Getting Ready for Spring Battles!

[Tidewater]

I disagree. Even before Ty's injuries the running game wasn't good at all, and Ty was getting hit regularly early in the season. He was just able to work around the issues on the OL to some extent, and as teams got more and more film to watch they took advantage of the OL's weaknesses. The coaches and OL couldn't adjust to cover the weaknesses.

I remember watch The Brady play later in his NFL career. You could see his mind working: "OK, this guy is blitzing so the hot route is that guy right there." even with a very poor offensive line the physics of getting 180 to 300 pound bodies up and moving toward the quarterback are unforgiving. Brady had such a command of the offense that there are times he didn't need an offensive line at all the ball was gone so quickly.
The upshot for Bama is Bama got a first-time starting quarterback, so that level of mastery of the offense is just not gonna be there. Ty had a pretty good command of the offense, and knew how to get rid of the ball quickly, but he still got blown up from time to time.

 

[TiderJack]

I certainly hope we don’t come out of fall camp with a “work in progress” oline and running game. Whomever is the starter at QB (Mack or Russell), they will need to lean into the run game early in the season until they “get their legs underneath them” as a starter.

I’m very hopeful these coaching changes will have a positive impact i

Here's the link on 247:

Grubb says Lloyd is the man at LT

Lloyd was a 5* on some services and he was all-state in basketball and baseball. Unreal athlete and to hear these comments from Grubb about a RS freshman being the man at LT makes me feel very good. Our tackles are worked out and both very talented and it seems center is also. Now who is going to get the two guard spots? Will Sanders out this spring could open up for Poe or one of the transfers.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Lloyd was a 5* on some services and he was all-state in basketball and baseball. Unreal athlete and to hear these comments from Grubb about a RS freshman being the man at LT makes me feel very good. Our tackles are worked out and both very talented and it seems center is also. Now who is going to get the two guard spots? Will Sanders out this spring could open up for Poe or one of the transfers.

I feel strongly both ways on this.

Lloyd hasn't played a meaningful snap. We haven't gotten to the point in spring practice that they're even in full pads. Yet he's publicly named the starter?

Is that because he's just that much better than anybody else? If so, what did he do to earn the spot before full contact work?

Is it because nobody else stepped up? If so, that's some bad news.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I feel strongly both ways on this.

Lloyd hasn't played a meaningful snap. We haven't gotten to the point in spring practice that they're even in full pads. Yet he's publicly named the starter?

Is that because he's just that much better than anybody else? If so, what did he do to earn the spot before full contact work?

Is it because nobody else stepped up? If so, that's some bad news.

When it comes to the OL, especially in the last few years of Sabans tenure, I had my preseason expectations bubble busted enough that I don't put much stock into how good the OL is until they go against another team's defensive line. There's just too much familiarity in camp when it comes to units going against each other, its not a very accurate barometer.

 

[BhamToTexas]

Here's the link on 247:

Grubb says Lloyd is the man at LT

Well, he didn’t dance around that question.

 

[RTR2u]

Don't even want to hear the words "joyless murder ball" before the season even starts.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Don't even want to hear the words "joyless murder ball" before the season even starts.

Joyless murderball won a bunch of NCs. The phrase is the invention of ink-stained wretches who were left with not much to write about. They see nothing poetic about our OL and DL grinding the opposition to dust.

I disagree.

I would love a repeat of the LSU game where started from inside our own 10 with about 8 minutes to go, and ran Derrick Henry behind the best OL of our generation.

Though brutal, it was absolutely poetic.

Everybody in the stadium knew it was Henry right, Henry left, Henry up the middle. See if you can stop it. And the corn dogs couldn’t. No shame there. Nobody else could have.

We ran out the clock in a goal-to-go situation. Of drives that produced 0 points, it was the most glorious of all time.

Neither that mindset nor personnel are developed in a single off-season. So I don’t think it’s a prospect for the 2026 season.

Regardless, I’ll take joyless murderball wins over balletically graceful losses any day.

 

[gtgilbert]

Joyless murderball won a bunch of NCs. The phrase is the invention of ink-stained wretches who were left with not much to write about. They see nothing poetic about our OL and DL grinding the opposition to dust.

I disagree.

I would love a repeat of the LSU game where started from inside our own 10 with about 8 minutes to go, and ran Derrick Henry behind the best OL of our generation.

Though brutal, it was absolutely poetic.

Everybody in the stadium knew it was Henry right, Henry left, Henry up the middle. See if you can stop it. And the corn dogs couldn’t. No shame there. Nobody else could have.

We ran out the clock in a goal-to-go situation. Of drives that produced 0 points, it was the most glorious of all time.

Neither that mindset nor personnel are developed in a single off-season. So I don’t think it’s a prospect for the 2026 season.

Regardless, I’ll take joyless murderball wins over balletically graceful losses any day.

I think RTR2u was more implying that he didn't want to hear about how great the OL was going to be *before* the season, because we've heard that song before, and the OL couldn't deliver. I kinda agree with that. It's like the pancake posse debacle when it turned out the only pancakes we could find that season were at IHOP or waffle house.

Till the new batch of guys proves they are actually 'those dudes', against someone wearing a different teams jersey, I'm just not buying into the hype.

 

[gtgilbert]

I feel strongly both ways on this.

Lloyd hasn't played a meaningful snap. We haven't gotten to the point in spring practice that they're even in full pads. Yet he's publicly named the starter?

Is that because he's just that much better than anybody else? If so, what did he do to earn the spot before full contact work?

Is it because nobody else stepped up? If so, that's some bad news.

completely agree - if the kid is this good, why was he not an option even at RT last year with the struggles we had. The coaches clearly were not that thrilled with Formby, and while Carroll showed upside, he had just as many, or more, misses as Formby.