re: Golding needs to go.

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Prevatt is Golding's dad or Golding himself

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No, but I'll put it this way:

Which would you (or anyone) have rather had in 2019: Pruitt coaching the defensive personnel after the injuries, or Golding coaching the personnel we had available the first week of fall camp?

The correct answer is literally almost any coach (except Van Gorder) with the personnel we had the first week of fall camp, and it isn't even close. Barton Simmons on a recent podcast called Dylan Moses the most important returning starter (among draft eligible players) in all of college football for 2020, and went on to say that Moses' injury hurt Alabama's title chances more than Tua's ever did - and I tend to agree.

Face it - our front 7 personnel was suspect going into the year, especially as it related to the second units. However, even after many of the injuries, that defense with a capable, experienced, seasoned Mike who NEVER left the field would've made literally all the difference in the world.

Some dumbasses will continue to blame and harp on Golding, but every time you do, you're just telling the world you don't know dick about the game.

And yes, I know I'm being an arse about it. But the shite some of you have been saying deserves it. Some opinions are so blindly ignorant that they deserve mocking.

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So how would you describe the 127 defenses that finished the year ranked below us in SP+ total defense?

[It's a rhetorical question. Your opinion means less than nothing to me.]

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Not sure reality means much to you, period. So, there is that "Rainman." You are now most adamant we should all feel warm and fuzzy about this Golding defense with your ESPN stats, when the reality is, when we played anyone with an SEC pulse, we often got walked down the field for 4 quarters.

Here's a better stat and works just fine with what Alabama fans actually had to live through this season.

Leading up to the LSU game, Alabama’s opponents had the lowest winning percentage in Power 5 football. Power 5 football "Rainman." Due to crappy scheduling, our entire credibility in SOS was coming down to LSU and Auburn on the road. They were the only 2 teams left with any type of winning %. That's fine, they were also our hated rivals anyway, beating these guys to get where we want to go is kinda what we do anyway.

BUT, when it came to year's Alabama closeup we promptly lost both games. Gave up a total of 913 total yards and 94 points. The only 2 teams with a winning pulse, much less our hated rivals, and that was the best this DC could do.

You can throw out here all the FYI and FPI bull crap stats you want. The Bama fans who had to watch these games know what they saw for 4 quarters. We were the ones wiggling and screaming in our man caves. And against the "Big Boys," it often looked like amateur night. That ain't Alabama!

No amount of ESPN hocus pocus is going to change what we saw in our biggest SEC/Rival games this season. Nor that it cost us an SEC and playoff shot. Nor the fact that it was Pete Golding who dialed up those defensive gems "Rainman."

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And against the "Big Boys," it often looked like amateur night. That ain't Alabama!

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Yep, the offense that was supposed to be the greatest in Alabama history wasn't very good.

The first 2 drives against LSU ended in a fumble. 1 of them Tua fumbled without being touched, the other the punter fumbled.

Following drives:

3 and out
7 plays, turnover on downs.
4 plays, TD - the only TD of the first half by the offense.
3 and out
1 play and interception that lead to another LSU TD right before half.

Starting the 2nd half of the game, the offense finally got things going a bit. But only because Alabama finally started to run Najee Harris.

3 and out.

10 plays, 95 yards for a TD - Tua below 50% completion on the drive, was mostly Najee including the passes Tua did complete.

9 plays, 78 yards for a TD - more Najee

And then finally Tua starts to hit some passes.

14 plays, 75 yards for a TD.

And then the last Alabama TD, a long strike 85 yard pass to Devonta.

The Alabama defense only gave up 13 pts the 2nd half, and all of them came in the 4th quarter.

Just a tiny bit of actual offensive support in the 1st half would have been enough. Instead the Alabama offense supported LSU. Leaving points on the field with a fumble. Giving LSU the ball in scoring position multiple times. Constantly going 3 and out.

And don't even get me started on the Auburn game. 14 points directly given to Auburn.

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Yes because the offense should have to score 50 points for us to beat LSU or Auburn.

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The offense only needed to score 35 to beat AU in 2019

and its dumb to use 1 single year, where LSU had one of the GOAT offenses, to say "THE OFFENSE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SCORE 50 POINTS TO BEAT LSU!!!!!111"


and then you post this:

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The way you guys twist logic just because you like a guy is scary.

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Come on, man.

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The point I've been trying to make throughout this discussion is exactly what you wrote … it WAS "amateur night" during those two games.

More than half of our front seven for both games were true freshmen: DJ Dale, Byron Young, Shane Lee, and Christian Harris. Two more freshmen -- Jordan Battle and Justin Eboigbe -- were in the two-deep of the overall defense.

I don't know if you fully understand the tremendous disadvantage that is. Literally the entire middle of our defensive front was playing high-school football just 11 months prior to those games.

I don't know if Golding is a good DC or not. Maybe he's terrible; maybe he's a genius. But refusing to accept the handicaps he faced while trying to plan for and defend those teams is myopic at best. Based on the losses we had in 2019, though -- particularly the timing of those losses -- I'm not ready to call him a failure. It's like tying a man's legs together right before a marathon and then telling him "Now go win this race."

I'll say this: If he remains on staff throughout 2020 as DC, and the defense continues to struggle (by our standards, anyway), I'll be leading the charge to get rid of him.

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That's a really good post you got there.

Someone needs to start a new Golding thread .....not sure these two have gotten enough traffic

I guarantee you it’s not just Fox News. Or southerners. 24 hour new cycles and social media have played a large part in all this for all kinds of people.

I'd like to add that I have one more reason that I think we under-performed, and it is that after the injuries, I think we needed to rely on our younger DLine talent and many of them just weren't ready. Losing Labryan Ray may have been a more catastrophic loss than we realize. But I'm very optimistic about this group as they mature into upperclassmen. I don't think the problem is the guys - I think the problem was they weren't where we needed them to be YET.

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We got there because I chose to talk about it. Are you always confused when the topic of conversation pivots?

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I'm sensing a lot of emotion here today "Rainman." I would have thought all those stats you like to accumulate about nothing would be a lot more therapeutic?