Interesting post Terry. The current recruiting situation to me is a bit troublesome in that the overall scheme of things is not good for college football. Somehow if colligate football is to survive, we need to make some adjustments for all of the FS1 teams?
Mac Jones Devonta Smith Trevor Lawrence Kyle Trask Going to NYC. Najee Harris #5 3 of the top 5 Heisman finalists are from Alabama. Unbelievable how much talent is in Tuscaloosa.
The upcoming free agency is going to mitigate some of this. If you have three 5 stars at QB, you are probably not going to have 3 for very long. In the future, I have a feeling that if you have a 5 star sitting on the bench, you won't have him for long. I know that Alabama has had several highly regarded recruits transfer under the old rules. The new rules will accelerate that. I wonder how many of the 25 recruits Alabama has this year will be with 3 yrs from now?
What is really surprising, at least to me, is that they are all on the offense. Alabama legacy has always been on the defensive side of the ball. We've pretty much always had a single "star" on offense, while our defense had multiple stars. And Waddle was lost early.
How many times this year have we seen schools on the verge of winning screw up in the last minute of the game. The Penn State kid scoring when he was supposed to not score, the Texas kid going in for the winning score fumbling on the 1 yard line, more than a few of these situations. Tonight in the Liberty/Coastal Carolina game, Liberty and CCU are tied but Libertyis inside the 5 and are playing to not score a TD and kick a FG on the last play, so the RB back gets the ball and takes one step and waits for the CCU guys to come and get him. CCU has no timeouts left so the LU strategy is working another play just like that, except the LU RB takes more than a step in actually runs into the LU defense who grabs him and try's to pull him into the endzone so they can get the ball back...instead the LU RB now fumbles the ball and it's CCU ball and they run out the clock and go to OT. But apparently the almighty has forgiven Hugh Freeze and he wins in OT when the CCU FG attempt to send it into a 2nd OT is blocked by Liberty and they win anyway.
These guys are over thinking this. It's too bad Liberty won, that was one of the dumbest sequences I ever saw.
UNC has 2 terrific RB in Carter and Williams, they combined for 544 yds in one game vs Miami and were both 1,000 yard rushers in 2020. But they have both now opted out of the game with A&M making life easier for the Aggie defense and harder for QB Sam Howell.
I have to say I'm a bit surprised by the opt outs from UNC. Mac made it sound like they were all excited for the big bowl game, and ready to take the next step. I did believe he felt what he said... I guess he just didn't quite know some of those fellas as well as he thought. It makes me think an agent got in one of their ears, and that spread to some of the others.
Some of it is probably Covid, but there are more players than ever opting out from finishing the season. I am sure many will say that the game(s) don't mean anything and they don't want to risk injury. I guess that's fair, but I don't like it and I think they are quitting on their team
Dabo explained why he ranked Ohio State #11. ___________ Clemson coach Dabo Swinney knows folks in Ohio aren't thrilled about where he ranked Ohio State on his ballot in the USA Today Coaches poll (No. 11), but he's not backing down from the choice. Asked about his ranking during a Monday media session in advance of No. 2 Clemson's matchup with the third-ranked Buckeyes in the Sugar Bowl, Swinney said he wasn't trying to slight his opponent, but rather felt it wasn't right to rank any team that hadn't played a full schedule of games in the top 10. "There's no question Ohio State is good enough to beat us, to beat any of these four [playoff teams] and be the national champion," Swinney said. "That's not a question at all. I didn't rank anybody who didn't play nine games or more in the top 10. That's why they were 11. I have all the respect in the world for Ohio State."
Alabama has 6 AP 1st Team AA's, Notre Dame has 2. Can you say talent disparity!! I hope we can keep in with in 3 or 4 scores. Actually I hope we can score. I really do wish that it was Scotts Aggies who were facing the Tide! That way I could complain that we were deserving and after the Tide rolled the Aggies again, I could say see...it should've been us!
Texas LB Joseph Ossai was also a 1st AP AA. He has however decided to opt out of the Bowl game. Other than Sam Ehlinger who has Orange Blood in his veins I'm not sure any NFL eligible players are going to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl. Interestingly Sam seems to be leaving the door open to returning for another season at Texas, if not for Covid he wouldn't have the opportunity. I'm a little surprised but the discussion is that he is so popular with the fans that his fee's from Name Image and Likeness deals will exceed what he could make as a UDFA trying to make an NFL practice squad. Plus due to playing 5 years as the starter he will absolutely own the record books at QB in Texas and the B12.
Once again, one of coaching greats said, "three things can happen when you pass and two of those things are bad". That's why I prefer a defensive oriented team. Now, I think if the Alabama offense is clicking and we don't turn the ball over, then we win, but this is probably the best defense we have played this year.
The consensus seems to be that the Irish will have to go old school to try and keep up with the Tide. That they will need to focus on long time consuming drives that involve a lot of running, 16 plays that of course end with a TD to keep the potent Tide offense on the bench. As far as our defense, it's a good defense but as you could see in the Clemson game our CB's are not great and the highly rated/fast/etc Clemson WR's made a lot of plays in both the game in South Bend and in the ACC Championship game. The key difference is the Irish were able to possess the ball and run the ball in South Bend, not so much in Charlotte. Alabama WR's should have success against the Irish. Also Clark Lea (ND DCoord) was mentored by Mike Elko (A&M DCoord) so Saban is familiar with the scheme even though Lea probably isn't running exactly what he learned from Elko.
Gators have 3 of their top 4 recievers opt out of the Cotton Bowl vs OU and the 4th has tested positive for Covid 19 and won't make the trip.