2010 Season - Week 2 - Alabama Crimson Tide
This is the big kahuna.....the real deal.....in Tuscaloosa. We'll be talking about it all summer so may as well fire up the discussion now. Here is the CFN lookahead for Bama. With them replacing 6 of 7 on the defensive front we MAY actually be able to establish a running game early and give Newsjonesden some time to get his feet wet.
Looking Ahead: Because it’s Alabama and because the coaching is so great and because the talent level is so ridiculously high after a few years of top-shelf recruiting, the team is still loaded. However, there are concerns for a team that caught a few big breaks in a down year in the SEC (not to mention Colt McCoy’s shoulder injury in the national title game) and needed a few skin-of-the-teeth wins to get through unscathed. The defense has some major work to do with six of the defensive front seven gone including LB Rolando McClain and NG Terrence Cody. Corner and punt return star Javier Arenas and FS Justin Woodall are also gone. But don’t weep any tears for a defense that has plenty of NFL prospects waiting in the wings. Oh yeah … the offense. The backfield is jaw-dropping with a Heisman-winner (Mark Ingram) along a guy (Trent Richardson) who might be a starter in the NFL right now. Throw in top-five pro prospect WR Julio Jones and three starters on the O line, and the offense will be tremendous. The schedule has plenty of landmines with Penn State, at Arkansas, Florida, at South Carolina, Ole Miss, at Tennessee, at Tennessee, and Auburn to deal with.
Why to get excited: If Bama isn’t everyone’s preseason No. 1, it’ll be in the top three with all the top skill players back, including Ingram, and the holes on the line should be patched immediately with several good prospects waiting to step in. It’s a Nick Saban defense, so while there are concerns with so many key losses, the system and the talent level will work out more than fine, while the offense should be more explosive and more effective.
Why to be grouchy: Yeah, the defense should reload in a hurry with so much talent coming in from the last few recruiting hauls, but it might take a little while before everything jells after losing almost everyone up front and corner Javier Arenas and FS Justin Woodall. Considering Penn State, at Arkansas, Florida, at South Carolina, Ole Miss, at Tennessee, and as LSU form the bulk of the first two-thirds of the season, it’s asking a lot to get through unscathed.
The number one thing to work on is: Find Julio Jones. He might not have always been 100%, and it’s hard to not keep handing the ball off when the running game is so devastating, but the most talented player on the team might be No. 8 and his talents are going to waste. Here’s a player who might be a top ten draft pick next year and could be the first receiver off the board, and he only had one 100-yard game last season and finished with a mere 43 catches for 596 yards and four scores. A receiver of his caliber should have doubled those numbers … at least.