I thought this would be an interesting topic. I'm sure everyone has ideas on what it will take to recapture the SEC and CFP next season. I'll share mine.

1. Better play out of the defensive interior (DTs and ILBs).

This area has been tracking downward since the start of 2018. I'm hopeful with Golding gone that inside backer play will track upward again. Still, the inside backers need difference makers on the interior line to give them the clean lanes to attack the runners. Recruiting misses have hurt us but there also seems to be a development deficit too. Perhaps there are more changes coming to the coaching staff especially w/r/t line play.

2. A bigger emphasis on varied run blocking

Alabama under Bill O'Brien has a pretty basic run game install. This negatively affected run play effectiveness during his tenure. Great running teams can beat opponents in a variety of ways both with power and finesse.

3. Run da bawl

A team cannot run the ball like great teams need to without a wide variety of blocking counters to what a defense may show the OL. Pointed that out in #2 because it is a necessary prereq for this point.

Since 2017, we have had at least 3 seasons fall short of national titles partly due to QB injuries. In 2018, Tua was relegated to a pocket passer for more than half the season due to a litany of injuries. In 2019, Tua's continued injury problems left us without a fully powered offense against our two best opponents. In 2021, Young's shoulder injury led to him missing 1.5 games and not practicing until mid November with a young WR corp.

Alabama prior to 2018 had a lot of fortune with QB health but to some degree we made our own fortune by not exposing our QBs to so many pass rush shots. We have got to start running the ball more to protect our quarterback's health.

Yes, we need to be able to throw it effectively 40+ times against elite teams but we should not have to toss it around constantly against the Arkansas and Mississippi State tier teams where we seem to be accruing these QB injuries in practicality.

This post was edited on 1/14/23 at 9:44 am