Final thoughts on A-Day

The secondary absolutely locked shite down today. AJ only had maybe two good looks down field all game. A lot of dump offs were forced. Yeldon brought his lunch pail. Drake was solid. I like this Trey Roberts kid at RB. Cody Mandell was booming punts like it was his job. The only real glaring weakness was the backup QB play. Blake Sims just doesn't seem to be getting better at all.

I think this will be a another 12 or 13 win team. But I'm absolutely worried about QB in 2014. If Bateman isn't getting more snaps than McLeod or Del Rio and Morris isn't pushing Sims, we're screwed. I hope we land David Cornwell and he's as good as advertised.

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All the Belue doubters/haters need to buy me some Dreamland next time I'm in T-Town damnit

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I will around the same time you buy me some Archibald's for "Devall will not be a starter", among other things

I maintain the Kareem Jackson comparison on Belue, does more good than bad, but the bad will be focused on more because it's easier to spot. Most of the complaints were of the '12 season, not his progression going forward. I will say though a small thing you exclude while trying to rub it in people's faces about him being the "best 1st year CB starter", he had the best supporting DBs this far into the Saban era.


Anyway, only thing that really bothered me is depth and experienced depth. The former will be improved with the incoming class, and the latter will regain a bit with returning injured players like DePriest and Fulton. Maybe backup Center, because of some of the exchanges.

I like Ryan Anderson in the Hightower role they used him at, stopped Drake on an early down carry inside, then pressured Sims from the DE spot into his throwaway turned INT.

Pagan has been the guy that's been hyped up since last year, especially the people that saw him WalterFootball-spawned mock drafts, but Stinson is the player on the line. He's not gonna have a Square senior year, but more like a Dareus type.

I didn't see anything that would change the back 4, though I could see Fulton usurping Jones in nickel if "simple errors" continue. I think Sunseri looked more than good, he was at the ball every time and had some great reads. That Pick6 off the tip drill was icing.

ETA: Hit enter too early, still adding stuff...

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NHRA is gay

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ESPN should know better than that!

Just got back and had to sit down and digest what all I saw

A few thoughts:

Oh boy....as a whole this team is really really good, they played as a team. The D was absolutely spectacular and the stats bear that out. The O is also the most balanced I've seen under Saban so far

- The dynamic in the secondary was absolutely spot on, the caveat that made everything work was HaHa, he took away a side and allowed Saban to rotate in coverages, play VS in a lot more of a star role reminded me of the role we used Javy for his Sr year, he blitzed a shite ton and when needed roamed and made a play or 2 (defensive TD)

- Adding Fulton to what looked to me like an already solid group is what has me excited. Cy Jones played a lot better than expected, he has a long way to go but I really liked what I saw. Belue as win says did look like he has turned a corner big time, I still would like to see more development from him in deep zone but he was impressive today. Geno played a lot of the inside cover corner I think because of his tackling ability and he is our best zone CB, he will likely stick there all year.

DL 1st and 2nd was OMG good, the OL more than held its own and still struggled on some downs against the 3 and 4 man line without extra pressure. Again adding Dickson WOW they will be good. Ivory really impressed me, the light seemed to come on for him. Fanning is gonna be good but he still needs work still seems raw at times gets stood up. I could go on but I'll just say in person this to me looks like it might be the best 2 string DL Saban has had at Bama and that's saying A LOT.

- Moseley touched everything that moved (2 hand touched and I'm sure Saban gave some of the more zealous LBs a stern talk after Henry's injury) and Devall was pretty good. I also liked seeing Ryan Anderson and his versatility with rushing ability will help this year. Lee and Ragland still seemed to struggle at times, Lee did look good in coverage some though.

WRs are FAST ALL OF EM, the newbie Falkins fits right in soft hands and FAST. TE is still a bit of a question for me, OJ got in coverage and made some nice catches nothing too deep though and Vogler STILL NEEDS TO LEARN TO SECURE THE DAMN BALL. But he still looked to me like outer best blocker.

Alec Morris is a clear #2 QB, Ely needed to transfer tbh and Sims needs to move back to RB, as my buddy Sandkhan put it every time Sims was in at QB it was "Duck dynasty" because he was throwing up lame ducks lol

I've still gotta go back and watch tape and I'll add

its hard not to be encouraged by what i saw today. Sure, there was some sloppy QB play, but we know what we have in AJ. The Oline looked really good, as did the DL (looked to be getting alot of push) and the secondary. Belue was very impressive, and we are stacked at safety. Those were the major questions. We are majorly depleted at linebacker, but assuming everybody we have makes it back in time for fall, that unit will be extremely solid as well. And mandell is BOOMING those punts. I think we are going to be a very well rounded team next year with lots of strengths and very few weaknesses. An injury to AJ would be disastrous, as nobody behind him seems to have quite put it together.