re: WTF happened to "make his arse quit!"

I think in retrospect there have been three main catalysts in the loss of "MHAQ."
The first was the loss of Jim McElwain to CSU. With Jim McElwain, there is no way we lose the A&M game in 2012, and I doubt the LSU game from that year gets close either. The Georgia game may still have been close, but to be honest, Alabama really took that game over when they got back to running the ball anyway, so maybe not.

The second catalyst was the loss of Jeff Stoutland at OL Coach. Mario Cristobal has largely gotten a pass on the performance of his lines because of the phenomenal 2012 line that matriculated out just prior to his arrival, and in 2013, Nick Saban reached a crossroads based on the softer performance of his O-line combined with Nussmeier's cutesy pass-initiated offense. Nowhere is this more evident than in the 2013 A&M game, in which A&M was dead to rights but were still let back in with some of the late 3-and-outs. I also have to think about the 2013 Iron Bowl when Nuss went pass-happy after Auburn trimmed the deficit to 21-14 and really allowed Auburn's offense to dictate the second half, however you could also make the argument that Auburn just flat out beat us in that one.

The third catalyst was, of course, the hiring of Lane Kiffin which was further embrace of the pass-predicated offense. Blake Sims made phenomenal use of this offense last year, but quite a few times it was demonstrably evident that the lack of a credible consistent run-threat from under center does not help with problems Alabama already had from a time-of-possession standpoint. I believe the deeper into this season we get, the more evident that will become.