Florida Gators

[The Gray Ghost]

What's this, NCAA Gymnastics Champions? That'll have to do in a tepid baseball year.

[Jungle Rat]

Yeah, baseball sucks this year. Not over yet though.

[The Gray Ghost]

Spotted Lindy's in the racks at Publix and thumbed through it. Picked Bama #1, Gators #12 (behind Ugha and Carolina). Content looked a bit substantive for once.

[Dr. Nostron]

Really going out on a limb with that #1 pick.

Its really probably time for Bama to declare for the NFL and give everyone else a decent shot.

[The Gray Ghost]

Athlon matched Lindy's daring pick.

[AlabamAlum]

Bama lost three NFL draftees off the o-line. We'll be good, but not NC good.

[hedge]

And nobody else lost anybody? I suspect Bama's reload will be stronger than anyone else's....

[AlabamAlum]

If others have lost 3 starters off the o-line, I will downgrade them accordingly, as well.

Like I said, we will be good; however, you don't win national championships after replacing the majority of your line.

[hedge]

I suspect Tuscaloosa's O-line cupboard is far from bare...

[AlabamAlum]

It is not bare, but talent is not the only variable with a top-notch, championship-calibre, offensive line. To be truly good, the line must have enough experience to know each others' moves so completely that they instinctively move and react as one, as opposed to five separate -albeit talented- individuals. Especially when you lose the "quarterback" from the line. In Bama's case that was Barrett Jones.


You may leave, grasshopper, when you can snatch the crystal trophy from my hand.

[hedge]

Then, despite your sandbagging, it looks like you're stuck with me for another year, b/c nobody is snatching the crystal trophy from Bama next year...

[hedge]

You act like there's some other top level team out there that is returning their entire NFL caliber starting line-up. There are no top level teams that don't have NFL talent all over the roster. Not many as loaded as Bama, it's true, but still, every team in the top 10 -12 has more than a few NFL caliber players. And not many of them are sophomores (sure, there are some, like Clowney, but that type of guy is rare). Which means, those players, like Bama's, go will be gone next year. Sorry that Bama's problem is that they typically lose 6 or 7 (at minimum) guys like that every year, while most of the other top teams "only" lose 3 or 4, but that just means that they didn't have them in the first place. These days, Bama reloads with early round NFL caliber talent, other teams just run with Joe Bob Smith, that heady redshirt senior who is a fan favorite and who might get picked up in the 11th round for some NFL team's practice squad. Good problem to have, I'd say...

[Jungle Rat]

I think its time we all chipped in for new sandbags for AA. The ones he's still using now probably won't make it through July.

[AlabamAlum]

Sure, we lose people... every year. Losing the majority of your O-line is different, though. Losing one, or even two, and we'd be ready for another NC. But three off the line? No... an experienced O-line is more important than a franchise RB or even an experienced QB.

People who know football understand this. Just Copy the post and get back to me in January. I'm right on such things way more than I'm wrong.


We will be very good, and I expect BCS bowl worthy. It won't be a NC year, though.

[hedge]

What did you lose on defense?

[AlabamAlum]

Biggest defensive losses:

-Our shutdown corner, first round draft pick, Dee Milliner, to the NY Jets.
-Starting linebacker Nico Johnson to the Chiefs.
-Jesse Williams, our 400-lb NG from Australia, to the Seahawks.

[hedge]

So you've got 9 returning starters from a NC defensive unit?

[Jungle Rat]

Only if they play 12 on defense.

[hedge]

Actually it's 7, they lost another guy. But yet and still...

[AlabamAlum]

I listed the big losses on D. We lost 8 off the 2-deep.