re: Good or Bad Impression from Denbrock?

This game had no effect on my opinion of him. There was a thread a couple days ago suggesting yesterday’s melt would be epic. Several of us warned you guys not to let it sway your opinion. What happened yesterday was somewhat predictable.

A program like Cincinnati can attract a few top-notch players here and there. But Alabama has top-notch players EVERYWHERE. And when they rotate out, the fresh guys coming in are just as good. The talent gap is very difficult to overcome, but possible. But when you give a great coach like Nick Saban several weeks to prepare, he will find your weakness and exploit it.

There’s very little you can take away from that game in terms of how good those Cindy coaches unless you focus on two things. The first is that they simply made it to that stage. I have a friend who is only a casual college football fan ask me “Who did Bama beat.” When I told him it was Cincinnati, his response was “CINCINNATI? Who the heck is Cincinnati?” They are not even on most people’s radar. So for them to make it to the CFP is a big deal and a testament to great coaching.

The other thing I’d look at is their scripted plays. We’re they able to scheme their way into mismatches? They were. They drove down the field with relative ease. Nick Saban calls a timeout, makes an adjustment, and is able to hold them to a FG. That’s what Nick Saban does. But the Bearcat coaches were able to have success in small spurts.

Their downfall was their OL. On the second series, Beas DL began to Tee-off on the lesser talented Cindy OL, and ultimately rattle their QB. Later in the game, when Cindy had WRs open, he was so rattled, he had a hard time getting the ball to them. Again, that’s what Bama does. That is where talent level comes makes a difference. That is why CBK has been working diligently to fix our OL issues. But understand this, you won’t completely fix it in one recruiting class. I expect us to get better, especially with the addition of veteran OL transfers. But it will take another year or two to completely overhaul it.