re: UA vs UGA

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Their backs and Pickens certainly scare me.

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Who are their backs?

And yeah, Pickens is certainly talented, kind of forgot about him.

the UGA/Bama game is the first really big SEC game of the season. Being at home, I think Bama wins a close game. Both teams have tons of talent. I think Bama prevails as Saban never seems to lose to one of his assistants.

It'll be an awesome atmosphere - had this one circled for a while.

Really a pretty good home schedule next year with Georgia, Texas A&M and Auburn all at BDS.

CBS might select it as the primetime game of the season and that will make it a 7 o'clock kick. Likely to be a top 4 matchup.

The key for Alabama really comes down to what happens for us at QB (can we get not solid, but elite play at the position from Mac or a young Bryce Young?) and can our defense get back to being a top 5 type defense? I think we need both of those things to happen in order for us to beat what will be a top 3 UGA team. If our defense still looks sloppy and lost, gonna be tough to win that one. Likewise, their defense will absolutely commit to shutting down the run game--and they have the front 7 to do it. They will force our QB to win it in the air, with a blitz in his face every play. If we can make them pay, we likely win. If not, gonna be a tough day.

That's the issue. Jones is solid but not an elite QB like Tua. Bryce Young probably won't be ready for the type of athletes that Georgia will present so early in the season. It's a big concern. I could say the same thing about USC in the opener. They have a very good QB and a lot of play makers returning. It may be a high scoring game that takes elite QB play to win.

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I'm nervous about Mac Jones against their defense.

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What he did last season against two good defenses is encouraging besides the 2 pick sixes. Hopefully he has learned his lesson about throwing it to the other team.

Whoever the QB is will have to be elite to beat the top tier opponents. You can't just run the ball every single play. All of our past championship QBs have made elite plays in big moments. GMac, Blake Sims, McCarron, Coker, Jalen and Tua all had big moments where they had to be clutch. Whoever runs the show this year will have to be elite from the get go. The schedule is very tough. And if we somehow make the playoff, we will have to beat Clemson and or Ohio State to win it all. Both of them have elite signal callers.

We've kind of fallen in love with this "elite" or "not elite" classification.

Mac Jones may not be "elite", but we threw the ball with him 25 times vs Michigan and 39 times vs Auburn. I think it's pretty clear we aren't going to be going back to the 2009 Alabama offense if Mac is playing QB.

I agree we can win with Mac. As well as he played in the Iron Bowl, he absolutely lost the game on the pick 6's. That just can't happen in a big game. Ever. Without those two plays, we likely win the game comfortably and perhaps even sneak into the playoffs. By elite, I mean the ability to make plays on offense, AND not kill us with turnovers. If a QB is gonna turn the ball over, he has to be able to make up for it by throwing for 400 yards and 5 TDs or something ridiculous to make up for it. I don't think Mac has that type of Tua-like playmaking ability. He also doesn't give us the duel-threat edge we had with Jalen and a healthy Tua. All that to say, his margin of error is much smaller without some of the tools a guy like Tua had. Young likely gives us some of those dangerous tools back at QB, but he doesn't have the experience of Mac and would likely turn the ball over more.

Gonna be a tough call for Saban. I could see a situation where they share snaps the first couple of games of the season. I could also see a scenario where Mac starts the season but gives way to Young somewhere during the season as he gets more comfortable in the offense. The challenge this season, unlike many previous seasons, is that we get two of our toughest games of the year right out of the gate. No real time to tinker and experiment, we've got to be ready to roll day 1 because USC and UGA both have the talent to challenge us.

On a side note---how hilarious would it be if Mac starts against UGA, and Young comes off the bench in the 2nd half and leads a come-back win. The Georgia fan base melt would be legendary.