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Interesting article on Bama's offensive line issues
Posted on 7/30/25 at 3:18 pm
Posted on 7/30/25 at 3:18 pm
5
Posted on 7/30/25 at 3:23 pm to Amarillo Tide
The problem (in my opinion) has been less about recruiting and more about underdevelopment. In recent years, we'd get four and five star OL talent and never see it on the field. That, IMO, points to coaching or the lack thereof. I'm hoping DeBoer's group can do a better job at developing the OL than Saban's group did post 2020.
Posted on 7/30/25 at 3:30 pm to NWLA_Bama
I could never understand how Bama had all these mostly 4 star recruits and still struggled on the offensive line. Made no sense.
Posted on 7/30/25 at 3:39 pm to NWLA_Bama
After the alltime great OL in the championship season we had a disaster hire at OL coach (Marrone) and that compounded some misidentifications by the previous coach (Key) that resulted in the patchwork OL we saw at times.
The combination of switching blocking schemes, coaching turnover and uneven talent identification frankly resulted in some mediocre OL's by our Saban level standards.
I refuse to judge the OL the last two years really however because I simply don't know what was a failure to adjust coverage and threaten the defense while running a single read offense and what was poor execution up front.
The only position I have any concerns about going into 2025 on the OL is RT, but hopefully Formby is ready for the job. My assumption is that if Dewberry struggles at LG that Carroll or VanDeMark would be fine.
The combination of switching blocking schemes, coaching turnover and uneven talent identification frankly resulted in some mediocre OL's by our Saban level standards.
I refuse to judge the OL the last two years really however because I simply don't know what was a failure to adjust coverage and threaten the defense while running a single read offense and what was poor execution up front.
The only position I have any concerns about going into 2025 on the OL is RT, but hopefully Formby is ready for the job. My assumption is that if Dewberry struggles at LG that Carroll or VanDeMark would be fine.
Posted on 7/30/25 at 4:03 pm to tide06
Covid hurt the oline evaluations after 20, combined with coaching turnover, different schemes and qb play has made for a few bad years.
I didn’t read the article.
I didn’t read the article.
Posted on 7/30/25 at 4:12 pm to Amarillo Tide
QB issues made this worse last year.
Posted on 7/30/25 at 4:22 pm to tide06
The dropoff in the OLine from '20-'21 was incredibly bad. Bryce Young winning a Heisman with that unit was a miracle.
One thing that's been lacking that some of the great lines of Saban's tenure had was a great center. Dickerson was the last anchor at the position that made the whole line better.
Dalcourt
Owens
McLaughlin
Brailsford
Out of that whole list, I feel like Brailsford is the only one worth mentioning. Him taking a another step this year will be big. A QB with an even junior high level of pocket awareness would go a long way to improving line play as well.
One thing that's been lacking that some of the great lines of Saban's tenure had was a great center. Dickerson was the last anchor at the position that made the whole line better.
Dalcourt
Owens
McLaughlin
Brailsford
Out of that whole list, I feel like Brailsford is the only one worth mentioning. Him taking a another step this year will be big. A QB with an even junior high level of pocket awareness would go a long way to improving line play as well.
Posted on 7/30/25 at 4:25 pm to Night Vision
quote:
QB issues made this worse the last two years.
FIFY
This post was edited on 7/30/25 at 4:27 pm
Posted on 7/30/25 at 10:42 pm to Amarillo Tide
[sarcasm]Everyone knows it was milroe's fault. He's gone so everything should be perfect.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 8:22 am to Syd
I think it was the assistant coaching instability and the quality of Saban's assistant coaches dropping. He even said as much after he retired.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 9:17 am to Amarillo Tide
You sign a bunch of slow footed earth movers than ask then to sit back in their stance and operate side-to-side rather than plowing forward.
What should you expect the results to be?
What should you expect the results to be?
Posted on 7/31/25 at 11:01 am to Tw1st3d
quote:
You sign a bunch of slow footed earth movers than ask then to sit back in their stance and operate side-to-side rather than plowing forward. What should you expect the results to be?
It was very… strange.
We had a Bielema era Arkansas OL and were running some awkward passive scheme that they didn’t seem to understand much less appear capable of executing at their size.
Frankly I’m still not sure what Marrone was even trying to do. We probably would’ve been better off hiring a random HS OL coach and telling him to get them downhill or find a new job.
Think about how much pain and suffering we could’ve avoided on edge pass rushes against converted centers or TF tackles had DCs been afraid of us putting those 230lb edge guys on skates with a downhill run game with BRob carrying the ball 20-25 times?
Neal / Cohen / Dalcourt / Ekiyor / Latham (Owens) should’ve been just fine, but instead we got what we got.
Such an awkward situation that all started with hiring an overrated OC that I don’t think ever wanted to be here.
Watching the SECCG against UGA made me realize what we should’ve been seeing all season if BOB weren’t some combination of stubborn and incompetent.
This post was edited on 7/31/25 at 11:04 am
Posted on 7/31/25 at 12:58 pm to tide06
quote:
The only position I have any concerns about going into 2025 on the OL is RT, but hopefully Formby is ready for the job.
Agreed. He was awful in his first opportunity last year. But was quietly much better later in the season when put in. Hopefully a sign of big improvement.
They got Taco Casa money so hopefully nothing has been spared in terms of the best trainers/dieticians/etc. for Formby.
Posted on 7/31/25 at 2:01 pm to Night Vision
quote:
QB issues made this worse last year.
QB issues made EVERYTHING worse last year.
Posted on 8/8/25 at 11:53 am to Tw1st3d
Yep
Posted on 8/8/25 at 6:28 pm to Amarillo Tide
Combination of bad OC, bad QB, and OL in transition year.
This post was edited on 8/8/25 at 6:32 pm
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