Reviewing the 2012 season

I was thinking about this....

Do you know what makes Alabama, Alabama?

The fact that their fan base, administration, and coaching staff isn't satisfied with
just being competitive at the national level. Going 7 years without even an SEC title
is totally unacceptable.

Compared to 6-7... sure, but how many 6-7 seasons have they or LSU had during the tenures of Saban and Miles? Do those teams ever spend 4 years rebuilding or do they just reload for every season? Yeah we are heads and tails in better shape than Abuurn, but I still
envy them that crystal trophy....

So no... I'm not calling for coaching heads....
I'm proud as hell of our football team.
Beating Florida a couple of years in a row is awesome.
Owning Tech is fantastic.
This team provided me with many fantastic memories.
For the sake of this conversation; I'll set aside South Carolina.

I'm pretty darn stoked we seem to have thrown ourselves back into "the picture" of
national prominence....

I'm proud as hell to be a Bulldog....

I am however still in "let down" mode.

Hey Wart, for me it isn't a "let down" mode it's more of a "hope was lost" mode (but I certainly get what you are saying).

Team certainly didn't let me down just I was hoping SOOOO hard.

Not really tring to put a damper on everyone, I am just being myself, and seeing things from an overall perspective. Are we really any better than last year? Until the Ala game, I would have said no, for we got clobbered by USC, and played Fla after they played LSU and USC back to back. It could have been that UF was tired, and we caught them just right. I don't know it that is what happened, just saying.

The players played their hearts out against Ala, and we really should have won. But isn't this the same thing that happened last year in the Mich State game, come last few minutes of the 4th quarter and our D can not stop them. I mean how many years does it tak for a D to stay with their assignments, like the receiver for Ala getting open and noone ever close to him on their final TD. I still am not sold on CTG yet, for in big games, we have won just one, and as I said, did we catch Fl at the right time. You look at ND, their D has stopped teams all year long, same with USC, they stopped us and Clemsuns high powered offence.

What we going to say in the bowl game against Neb, if they beat us all over the field or beat us on a late 4th quarter drive, we didn't really want to be there. This is another top 20 team, and ya'll know there is still that monkey on our back about winning big games.

So for me with the exception of the SEC championship, where the guys played their hearts out, I fault the coaches for not using the TE's more, throwing passed to the FB or RB, not ever using KM speed to gethim maybe on the corner for a long gain, just to keep our D off the field. You run 3 and out over and over, it is king of difficut to main tain the high level of play. Although, we should be 2 to 3 deep on defense, so we still should have been able to slow them down some.

So before ya'll start bashing me sit back and think with your head and not with your heart, with the expection of the Ala game, are we really a team that is rebuilding, or was it our soft schedule. Next year will be no excuse, we will have one of the hardest schedules in the nation, so we either go forward and improve, or we fall flat with Clemsum,USC and Lsu 3 of the first 4 games, then Tenn.

I couldn't be happier with the way this season went. Honestly we played in the NCG if you ask me. No it wasn't the actual game itself but we all no Bama is going to win and if Georgia was playing in the game they would win.

But what sucks is ESPN and all the polls don't like us. With us lossing so many player on the D side of the ball I see us being a pre season ranked 15-20 that's if Murray comes back if he don't I bet we're not even ranked. And if you watched the games this year a lot of young men got some play time this year yes we're lossing a lot of "starters" but there is still a number of defensive players coming back next year that could of been starters and would be starters at other schools.

D-Swann
Herra
G-Smith
Jordan Jenkins
Ray Drew
Corey Moore-played a lot on special teams
Sheldon Dawson-played a lof on special teams
Josh Harvey Clemons-played a lof on special teams (could be another #9)
Chase Vasser
Ramik Wilson
TJ Strippling

11 players right there with game time under their belt

Swann
Herra
G Smith
J Jenkins
Ray Drew
Chase Vasser

all started at some point this year.

I think the D will be okay.

And I give this year a A+

Agree with everything Stanger. Lot more players we could add to that list. Few that come to mind:

Josh Dawson-played a lot early
Connor Norman- has a lot of game experience
Bowman

Not to mention the class that we have lined up for the defensive side. I believe Buc has stated that he believed we would steal a couple of big names. I feel the same way.

One kid from those recruits that really caught my eye was the Rankin kid. Anyone who gets the chance, watch this kids highlights. Don't know the level of competition that he plays, but shows a lot of instincts and plays very physical.

Read an article today that from some Alabama newspaper. The tide new they were just in a heavy weight fight. If we are going to lose, I want the team we play to feel like bama did Sunday.

Very proud of the Dawgs for what I witnessed on Saturday. Hate that I am seeing the negative stuff. Hoping no players or recruits are seeing that stuff.

GO DAWGS

duck.......you just witnessed Sat one of THE best OL's ever in college football, imo. They average 6'6", 320+ lbs and stayed healthy all year, no injuries to my knowledge. May be the best I've ever seen....for me anyway. ND will get to experience the joy of getting run over by bulldozers in 5 weeks and they won't be able to do anything about it either.

I actually agree with CMR/Bobo about playing Gurley. BAMA is great against the run and you need a big, physical back to take it up in the hole. Love Marshall but he's not the back to pound it and he's not "simply" going to run it outside with his speed against that D for a long run like you mentioned.....they went with a back that can break tackles because the holes just weren't going to be there. BAMA's "semi" weakness on D was their pass rush and secondary, not the run D.

The fact that we are a close 2nd to the best team in the SEC speaks loud enough for me (for this year).....BAMA is very good, they didn't even HAVE to throw the ball.....and they can throw it.

Best team won but the DAWGS are right there.......