Cover1Key

Yeah, I think we all would be overjoyed to have a Back the caliber of B-Rob. He is underrated by a lot of fans bc of being overshadowed by Najee most of his career, but he was a horse that ran angry.

I don’t know if it was NIL having a stronger impact earlier than we all realized (Jimbo’s 2022 A&M recruiting class is a great example), or if CNS was a culprit of negative recruiting from getting older along with all the coaching turnover he dealt with every year (probably a combination of all of these factors), but his recruiting dropped off severely towards the end.

I know he still had 4-5 five stars and the “Bama bump” to keep the classes inflated and rated at the top. However, when you look back on it in retrospect, his classes beginning around 2022 or so, just weren’t the same caliber that he brought in for so many years prior to that.

This is not a personal attack on any of these players that gave their all for Bama, but just being realistic, there’s no way guys like: Milroe/McClellan/Roydel/Jam/Law/
Prentice/D. Hill/etc…would’ve ever sniffed the field for a Bama offense from 2008-2022.

CKD inherited a incredibly difficult situation that not many individuals could have navigated/persevered as well as he did:
- replacing the greatest coach in the history of the sport
- losing guys like Bond, Downs and a few other difference-makers before he was even hired
- losing his longtime OC that I’m sure he thought would be coming with him from the beginning
- inheriting the QB situation that was on-going from the 2023 season
- inheriting a roster that the media and most fans perceived as the most talented in the country, when in reality the defense lost 10 of 11 starters from the 2023 defense, and the offense was led by a 17 year old WR and transfers he had to bring with him from Washington

If everyone will stay patient, I truly believe he will deliver. I know losing to Indiana in a physical beatdown over-shadowed an 11 win season, trip to Atlanta, splitting with UGA, a #2 ranked recruiting class, playoffs, playoff road win, and making it to the Rose Bowl in just his 2nd season.

The bottomline, is that the true-Freshman through the 3rd year players are STACKED. The staff clearly wants to retain and continue to develop what they feel like are really good players.

The past 3 classes were #3/#2/#3 (depending on the site), plus the transfers. Guys are staying until they are out of eligibility now, whereas prior to NIL they would take 1-2 years (defensively) to learn CNS’s scheme/system then get 1 awesome year from them before moving on early after their red-shirt Sophomore or Junior season.

Bama cannot afford an elite class every single year, but the good news is that they do NOT need one.

The strategy is to have an elite year recruiting at a specific position group and then basically only take low-rated/ diamonds in the rough at that position group the following year, and then go after elite players at that position group the year after that. This does TWO things:
Allows them to sign ELITE 5-star caliber players at positions of need, and prevents them from log-jamming positions with lower caliber talent that will inevitably lead to massive transfers and ultimately a giant waste of money.
Would you rather have the best CB or Tackle in the nation or 2-3 three stars of each?

Stacking 4-5 classes in a row with the 25 best players you can afford will inevitably lead to the following scenario for ANY school regardless of NIL budget:

- Elite signees leaving for even more money after just 1 season (2 at the most) if they are not starting, along with a mercenary mentality in the locker room….everything you hear about Bama is how close the team is and how it feels like a family environment in the locker room, hence the extremely high retention rate.

- Elite PROVEN players being bought away by other programs desperate for a player to fill a hole at that particular position…..so now you spent 2 million dollars on the #1 RB, got a decent Freshman year out of him and now he’s on your schedule playing against you the following season bc you can’t afford to continue to pay him, and Miami is foaming at the mouth to drop a bag and steal him away.

- You will dilute your money no matter how much of it you have, IF you try to sign the 25 best players you can afford every season. Instead of the #1 ranked LB (Xavier Griffin), you would have 2-3 low 4 stars instead for example

Clearly it comes down to this:
If you do not have the money to RETAIN the players you spend heavily on (and evaluate extremely well) then none of it matters at all. What good is it to sign six 5-stars and only have e 2 of them left by their Junior season???

You basically need a 55 man roster that consumes 95% of your NIL budget bc those are the best players you can afford, develop, believe in, and can afford to keep, and you need to try and keep them until they are either out of eligibility or they are a guaranteed 1st round pick before that happens.


So far, I give the staff an A+ at stocking up every single position group. There are young stars at every position on the team and the younger they are the more talented they are.


What would bother you more?

A. A recruit not signing with Bama that we would all love to have that plays RB, WR, Tackle, etc

B. Losing a player on the current roster who was a top100 or even 5-star player in one of the past 3 classes who is either already a stud or the staff believes will be soon?
For example, Dijon Lee goes to Miami this offseason as a result of over-spending on a recruit you HOPE will develop into what Dijon already has proven he is.

The best players on this roster are TF/2nd and 3rd year players, meaning they all have 3-5 years of eligibility left.

Also, look at NEXT YEARS class in-state. It’s the strongest in over a decade. Bama can sign a top5 class just by signing the top15 players in-state (of course they won’t get them all but I’m pointing out how strong the class is).

This past season (regardless of how it ended), they won 11 games, regular season SEC champs, made it to Atlanta, made it to the Playoffs, won on the road in the playoffs, lost in the Rose Bowl to the national champs. Most anyone would’ve taken that in year 2.

I may be completely off-base and I will gladly re-visit this post and bump it if I’m indeed incorrect, but I think this is the best TEAM, Bama will have fielded since 2022.

They are much bigger and very DEEP on the Dline. They have a 1st round pass rusher, to go along with possibly the best Secondary in the country. The offensive line is an improvement (how much of course is yet to be seen), and the WR corps is stacked. I believe Keelon Russell is a Deshaun Watson type talent and that he will guide this team to a 10-2 record and a return to the Playoffs. I also believe this is the weakest roster Bama will have over the next 4 years.

Byrne has been here awhile now, and made many hires across many sports. The very first adjective he used to describe CKD was that he’s “smart”. The only other coach he used that adjective for (going back to his hires at previous schools as well) was Coach Nate Oats. He said “smart”, and stopped right there before eventually moving onto other attributes much later. TIFWIW

The defense allowed the 2nd fewest yards in the SEC (OU was #1). They were 8th in total D nationally prior to the start of the playoffs, and they were instrumental in the comeback to beat OU in the playoffs. The defense is not the problem. They have allowed 30 points in 3 games out of 27 games…..Golding, under CNS, allowed 40+ points four times in 12 games

They have to retain the 2024/2025/2026 classes that have had a very high retention rate compared other programs.

What good would it do to sign Mitchell Turner then turn around and lose Nolan Wilson and Jireh Edwards bc other teams offer them substantially more?

I agree with a lot of what you said. I coached a long time (too long) at the D-1AA level in college and have been a HS coach ever since. I’ve had several players sign with Bama, and just about every other school in the conference over the past 7-8 seasons.

Colleges no longer need an 85 man roster where 30-40 of the underclassman were your future team like it was during the Saban/pre-NIL era.

You only need the VERY BEST 55 guys you can field each season. I LOVE the way the staff has built the roster with high school kids making up the core of the team and then plug holes with transfers instead of having a ridiculous amount of turnover every single season where you never have younger players developing bc your core is built around transfers.

CNS did NOT leave CKD the loaded roster that everyone assumed he did. His recruiting had fallen off for the last 2-3 classes prior to his retirement bc of age and more importantly NIL. I believe NIL is 100% the primary reason for CNS’s abrupt retirement, despite the other circumstances he stated.

It really began the year Jimbo and Texas A$M bought Shemar Turner, Shemar Stewart and Anthony Lucas away from Bama then shamelessly lied about it when CNS called Jimbo out in a press conference.

CNS was NEVER going to accept fielding a roster with anything below his standard. He’s the best recruiter CFB will ever see, and he das the handwriting on the wall that NIL was changing the game.

The roster CKD inherited in 2024 did not have a single RB that ever would’ve played on a typical CNS roster, Proctor was a 2nd year player and Tyler Booker had 1 season left….those were the only 2 lineman that were “Saban quality” on the entire roster. Then of course he inherited Milroe as the returning starter (I’m not even going to get into
that), along with a WR corps led by a 17 year old and a transfer from Washington. CNS knew that roster wasn’t in the same stratosphere as any before it.

CKD has rebuilt the roster back to having blue chip players at each position group:

QB: Russell/Thomalia/Haven
RB: Crowell/Dear/Brown
WR: Morgan/Brooks/Rogers/Gayles
TE: Sutter/Edwards
T: Michael Carroll/Cooley
T: Jackson Loyd/ Doughty

Edge: Justin Hill
DT: Nolan Wilson
4-tech: Jamarion Matthews
NT: London Simmons
LB: Xavier Griffin
LB: Duke Johnson
CB: Jordan Edmonds
CB: Dijon Lee
Nickel: Red Morgan
S: Ivan Taylor
S: Jireh Edwards

I ONLY listed players who were in these past two classes, and did not count transfers. I also obviously left off many really good players like Jonathon Beaman, Steve M, Chick McDonald, Dre Kirkpatrick Jr, several LB’s, OL, etc…

Those players I listed above are all the type/caliber that would play on a CNS roster from 2008-2022.

CKD has also RETAINED all of these guys (including the class he inherited), with guys like Hubbard, Pierre, Z Brown, etc…

Coach Womack (I had my doubts) has done a TREMENDOUS job with the defense….his 1st season they finished top10 in scoring (fewest pints allowed by Bama D since 2017), while forcing the 3rd most takeaways, and last year they were 2nd only behind OU for fewest yards allowed in the conference.

I give him LOADS of credit to adapting to a 3-4 Under Front when it seemed like he was going to be a 4-2-5 guy no matter what until he slowly transitioned after the Vandy debacle in Year 1. Bama Is 18-0 when the offense has scored 22 points or more in a game since CKD got here.

I think now CKD has the QB and WR’s he needs to run the caliber of offense he ran at UW that depends heavily on a vertical passing attack.

I know many will see this as an excuse, but with only 8 Seniors on this current roster, and the extremely high retention rate of the highly ranked players he has signed, I think the money is being spent to make sure all these highly ranked young guys who have elite talent stay on the roster and continue to develop.

Also, this years class was down across the board at every position group nationally and in-state. Next year is just the opposite…both nationally and the State of Alabama is loaded with talent next year.

I absolutely trust this staff and the job they have done putting this roster back together and I think both sides of the ball will perform at a top2-3 level in the conference this year l, not just the defense. Also, next years class will resemble the previous 3, not this years imo,

Something is wrong with you. Honestly and sincerely, I hope your life is okay, and that you find purpose and meaning in your life.
Find something meaningful and put your focus and effort into it, and try to make a positive difference in someone’s life.

- Nolan Wilson
- Jamarion Matthews
- Mitchell Turner

Those 3 are all elite interior players. The amount of $ it takes to retain those guys is a lot. CKD said it was going to be a small class and rightfully so. They haven’t lost hardly (if any) players in these last two highly ranked classes.

Plus, this year’s crop of recruits is down significantly down. Theres not near the depth at each position group as in years past. Look at the top LB’s in the nation for example. This class was loaded at Edge rusher and that was literally about it. Every position group is extremely top-heavy with 3-4 really good players in each, and then a massive dropoff behind it.

1. Children hospital
2. Injury lawyer mogul Gordon McKernan
3. Chicken finger fast food chain

That’s 100% truth

I am trying to “thank you” on this Lord’s Sunday. You don’t have to understand it, just know I appreciate you and I recognize your worth.

LSU fan calling a Bama fan “obsessed”. Life really is all about perspective.