1. To QB or not QB
We’re all guilty of it. Alabama trots of the field and immediately, we think the best.
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Only this time, we might just want to reassess. Let’s just not assume the big, bad Tide can’t simply plug and play at the quarterback spot like they have for years under Nick Saban.
Because taking that leap not only minimizes the importance of the position, it ignores the huge strides made by those playing it since Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2007.
“We’re going to do what we think is best for our team,” Saban said about his current quarterback depth chart that includes four players — and plenty of “either” and “or” separating them.
This is a position that began with throwaway recruit John Parker Wilson, who nearly won an SEC Championship in the infancy of the Saban era. It moved along to Greg McElroy, who won a national title and then to AJ McCarron, who won two and could have won three were if not for Kick Six .
Blake Sims then took over last season and set team passing records, and anyone who thinks Alabama’s exit in the College Football Playoff was because of Sims better look at a Tide defense that gave up 44 points to Auburn and 42 points to Ohio State to end the season.
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That’s what makes this season opener against Wisconsin so intriguing. It’s not only a new quarterback (best guess who is playing QB in November: Alec Morris), it’s the Alabama defense that couldn’t get off the field in two huge games last season (and was bailed out by Sims in one of them).
Wisconsin can run the ball and create tempo, thereby limiting possessions for whomever plays quarterback for the Tide. Fewer possessions means less room for error, especially if we don’t yet know what we’re getting from an Alabama defense that really hasn’t changed much since 2014.
2. Run to win
I’m on board with all of this Auburn hype. The new quarterback, the new defensive coordinator, the team to beat in the SEC and maybe the CFP.
But a wildly overlooked factor in Auburn’s success under Gus Malzahn has been the play of his tailbacks, Trey Mason and Cameron Artis-Payne.
Despite the usual focus on the quarterback position, Malzahn’s teams — from his time as OC at Arkansas, Tulsa and Auburn, and as head coach at Arkansas State and Auburn — have been downhill run-based offenses. The ability to gash opponents between the tackles to set up quick sweeps to the perimeter has set up successful play action year after year.
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In his two years as head coach at Auburn, Mason and Artis-Payne combined for 3,424 yards and 36 TDs. Even in 2010, when he was OC for the national championship team, he had two 1,000-yard rishers (Cam Newton, Michael Dyer).
That’s what makes Roc Thomas so important to this season, and to a lesser extent, his backups Jovon Robinson and Peyton Barber. That trio had a combined 53 carries last year (Robinson is a junior college transfer), but has potential. Thomas is a former 5-star recruit, and Robinson was a five-star junior college signee in February, and both have looked good in fall camp.
But if they can’t produce — beginning Saturday against a stout Louisville defense — quarterback Jeremy Johnson’s job gets significantly harder. And the odds of Auburn of reaching all of that preseason hype are significantly longer.
3. Remember me?
It was fun to vicariously ride with Cardale Jones the last month of last season, watching the goofy kid with a big arm engineer one of the game’s greatest stories in decades.
Now, let’s reintroduce reality: his name is J.T. Barrett.
As fun as it was to watch Jones lead the Buckeyes to a national title, Barrett can do so much more for the Ohio State offense. Even though Urban Meyer hasn’t officially named a starter for Monday’s game at Virginia Tech, I would be absolutely shocked if Barrett weren’t the first guy on the field in the lovely moshpit that is Lane Stadium.
The worst thing (for Barrett) about Jones’ three-game joyride last season: it overshadowed a truly special 2014 from Barrett before a season-ending injury against Michigan. A Big Ten record-breaking season.
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He may not have the strong arm of Jones, but Barrett is significantly better in the run game, is more accurate and off the charts as a leader and with game day moxie. He is the complete package.
Barrett has worked for nine months knowing he had to win the job back from college football’s new Golden Boy, all the while knowing that when he did (there’s no IF in that statement), his first game back would be against the one team that beat Ohio State in 2014 — in part, because of Barrett’s shaky play in his second career start.
If you don’t think Barrett is ready for this game, this moment, you’re still reliving the joyride with Jones.
4. New DC in town
Earlier this spring, I spent some time with John Chavis in College Station talking about how this thing would all play out at Texas A&M.
How would one of the most respected defensive minds of the last three decades stomach a defense that might need a few games to find itself in the meatgrinder SEC.
“You kind of have to accept it at this point: the days of 9-6 are over in college football,” Chavis said.
It wasn’t that long ago that Chavis, as defensive coordinator at LSU, was on the winning end of that 9-6 classic victory at Alabama. Hell, he still remembers how he’d be beside himself if his Tennessee defenses in the late 1990s would give up more than 300 yards a game.
Now he’s at a program where 300 yards have been given up in one quarter.
That, more than anything, is the last step toward the Aggies becoming a legitimate threat to win the SEC. Kevin Sumlin has recruited well in his three seasons as head coach, and the defense now has SEC-caliber players –— and a DC with years of success in the conference.
So why not test it in the first month of the season, with the spread offense of Arizona State in Week 1, and the ground and pound of Arkansas in Week 4.
“You have to adjust the way you look at numbers,” Chavis said. “But we’ll never adjust the way we want to get people off the field, or keep them from the end zone, or create turnovers.”
5. A new kind of pressure
A year ago, Brian Kelly could control what amounted to a perfect situation.
He wanted to start Malik Zaire at quarterback instead of struggling Everett Golson, and got a chance to do so in a meaningless bowl game with zero pressure — with 15 practices to get Zaire comfortable with the idea of starting.
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Zaire then played so well in the win over LSU (and in spring practice), it forced Golson to transfer and left the Irish with one quarterback and no controversy. And an entire offseason to get Zaire used to the idea of leading his team, beginning Saturday against Texas.
“It’s a totally different Malik Zaire,” said Irish coach Brian Kelly.
With a totally different set of ground rules. He’s no longer the backup hoping to play; he’s the starter with a season on his shoulders and the demanding Kelly in his ear. The pressure of winning and getting better — and eliminating mistakes of the past from the position at ND under Kelly — are now all his.