Greetings Rebel fans...

Oddly, it seems the left side is having struggles, which has the Kujo bro's. LT has been getting a lot of penalties, whether false start or holds and shouldn't be. It's really hard for me to say what I expect this game. We could come out and struggle the entire game, or we could come out and blow the doors off.

3rd down has been killing us though. This stat was put out by one of our beat writers yesterday..

Alabama's avg 3rd down vs CSU was 8.3 yds to go. 17 of 33 3rd downs this season have been 9+ to go. Yet in the Aggie game, I think we only had three 3rd downs the entire game, tore it up offensively making big plays on 1st and 2nd down.

For the first time this season we will have our starting secondary together. Not sure if that will make a huge difference there but it could. Denzel could be back as well but Serdarius has been great in his absence.

On offense Vince Sanders will be back for the first time this year.

As a whole it's the healthiest we've been all year IMO.

As far as people to watch, Cody Prewitt at safety and Evan Ingram at right end are both studs that I think could be big impact players this week.

Getting updates on Freeze's press conference. He just told a whopper...

quote:

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Alabama doesn't make the mistake to allow the big play. "Very rarely do they allow explosive plays."

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I guess he missed the Aggie game.

Well I think ATM is an anomaly

quote:

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Is it because the OLine can't run block and you have 2nd and 8-10, AJ not getting time or AJ not being efficient?

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In the CSU game, we only ran the ball 21 times. That's the lowest total of attempts since around 2004 I think I read. It's just breakdowns on offense. Either holding, false starts, missed blocks by the line or RB's.. Not just one thing, but a mixture of things happening.

So it's really not ability, it has been mental?

Gotcha. We struggled a little against Vandy with the run right up the middle. I hope we have improved there. I think the key to the game is Your OLine protecting AJ. If he has time we are toast. If we can move him around we might have a chance.

I'm excited to see where our team stands. How close we can play a well-coached, highly talented Alabama team will say a lot about them.

On offense:

Our leading receiver is currently true freshman TE Evan Engram. He's undersized for a TE at 217#, but he's very athletic and has been probably the biggest surprise and gem of our highly touted freshman class. He was a consensus 3 star recruit.

All of our receivers are threats in their own ways. You know about Moncrief, but freshman WR Laquon Treadwell has already shown why he was the #1 WR recruit. He looks like a seasoned vet out there.

GWH (Great White Hope) WR Jordan Holder, a senior walk-on, has shown outstanding consistency. He catches pretty much everything thrown his way.

All of the receivers are amazing downfield blockers. Given the chance, they WILL push DBs around and make them look silly, allowing our RBs to get the edge and turn it upfield.

At RB, Jeff Scott has really come on in his senior year. He had a bad habit of running east-west last season and seemed to always run out of bounds. He was the king of turning a 30 yard run into a 1 yard loss. So far this year he has shown a willingness to run between the tackles and to plant his foot and go north-south. His effectiveness has seen a huge jump. Behind him, Sophs Jaylen Walton and I'Tavius Mathers have shown promise. Walton is another scat-back type. He's basically a Scott-clone. Mathers isn't huge (5'11" 190#), but he runs like a big back. He's had a dinged up ankle, but he was getting better at Texas, so I'm hoping the bye week allowed enough time to get back to 100%.

At QB we've got Bo Wallace and then nothing. I mean nothing. Back-up Barry Brunetti is a great, great runner, but he just can't run the offense if Bo goes down.

Bo has cleaned up his decision making. Through 87 pass attempts he has thrown 0 picks. He averaged 1 pick per 22 attempts last season. We haven't seen him open up the down-field passing game much yet, so we don't know how fully his shoulder has healed.

Our offensive line is patchwork. We have two true freshmen (#1 OT recruit Laremy Tunsil and #4 OT recruit Austin Golson) getting a huge amounts of snaps. One of our best OG, Aaron Morris, is out for the season. He was pretty out of shape, so it might be for the better for him (he'll qualify for a medical RS).

Defense:

Our defensive line is coming together as everyone gets back to 100%. DE CJ Johnson and DT Issac Gross were both out for most of the spring/fall with injuries. They both seem to be getting back to true form, though, so watch for them. R. Nkemdiche is living up to the billing. He leads freshmen in the nation with 4 TFLs and 10 tackles. He's also been credited with a PBU and 2 QBH.

Linebackers are solid. Stinger (OLB/Safety hybrid) Serdarius Bryant leads the team with 26 tackles (through just 2 games - sat Vandy for violation of team rules). He's playing in the stead of D. Nkemdiche being out with a torn meniscus. Denzel MAY be back this week, but Freeze may also hold him out for another week to heal. We'll see. Senior MLB Mike Marry is great against the run, bad in coverage, and slow. But, he's a hell of a leader and he's very football smart. DT Shackelford is back this season and has looked solid, but nowhere near his old disruptive self of 2 years ago.

Our secondary sucks, but starting senior CB Charles Sawyer will be back for his first game of the season. He's coming off a leg injury. Also, our young guys have shown promise and seem to be getting the feel of the game. Here's hoping AJ forgets how to throw deep!

Special teams shouldn't burn us like they did last season. Our PK Andrew Ritter shits touchbacks and P Tyler Campbell is All-SEC caliber. Watching for Channing Ward on kickoff coverage. He will eat your return man.

I think that's about it. Like I said, I hope it's a damn good game! I'm ready RIGHT NOW.

Thanks for the post, very informative.