Crimson Red Sports

What are your biggest concerns for the upcoming year? At this point mine is the offensive line.  There are only 2 returners here and there has to be some continuity and communicators there. I am not as worried about the QB situation as I believe there are two good candidates here.  The big question will be who can read the coverages and make the proper check downs.  The thing that will help the secondary better than anything is a better pass rush.  I think I read where Bama ranked 60 or worse in sacks last year.  Your thoughts.

Mine is actually somewhat mentality as well as the defensive backfield. When we won the 3 NC's under CNS the team had that killer or dominate mentality and I have not seen that in the last 2 years. Also the schemes not being as complicated on offense. The third thing would be the 2 lines on each side of the ball. The pass rush off the defensive line and the pass and run blocking on offense. If this sounds like a lot it may be but; we have all this talent that has been brought in so there should be some winning football not only by 1 to 4 points but some blowouts and shutouts. JMHO! RTR!

Biggest concerns:

Defensive Backfield
Pass Rush
Offensive Line
Healthy RB's & WR's
Special Teams except punter


 :tinfoil:

I agree on the mentality side of the team, after the Ole Miss game last year Bama was like a train wreck on both sides of the ball.

The defense is supposed to be better and deeper this year. The defense gave up a ton of yardage the second half of the season last year and I'm sure injuries played a role in that.

The offense was lucky to have Cooper last year or we might have lost more games. Hopefully we go back to using more high percentage plays this year rather than so many long passes downfield that most hit the ground. There were way too many 3 and outs and that killed the defense who were already struggling. There was also too many times we threw the ball on third down when the running game was doing quite well and we punted the ball.

I was hoping the injury bug had been killed in the off season but already we are losing players with every practice and we haven't put on the pads yet.

Anyway I'm ready to see what we have without Cooper and Yeldon. RTR!!!!

Biggest worries for me are as follows:

There always are questions before the season starts.  Hopefully many of those will be answered in 26 days!

I'm not as concerned about the "O" line this year, unless injuries take it's toll. The Cam situation scared me to death. Looks like he may be ok in a week or two. But everything I've been reading about the "O" line has been very positive.

I think we need to pound the rock more this year. Jamos touched on it, but why did we start passing, when Henry was gashing the D of tOSU and Ok in the last 2 Sugar Bowls? A good running game will give our D much more rest. It looks like Calvin Ridley may be the next Cooper, but we don't need to overdo it on the passing game, regardless.

Just my 2 cents.

I concur.

 :lol2: You two may be the smartest posters on the board.

The fact that their schedule is so tough, especially with many teams having byes could be a problem.  Another reason I mention the OL is because there were games last year where they didn't dominate games some people thought they should.  You have 3 new starters coming into this year.  Also, even though it looks like Cam is going to be ok, he still has a tendency to get hurt.  You have to say he is tough, because he plays when some people don't think he will be able to. 

Really roll Tide.
Beat what's-it-name. 
And beat all the others.

Bama didn't always run the ball well during those two seasons, but certainly was having success against OK and tOSU.  If it ain't broke don't fix it.

QB   :dunno:

Boy, and looking at all the reports, is that position still up for grabs!

2014 all over again!

Only with more in the mix. The reports I read yesterday said that both Coker and Cornwell had bad days. Barnett, however, received good reviews. It will really be interesting to see how all this unfolds.

I choose to believe that between Drake, Henry, and the guy who we don't even know about yet who will inevitably impress the mess out of us in the first three games, the running game will demand so much respect that even a mediocre QB will get the ball to someone in space when necessary. I am looking for OJH to be a factor this year, and we all know about Drake's ability to catch passes out of the back field or out of defense-confusing line-ups of other sorts. On the other side of the ball, I choose to believe that out D-line and backers will pressure QBs to reduce the exposure of our corners to big throws on long routes. I look for a return to our 2010/11 domination in time of possession. That should create a situation that is more forgiving of offensive mistakes. This is what I choose to believe.

I choose to hope you are right!  :clap:

I'm not going to get too bent out of shape on what the team looked like on their first practice of sort. I don't expect them to look like National Champions in the early season. Now that they are practicing two-a-days, things should start to look better.

One thing is for sure though, regardless of who gets the start at QB, all of them should know the play book pretty darn good. If one goes down with an injury, there shouldn't be a huge drop off to his replacement.

I watched some video on the new walkon RB Derrick Gore, he sure looks a lot like TR in a lot of ways when he came on campus. He shows to have good quickness with very good cuts and he has a lot of strength. The main thing now is can he learn the playbook and block.

Here's a link on Gore.

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1346575/derrick-gore