A few thoughts on the upcoming year...

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Watching the Arkansas game from last season and I've been thinking on some things that we have to improve this year.

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That game is a bit of an outlier, too. Ryan Kelly was injured and didn't play. Losing the C on the o-line is a big deal. Our run game never quite "clicked" in that game and I believe a lot of it had to do with improper calls among the o-line.

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3rd downs on defense-there is no way we can be any worse than we were last year on third downs. It was just insane how many 3rd and longs we gave up last year.

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Yeah, my son & I would regularly talk 'bout how we had the best 1st & 2nd down defense in football last year...

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Eddie Jackson-I think he really has a chance to shine at safety. I think that safety is more of a natural position for him, and will give him the opportunity to really showcase his talent and skill.

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Hope that works out and early reports are that it will...it's hard to tell how much of his issues were due to his knee injury, but I was always nervous whenever he was playing man last year...after the Auburn game, always thought that Sylve deserved another shot at CB, or at least more playing time...

Yeah, Evans needs to be on the field EVERY 3rd down with his only objective being to get the QB

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Hell, he almost put us in a hole against Ohio State on the opening kickoff.

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Makes my blood boil thinking about that dumb shite. Seems like a great kid, but his head was up his arse all season.

With 3 5* Dbs in the secondary, I'm a little bit excited for the d. Maybe on 3rd down Saban will put more speed on the edges. I do believe that the reason we didn't attack on 3rd downs was because Saban and Kirby didn't feel we had the talent in the secondary to execute blitz packages.

Tony Brown holding down the CB position will help improve third down defense. Too many mental errors last year and way too much busted coverages.

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The O-line, Henry and the RBs need to be a force.

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I think that is always the goal, but the last two years, our Oline just hasn't been the dominant force that we had grown used to seeing.

I think we have a good chance at getting back to that this year. We'll see.

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We had a little too much feast or famine last year.

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Perfect way of putting it. A great thing about last season's offense is that it can provide valuable lessons in playcalling. There were little microcosms everywhere you looked. The A&M and Florida games, for example, showcased a near perfect balance of short-gains, options, deep-balls, and clock-grinding. Then look at games we lost, should have lost, or easily could have lost. By this I mean games like those against Ole Miss, Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State, and Ohio State. The most telling stat you will find for these games is in JK Scott's player-log. They all showed the problems that come with over-reliance on the pass and the stress that can be put on a young secondary when the opponent is given enough time to work on them. Three-and-Outs in those games were ridiculous.

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If Blake Sims doesn't have legs, we might lose to Miss. State.

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Also would have lost to LSU were it not for his scamper with :30 in regulation.

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What I'd like to see is a return to taking what the defense gives us.

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I want to see this as well. A lot of this past season's offense oddly reminded me of the much less talented 2007 offense with Major Applewhite running the show. Obviously the record for 2007 was much worse, and of course the 2014 offense was much more talented, but the in-game performances are strikingly similar.

The 2007 offense was predicated on making quick 1st Quarter strikes and knocking the secondary off-balance, but was entirely too vulnerable to third down-syndrome when the defenses adjusted and switched to either a short zone that would force receivers out or bring immense weak-side pressure with the corners all in man. This almost always forced JPW to make quick decisions and either turn the ball over or throw it away. Opposing teams did this a lot this year, too. It's the same reason Ohio State was able to force Sims to run 10 times against them even though we only ran two designed QB keepers.

Applewhite's playcalling led to exciting wins against Tennessee, Arkansas, (still almost gave it away) and Ole Miss, (also almost lost.) as well as spectacular collapses against Georgia, a close first loss which was followed the week after by an abysmal offensive hangover against an inferior FSU team, (See 2014 Ole Miss and Arkansas games) a loss to LSU in which we came out guns blazing and squandered with mid-game three-and-outs (ultimately sealed with a Bama-territory fumble, a fate narrowly avoided this year) another punt and turnover giveaway against Mississippi State, and I refuse to acknowledge the two games after that.

Hell, we almost had the same outcome in the bowl games! We took a 27-0 lead in the first half and barely got out 30-24 against Colorado.

I've heard people clamoring for a change defensively, and Saban has himself acknowledged the hybrid scheme he wants to run on that end of the ball. That's fine and all, but I think the area in which multiple looks would help the most is on the offensive side. In fact, I don't think the defensive scheme needs to be changed at all if the offense can stay on the field longer. I'd absolutely love the pro-style pass predicated attack if it could be backed up by strong run-support when the secondary is keyed in. The best way to make sure the opposing D-line won't get to the quarterback is to make sure he's not always the one with the ball when it's clearly not to his advantage.