Nick Saban will be at the College Football Playoff this week, but his old team is down and out in Tuscaloosa. The honeymoon is over for new coach Kalen DeBoer, but there is still hope that AD Greg Byrne’s big hire can figure out how to win in the SEC. The mailbag flies into the New Year with resolve, but in serious need of some college football resolutions.
Goodman: How much is Saban to blame for Alabama’s mess?
Deryl from Texas writes …
Don’t get me wrong, I think Saban was a great coach. On the other hand, being honest, he didn’t exactly leave a lot of talent when he quit. Only a couple defensive starters returned. Defensive line had been under-recruited for years and it showed. “Five” stars [Jeremiah] Alexander and [Keon] Keely haven’t performed. On offense, only five starters returned and three are terrible offensive line players. [Tyler] Booker and the center from Washington (Parker Brailsford) were good, but the others were about as mobile as an ashtray.
Dianne writes …
The sentence in your column “Money has changed the game” is an unfortunate truth that shouldn’t be so. The rest of that sentence, “and evened the playing field,” is sad and shameful. A coach shouldn’t be able to purchase a player like a commodity. The tradition of college football should not be able to be bought or sold.
Here’s another problem to me that must be changed, Joe….the transfer portal. The current system has a total disregard of team loyalty and promotes a lack of respect for the players and other teams.
Jim in La Quinta, Calif., writes …
I’m an executive producer/screenwriter based in Southern California and a longtime Alabama fan (former 30-year season ticket holder). I enjoy your columns very much. It has been fascinating to watch college sports evolve to professionalism and to see the various university fanbases (and certain coaches) wringing their hands as it occurs.
The simple reality is that college football, and college sports in general, is dead as we once knew it. Amateurism no longer exists (if it ever really did), and whether that’s good, bad or indifferent, it’s, as I say, the new reality. As the commerce of the sport which was always there now bubbles to the surface, finally paying the players their much-deserved salaries, Alabama can only hope to be the “gold standard” Los Angeles Dodgers or Dallas Cowboys or Boston Celtics of college football — if the Alabama “ownership” is willing to pay the price and effectively manages the changing roster every year.
With the playing field now significantly leveled, the days of dominance are over, and we are going to see some good teams, like this year, but no elite teams. It’s just the reality of professional sports. Example: 9-8 football teams can make it into the NFL playoffs. And, until some sort of professional structure enters college sports, it will continue to be relative chaos in the college world.
In the last 25 years, the Dodgers have won two championships, the Cowboys zero, and the Celtics two. Hopefully, the Tide will win a couple between now and 2050. Then again, so might Kansas or Virginia or Arkansas just as the Kansas City Royals, the Indianapolis Colts, and the Toronto Raptors did in the last 25 years. That’s the new reality of college football.
ANSWER: OK, let me just state the obvious here from the very beginning. The Dodgers are not the gold standard of baseball. That’d be the Yankees in the American League and, as much as it pains me to write this, the Cardinals in the National League. The Dodgers purchased a championship this past summer, and I don’t mean that as a slight because I love Dodger Stadium and Mookie Betts is my favorite baseball player since Ken Griffey, Jr.
The NBA and NFL are different because the drafts and collective bargaining agreements in those leagues keep things a little more balanced than baseball. Like in baseball, college football is all about buying power these days. Look no further than College Football Playoff semifinalists Texas and Ohio State. Both teams filled in key pieces on their roster with transfers from Alabama. They didn’t leave Alabama for free. In the Big Ten, Indiana is relevant in football for the first time in league history. At Auburn, coach Hugh Freeze and his NIL collective have put together a brand new team.
Cash is king in college football, but I don’t think that necessarily means the magic of college football is gone. Arizona State, SMU and Vanderbilt just celebrated banner seasons thanks to this new system. I’m not ready to draw a direct line between the thing we’re calling amateurism and the reason why college football is so special. Just look at this past bowl season. There were less opt outs because players were getting paid to play. As a result of that financial incentive, the bowl season was the best it has been in years. And players are still playing with passion, too. Take the Birmingham Bowl. It was a third-tier postseason game, but Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt were getting into fights on the sideline.
But you know the sport is walking into a brave new world when Alabama’s athletics director implores boosters to “fight back” in an email begging for more money. More changes are coming, but if Virginia wins a college football national championship, then I’ll consider running for President on a platform of free Moon Pies and roller coaster rides for everyone.
Hmm … now that I say it out loud, it doesn’t sound so crazy after all if the Cavaliers join the SEC and their well-heeled alums suddenly begin caring about football.
How much is Saban to blame for Alabama’s current mess? Let’s be real. DeBoer blew it against Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Michigan, too. The Tide was unprepared and outclassed. Saban never would have let that happen even with less talent than in seasons past. Saban couldn’t buy the best players, so he decided to retire. Recruiting was his great superpower, but recruiting will never compete with $1 million offers and Lamborghinis.
I think this was the absolute worst offensive line play Bama has had in the past 20 years. Absolutely no running game. Absolutely unable to run block or pass protect. Find some better L-linemen or find a better L-line coach. Secondly, as mentioned by others, get disciplined. Too many stupid penalties. And get rid of the practice music. It’s nothing but a distraction from learning. Our offensive play calling needs to improve as well. We are way too vanilla. Establishment the run game again. Everyone else seems to be able to run the ball, so what happened to us?
ANSWER: DeBoer will not be turning back the clock at Alabama with the power run. Alabama’s offense was too predictable because quarterback Jalen Milroe regressed in his final season. Teams dared him pass and he couldn’t do it.
Lack of discipline was a problem, too, but it wasn’t about the music or ice cream. Saban had a way of putting the fear of God into everyone in the building. DeBoer is different and he needs his own players. Will different work at Alabama? He’s got one more season to make the playoffs and then keep Alabama there. The sport might be changing, but at Alabama I have a feeling that the standard will remain the standard.
