Saban is great but...

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His trust will land you playing time before talent will.

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pretty much spot on and add in turnovers. If you turn it over in practice he likely won't play you much unless he has no other choice. Then he just chews you out.

I can sort of agree on Tua with his upside but he also was viewed as turnover prone. All we needed against most teams was the QB not to lose it. Auburn and Georgia were the exceptions. Jalen was more likely to protect the ball this year.

Najee was unimpressive a lot of the year. I actually was fine with how much he played. I wish we had given about half of Bo's carries to D Harris.

But if we are basing this on one game, I could say that Kirby idiotically played Chubb too much this year and it cost him. Him touching he ball in the title game was a breK for A
Alabama.

I am getting tired of this rhetoric. Saban has to do what’s best for his team. You can create locker room cancers in a great number of ways. It divides the team. Distracts. Ultimately, it will lead to a team falling short of its goals.

Saban created a dog eat dog culture at Alabama - to a point. I have noticed that if a position battle is close, he almost always sided with the uooerclassman. Why? Because it’s best for the team.

Why is playing the older guy better? Because you want your team growing and developing together. You want them all to face adversity (if possible) and grow and learn from it. You want them coming along the same way if possible. They were recruited together as a class. They get small amounts of PT as Frosh and move up the next couple of years. They bond. They learn to trust one another.

You cannot just play the most talented guy at all spots at all times. I believe you play the best guy for the TEAM. Saban has a much different concept as to what that means in my opinion. He is not scared to play a true Frosh, but it is not something he takes likely. If it’s clear the younger guy is way way better, then the younger guy gets it.

Anyways Saban plays 4D chess and we probably are lucky to play checkers.

TLDR. Lol

Saban's only fault is not recruiting or developing top notch FG kickers.

Najee and Tua weren’t ready early in the year. Najee was very meh when he got in most of the season. Tua struggled with picks in practice. They got better and better and by January they were ready. It’s called player development and it takes time.

The only beef I have in all of this is, Tua should have been give a shot against Auburn. I think he may have turned that game around as well, but all is well that ends well.

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Benching Rueben Foster for two years

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It took him 2 years to learn to not tackle with his head.

It's the right call imo. Tua is amazing, but he's still a freshman. Saban will take a mid tier upperclassman QB, like hurts, who can minimize mistakes over raw freshman talent.

Saban putting Tua in at half was a huge gamble, but our defense couldn't do much to force traditional freshman mistakes. Busted coverages are going to cost you (as they did)

So how many practices did you attend?

Denzel Devall over Ryan Anderson was criminal. They were in the same class and Anderson was a game changer every time he saw the field. Devall never made any memorable plays while Anderson set the edge just as well and got double digit sacks and cuased turnovers.

Devall was undrafted while Anderson was 2nd Rd pick. Not even close in talent level or performance on the field.

I think about the 2013 and 2014 defenses that Devall played over Anderson on that got lit up by Auburn, Oklahoma, and Ohio State. Anderson would have made plays in those games while Devall was a non factor.

Devall was obviously a favorite of his. He even gave him a job after he didn't get drafted.