InkStainedWretch

I acknowledge the issues but I am not going into a game with a defeatist attitude, we’re going to win Saturday. I’m going to believe that until the clock is at zero.

But this of course is a huge topic of discussion on the Alabama board. I keep saying the issues are that we don’t have any really elite backs and, above all, we don’t have the kind of offensive line that DeBoer and Grubb need to do their stuff, their OL criteria is 180 degrees removed from Saban’s.

The running game is an essential part of their stuff, but their scheme depends on quickness rather than bulk in the OL.

People are saying they ought to change what they do because of the personnel, but we hired them to do what they do, not to do what Saban did. Is it really fair to ask them to throw out their playbook just because they inherited another man with different ideas’ roster?

There was always going to be a transition time and we’re still in the middle of that transition, but because we could’ve played for the big trophy last year if we weren’t hamstrung by our QB and the staff still getting used to the proposition that there are no down weeks ever in the SEC, and we have a shot at playing for the big trophy this year even though we can’t run the ball for caca, people are impatient and looking for an immediate fix when the only fix is all Saban’s players being gone and all of DeBoer’s and Grunb’s players being in.

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DeBoer/Grubbs still hasn’t fully implemented their scheme, IMO. The way they utilize OL is not what we are used to. They’ve always used the undersized athletes vs big maulers.

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I’ve said this a million times and people aren’t hearing it, they’re stuck in how things were done during the Saban era and their recipes for fixing it are out of the Saban era and involve DeBoer and Grubb basically ditching all they do and believe in schematically.

Perhaps we should get a new OL coach after the season, perhaps a change in leadership is needed to help get things across to people. But while the rushing game is essential to their offense working, and you absolutely need to be able to muscle up and get a yard or two when you absolutely have to have it, it’s never going to be an old-school Alabama ground game as long as they are running the program.

How it would have been for baseball. The foul lines would still have been short but they’d have at least been consistent unlike the short LF porch in the Coliseum and the power alleys would have been OK. There wouldn’t have been any homers to dead center though.

Some people are never going to be happy with a “non-tough, non-prioritizing hard-nosed running first” offense. It is what it is.

I may get this thrown back in my face Saturday but I’ll be damned if I go into a Bama football game expecting to lose. Again I acknowledge the issues but I have faith.

I’m aware of and acknowledge everything that has been discussed here the last few days. I know there are issues. I know we can’t run the ball for caca. I’m not pumping sunshine.

But I woke up this morning thinking I’ll be damned if I’m going to go into this game in a spirit of fear or thinking that we’re beat before there’s a snap in the game.

Downvote me massively or get on board, whatever floats your boat, but I’m going to have confidence that my team will find a way to get this done until I’m proven wrong.

RTR

I guess I should have used different terminology than “air raid.” What I meant was that at full efficiency DeBoer’s and Grubb’s offense is much more balanced in pass to run ratio than a lot of people probably think.

And the problem was they had a s**t offensive line too and this year they’re a whopping 22nd in YPG and 31st in yards per carry, a robust 3.7 yards a play. So maybe it wasn’t all Grubb?

That ain’t what these coaches do although there are times when you absolutely have to do that.

DeBoer’s and Grubb’s running game when at full efficiency prioritizes the perimeters.