re: Bama Football Tidings

A guy with pro football focus.com was on wjox. They made a list of their top 50 nfl draft picks. Had Jeudy at 1, Tua at 2. Two lsu def backs in the top ten. Auburn's Brown at 18. Also said Ruggs could make the 1st round, but it wouldnt surprise him he he came back for his Sr season so he could be the big dog at Alabama. But he said Ross at Clemson would be the no 1 receiver next year and Clemson has another receiver in that class that could be 1st round. He said Auburns Brown was un-blockable against the run.

Good read:

Sal Sunseri's hard-nosed coaching 'all out of love' (BamaOnLine)

SIAP:
Alabama running back Najee Harris talks about waiting his turn for the Crimson Tide
6:27
Alabama Football
Published on Aug 14, 2019
Alabama running back Najee Harris talks about waiting his turn for the Crimson Tide.

Alabama being considered for college version of HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks,’ per reports
I surely don't want to see this.... I (as was mentioned earlier) feel the filming during fall camp last year was a distraction.. and since I don't have another donkey to spank, I will kick the film crew.

Getty Images Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa passes behind protection from offensive tackle Jonah Williams during an SEC game against Mississippi State on Nov. 10, 2018, at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Williams is a finalist for the 2018 Outland Trophy. Tagovailoa is a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award, Davey O'Brien Award and Manning Award. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
For Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa, stats show the less time he has the better Posted Aug 14, 8:01 AM By Rainer Sabin | rsabin@al.com

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When Tua Tagovailoa takes the snap from center, he insists there is not an internal stopwatch ticking down, signaling he must deliver the ball.

But if there were one it would likely be set at 2.5 seconds. Last season, when the Alabama junior threw the ball before that time limit expired, he connected on 77.9 percent of the 199 passes he attempted while producing 22 touchdowns and only two interceptions, according to ProFootballFocus.com. Conversely, when he remained in possession of the ball past that point, his productivity dropped. Even though he attempted 41 fewer passes when he exhausted more than 2.5 seconds in the pocket, his number of picks doubled and his completion rate plummeted 20.9 percent as his touchdown total dipped by a nominal amount.

“Where’d you get that stat at?” Alabama coach Nick Saban huffed last weekend. “I mean, who did that stat? I mean, that’s, like, we don’t even do those kinds of stats, so I don’t even know. …It’s not a significant stat to me, so I’m not spending any time worrying about it, thinking about it, answering a question about it or anything else.”

Yet the numbers support a widely-held view shaped in the aftermath of Alabama’s loss to Clemson in the national championship game that Tagovailoa was guilty of holding onto the ball too long during the course of last season, giving the opposing defense an opportunity to recover and make a play.

But after an offseason when Saban has obliquely questioned his quarterback’s tendency to “try to make a great play every play,” Tagovailoa says he hasn’t been urged to speed up his release, which last season took an average time of — you guessed it — 2.5 seconds.

“I don’t think you can really dictate in a game how much time you’re going to have,” he said.

That is true. A bad snap can happen, disrupting the flow. A defender can blow through the protection in an instant, forcing the ball out of his left hand.

But there is a lot of evidence that highlights how much Tagovailoa excelled when he made quick decisions, thriving in particular when he was asked to deliver a backside slant off a run-pass option concept.

That’s how Alabama singed Louisville on the Tide’s first possession of last season, as Tagovailoa hooked up with DeVonta Smith for a 28-yard gain. And a similar scene played out repeatedly in the games that followed.

“You would like to get the ball out quick, if you can,” Tagovailoa said. “I don’t want to be taking hits anymore from these big guys. I mean you like to get the ball out of your hands as quick as possible but then you got to think of it in a different perspective. You know if there is a guy wide open there’s someone about to hit you, you gotta take the contact you know you gotta be courageous about it and make the throw, stand in the pocket and take it you know. It just really depends.”

Along those lines, Tagovailoa is sensitive to the specific nature of a given passing play, where the time frame to execute it can vary depending on the types of routes being run by the receivers and the progressions he has to make.

“Every play has a timing element to when he should get rid of the ball,” Saban said. “Every play. Some plays are quick, some plays are medium quick and some plays are a little long. So, the key to the drill is that we protect and do those things on time, whatever they are, aight. So, if it’s a quick pass and somebody runs free through the A gap, it’s probably not going to work, aight. Do we have any protections where we let people run free through the A gap? No, aight. So, if we do things correctly, there’s a timing element in the passing game that’s very, very important, and when we do it right, I would probably agree that we’re probably more efficient and effective.”

It just so happens that for Tagovailoa, the gunslinger, the quicker he’s on the draw the better.

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Rainer Sabin is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin

Power ranking every QB Alabama will face in 2019 Brian Stultz | 21 hours ago

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It is no surprise that Alabama’s pass defense was better than most last season. It might be somewhat of a surprise that they finished just 33rd in that category during 2018.

Sure, many of the yards came in garbage time with the Tide up big and the reserves in, but that was the worst finish since 2014, when they allowed 226 yards per game through the air. And it was an issue during the postseason when Georgia, Oklahoma and Clemson each topped 300 yards and combined for 8 passing TDs.

The good news is that the Tide are set, if not a little lean on the depth side, in the secondary with the return of Patrick Surtain II, Shyheim Carter, Xavier McKinney and Trevon Diggs, who is returning from a broken foot. This will help the defensive line, which must find replacements for Quinnen Williams and Isaiah Buggs up front.

As usual, Nick Saban will have ‘Bama in position to be one of the top defenses in the country. That’s not what opposing QBs want to hear. Here’s a ranking of the quarterbacks that the Tide will face this season.

12. Josh Adkins (New Mexico State)
Adkins became the full-time starter midway through last season, and he didn’t disappoint. Against Liberty, the redshirt sophomore threw for 402 yards and 4 TDs with no interceptions. He finished the season with 2,563 passing yards but threw just 13 touchdowns to 9 picks.

11. Jack Abraham (Southern Miss)
It was a tale of 2 seasons last year. Abraham threw 10 of his 15 TD passes in the first 3 games, then cooled off. He didn’t throw 2 in another game and 7 of his 10 interceptions came in that stretch. After missing 2 games at the beginning of November, Abraham finished with just 287 yards and 2 TDs combined in his last 2 games against Louisiana Tech and UTEP, respectively.

10. Tyrie Adams (Western Carolina)
The Tide defense will have to be ready for the talented Adams, who begins his fourth year as the start for the Catamounts and already owns the school’s career passing touchdown record with 53. He put it all together last season, throwing for 2,417 yards and 16 TDs while rushing for 1,006 yards and 10 scores. He has been described as the best dual-threat QB in FCS.

9. Quentin Harris (Duke)
Harris takes over for Daniel Jones, who Duke would like to remind you was the No. 6 overall pick in this year’s draft … even in Harris’ bio. Kidding aside, the 5th-year senior isn’t a stranger to starting as he was with the first team twice last year to fill in for Jones. In those 2 starts against Baylor and North Carolina Central, Harris put up 376 passing yards and 6 touchdowns with no interceptions while also rushing for 117 yards and a score.

8. Nick Starkel/Ben Hicks (Arkansas)
Both are graduate transfers, but Hicks might have an advantage for the sole reason that he spent 2 seasons under Razorbacks’ coach Chad Morris at SMU, putting up excellent numbers. In their last season together in 2017, Hicks threw for 3,569 yards and 33 touchdowns to just 12 interceptions, putting the ball in the air 472 times. Starkel, a transfer from Texas A&M, appeared in 7 games for the Aggies in 2017, completing 60% of his passes for 1,793 yards and 14 scores with 6 interceptions. Starkel has perhaps 2 advantages in the race: He has played in the SEC and has 2 seasons of eligibility.

7. Tommy Stevens/Keytaon Thompson (Mississippi State)
Both can run, a critical element of Joe Moorhead’s offensive system, so whoever is more consistent in the passing game will win the job. They both also are familiar with Moorhead as Stevens was under his tutelage for 2 seasons at Penn State and Thompson backed up Nick Fitzgerald last season.

6. Matt Corral (Ole Miss)
Corral will be working in new offensive coordinator Rich Rodriguez’s system and could be a star. With Rodriguez asking him to do more running than Jordan Ta’amu did, Corral becomes a dual-threat quarterback, something he showed he could do in limited time last season, throwing for 239 yards and 2 touchdowns while rushing for 83 yards and 2 scores.

5. Joey Gatewood (Auburn)
Assuming that Gatewood, who is battling with Bo Nix for the starting position in fall camp, is still the starter in the Iron Bowl, the Tide will face a big athletic quarterback who will finally have some experience with the game on the line. Listed at 6-5 and 233 pounds, Gatewood has a big arm and can run a little bit, fitting into Gus Malzahn’s offensive scheme well. Will he remind people of a certain quarterback in 2010, or will he be a bust? We shall find out.

4. Jarrett Guarantano (Tennessee)
The Vols’ quarterback probably has some bad memories from last year’s game, as he got knocked out with an injury and completed just 5-of-10 passes for 63 yards. Guarantano showed flashes of his ability last season (328 yards, 2 TDs in a win at Auburn) but finished with just 12 TD passes on 246 attempts.

3. Jake Bentley (South Carolina)
Bentley was good last year (3,171 yards, 27 TDs), but an SEC-worst 14 interceptions hurt his cause. Entering his senior season, the question is: Can he become great? The Gamecocks have been waiting. The last time Alabama visited Columbia, in 2010, Stephen Garcia led the Gamecocks to an upset over the top-ranked Tide. That’s a tough comparison, but Bentley will get the opportunity to match it.

2. Joe Burrow (LSU)
As Burrow discovered last season, playing against ‘Bama can prove rough. The Tide shut out the Tigers. The Ohio State transfer completed just 18-of-35 passes for 184 yards with an interception … and that was in Baton Rouge. Still, Burrow has shown he can win in tough environments and played his best ball after the Alabama game last year. He’ll need a Texas A&M or UCF-type performance to upset Alabama, which has owned the Tigers over the past 8 years.

1. Kellen Mond (Texas A&M)
Mond has a lot of hype entering the 2019 season and Year 2 under Jimbo Fisher. Like many of the quarterbacks the Tide will face, he can put up yards via the air or ground. Last season, Mond threw for 3,107 yards and 24 touchdowns to 9 interceptions while rushing for 7 touchdowns on 474 yards. He played well against Clemson and LSU but had his worst performance against Alabama.

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EARLY WARMING!!! STEPHEN M SMITH POST JUST AHEAD!!! PLEASE REMOVE SENSITIVE READERS FROM THE ROOM!!!


Jason Getz - USA TODAY Sports
Alabama players refer to DB Shyheim Carter as “the smartest” at his position By Stephen M. Smith Posted on August 14, 2019

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Like the 2015 and 2016 units before it, this year’s edition of Alabama’s secondary is prepared for elite competition.

Head coach Nick Saban has a mixture of experience and talented youth on the roster, but there is one name in particular that he, the coaching staff and the players respect in the defensive backfield: Shyheim Carter.

At Alabama’s Open Practice/Fan Day to start the month of August, Saban referred to Carter as one of the two to three smartest guys he’s coached for the Tide.

He stated that the Louisiana native has played every position in the secondary and he would make a great coach.

For Carter, the former four-star and his defensive coordinator – Pete Golding, another Louisiana native – are on the same page. The 6-foot, 191-pounder was tied for second in pass breakups (10) and totaled two interceptions last season, both returned for scores.

It was Eddie Jackson and Minkah Fitzpatrick that kept the 2015-17 units focused, and according to Xavier McKinney, Carter will do the same with this bunch.

“I think he is the smartest defensive back that we have,” McKinney said of Carter.“When Shy is out there, I definitely feel a lot more comfortable. He knows everything. He knows all of the adjustments. He’s a true vet. On the back end, he is that guy for us.”

The junior at strong safety would also state how if he is unsure about a call or a formation, then he looks for Carter to gain clarity. A third-teamer for the preseason All-SEC Team, Carter is the most underrated player defensively for Alabama. While he does not get the national attention he deserves, the senior is back for another opportunity to win a College Football Playoff title.

Carter was spotted at free safety this week in practice, as the Tide lined up in what appeared to be its first-team dime package. With his instincts and ball skills, Alabama’s back five is well on its way to reclaiming its title of “No Fly Zone.”

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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.

It’s awesome to hear about Shy Carter being a coach on the field type player. I think he has the opportunity to really show out this season both on the stat sheet and in the “huddle”

WATCH: Tide defense works under Wednesday night lights By Travis Reier 4:38 Go inside Wednesday night's practice in Tuscaloosa and watch the Crimson Tide defense work under the lights!