. Just like it’s the plan for every other guy on the team. That’s really kind of up to him. It’s not up to me.”

My bet is that Brown gets into the game--probably late--against Ole Miss. The coaches will want to see how he plays against SEC competition. He'll get looks in both running and passing situations and they'll be keen to see how he does in plays where QB Tua Tagovailoa improvises and changes what he's doing after the snap.

I said in the season preview that Saban wants to go back to power football. The problem so far (if you want to find one) is that the running game has not been up to Sabanesque standards. A 6' 4" 350-ish lb 'monster' at either offensive guard position who's able to knock down defensive linemen and plow up to the linebackers can do that for you.

Alabama's inability to convert on third down and score in the red zone against Clemson was a big factor in the championship game in January. It cost the Tide a 15-0 season, repeat championship and a debate over whether this Alabama team was (1) the greatest of all time or (2) being overtaken by Clemson at the pinnacle of college football.

One big, strong powerful offensive lineman may make the difference, and it might all begin to happen tomorrow against Ole Miss.

Bama welcomes an old friend to Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday

Once upon a time in the 1980's and 1990's, Alabama played three teams with the word 'Miss' in their name. Games against Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Saturday's opponent Southern Miss were as customary as the Third Saturday in October and the Iron Bowl.

In fact, Alabama has played Southern Miss more than some Southeastern Conference foes, such as Arkansas and Florida who didn't join the conference until the 1992 season.

Alabama has dominated the series with 34 wins, 6 losses and 2 ties.

Some of the Southern Miss games were memorable and not always for the right reasons. Here are some of those memories.

1953 & 1954. Alabama was in one of its "wilderness wanderings" and a very athletic Golden Eagles team put together two straight wins, beating the Tide 25-19 in '53 and 7-2 in '54. That caused Alabama to take some time off and the series didn't resume until Coach Paul Bryant started it back in 1966.

1982. Coach Bryant was in the twilight of his legendary career at the Capstone and Southern Miss had tied Bama the previous season. The 1982 game featured Senior Golden Eagles QB Reggie Collier. The powerful, mobile signal caller led his team to a 38-29 win that wasn't as close as the score indicated. More importantly, the loss snapped Bama's 57-game winning streak at Bryant-Denny Stadium, then the longest in the country.

1990. This was Gene Stallings first year as head coach. Alabama was ranked 13th preseason and welcomed an unranked Southern Miss squad led by some unknown QB named Brett Favre. Bama's star RB Siran Stacy tore up a knee in the game, costing him the rest of the season. Favre tore up a thin, tired Tide defense in a comeback win and spoiled our season opener, 27-24. Coach Stallings later said, "You can call it a miracle or a legend or whatever you want to. I just know that on that day, Brett Favre was larger than life."

1992. Wary from the 1990 shocker, Alabama played it safe for all 60 minutes of a game played in tropical heat and humidity. It was brutal, y'all. Miserable. Suffocating. Africa Hot. The Tide won 17-10 in the closest game of the 1992 Championship season.

2000. Eight years later, Bama had been ranked 3rd preseason but had also blown its opener against UCLA. Southern Miss pitched a shutout, embarrassing the Tide 21-0 in Mike Dubose's final, dreadful season as Head Coach. It was the only time the Goldies have held Alabama scoreless.

2005: The Catch. The last time these two programs met on the field is best known for what is arguably the most amazing play in modern college football history. Whether you saw this live or have seen the replay 587,991 times... it's still awesome.

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Alabama is expected to have only a little trouble extending its series lead against USM Saturday. Read the preview and prediction by Tidefans' Jess Nicholas here. It's unlikely that a Nick Saban Bama squad takes the opponent lightly, but the game could be interesting if the pass-happy visitors pick on Patrick Surtain and the right side of the defense like South Carolina did last week.

Enjoy!

Finally: Alabama 2019 Season Preview

The Alabama Crimson Tide wants to build a bridge between last year's almost perfect season and another National Championship (sorry, that was irresistible).

Nick Saban wants to do that by going back to the style of football he used to rebuild the Tide program into a perennial SEC and national powerhouse. He wants more power football. More physical defense. Always reliable special teams.

Yes, please!

Saban's brief experiment with "a more explosive offense" was productive--Bama won two SEC championships and three straight appearances in the National Championship game.  Bama has beaten Georgia and Clemson more than once each with that style of football, but almost all of the wins were high scoring slugfests. The two losses to Clemson were games played on Clemson's terms, not Alabama's.

Coach says "no more" to basketball-on-turf.

For 2019, the ground-oriented pro-style scheme is back. We still have the best QB in the nation in Tua Tagovailoa. We still have the nation's best receivers in Jerry Jeudy, Jaylen Waddle and Henry Ruggs III. Tyrell Shavers also returns, and DeVonta Smith (who has to sit out a suspension Saturday) is also back.

Behind Tua is a fleet of bowling balls for running backs: Najee Harris, Brian Robinson, (both sitting one half today), and redshirt Senior De’Marquise Lockridge are all beasts. Athletic scatsters Chadarius Townsend and freshman sensation Keilan Robinson can move chains in a hurry.

The offensive line was the weakest link in the 2018 squad, and that weak spot wasn't exploited until Bama met their physical equals-or-betters in the post season. It will be a question mark again in 2019. Bama is loaded with very young four and five star talent. The key will be to get the best five guys at their best positions and pray that they can play together as a unit all season long. Think about the 2011-2012 teams that won back-to-back titles, and you'll visualize what can happen.

Saban's teams have never had bad defenses. Chuck Oliver, Jesse Palmer and other talking heads pointing to the scores of Bama's games against Clemson and Georgia are missing the fact that the offense had problems staying on the field, converting third downs and scoring in the red zone. Consider: In the second half against Clemson, Bama had three trips in the red zone and scored zero points. If we see the offensive throwback to 2011-2012, we'll see the throwback to every Saban defense ever fielded.

Saban's 3-4 over under defensive strategy is built to take away or punish plays in the middle and make quarterbacks beat physical, fast and well-coached backfields outside. Outside plays are always longer, and always longer is always harder. Always harder means less likely. It's smart defense and it usually wins championships.

Up front, graduation sent a lot of talent to the NFL but the beastly beast Raekwon Davis is back. He'll have a lot of talent with him in the trenches but it will feature a ton of very young talent. Fortunately, the kinds of skills a Saban defense needs up front are talents that come from the womb. Expect to see a lot of new faces and expect to see a lot of enthusiasm and athleticism. Expect penalties, too.

Behind the line, Bama is again loaded with talent. Expected stud Terrell Lewis is finally ready and healthy to make noise at linebacker (he sits out one half today, too), but Dylan Moses is out for the year with a knee injury. Christopher Allen and Anfernee Jennings are back, though.

Saban's defenses always feature the nation's best corners and safeties. Expect no less in 2019. Coach was a defensive back in his playing days. As an assistant coach, he always tutored DB's and he is the DB position coach at Bama. Trevon Diggs. Patrick Surtain. Shyheim Carter. Jared Mayden and Jeffery Carter. All of these guys will play on Sundays in a few years. In fact, man-for-man, the Tide has what could be Saban's deepest and most talented secondary ever.

Note this: The 2019 secondary was hand-picked and personally built to frustrate the Jake Fromms, Trevor Lawrences and yes... even the Jalen Hurts that Bama is likely to face should we be so fortunate to see an SEC Title and Playoff berth.

Special teams... Can we please just see progress, if not perfection?

This is one of the most talented teams in Alabama history. Honestly, we haven't seen this depth and quality at least since 2011-2012, and an argument can be credibly made that we haven't seen it since the NCAA clamped down on scholarship limits to keep Coach Paul W.  Bryant from stockpiling all the best dudes.

On the other hand, this is also a very young team. With youth expect mistakes, and with mistakes, a loss is not unforeseeable. This may not be the year we mount the 18th trophy. But the talent is there and if Bama makes the title game healthy, they'll be the odds on favorite to win it all.

Roll Tide

Watch out! Here comes The Citadel!

Thank God right now that the Alabama Crimson Tide is just a football team and not an enemy military force bent on ending the American way of life. Because if we were bad guys like that, Bama would stand no chance. Nick Saban would be forced to suffer the humiliation of surrendering the team colors at the 50-yard line to a grim-faced cadre of highly trained and professional warriors.

The Citadel is an institution with a rich military history. Founded in 1842, soldiers from The Citadel fired the first shots of the Civil War when they opened fire on the sneaky Union steamship Star of the West, that was trying to resupply Fort Sumter. During World War II, The Citadel had the highest percentage of any American college student body serving in the military and all but 46 of its living graduates were members of the armed forces.  Every member of the Classes of 1917 and 1918 served in World War I, and only two members of the Class of 1944 graduated because the rest entered military service and fought in World War II.

In any conflict though, the outcome is determined by where the battles are met. Alas for the fightin’ Bulldogs who are coming to Tuscaloosa, where they will be soundly defeated by a superior football force.

This game might be interesting (at least through the first quarter), as The Citadel runs an old-school multiple option offense that could churn up some yardage and shorten the game. Bama might not get as many possessions as they did against teams like Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Arkansas.

Tua Tagovailoa is expected to be at or near 100% and will likely go back to the usual routine of watching the second half from the sideline. Jalen Hurts is still not healthy—that high ankle sprain is doing what high ankle sprains do by healing slowly. Mac Jones will get some needed reps at full speed and hopefully get some confidence he’s lacked when the offense is running at full speed.

A lot of folks in the media are wagging their heads at Alabama hosting such an overmatched opponent but what’s an SEC team supposed to do—schedule a Notre Dame after a conference schedule that broke a gifted Kevin Sumlin and sent a cocky Urban Meyer to the cupcake land of the Big 10? Get real, haters.

Alabama 49, The Citadel 0