re: CKD has lost just 2 games at Alabama when the offense produced 21 points

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I think Keelon Russell is a generational type talent. Obviously that’s a bold statement and the odds are certainly against it, but I see it in the film from high school and in the clips from the (very minimal) play he got this past season. He’s just different. He’s so calm, he can step up and out of the pocket, or maneuver within it. He can take off and get to the sticks when needed and also make plays once the coverage breaks down and it turns into a scramble drill. His touch on deep balls is beautiful. He goes through his progression almost like he’s playing 7on7. He’s just not bothered by bodies/pressure around him. I think he will be the story of college football next year.

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Absolutely. Not bold or sunshine pumping.

Probably going to come down to how well an OL that could be 4 second year players and 4th year FCS transfer play.

I’m a big believer that our left and right side will essentially be the LT and RT competition with the loser playing OG.

Yeah I can see that. I think the important thing is the staff should have “their guys” now on the full 2-deep.
Carroll will stay at Tackle I believe. I thought he was better vs edge pressure than Proctor. There are 3 quality candidates for the other Tackle position imo.
It appears the staff likes Tackle-type bodies and/or athleticism at the Guard positions. Maybe that will make the difference?

I’m a big believer in the RBs playing a major role in the struggles this past season. I can’t think of a worse #1/#2 RB tandem than what Bama had this past season….I read where Bama averaged the fewest yards after contact and the 2nd fewest missed 1st
tackle % in the entire conference. I need to go back and look it up to be exact, but it was awful. Bama’s Backs had something like more than 30% less yards after contact and making tacklers miss compared to just the middle of the pack in the SEC.

Thankfully we know help is on the way….AK Dear (I’m hoping he becomes the #1 next year) and Crowell are the first Backs that would’ve seen playing time in the 2008-2021 Era.

I know at Washington, the team that CKD brought to the Natty had a RB with 1400 yards or so, but was #1 in the (now defunct) Pac-12., in fact he was top10 out of all P-4 teams (in yards after contact). It certainly appears CKD (Grubb especially) needs a stud at RB for the run game to be functional.

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I know at Washington, the team that CKD brought to the Natty had a RB with 1400 yards or so

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I'll take 700-yard RBs x 2.

I’m a big believer in the quality of your Special Teams units sheerly being the result of the ability of the Punter and Kicker, as well as what caliber of players you put on your coverage units.

CKD often cites Special Teams (especially the miscues you mentioned and the blocked punt in Atlanta) in his game breakdowns or even halftime interviews.

OU had the 1st Team All-SEC Punter and Kicker and look at the collapse they both had in our Playoff game….it happens.

I’m just not a big believer that any additional or “secret” drills in practice are going to separate one team from the next when it comes to catching and covering kicks.

At this level, there’s no reason to not put the ball in the endzone, make Kicks under 45 yards consistently, force a fair catch on punts, and simply fair-catch the ball successfully when having the ball kicked to you. I think it’s 99% personnel.

LT Overton being injured in the SECCG, and his replacement screwing up the count for the Punt Protection that allowed Georgia to block it is a good example of personnel being the most critical factor on all Special Team Units.

CKD does put starters on the Coverage units (Kickoff and Punt Teams), same as CNS did. Obviously there are some back-ups mixed in but it’s primarily starters…Z Brown and L Brooks were the Gunners on the Punt Team this past year for example.

I think CKD did his due diligence to bring in the very best Punter/Kicker possible from the Portal, and appears to have found the answer imo. He also brought in the Groza award winner in his first season to place-kick.

Burnip made the Punt unit look really good a year ago, and this past season was a complete reversal with the Punter being as bad as any I can recall, and it screwed over the defense all season. That was a missed evaluation and not a lack of coaching on the Punt Unit imo.

I think CKD is highly intelligent, and I feel quite confident that he’s well aware of the struggles with the Punt Team this past season and will correct it.

Other than that, I thought the other units were fine. He proceeded to go find a hidden gem of a punter in the Portal and also brought in a long snapper as well (snaps on PAT/FG Holds seemed to be a point of contention with Talty).

However, I do wish they would make fair-catches on Kickoffs mandatory…it makes my eyes bleed watching Bama start at the 15 yard line instead of simply fair-catching the ball.

I agree. Defense held them to 211 yards and set the offense up with great field position multiple times.

This past years defense gave up less than 300ypg (including all 3 Postseason games on top of a difficult schedule), which was 2nd fewest in the SEC behind only OU.

I think this upcoming season is when the defense will finally get the respect from fans that they deserve.

For not having a fully defensive-minded HC, and still finishing top10 in Scoring Defense in the country in Year 1, despite all the talent they lost from the 2023 defense was incredibly impressive. Then in Year 2, they allowed 30+ less yards per game than in Year 1, and basically carried this team to Atlanta.

I know that most agree on the Secondary being elite, and the Front 3 (plus Pierre as the Edge) are much bigger and deeper (Beaman and Latham also return). More importantly these bigger bodily types fit CKW’s 3-4 Under Front much better.
That Front (3-4 Under) was FAR better at stopping the run compared to being in 4-2-5 (Over/Even) that CKW ran the majority of the time in Year 1.
This is the reason why they overhauled the DLine and brought in much bigger bodies that fit what they are doing and got away from the 270lbs body types imo (along with the comments from Clinton-Dix).

I know it’s the LB position that is the question mark for most fans, but Lawson played most of this season on 1-leg and was not the same player prior to tearing up his knee unfortunately. At the other spot, Jefferson/Hill-Green rotated frequently, and neither are NFL caliber players imo.
I don’t think there will be a much of a dropoff there (if any) bc they didn’t have much talent there this past season to begin with, and my assessment of Xavier Griffin is expressed throughout this thread (he’s very special).

The staff must like the young guys at LB or they would have brought in more than one transfer…..I like Woodson btw and think he’s very comparable to Justin Jefferson in a lot of ways but at 230lbs and was a former Safety).
I think Xavier Griffin and Woodson will be the two starters with QB Reese playing a lot. That’s a stronger unit than this past season imo.

I think this coming year’s group will improve as much as they did from Year 1 to Year 2, and they (hopefully) will get more support from the offense and the Punter not screwing them over all season on field position.

I think your assessments of Ty and Mack are both spot-on. Both very good players with limitations. Yes, Ty’s inability to stretch the field vertically was devastating to the offense. RW went from over 800 yards “as a 17 year old” to barely half of that.

Russell is just special. It will be a show watching the vertical combo with RW. That is what RW brings to the table… he thrives on getting quick touches where he gets even a little space to do serious damage and is very difficult for defenders to get him on the ground, and catching deep balls.
This past year, he didn’t have any space ore-snap to get many quick touches near the LOS bc there was no vertical passing game (to any of the WRs) to make DB’s play off of him.

Ryan is an outside WR and does not fit inside in the slot (or condensed alignments). Yes, he needs to improve his route-tree and consistency catching the football, but his talent is undeniable, and fans will finally get to see what makes him so special. So far, fans have only got to see glimpses….game-winning acrobatic catch to beat UGA as a TF and all the making defenders look silly trying to tackle him.


Next year is when RW will have the opportunity to make explosives deep down the field several times every week now that he will have a QB who throws as good of a deep ball as you will see at the collegiate level.

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RW went from over 800 yards “as a 17 year old” to barely half of that.

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Ryan is an outside WR and does not fit inside in the slot (or condensed alignments).

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I get what they were trying to do which is to get the three best guys on the field and based on build RW should’ve been a better fit at slot then he was.

But man I had hoped once it was clear it wasn’t going to work out that he would shift back outside. But I suspect he had a hamstring issue and was basically a decoy much of the year so they really didn’t care that he wasn’t productive because by midseason it was clear Brooks was really our WR3, Ty couldn’t throw deep and it didn’t matter.

*IF* we can gain throw the deep ball effectively…
And *IF* RW can get past his mental yips…
And *IF* Cede Morgan is who I think he can be even at 17 to replace Horton
And *IF* our OL can functionally run block for the first time in years…

We might, just might see the CKD/Grubb offense for the first time since they came to town because watching UW games I strongly believe we really haven’t seen it yet due to QB and OL limitations.

If you can’t run you can’t stress the safeties.
If you can’t stress the safeties they can sit back and play the deep ball.
If you can’t throw the deep ball it makes the intermediate stuff that much harder and allows for blitzing.

The fact that we had a top 3 offense with Ty healthy, RW at 25% of his potential and zero run game should be enough to terrify the entire conference even as they try to somehow laugh at us for making the CFP and beating all of them in the regular season despite having about 1/3 of our playbook in functional use.

I’m not going to hate seeing a 4th year QB on the field if it is Mack but Russell clearly has an IT factor in limited playtime that haven’t felt since Tua got into the games early in 2017. It is clear he’s a future NFL starter with good injury luck and the other guys are just hoping to be in the league. I understand Ty is going to be a first round pick in this draft class but I think his ceiling is sort of where Mac ended up: a top end backup to fringe starter.