re: Auburn's Excuse of Being Young Doesn't Add Up

quote:

---

I wonder about Alabama in this. If you look at their 2-deep, they are all seniors and juniors (if I remember correctly). I know that they have had a lot of blowouts and I am sure that they are getting a decent rotation, but it is interesting that they don't have more underclassmen in their 2-deep.

I wonder how that will affect them next year, when they lose A LOT of both seniors and juniors going pro.

---

What you are seeing with Bama is the natural cycle of the top tier SEC programs. You noticed they are cycling into a very upperclassman dominated team, which will naturally progress in the next couple of years into a underclassman dominated team, like Auburn is right now. In a couple of seasons they will be where we are now in regards to experience, probably not as bad since our cycle was made more extreme by the disastrous signing class of 2008 and the not much better 2009, but still they will be a young team.

Look back over the history of the conference since Bear Bryant retired. That really was a turning point in college football in not only was an icon of the game leaving but also in that about that same time scholarship limits were instituted as well, first to 95 in the late 70's and then 85 in 1991. One major side effect of the 85 scholarship limit is that programs are now locked into the cycle we see of periods of being a veteran team followed by being a young team.

It is no coincidence that these scholarship limitations being brought to bear also coincided with the the end of the era where any one program saw more than a four or five year run at dominating the SEC. Look at the traditional "big 6" of the SEC (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia LSU and Tennessee)over the past 30 years and you will see similar patterns of percolating up to the top one of two programs for a time followed by settling down to middle of the pack or even the bottom portion of the conference before the cycle starts all over again. And unless there are any fundamental changes to the scholarship limitations there is no way this cycle will stop. Teams like Florida, Aubrun & Tennessee will cycle back up while Alabama, LSU and Georiga will cycle back down and on and on.

In an attempt to limit the impact of the cycle you are pointing to, this year Alabama made a very specific effort in 6 of our games to build depth in the Fr and So classes. They will have to do the same thing next year.

The place it will show up first for us is at CB which is why they are attempting to bring in a juco cb. The place they failed this year is at NT. JW (the Ausie) was supposed to be the answer but when he arrived he did not have the lower body strength they had hoped for so they moved him to DE. This flaw is why they are working so hard on DM.

If we can fill those two hole then we will skip the down cycle this time around but it will be back in 2015 should they not plan for it.

Arkansas will beat Auburn again next year, Book It.

You're about a fricking troll, aren't you?

Right now, Alabama and LSU are in the same place FL was under Spurrier. Our recruiting cycle has been converted to a 3/4 year plan rather than a 4/5 year plan. As long as you can stay in a 3/4 year plan your "down years" are battling for 2nd rahter than battling for 1st. A coaching change and the 1 or 2 year slump from that is what kicks you from a 3/4 year to a 4/5 year cycle. Our 2008 class is what jumped us back into the 3/4 cycle otherwise it would have taken 2 additional years to get there.

quote:

---

It's very possible that you want this to be a serious discussion

---

One additional key to staying in a 3/4 cycle is you have to stay in or VERY near the top 10 in recruiting every year. If you miss a year then then the following year or two you drop back into a 4/5 cycle.