re: Some optimism for soft, trust fund fans:

Yeah, I think Saban retired not because he couldn't recruit the players but because he couldn't recruit the coaches. The offense faltered in 2023 partly because he put more of his energy into repairing defense that floundered in 2022. He essentially said that in his Rece Davis interview after retirement. I believe his post-mortem for the 2023 season was his staff needed to improve or he needed to invest more of his effort into improving his existing staff. He just didn't believe he could do those things at his age while continuing to win on the field and in recruiting. He was struggling to land good assistants to alleviate deficiencies without his personal involvement, so he decided it was time to bounce.

This staff was as bad as it had been since the Shula era on offense. Defense was clearly in need of serious personal involvement from the head coach. I agree that Alabama likely upgraded everywhere at the assistant and coordinator level. The loss of Saban is massive. DeBoer has big shoes to fill as the CEO of the program.