JessN: NSD wrap-up and current roster analysis

[Rollingtide]

Not sure where you got the Conor Talty info but he seems to have a bigger leg than you stated per Kohl's kicking site. "Conor is a big time high school kicking and punting prospect. He is a great looking athlete with a live leg. Conor does an excellent job on field goal. He gets the ball up well off the ground and easily has 55+ yard range. His kickoffs are strong. He drives the ball 65+ yards, with 4.0+ hang time. Also a very talented punter. He has all the tools to be a dominant D1 Punter. Conor is a competitor who thrives under pressure. He has a bright D1 college future with continued hard work. Conor is a fine young man who is a pleasure to work with. Strong prospect. OFFER NOW!!! Big pick up for Alabama."

 

[JessN]

Not sure where you got the Conor Talty info but he seems to have a bigger leg than you stated per this. Conor is a big time high school kicking and punting prospect. He is a great looking athlete with a live leg. Conor does an excellent job on field goal. He gets the ball up well off the ground and easily has 55+ yard range. His kickoffs are strong. He drives the ball 65+ yards, with 4.0+ hang time. Also a very talented punter. He has all the tools to be a dominant D1 Punter. Conor is a competitor who thrives under pressure. He has a bright D1 college future with continued hard work. Conor is a fine young man who is a pleasure to work with. Strong prospect. OFFER NOW!!! Big pick up for Alabama.

I'm not sure what the "OFFER NOW" thing means at the end of your post. Conor was on the team last year, backed up Will Reichard and kicked in a pair of games.

My observations are in-person in practice and game settings and I'm comparing him to Reichard. He does not (yet) have Reichard's range. It wasn't particularly close last year. I would put Talty's effective range (as of fall 2023) in the 45-50 yard area. Let's also get clear on what "range" means -- it doesn't mean the absolute longest kick he can hit. It means the kick he can hit consistently enough that if you called upon him to do it under game pressure, he could execute it about 50-60 percent of the time (which is considered "par" for a college kicker beyond 50 yards, up to whatever their max range is). He displayed very good accuracy the times I saw him, but there was a clear difference in the drive into the ball between what he was doing and what Reichard was doing.

I think he has the potential to eventually get there, but I would not agree he's there yet. Reichard had been in a college weight and nutrition program for five years leading up to the 2023 season, while Talty didn't enroll early. Fall 2023 were his first months on a college campus. The difference in physical development between the two was fairly easy to see.

Also, while he might also get his kickoff yardage up to 65, he kicked off twice last year for an average of 59.5 yards, with neither of them a touchback. In fact, that led to his biggest highlight of the year, which was a pretty nice tackle on one of those kickoffs. Even Reichard didn't average 65+ yards on kickoffs last year; Reichard averaged 63.8 yards on 87 attempts.

If Talty is as hard a worker as you say, he will win the job. He just hasn't won it yet. Pointing out that he has a ways to go to truly replace Reichard isn't a condemnation of Talty's abilities.

 

[bamaslammer]

I believe we are looking good going forward but the gutting of our secondary is going to cost us. We are going to have to play young inexperienced players and they are going to learn the hard way. They will get better and eventually be great but there are going to be some frustrating days to endure.

 

[Ledsteplin]

I believe we are looking good going forward but the gutting of our secondary is going to cost us. We are going to have to play young inexperienced players and they are going to learn the hard way. They will get better and eventually be great but there are going to be some frustrating days to endure.

Those 3 young freshmen CBs are 5*. One may come close to doing what Downs did. And there's 2 easy games to start the season. We need to get those young guys in those games to get some experience. They're smart and have the right attitude. I think they catch on quickly.

 

[Windsortide]

Great opportunity for young CB’s to get on the field and hopefully RW can have a Calvin Ridley effect as a freshman.

 

[Bama9001]

We'll have a learning curve with the freshmen but they will also be working to learn a less complicated defense than Saban's. The last two years we've had bunches of missed assignments in the secondary...players just weren't playing enough or staying around long enough to learn the defense.

I'm pretty optimistic. Everyone on both sides of the ball will be getting a real chance to step up and show what they can do. My guess is that we'll be pleasantly surprised by some of the things we see from these guys.

 

[Rollingtide]

The offer now is because what I added was from one of the kicking sites and that was Kohl's kicking site assessment before he committed anywhere. Sorry I did not mention where I pulled that info. His highlights also show him kicking a 51 yarder.

 

[JessN]

The offer now is because what I added was from one of the kicking sites and that was Kohl's kicking site assessment before he committed anywhere. Sorry I did not mention where I pulled that info. His highlights also show him kicking a 51 yarder.

Gotcha. Let's just pump the brakes on it a bit until we actually see him do it a bit more.

Especially given the "65+" comment on KO yardage, yet arguably the best kicker we've ever had could only get to 63.8 over a large sample size, with tons of touchbacks included.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Jess, are you pretty confident in the quality of the staff CKD has assembled? From all indications, he's put together a very competent staff.

 

[JessN]

I believe we are looking good going forward but the gutting of our secondary is going to cost us. We are going to have to play young inexperienced players and they are going to learn the hard way. They will get better and eventually be great but there are going to be some frustrating days to endure.

To me, the three names to watch are Domani Jackson, Tony Mitchell and Bray Hubbard.

If those guys are ready to play, then we can play the true freshmen as we feel like it, not necessarily because we have to. Jackson jumped off the tape in high school but wasn't very good at USC. But he has an NFL corner's body. We have to get either him or Hurley playing at a high level so that we're not trying to bring two true freshman up to speed simultaneously -- although it may not be avoidable.

As for Hubbard and Mitchell, I think our new corners are more ready to go than the new safeties are. Like I said in the article, I think Jake Pope was a real loss. He and Hubbard were about equal, so as long as Hubbard, Smith and Moore stay healthy, we'll be OK, but Moore and Smith have been hurt multiple times each and that's going to be hard to count on.

Then you have to figure out who dime and DB7 are. The loser of the Mitchell-Hubbard battle will almost certainly be one of those. The other will either be a walk-on or a true freshman.

If things go sideways in the spring, we'll go to the portal here I'm sure.

 

[JessN]

Jess, are you pretty confident in the quality of the staff CKD has assembled? From all indications, he's put together a very competent staff.

I do. I think he brought the right people. The only guy off their prior staff that I had concerns about was the DL coach, and he stayed out west. Getting Wommack to give up HC at USA to become defensive coordinator was a coup. In addition to that, the trio of Linguist, Inge and Hitschler all have great resumes and I think they'll work together well. The Grubb-Huff-Sheridan-Shephard group on offense gives him great continuity of thought as he installs the new system. It's hard to say that one staff is the "best" compared to other staffs, because the criteria are almost entirely subjective, but I am very, very happy with the way this played out.

 

[BayouBama75]

Thanks for you insights.