I had not seen Alabama in person in a long time. Had really good seats at the 10 yard line about 25 rows up.
Some observations seeing them up close:
1. The Alabama players (and coaches) are for the most part arrogant pricks. Tons of cheep shots and talk.
2. In all honesty, Alabama's offense isn't anything special and probably not even Top 25. Their QB looked a lot like TA as a freshman and this kid doesn't appear to have a great up-side. Their offense only scored 17 points, 3 off a turnover and 7 on a 68 yard run. Their defense caused many many 3 and outs and most of Alabama's drives started with excellent field position, yet only 17 points. Washington does not have a great defense and Alabama looked pretty ordinary.
3. Alabama is clearly great on defense, probably as good as I have seen in many years. Their LBs and DBs are really big and fast and they play really hard. The really interesting thing regarding their defense, and something I wish we would employ, is that the body type of all four of their defensive lineman were like defensive tackles. None of their DLs were the taller/thinner players that we have been playing at DE but rather bigger players who could hold the edge on every down, allowing the big LBs and DBs to make most of the plays on outside running plays. The most effective part of their pass rush wasn't the speed rush by their DE's, but rather LB's and Safeties blitzing while 6 UW linemen/TE tried to block the front 4.
4. The Alabama fans were all in their seats at the Georgia Dome 20 minutes before kickoff as opposed to the UW fans who wondered in as the game started. When we left with the game essentially over and 55 seconds left, all of the Alabama fans were still in their seats.
After what I saw yesterday, I would really like to see some of our bigger OL talent, Maybe Barnett and Foster (replace on the OL with Wilson) move to DT and move the Davis twins to DE. Move Some of the young DE talent like Alex Davis and Colin Miller to LB and Get Neal to about 300 lbs. I know that this was a consideration with Foster before and maybe it would resolve some of the depth issues on the DL.
A 3 man rotation of Freedom and the 2 Davis' at DE and a 3 man rotation of Stoltenberg, Foster, and Barnett at DT (with others rotating in of course) could be the muscle up front that we are lacking.
PS, and I don't have pictures, but as for real as the Alabama defense is, the Alabama baton twirlers are even more for real. Something every red blooded male should see just once.
Some observations seeing them up close:
1. The Alabama players (and coaches) are for the most part arrogant pricks. Tons of cheep shots and talk.
2. In all honesty, Alabama's offense isn't anything special and probably not even Top 25. Their QB looked a lot like TA as a freshman and this kid doesn't appear to have a great up-side. Their offense only scored 17 points, 3 off a turnover and 7 on a 68 yard run. Their defense caused many many 3 and outs and most of Alabama's drives started with excellent field position, yet only 17 points. Washington does not have a great defense and Alabama looked pretty ordinary.
3. Alabama is clearly great on defense, probably as good as I have seen in many years. Their LBs and DBs are really big and fast and they play really hard. The really interesting thing regarding their defense, and something I wish we would employ, is that the body type of all four of their defensive lineman were like defensive tackles. None of their DLs were the taller/thinner players that we have been playing at DE but rather bigger players who could hold the edge on every down, allowing the big LBs and DBs to make most of the plays on outside running plays. The most effective part of their pass rush wasn't the speed rush by their DE's, but rather LB's and Safeties blitzing while 6 UW linemen/TE tried to block the front 4.
4. The Alabama fans were all in their seats at the Georgia Dome 20 minutes before kickoff as opposed to the UW fans who wondered in as the game started. When we left with the game essentially over and 55 seconds left, all of the Alabama fans were still in their seats.
After what I saw yesterday, I would really like to see some of our bigger OL talent, Maybe Barnett and Foster (replace on the OL with Wilson) move to DT and move the Davis twins to DE. Move Some of the young DE talent like Alex Davis and Colin Miller to LB and Get Neal to about 300 lbs. I know that this was a consideration with Foster before and maybe it would resolve some of the depth issues on the DL.
A 3 man rotation of Freedom and the 2 Davis' at DE and a 3 man rotation of Stoltenberg, Foster, and Barnett at DT (with others rotating in of course) could be the muscle up front that we are lacking.
PS, and I don't have pictures, but as for real as the Alabama defense is, the Alabama baton twirlers are even more for real. Something every red blooded male should see just once.
