AU, Bama spring thoughts; other teams
AU:
Loved what I saw out of the Auburn offense. Defense is banged up right now, so didn’t see guys like Carl Lawson, Elijah Daniel, Kris Frost, Cassanova McKinzy and some dbs play, so the offense just racked up the yards and the points, winning 58-3. Nick Marshall looks like an absolute stud. Four TD passes. 240 yards passing. 13-of-24. He was excellent. Jeremy Johnson looks like a capable backup. Sammie Coates is All-American good. D’haquille “Duke” Williams, the junior college transfer, looks extremely special. Ricardo Louis is probably the most underrated player on the team, but he’s valuable as a pass catcher and runner on reverses. He can make a lot happen. Really liked what I saw out of Quan Bray. He’s going to have a breakout year it looks like. Tight end, didn’t see a lot, but C.J. Uzomah is talented. Brandon Fulse is a good blocker and can catch it. The running game looks fantastic. Corey Grant is a game changing running back with his world class speed and he’s a tough runner too. He’s got it all. Cameron Artis-Payne is another player who looks ready to break out. Love the way he runs between the tackles. He’s tough with deceptively good speed. The line looks fantastic. With four of five guys returning led by potential All-American center Reese Dismukes this line could be like the line at Alabama two years ago with Barrett, Chance Warmack, D.J. Fluker and company. Alex Kozan at guard is a beast. Shon Coleman, in an amazing return from cancer, looks ready to excel. There is a lot of depth. The line looks stellar and dominating. Very physical, hard-nosed group. This offense could be as good as any Auburn has ever had, maybe the best ever, and may be as good as the SEC has ever seen, if they can stay healthy at key positions. So impressed with Nick Marshall. He’s a stud. Defense needs to get healthy too though. AU has talent on defense, maybe need to keep developing depth. If their defense can be better than last year’s, which I think they will, this could be an ultra-special season for the Tigers. Kicking game OK. Daniel Carlson isn’t totally trustable kicking the ball, but could get better by the fall with plenty of reps. Punter looks fine. Return game should be good with a lot of options to return kicks and punts with Quan Bray, Duke Williams, Corey Grant and some others. Should be a very good year for the Tigers. Can they win it all? Yes, they can though the schedule is demanding. They have to go to Ole Miss, a good State team, Georgia and ‘Bama and have a little bit of a tricky one at Kansas State early in the season. Ole Miss and State should be good football teams. South Carolina comes to the Plains and that’ll be interesting. It’s a little premature to pick who the absolute national champion will be, but Auburn has a shot. They’ll be in the mix, though they’ll have to survive some tough road tests and stay healthy.
Bama:
Jacob Coker is going to have to be good, which I think he will, and he needs to stay healthy. Blake Sims had some good scrimmages, but he didn’t have his best spring game. The offensive line didn’t help him much. Cooper Bateman shows flashes, so that’s to be determined too. Coker is an exceptional athlete, and was outstanding at St. Paul’s in Mobile in high school throwing for 16 touchdowns and just two intercptions. He was almost a four-star recruit. He was an excellent basketball player averaging 25 points in high school too, so that’s a sign of a good athlete. He ran for 355 and scored five TDs on the ground his senior year at St. Paul’s. He almost beat out Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston last spring so that tells me a lot about him. He’s going to be good. He’s just going to have to immerse himself in Lane Kiffin’s playbook, and have it down for fall practice. He’s a smart kid who is graduating from FSU soon, and will be at ‘Bama for two years after that. I think Alabama can win with him, and do well. Can ‘Bama win it all? If Coker comes through and Blake and Cooper can develop more in case Coker gets hurt, that’s the key. Along with the offensive line. Center Ryan Kelly, guard Arie Kouandijo and left tackle Austin Shepherd are back and that’s a good foundation. Freshman all world (according to the rankings) Cam Robinson could be a starter at right tackle. His size is fantastic (6’6″, 325) and he was the third ranked player in the country by Rivals. He’s supposed to be awesome. He’s got a lot learning to do though. But the potential is there. I really like Leon Brown at the other guard. I watched him in the Sugar Bowl and he was tough and very physical and athletic. Really like Leon. O line coach Mario Cristobal will just have to get this chemistry right , and get the depth in order. There is a lot of talent that just needs to come together. Running back is outstanding with the awesome Derrick Henry ready for a blockbuster year. T.J. Yeldon will give you 1,000+ yards every year. He’s a proven, exceptional back. With Henry, it gives the Tide more of that power and speed type back combination that every team wants though T.J. is pretty physical too, and Henry has got terrific speed and can be a game breaker. Kenyan Drake can be a game changer at running back if he can just hold on to the ball. He is electric. And Altee Tenpenny has got a ton of talent, he just needs to get more confidence. Tyren Jones looks pretty good too. I’m not sure if S is going to put incoming freshman Bo Scarborough in that mix too, but he’s an exceptional athlete. He’ll be an asset somewhere whether it’s running back, or on defense at a star or as a safety. Looks like a pretty good running back to me. The wide receivers look very good. Amari looks like Julio. Game breaker/changer, exceptional player. Christion Jones is another game changer. I liked what I saw out of Robert Foster and ArDarius Stewart. Really impressed with Stewart as an athlete. Looks exceptional. DeAndrew White will be back and Chris Black, though he dropped a couple of passes in the spring game, is an outstanding player. Love O.J. Howard at tight end. He is an awesome weapon. Brian Vogler is solid at tight end too.
Defense is totally loaded. The line looks fantastic. D.J. Pettway is a machine and a game changer at defensive end. He returned an interception for a 22 yard touchdown. Incredible athlete. A’Shawn Robinson is big, physical and a dominator on the line. A’Shawn is 6’4″, 320. Looks like a stellar front. Linebacker is excellent with Trey Depriest and young studs Reggie Ragland, who had an awesome spring game and Reuben Foster. And you have returners Denzel Devall and Xzavier Dickson who are awesome physical specimens and can really play. Secondary is going to be fine. It would be nice for the Tide to get Eddie Jackson back at corner for the fall. Hopefully he will be. But Tony Brown looks like a starter in the NFL already. He’s strong. Landon Collins is primed to have a huge year at safety and Geno Smith looks to be very good. Need to keep developing back there and stay healthy. Bradley Sylve at corner and Nick Perry at safety should help depth-wise if Eddic can make it back for the fall. S will be coaching the secondary, so those guys will be coached up. S doesn’t have a secondary coach. He’s the best secondary coach in the business so why not.
Should be a stellar year for the Tide again if Coker can live up to what is expected of him and he stays healthy, the line keeps developing and the secondary plays well. The talent is there. Can the Tide win it all? Of course they can. They’re always in the mix. Blake and Cooper will need to develop some more in the summer and the fall. Bama opens against West Virginia in Atlanta at the Chick Fil-A kickoff game. That’s a 2:30 PM CT start on August 30th. Believe it’ll be ESPN, but will know more soon. Maybe ABC. One or the other. West Virginia will probably be pretty good on offense and questionable on defense, so this will be a good first game for the Alabama offense to see if they can get it crankin. Florida Atlantic and Southern Miss come to Tuscaloosa then the Gators come to T-town. The Gators have new offensive coordinator in Kirk Roper, who came from Duke and Jeff Driskel is healthy, so they should be better on offense. Going to watch the Gators spring game early next week so should know more. Muschamp has recruited pretty well. They were decimated by injuries last year, and Muschamp really needs to perform this year. Roper is supposed to be a tremendous offensive coach, and Muschamp really needs that. Defense for Florida should be good. So that’s a test. @ Ole Miss and @ Arkansas should be challenging, Ole Miss for sure. They’re pretty good. Bo Wallace has had mixed results, but he can be pretty good. They’ve got a lot of talent. Freeze has recruited well. Don’t know what the status of the Nkemdiche brothers are. They got in trouble, but they’ll probably be OK and ready. Robert, to me, was a disappointment last year. But he’ll be better as a sophomore. Denzel had a good year two years ago, but was hurt last year some. They’ve got good wide receivers and pretty backs. They should be good. Arkansas, I’m just not sure about. They should be better. I kind of liked their quarterback Brandon Allen before he got hurt. He looked pretty good early in the season. Texas A&M is at home and A&M is kind of unknown. They kind of remind me of LSU this year. There is a ton of talent, Sumlin has recruited very well, but quarterback is a real question mark. They have a redshirt freshman and a freshman competing for the job as senior Matt Joeckel transferred from A&M to TCU. That’s a blow in my opinion. So A&M is an unknown. Without good quarterback play, they’re going to struggle. Sumlin will have his work cut out for him with his quarterback situation. Bama is then @ Tennessee and @ LSU. UT should be better, but don’t think they’ll be an elite team in the East. Too many question marks at quarterback and on defense. LSU has loads of talent, but again the quarterback position is highly questionable with a sophomore who’s not battle tested and some younger guys. Then State at home, which will be a challenge as State is good this year, but Bama does usually take care of business vs. State, then Western Carolina and the Plainsmen come in on Nov. 29th for the best rivalry in college football. There could be a ton riding on that game; SEC West crown, national championship possibilities. With the four team playoff, we could see both the Tide and the Tigers playing in the Rose and Sugar bowls in the semifinals. That would be classic to have an iron bowl II game in the playoffs, either in the semifinals or the national title game.
So if qb works out, ‘Bama will be right there. Line needs to keep developing as does the secondary in order for the Tide to win their 16th national championship.
Other SEC teams to look for are South Carolina with Dylan Thompson taking over from Connor Shaw. Thompson should be pretty good and there is good talent on that football team. Defense needs to get better. Offense will always be good under Ball Coach. Can Lorenzo Ward get it done on the defensive side of the ball; that’s my question. Georgia is loaded on offense, but not sure new DC Jeremy Pruitt has enough horses on defense yet. But there is a ton of weapons on offense for the Dawgs. If anybody can get it done on defense, it’s Pruitt. Big believer in him.
Watched Stanford spring game. Saw some good things on defense, but their offense has work to do. Will be watching other spring games in the next two weeks and will give brief reports on those.
Picking Keegan Bradley to win this week at the Zurich Classic in New Awlins. Graham Deleat is knocking on the door as well. He’ll be in the hunt.
