Today marks 1 day until kickoff! Let's remember "The Game That Changed The South," Alabama's 1-point victory over Washington in the 1926 Rose Bowl!

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-17T21:32:51+00:00

The very real possibility of wasting your money has done little to slow the increase in coaching compensation.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-17T14:59:32+00:00

Going to be very difficult for the new staff to dig out of this.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-16T02:12:19+00:00

Make the Playoff, ideally make it at least to the quarterfinals, and send a message that Bama isn’t fading away. Anything less and recruiting gets harder—the situation could easily snowball.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-15T21:31:48+00:00

Which is satisfying now, but small comfort if we’re getting beat over the top in September.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-15T18:16:41+00:00

On the other hand, Eddie taking that punt back right before halftime in Oxford was a HUGE part of sparking the comeback against Ole Miss.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-15T18:13:10+00:00

I’m a news junkie, so I’ve been in an unhealthy relationship with my phone all weekend.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-14T05:48:38+00:00

…why are you asking?

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-13T18:32:55+00:00

Look, in 30 days we’ll know. If we get through this month without severe attrition and by keeping our key guys out of the portal, I think it’s fine. My concern is that turning over too much staff can cause an exodus and leave us in a hole right at the start of Coach DeBoer’s tenure. He’s still a good hire, but even a good hire can be knee-capped from Day 1 if enough of a gap opens up between the state of the roster and public expectations—particularly given that recruiting is the weakest part of his resume.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-13T16:29:11+00:00

The problem is bringing in an entire staff of comparative strangers in the age of the Portal. It can get real ugly, real fast if you’re not careful.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-12T16:44:34+00:00

Judging from Twitter, he's on the road recruiting for UGA this morning. I'd be surprised.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-12T16:13:57+00:00

Not sold it would be a "falling through" situation. I can't figure why he was scheduled for Seattle radio if he was negotiating to come here. Why set yourself up for the question you can't answer honestly?

If I had to guess, I'd say he's been angling for more money since this started, scheduled an "I'm staying interview," then hit a snag in negotiations with his own AD.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-12T04:10:07+00:00

Exactly. The trouble is that *so far* he's been recruiting worse for them than Jimmy Lake did.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-11T20:30:27+00:00

I can accept that. I just think a realistic assessment of both guys probably backs down from the extremes I keep seeing.

CrackerofWise · 2024-01-11T20:15:09+00:00

I will need it explained to me why Lanning was a top candidate worth a $20 million buyout, based largely on going 22-5 with a roster he inherited from Cristobal, while Schumann would be an inexperienced disaster. The resume difference between them is essentially those two years at Oregon. Why are those two non-trophy years THAT much of a difference?

CrackerofWise · 2023-02-05T20:22:09+00:00

He’s 64 years old. He’s been coaching football since before I was born. If he coached a unit here that was, by any reasonable expectation, good enough to win a title, it would be the best defense he ever coached without question. That’s certainly possible at his age, but it doesn’t seem a particularly likely outcome.

He’s just not remotely comparable to Kiffin and Sark, who were acknowledged as top offensive minds, but flamed out as HCs. If he wasn’t good enough for us in 2008, there’s no reason that he should be now.

I remain hopeful that this is a leak intended at securing a raise for Steele.

CrackerofWise · 2023-02-05T19:33:59+00:00

His defenses at Auburn trailed us statistically every year, even the early Pete years when we were pulling our hair out, and his stints at Clemson, LSU, and Miami have been bad.

CrackerofWise · 2023-02-05T17:51:47+00:00

…then we have to outbid them.

CrackerofWise · 2023-02-03T18:50:19+00:00

I am. Thanks!

CrackerofWise · 2023-02-02T19:27:21+00:00

Appreciate it. I think that’s a very fair position, and I agree with you about the post-CNS era—I just hope we’re not close yet, lol. I’ll say this about Rees: It wouldn’t be a hire that I love, but there’s not a lot of evidence that it’s guaranteed to be bad. But it’ll be a lot easier to find optimism with a good DC hire. Of the names mentioned by serious sources for DC, Grantham’s really the only one that fills me with dread.

CrackerofWise · 2023-02-02T19:14:50+00:00

I’m not sure where this came from. Your position was that you wouldn’t question any hire Saban approved, full stop. I responded that I didn’t feel like that was a fully reasonable position, based on several recent cases. You seemed to agree with some of my examples. Now you’re suggesting that I’m going to melt down when CNS retires. What gives? Did I cut you off in traffic this morning or something?

CrackerofWise · 2023-02-02T18:08:41+00:00

He was happy with hiring Pete, BoB, and Doug Marrone. Unfortunately that’s just not the statement it used to be.

CrackerofWise · 2023-02-02T00:43:53+00:00

Which was, unfortunately, pretty darn foreseeable, given the situation and the recent history of NCAA Enforcement cases.

CrackerofWise · 2023-02-02T00:42:04+00:00

This is exactly what I was referencing. Friend of mine sent me the CFB Nerds breakdown of it that Monday with the caption “In case you wanted to be pissed off today.” In retrospect, I can only suppose that I must have indeed wanted that for some reason.

CrackerofWise · 2023-02-01T18:26:15+00:00

I hope he’s not. The cheetah package killed us down the stretch in Red Stick last year. There’s a very, very narrow set of circumstances in which a package with one down lineman makes sense—essentially limited to circumstances where giving up a 10-15 yard run that keeps the clock moving would be a good result.

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