re: If Saban drops the championship game

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I’m genuinely curious to hear what you Gumps will think about the state of your program.

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Assuming we play hard and get after it and lose a tough one? Very excited about the next 2 years with the way the style has shifted, the returning players and the guys in the wings. We will probably be as high in the "returning production" metrics as we've ever been under Saban.

Offense - Milroe, 3/5 OL (Roberts/Proctor/Booker), Niblack, Bond, Prentice, Law, Hale return plus Jam/Haynes moving into feature roles at RB

Defense - Keenan, Oatis, Latham, Lawson, Campbell, Downs, D. Smith return with a bunch of talent guys who have gotten PT ready to get more (Koht, J. Smith, Alexander, Little, etc), plus freshmen who should be ready to make some noise (Keeley, Pierre, Ricks, Russaw).

Return a great core of leaders, both coordinators (hopefully) and have a lot of kids who have gotten experience this year ready to step in to the few open spots next year. But most importantly, re-discovering the discipline and mental toughness that the program had seemed to lose during the Golding/BoB years.



So, long story short, this season has already been a success long-term. We're basically playing catch up to Kirby and Georgia right now, and I'm not sure we're quite there yet. But this year was huge in terms of where the program was headed, and I'm pretty happy with it.