a look ahead

[bamaslammer]

So even though we got humiliated on national TV the process must continue. Here is my take on what that process needs to address. In my analysis when I say a position isn't up to par I mean on a scale needed to win championships.

#1 Offensive Line: Last night we saw a glimpse of the future and the future isn't bright if we had to play tomorrow. No other position will dictate 2009 more than this. We have open slots at LT, C, RG and frankly Boswell needs to either take over RT or he needs to seriously push Davis to get better. We have a number of guys who came in last year and more coming in this year. Most important is the key left tackle spot. James Carpenter, DJ Fluker, Tyler Love all may be options, or perhaps even others. one or more of these guys needs to get there with the second best guy possibly moving to guard. The overall depth at the OL position has to improve as we all saw last night. I think Carpenter and Warmack coming in this spring is a big help. I really hope to see love bounce back after getting hurt and not doing anything this past year.


#2 Defensive Back: I'm frankly unimpressed by our whole secondary except for RJ and he's gone. We redshirted some guys who may have talent and we need to continue to recruit lights out for this position. I believe next year will be ok IF we have some young players seriously pushing the current starters or flat taking their reps.

#3 Wide Receiver: Aside from Julio Jones our guys just aren't good. Florida and Utah together have 6 or more guys who blow our whole squad off the field minus JJ. The main weakness is just flat catching the ball, their guys do it, our guys are always "close". Now I will add the foot note that our receiver corps is young and they still have a chance to get there, but I still think we need to recruit hard here until we find what we need.

#4 Quarterback: I list this below receiver and OL because a quarterbacks success is so dependent on those other positions. In my opinion we need someone with more big play capacity. I think we have recruited the guys, we just need to coach them up and see who rises to the surface.

#5 Speed Rushers: We had none, again we redshirted a bunch of guys on the DL, I'm hoping one or more of them is going to burst on the scene this spring. Utah gave us a clinic on what we need to be doing.

I think we are ok at RB, TE, Defensive Tackle, and for the most part Linebacker though we need depth at that position. Tiffin was extremely inconsistent this year and that needs to be addressed. Special teams as a whole started out shaky this year but was a real strength down the stretch.

Coach Saban has his work cut out but so far its hard to argue with the progress the program has made even though we still didn't finish the season, at least we put Auburn in our rear view mirror. I don't think that helps us win championships but it sure makes things nicer at the office.

 

[CrimsonEyeshade]

So even though we got humiliated on national TV the process must continue. Here is my take on what that process needs to address. In my analysis when I say a position isn't up to par I mean on a scale needed to win championships.

#1 Offensive Line: Last night we saw a glimpse of the future and the future isn't bright if we had to play tomorrow. No other position will dictate 2009 more than this. We have open slots at LT, C, RG and frankly Boswell needs to either take over RT or he needs to seriously push Davis to get better. We have a number of guys who came in last year and more coming in this year. Most important is the key left tackle spot. James Carpenter, DJ Fluker, Tyler Love all may be options, or perhaps even others. one or more of these guys needs to get there with the second best guy possibly moving to guard. The overall depth at the OL position has to improve as we all saw last night. I think Carpenter and Warmack coming in this spring is a big help. I really hope to see love bounce back after getting hurt and not doing anything this past year.


#2 Defensive Back: I'm frankly unimpressed by our whole secondary except for RJ and he's gone. We redshirted some guys who may have talent and we need to continue to recruit lights out for this position. I believe next year will be ok IF we have some young players seriously pushing the current starters or flat taking their reps.

#3 Wide Receiver: Aside from Julio Jones our guys just aren't good. Florida and Utah together have 6 or more guys who blow our whole squad off the field minus JJ. The main weakness is just flat catching the ball, their guys do it, our guys are always "close". Now I will add the foot note that our receiver corps is young and they still have a chance to get there, but I still think we need to recruit hard here until we find what we need.

#4 Quarterback: I list this below receiver and OL because a quarterbacks success is so dependent on those other positions. In my opinion we need someone with more big play capacity. I think we have recruited the guys, we just need to coach them up and see who rises to the surface.

#5 Speed Rushers: We had none, again we redshirted a bunch of guys on the DL, I'm hoping one or more of them is going to burst on the scene this spring. Utah gave us a clinic on what we need to be doing.

I think we are ok at RB, TE, Defensive Tackle, and for the most part Linebacker though we need depth at that position. Tiffin was extremely inconsistent this year and that needs to be addressed. Special teams as a whole started out shaky this year but was a real strength down the stretch.

Coach Saban has his work cut out but so far its hard to argue with the progress the program has made even though we still didn't finish the season, at least we put Auburn in our rear view mirror. I don't think that helps us win championships but it sure makes things nicer at the office.

Nut meet shell.

 

[rolltidescott]

Good summation. We are heading towards another Top 5 recruiting class, so we're heading in the right direction.

 

[tideronthehooch]

That's a really good assessment of were we are. We must trust the process. We are getting there and I would still say we are ahead of schedule right now. We have a proven coach who can get the groceries and cook them up. The future is bright!!

 

[Bamabuzzard]

#3 Wide Receiver: Aside from Julio Jones our guys just aren't good. Florida and Utah together have 6 or more guys who blow our whole squad off the field minus JJ. The main weakness is just flat catching the ball, their guys do it, our guys are always "close". Now I will add the foot note that our receiver corps is young and they still have a chance to get there, but I still think we need to recruit hard here until we find what we need.

I think you missed this one by a mile. How can you assess whether a receiver is "good" or not if he's never thrown the ball OTHER THAN the last game of the year? The "they can't get open and that's why they're not thrown to" is a pile of lies from the pits of hell. It's amazing that other team's second, third and fourth receivers can get open but you mean to tell me that on EVERY PASS play we've run this year no other receiver got open other than JJ? I don't think so. I'm giving the wr's a pass until they are given an opportunity within the game to prove themselves. It's tough to prove yourself if the ball never comes your way. A wr doesn't have to have 20 yds separation to be "open".

 

[bullit71]

Good analysis and summation. Now, I am going to continue enjoying this amazingly unexpected season and look forward to Coach NS moving this team onward to the next level. RTR:BigA:

 

[RedStar]

After watching last nights game, it's now apparent to me why Fluker is being recruited as a LT and not a DT. While he would/could be as dominant as Cody at the same position, we NEED a lot of help along the offensive line.

That being said, I don't think we're as bad as we looked. We were surprised along the line, and when Utah had the momentum, it was hard to stop. I don't think Davis or Boswell are as bad as they looked last night. For whatever reason, I don't think either one was very prepared.

 

[MegaVars]

So even though we got humiliated on national TV the process must continue. Here is my take on what that process needs to address. In my analysis when I say a position isn't up to par I mean on a scale needed to win championships.

#1 Offensive Line: Last night we saw a glimpse of the future and the future isn't bright if we had to play tomorrow. No other position will dictate 2009 more than this. We have open slots at LT, C, RG and frankly Boswell needs to either take over RT or he needs to seriously push Davis to get better. We have a number of guys who came in last year and more coming in this year. Most important is the key left tackle spot. James Carpenter, DJ Fluker, Tyler Love all may be options, or perhaps even others. one or more of these guys needs to get there with the second best guy possibly moving to guard. The overall depth at the OL position has to improve as we all saw last night. I think Carpenter and Warmack coming in this spring is a big help. I really hope to see love bounce back after getting hurt and not doing anything this past year.


#2 Defensive Back: I'm frankly unimpressed by our whole secondary except for RJ and he's gone. We redshirted some guys who may have talent and we need to continue to recruit lights out for this position. I believe next year will be ok IF we have some young players seriously pushing the current starters or flat taking their reps.

#3 Wide Receiver: Aside from Julio Jones our guys just aren't good. Florida and Utah together have 6 or more guys who blow our whole squad off the field minus JJ. The main weakness is just flat catching the ball, their guys do it, our guys are always "close". Now I will add the foot note that our receiver corps is young and they still have a chance to get there, but I still think we need to recruit hard here until we find what we need.

#4 Quarterback: I list this below receiver and OL because a quarterbacks success is so dependent on those other positions. In my opinion we need someone with more big play capacity. I think we have recruited the guys, we just need to coach them up and see who rises to the surface.

#5 Speed Rushers: We had none, again we redshirted a bunch of guys on the DL, I'm hoping one or more of them is going to burst on the scene this spring. Utah gave us a clinic on what we need to be doing.

I think we are ok at RB, TE, Defensive Tackle, and for the most part Linebacker though we need depth at that position. Tiffin was extremely inconsistent this year and that needs to be addressed. Special teams as a whole started out shaky this year but was a real strength down the stretch.

Coach Saban has his work cut out but so far its hard to argue with the progress the program has made even though we still didn't finish the season, at least we put Auburn in our rear view mirror. I don't think that helps us win championships but it sure makes things nicer at the office.

Good analysis. Build depth and close the major drop-off between the starters and their backups. It will be good to see the time when or if a starter goes down we can put the backup in and not miss a beat.

 

[NationalTitles18]

So even though we got humiliated on national TV the process must continue. Here is my take on what that process needs to address. In my analysis when I say a position isn't up to par I mean on a scale needed to win championships.

#1 Offensive Line: Last night we saw a glimpse of the future and the future isn't bright if we had to play tomorrow. No other position will dictate 2009 more than this. We have open slots at LT, C, RG and frankly Boswell needs to either take over RT or he needs to seriously push Davis to get better. We have a number of guys who came in last year and more coming in this year. Most important is the key left tackle spot. James Carpenter, DJ Fluker, Tyler Love all may be options, or perhaps even others. one or more of these guys needs to get there with the second best guy possibly moving to guard. The overall depth at the OL position has to improve as we all saw last night. I think Carpenter and Warmack coming in this spring is a big help. I really hope to see love bounce back after getting hurt and not doing anything this past year.


#2 Defensive Back: I'm frankly unimpressed by our whole secondary except for RJ and he's gone. We redshirted some guys who may have talent and we need to continue to recruit lights out for this position. I believe next year will be ok IF we have some young players seriously pushing the current starters or flat taking their reps.

#3 Wide Receiver: Aside from Julio Jones our guys just aren't good. Florida and Utah together have 6 or more guys who blow our whole squad off the field minus JJ. The main weakness is just flat catching the ball, their guys do it, our guys are always "close". Now I will add the foot note that our receiver corps is young and they still have a chance to get there, but I still think we need to recruit hard here until we find what we need.

#4 Quarterback: I list this below receiver and OL because a quarterbacks success is so dependent on those other positions. In my opinion we need someone with more big play capacity. I think we have recruited the guys, we just need to coach them up and see who rises to the surface.

#5 Speed Rushers: We had none, again we redshirted a bunch of guys on the DL, I'm hoping one or more of them is going to burst on the scene this spring. Utah gave us a clinic on what we need to be doing.

I think we are ok at RB, TE, Defensive Tackle, and for the most part Linebacker though we need depth at that position. Tiffin was extremely inconsistent this year and that needs to be addressed. Special teams as a whole started out shaky this year but was a real strength down the stretch.

Coach Saban has his work cut out but so far its hard to argue with the progress the program has made even though we still didn't finish the season, at least we put Auburn in our rear view mirror. I don't think that helps us win championships but it sure makes things nicer at the office.

I think you're pretty spot on and took the words right out of my hands.

#1 I think we can see why CNS is recruiting OL's so hard. We need more big strong OL's with quick feet.

#2 The biggest 2 problems in the secondary were coachable problems - not turning to find the ball and poor tackling. Fundamentals for DB's. The DB's were there all night and just didn't make plays on the ball/receiver. Same thing happened against UF. A new influx of talent with better instincts will help, but unless they get the fundamentals too then it won't help much.

#3 Hit the nail on the head here. Speed to burn isn't much good with bricks for hands. As you said, we are young here and i hope the guys we have coming in have "soft" hands.

#4 JPW's biggest flaw has been the inability to hit the open guy deep consistently. In fact, he seemed to do better when they were covered closely. He did well short to intermediate and managing the game this year. Hopefully someone will go into fall putting it all together.

#5 This was perhaps the most glaring for me last night. To have any chance to get to the QB we had to rush LB's and DB's. Part of that was the Utes gameplanning, but speed on the ends - especially that 1st step burst - would have been big in getting more pressure on the QB. Our guys are built to stop the run.

I still think we still need a better homerun threat at RB and a big bruiser RB for short yards. Need to shore up depth everywhere. But the biggest hole remaining is an intangable - desire, even after a loss takes the big prize away. The mentality of the team has changed so much over the past year, but there's still a little ways to go mentally.

 

[RedStar]

#3 Hit the nail on the head here. Speed to burn isn't much good with bricks for hands. As you said, we are young here and i hope the guys we have coming in have "soft" hands.

Who has bricks for hands?

How many times was Maze thrown to last night? What about Hanks? McCoy? Alexander? Stover? Maybe a combined 3 times between 5 guys?

Theres a reason you haven't heard the WR called out this year while other units have been. If you're not thrown the ball, you can't catch it.

I'm thankful for everything JPW did during his time here. I'm not here to criticize but to critique. He's always been durable, that's probably his greatest quality. While he may not be a John Elway during crunch time, he generally keeps a level head. He doesn't win many games, but he usually doesn't put you in a position to lose them either. And he's a decent scrambler. Those are generally not the things of legendary QB's.

He's ALWAYS been one to lock onto one receiver, this year was probably his worst year EVER for that. His deep ball is inconsistent. He has average arm strength and he's prone to long lapses in judgment and accuracy. He's our all-time leader in TD passes and yardage, yet in his Sr. season he only had 9 TD's and 2,200 yards? He was more consistent this year than ever before, but it could also be said that he's been consistently mediocre.

I'm grateful for what he's done for us, especially this year. I do think he's provided valuable off the field leadership. But I think we can only go up from here as far as the QB position is concerned. And I still think most of the WR problems have to be deferred to JPW.

 

[NationalTitles18]

Who has bricks for hands?

How many times was Maze thrown to last night? What about Hanks? McCoy? Alexander? Stover? Maybe a combined 3 times between 5 guys?

Theres a reason you haven't heard the WR called out this year while other units have been. If you're not thrown the ball, you can't catch it.

I'm thankful for everything JPW did during his time here. I'm not here to criticize but to critique. He's always been durable, that's probably his greatest quality. While he may not be a John Elway during crunch time, he generally keeps a level head. He doesn't win many games, but he usually doesn't put you in a position to lose them either. And he's a decent scrambler. Those are generally not the things of legendary QB's.

He's ALWAYS been one to lock onto one receiver, this year was probably his worst year EVER for that. His deep ball is inconsistent. He has average arm strength and he's prone to long lapses in judgment and accuracy. He's our all-time leader in TD passes and yardage, yet in his Sr. season he only had 9 TD's and 2,200 yards? He was more consistent this year than ever before, but it could also be said that he's been consistently mediocre.

I'm grateful for what he's done for us, especially this year. I do think he's provided valuable off the field leadership. But I think we can only go up from here as far as the QB position is concerned. And I still think most of the WR problems have to be deferred to JPW.

I saw a number of dropped balls last night - and all season. Even Julio dropped at least 3 last night - with the ball squarely in his hands. I'm not trying to call anyone out, it's just an area that needs a lot of improvement. JPW's flaws don't excuse anyone else's.

 

[RedStar]

I saw a number of dropped balls last night - and all season. Even Julio dropped at least 3 last night - with the ball squarely in his hands. I'm not trying to call anyone out, it's just an area that needs a lot of improvement. JPW's flaws don't excuse anyone else's.

You're right about Julio, he had 2 or 3 easy passes he dropped, he's usually good for one of those per game. Hopefully it's something he can work on in the offseason. As far as the rest of the WR unit, I just don't see what they've done wrong. It's one thing if they consistently drop passes, but they weren't thrown to last night, or ever.

Have they been overrunning routes? Running mistimed routes? The Wrong routes? I don't know. It's hard to tell when you're watching on TV and the camera is focused on the ball. And even in person it's not something you'll generally notice unless you're a coach and know what routes are being run. I do know I haven't heard the WR's called out by any coaches this year, which leads me to believe they've been doing what they're supposed to do.

I'm not trying to solely blame JPW. There is plenty of blame to go around after last night. I just don't know how much blame can go on the WR's. They've obviously underperformed, but the talent is there, it's just a matter of getting them the ball to see what they can do.

 

[NationalTitles18]

Maze dropped several balls this season. Hanks has dropped more than a handful. Really, just go back and look at the games and you can't miss it. I really don't want to get into a heated argument about it. It's a problem that I've seen all year, just like I've seen JPW's problem with the long ball. If you didn't see and I did, then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

 

[RedStar]

Maze dropped several balls this season. Hanks has dropped more than a handful. Really, just go back and look at the games and you can't miss it. I really don't want to get into a heated argument about it. It's a problem that I've seen all year, just like I've seen JPW's problem with the long ball. If you didn't see and I did, then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Then I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. It's impossible to catch what's not thrown to you.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Maze dropped several balls this season. Hanks has dropped more than a handful. Really, just go back and look at the games and you can't miss it. I really don't want to get into a heated argument about it. It's a problem that I've seen all year, just like I've seen JPW's problem with the long ball. If you didn't see and I did, then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Not enough to make an assessment on them. A wr is much like a rb. They have to be a part of the flow of the game. For the times you say JPW threw to them and they dropped I can tell you the times they went GAMES without being thrown to. Just because a WR drops two or three over a course of a few games doesn't mean you stop throwing to them.

 

[bilbo]

to illustrate the point, look at the beautiful catch Maze made from McElroy at the end of the Auburn game...

 

[ChesapeakeTide]

Great analysis by bamaslammer and NationalTitles12.

I don't know if the dropped passes are a result of trying to run with the ball before completing the catch or a lack of concentration. But all of the receivers have had a case, albeit a minor one, of the dropsies this season.

 

[NationalTitles18]

Not enough to make an assessment on them. A wr is much like a rb. They have to be a part of the flow of the game. For the times you say JPW threw to them and they dropped I can tell you the times they went GAMES without being thrown to. Just because a WR drops two or three over a course of a few games doesn't mean you stop throwing to them.

You make a good point. You have to trust your WR's to catch the ball. JPW didn't show much trust. Maybe "bricks for hands" was a bit too harsh, but I don't think anyone can deny the WR's need to catch the ball when it hits them square in the hands. Apparently, I think it was a bigger problem than some others or else others want to blame another person for the WR's deficiencies. Oh, well. Let's just hope everyone improves next year and we'll all be happy.

 

[sanjosecrimson]

I think you missed this one by a mile. How can you assess whether a receiver is "good" or not if he's never thrown the ball OTHER THAN the last game of the year? The "they can't get open and that's why they're not thrown to" is a pile of lies from the pits of hell. It's amazing that other team's second, third and fourth receivers can get open but you mean to tell me that on EVERY PASS play we've run this year no other receiver got open other than JJ? I don't think so. I'm giving the wr's a pass until they are given an opportunity within the game to prove themselves. It's tough to prove yourself if the ball never comes your way. A wr doesn't have to have 20 yds separation to be "open".

BB,

you and I are on the same page!!

 

[Bamabuzzard]

You make a good point. You have to trust your WR's to catch the ball. JPW didn't show much trust. Maybe "bricks for hands" was a bit too harsh, but I don't think anyone can deny the WR's need to catch the ball when it hits them square in the hands. Apparently, I think it was a bigger problem than some others or else others want to blame another person for the WR's deficiencies. Oh, well. Let's just hope everyone improves next year and we'll all be happy.

I just have a hard time holding a wr accountable when they are basically not being thrown the ball from game to game then all of a sudden get criticized for being "not good" for dropping balls. It's kind of like anything you or me do. If you play golf, go to driving range every day but only go to the course and actually play once a month. You ain't going to be very good.