Keep your head on a swivel: a Bama defender is always gunning for you.
Rejoice, for this is the day that we Gump. And despite the grim forecasts, we shall endeavor to keep Gumping.
This is a story we have been on since January 9th — the Tide’s Mass Movement:
Alabama entered the 2025 football season with fourteen linemen on the scholarship roster. Today, that number stands at just five. On the offensive line, there is only half of a returning starter, as Brailsford and Proctor have moved on. Wilkin Formby, the worst offensive tackle I think I’ve ever clapped eyes upon, was encouraged to seek other opportunities — and Texas A&M, having more money than sense, paid him $1.3m to do so. Dewberry, VanDerMark and Roberts? Graduated. And the backups, those alleged blue-chip players high on potential who couldn’t even unseat this terrible lot, were “selected out,” to use HR speak.
For years, players clamored to be treated like pros. This is what professional sports looks like. You return from practice, find the slip in your locker, and you’re out on your ass before the sweat dries. Cut. Washed. Chopped. Released. You’re just not good enough. Living year-to-year, no freebies, put-up-or-shut-up.
It’s a brave new world, and not one that necessarily brings me or many fans joy. But, if you want to win in this era — at least win now until the shenanigans get placed under wraps — then this is how you do it. You build for the current season. There’s simply not time, nor is there patience from fans or players, to stockpile talent or cultivate starters over many seasons.
Releasing non-contributors is a welcome first step. Position-perfect size. No linemen light in the ass or bloated tubbies. Just good old fashioned to-the-tape-measure perfection. As Nick is fond of saying, “mass kicks ass.”
And throughout the year, and especially over the summer, we’ve catalogued (perhaps to the point of tedium) how Alabama has progressed in the weight room.
It’s paying off: Alabama is devastating teams where it matters most, at the line of scrimmage.
It’s not occurring on just one side of the ball; its on both offense and defense. There is “elite,” and then there are the seasons that Alabama and UCLA are putting together. That has to tickle your Gump Bone too, because you build winners from this inside-out. This is where games are won and lost, where you make their ass quit, the foundation where national titles are laid. It won’t be surprising then that Alabama and UCLA are a combined 10-0.
The Tide so far look the part. “Mass kicks ass.”
There are a whole lot of Dawg fans, pundits, and national media out there who think this is the DeBoer team of last season. It most certainly is not. They may lose Saturday, but Georgia is going to have to take it from them; the Tide’s lines aren’t going to roll over and give it to them….like Dawg Nation, SI’s UGA imprint, who apparently hasn’t watched ‘Bama this year because he thinks RCW1 is the Tide’s second most important player.
My brother in Christ, Williams isn’t even the second-most valuable player on offense…maybe not even the second-most valuable pass-catcher. Let’s hope the Bulldogs have this same sort of energy:
We knew this was going to happen: Simply not enough balls to go around for all the playmakers on this team. We’ve barely seen Fall Camp’s standout, Derek Meadows, or the next coming of Julio, Cedarian Morgan: Rico and Lottie and Ryan and the tight ends have just been too good, the running game too successful.
Still, that hasn’t gotten them down:
That mentality has taken hold throughout the roster, as players have consistently made the most of opportunities. Grubb is confident that if and when either receiver gets another chance, they will capitalize.
“They’ve got to understand that that spotlight will find them, and when they’re ready, they’ll be out there in the right moments, and they just have to trust the process and continue to grow as a player and be ready,” Grubb said. “And I appreciate those guys because Cederian and Derek have been excellent practice players. They ask questions. They prepare like they’re ready to play, you know, 50 downs a game or five downs a game.
“So I think for them, as young players, just watching the guys that are in front of them continue to learn and just grow because that’s what I think we do a great job in this offense is we do develop players and develop receivers that end up being great players.”
You don’t want to tell them to just pay their dues, but it really is true: you just have to hang in there; your time is coming.
This week’s biggest off-field news is, of course soon-to-be Hurricane Isaias, which is barrelling into the Gulf. Its trajectory is still a bit of a wildcard, but it looks like it’s heading straight for the Pascagoula-to-Mobile area. If that’s where it makes landfall, then Tuscaloosa could very well get popped with a tropical storm.
So far, plans have not been made to postpone the game (it wouldn’t be the first time these two have played in tropical storm conditions), but you have to keep an eye on it: at the least, we’re in for a very sloppy track on Saturday. The SEC has also weighed in, and they have no plans to move the game either.
Just one more reason Alabama’s reborn line play is critical: If the Tide win this game, one suspects they’re going to need to make outsized contributions given the weather.
I’m usually fairly sanguine about the weather, but this one does not bode well for Saturday: as of two hours ago, the storm was intensifying and picking up speed.
Before the data were fully generated this week, Alabama had the nation’s No. 8 SOS, and its second-best overall resume. But that was last week: This week, Alabama is the team to beat: not just Saturday, but nationally. It’s No. 1 by most computer models, and has the country’s best strength of record. In fact, Texas, ND and Alabama are leaps ahead of the field.
If those data are any indication, then Vegas got it right: ‘Bama is favored for a reason. Their sketchy FPI modeling gives the Tide a 53% chance of winning, and Alabama has an 88% chance of at least reaching College Football Playoffs.
‘Bama back? Could be. The SEC is littered with bodies once again.
One reason for Alabama’s success has been Kane Wommack’s most bendy-don’t-break defense to date. This team gives up a lot of yards, more explosive plays than sits comfortable with Bama fans, and allows opponents to move the ball between the 20s too often. But that’s the point: modern defenses, and this one in particular want to get you off the field on third down (and Alabama is the best in the nation at it), and, failung that, want you to go on long, extended drives where you’re more likely to make mistakes.
It’s paying dividends, and has become the identity of the defense:
No. 7 Alabama hosts Georgia on Saturday in a matchup of undefeated teams. The Crimson Tide ranks third nationally with 2.6 takeaways per game, and opposing quarterbacks have been intercepted on 5.23% of their pass attempts, the fifth-highest rate in the country.
Takeaways have been a defining feature of Kane Wommack’s “SWARM” defense since he first arrived in Tuscaloosa, and safety Bray Hubbard said the identity starts with preparation
“We do a circuit every day of taking the ball away,” Hubbard said. “So, I mean, no matter what day it is of practice, we start the day off with a takeaway circuit of different ways to get the ball out, whether it’s a punch, an interception, a rake, maybe just to match the hand of a quarterback, just a whole bunch of different things.”
We were the first. We were the loudest. But we won’t be the last to declare that Klemm is him! The coaches gave him his roses on Saturday, and SI has jumped on this bandwagon.
A big part of the change has been a new offensive line coach in Adrian Klemm, who both Grubb and head coach Kalen DeBoer gave credit to during Monday’s press conference.
“I think Coach Klemm has done a really good job of getting their minds to that spot in the offseason, having everyone ready,” DeBoer said. “He’s built up competition within that group. He’s built up expectations. It doesn’t matter if you’re a starter or a backup. And again, kind of that be ready, not get ready mentality that we talk about as a team as well.”
Mal Waldrep Jr. has filled in for Carroll and Sanders a few times this season and got the start at Kentucky, and JUCO transfer Tyrell Miller was James’ replacement on Saturday.
“Mal brings a physicality,” DeBoer said. “Even though he’s younger, he brings a physicality that I think has helped our team. He’s got a kind of a no-nonsense approach. He’s what you want in an offensive lineman. And it’s great to see Tyrell get out there. Tyrell is crazy athletic, has a lot of skill. And for him to get out there and get his feet underneath of him, I thought he did a nice job for his first, really, start, really from a volume standpoint, his most meaningful full reps. There’s a high ceiling for him, for sure, and you can see that. He’s worked a couple of different positions, because throughout the year, throughout camp, we knew that he had that in him. But you’re also trying to get him just settled in on one position and be really good at one spot. But got out there and did a nice job, and I thought both of them were integral to our success.”
Here’s what we said on January 27, the day he was hired:
Throughout his career, in multiple schemes, Klemm forged dynamic line units that are adroit in run or pass mixes. From the traditional west coast to pro-spread power running games, to the run-and-shoot and even a tad of Air Raid, Klemm’s units have shown three core features: Very disciplined groups, taking few pre-snap penalties; Pass protection — his guys don’t give up a lot of negative plays, and especially on pass attempts; Blowing open holes on the offensive line for running games — the speed with which they get off the ball, and as well as the line communicates, will genuinely surprise some fans after the last four years of awful. And, even when they’re not moving downfield, they at least hold the point of attack well.
It is foundational teaching, in other words. And with ‘Bama bringing in a very young group of transfers, and signing a class that is high on potential, particularly on the interior, that’s exactly what was needed.
The one thing we’ve been wrong on, and I suspect it is largely a chemistry/communication problem more than anything, is the penalties. After surrendering 5.4 penalties last season, Alabama is up to 7.0 this year, with 55% coming from the offensive line. In SEC games, it’s even higher, 7.3 per game. It will have to be cleaned up a bit though. Championship teams don’t beat themselves; we saw on Saturday in a miserable second quarter, and in the final few minutes of Q2 in the South Carolina game, that silly offensive penalties can derail drives — and sometimes entire stretches — of games.
Still, calling Alabama’s most transformational hire of the DeBoer era “a position coach” feels demeaning though, it minimizes exactly how good he’s been, has been exactly what we predicted he would be, and exactly what the program needed most.
Finally, your moment of levity. And not all light-hearted or feel-good moments have to be funny. Sometimes, they can just make you fistbump and say, “Hell yeah, brother.” This is one such moment.
That’s all for now. You folks have a very good day. Thanks for dropping by: we really appreciate you and your time. And take care
Roll Tide.
Cleary bro hasn’t watched the Tide plat at all this year.
I believe almost everyone on the roster is hungry and will wait for their chance.
https://youtu.be/QIvqaAyjT_w?si=coNOGJOaOJ1EfJKR
I was actually stunned in an outlet as big as dawg nation said something that retarded.
I really don’t think they’ve actually watched Alabama play this year
in terms of impact just on the offense, i would put Ford, Lloyd, Racine, and possibly Lottie as more important than Ryan — and he’s having a very good year.
And those 5 are all behind Keelon too.
Oh, 100%. He’s saying “who’s Alabama’s second most important player.” And I was pointing out that Ryan may not even be the second best wide receiver, much less the second one on the offense, much less on the entire
BTW: There is actually a correct mathematical answer to the poll today. So it is bit of a trick question.
i’ll post it tomorrow. Wanna give some of you guys a chance to answer it at least. Lol.
Fair enough!
I’d argue 3rd down defense because a takeaway can be baked into it.
At least you’re honest
1st. Klemm is HIM!
2nd. Bama by 35. Daddy Deboer is good and pissed off in his normal midwestern manner, but rest assured, this man wants to vindicate himself. He wants to show the world that he deserves this job.
3rd Klemm is HIM!
Yeah. I think he wants this one. Because the last time he faced Kirby, we had 13 players missing and Georgia stomped a mud hole in our ass & walked it dry.
No doubt. He is good ‘n mad. And the best part is, after we stop UGA into the ground, they gone be good ‘n mad and take it out on their next opponent (little brother)
they gone be good ‘n mad and take it out on their next opponent (little brother)
I think the 2nd-most important player on the team, as a whole and for the season, is Josh Ford. I think he’s brought a new level of aggression and physicality to the TE room, and I think that’s spread to the rest of the team (along with changes in coaching). That physicality will define our season. Now, whether or not Ford is the 2nd-best player on the offense or the team, probably not. But I think his impact is bigger than his talent. It would not shock me in the least for him to be a captain next year.