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Posted
2 minutes ago, hookem2010 said:

Tightrope is for a high ankle sprain. In people who aren't semi-pro athletes, we used to keep them non-weightbearing for I think 6 weeks. I would think a 300+ lb DT would be out at least a month.

Definitely need to keep him out of the crossfire

Posted
9 minutes ago, BHMCruiser said:

Life-long Alabama fan here: it’s over. Pretending otherwise is stupid. 

Yall will be fine.  Saban has been doing NIL the last 15+ years and now that everybody else can do it the competition is different. 

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, BurntEyes said:

This will all, some how, end up being Texas fault. I'm here for it!

Absolutely. We killed that monster. Same as we ended Nebraska in the 90’s and USC in the oughts. 
too bad we weren’t good enough in the 10’s to ends anyone’s reign of terror. 

Edited by Wulaw Horn
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Posted
28 minutes ago, DigDug said:

I think a lot of people are underestimating how good Castellanos is and his effect on a defense.

This.  If he was wearing burnt orange on Saturday the outcome would have been better.  Oh shit what have I done

Posted
2 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

This will all, some how, end up being Texas fault. I'm here for it!

The ags were actually right about something-- Texas really did ruin the SEC.

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Posted (edited)

Castellanos is so awesome that he was benched last year at BC. He is a baby when it comes to handling adversity. He pouts and quits. Wait until a team is containing him and forcing him to be a pocket passer and watch him lose his shit. 

The reality is that Alabama was absolutely owned in the trenches on Saturday and then they quit. It reminded me of what the best Bama teams under Saban did to many of their opponents. FSU just made Bama excited to get on the bus and go home. 

That OL is B-A-D and FSU's front was eating their lunch all day. Every time I looked up, FSU was in the Bama backfield. It was somewhat hilarious. FSU recorded 3 sacks and 7 TFLs but you could have told me they had 10 sacks and 20 TFLs and I would have believed you. They held Bama to 87 rushing yards.

Conversely, FSU ran for 230 yards, averaging 4.7 ypc. Castellanos spent most of the day free to do whatever he wanted. 

31-17 might as well have been 54-17 because it felt more like that watching that game. 

Edited by closetojumping
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Posted
Just now, closetojumping said:

Castellanos is so awesome that he was benched last year at BC. He is a baby when it comes to handling adversity. He pouts and quits. Wait until a team is containing him and forcing him to be a pocket passer and watch him lose his shit. 

The reality is that Alabama was absolutely owned in the trenches on Saturday and then they quit. It reminded me of what the best Bama teams under Saban did to many of their opponents. FSU just made Bama excited to get on the bus and go home. 

That OL is a B-A-D and FSU's front was eating their lunch all day. Every time I looked up, FSU was in the Bama backfield. It was somewhat hilarious. FSU recorded 3 sacks and 7 TFLs but you could have told me they had 10 sacks and 20 TFLs and I would have believed you. They held Bama to 87 rushing yards.

Conversely, FSU ran for 230 yards, averaging 4.7 ypc. Castellanos spent most of the day free to do whatever he wanted. 

31-17 might as well have been 54-17 because it felt more like that watching that game. 

I keep going back and forth thinking surely they are too talented to be this bad. Then I remember the Charlie Strong years. 

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Posted
Just now, Vertigo said:

I keep going back and forth thinking surely they are too talented to be this bad. Then I remember the Charlie Strong years. 

I don't disagree about thinking they're talented, as I have the same struggle. On paper, they have a lot of highly ranked players who, on the field, look like shit. I feel similarly about Deboer. The guy has won everywhere he's been. Why does he have 4 losses to unranked teams in his first 14 games at Bama? That's wild shit. Auburn was making up an affair scandal to get Harsin fired after his 4th loss to an unranked team and that didn't happen until his 25th game. 

We have discussed this, likely including earlier in this thread, but the last few classes that Saban signed, while as highly ranked as ever, weren't as well regarded off the Internet by guys I trust on evaluations. There was a halo effect, similarly to what was afforded to Mack Brown in the end at Texas. If Deboer's staff isn't excellent at development, and it's looking rough right now, then they've got a little bit of a doom loop going. 

I'm sure everyone is somewhat overreacting and they'll wind up 9-3 and pushing for the playoffs, but what I saw in the trenches and the footage folks are passing around on the quitting, those things are real. Bama has a brutal schedule ahead of them, so they'll need to turn things around quickly. 

at FSU (L)

ULM

Wiscy

BYE

at Georgia (L)

Vandy (? surely this is a W, right?)

at Mizzou (?)

Tennessee (?)

at SCar (L)

BYE

LSU (L)

OU (?)

FCS

at Auburn (?)

We can quibble about those 4 Ls coming to fruition, but we can also argue about the ?s as well, as those aren't sure Ws either. This shit has an outside shot of becoming hilarious. 

 

 

 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Newy25 said:

I set the over/under at 5.5 games before Keelon Russell is the new starting QB. 

Im not sure Russell is going to be appreciably better in year 1 than Simpson. Sure he provides elusiveness and playmaking, but he will get put in a blender like Arch did last week against quality opponents. 

Posted
7 minutes ago, markstanco said:

Some dude refers to himself as Legend?  🤡

His real name is Gary.  LOL

34 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Castellanos is so awesome that he was benched last year at BC. He is a baby when it comes to handling adversity. He pouts and quits. Wait until a team is containing him and forcing him to be a pocket passer and watch him lose his shit. 

The reality is that Alabama was absolutely owned in the trenches on Saturday and then they quit. It reminded me of what the best Bama teams under Saban did to many of their opponents. FSU just made Bama excited to get on the bus and go home. 

That OL is B-A-D and FSU's front was eating their lunch all day. Every time I looked up, FSU was in the Bama backfield. It was somewhat hilarious. FSU recorded 3 sacks and 7 TFLs but you could have told me they had 10 sacks and 20 TFLs and I would have believed you. They held Bama to 87 rushing yards.

Conversely, FSU ran for 230 yards, averaging 4.7 ypc. Castellanos spent most of the day free to do whatever he wanted. 

31-17 might as well have been 54-17 because it felt more like that watching that game. 

This is what stood out to me immediately.  Simpson was running for his fucking life out there.  I couldn't believe how poorly their OL was playing.

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Posted
46 minutes ago, Vertigo said:

Im not sure Russell is going to be appreciably better in year 1 than Simpson. Sure he provides elusiveness and playmaking, but he will get put in a blender like Arch did last week against quality opponents. 


Comparing a third year player to a true freshman is interesting.  One, Alabama’s situation has nothing to do with Arch Manning. Arch is a college veteran who is just not as good as we thought. The reason I predict Russell starting at some point is he is significantly more talented than Ty Simpson and eventually that will win out. 

Posted
1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

I am biased because I have friends who were involved, but from the sounds of it, Deboer's S&C and Nutrition & Wellness programs have gone to absolute shit. The AD went in the week after Saban retired and fired the entire N&W group, including Saban's longest tenured direct report (and a longhorn). 

These programs going into decline has been discussed on Bama boards from the fan and insider perspectives and I've kind of been dismissive of it. Yet, last Saturday looked like more of the same from the end of last season, in which the opponent looked much more ready for the 4th quarter than Bama did. 

Anyway, I was looking at some things on the Michigan Insider board today and they had a write-up about Damon Payne, the DT transfer from Bama to Michigan who arrived last winter. The guy was highly rated as a recruit and then underperformed at Bama, especially last season. He had a really good game against New Mexico and he's surprised everyone up there with how much he's developed. 

Here's quite the telling quote from him comparing his situation at Michigan versus his time with S&C at Bama:

“[Damon Payne] has done a great job of getting himself in shape. It's funny. We talked this week because we're playing Oklahoma. They played him last year when he was at Alabama, and there's a couple of clips of him on tape. And I said, ‘Man, you look different.’ And he goes, ‘Coach, we run a lot more here. We work out differently. I feel way better.’”

You want to pour gasoline on an ant bed just call into Finebaum with that quote.  The Auburn fans have been grilling their balls the past few days.

Posted (edited)
On 9/2/2025 at 10:24 AM, Wulaw Horn said:

Absolutely. We killed that monster. Same as we ended Nebraska in the 90’s and USC in the oughts. 
too bad we weren’t good enough in the 10’s to ends anyone’s reign of terror. 

One could argue that Texas had a hand in ending a few head coach's reigns of terror in that period.

Edited by BurntEyes
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Posted
23 hours ago, BigHornedLurker said:

I had wiscy marked as an auto L - but could this be the signature win luke fickel has been searching for ? for baby jesus ? 

I wouldn't wager on that one. It's got the stink of lost money no matter where you put your money. 

Posted
On 9/2/2025 at 6:20 PM, BigHornedLurker said:

I had wiscy marked as an auto L - but could this be the signature win luke fickel has been searching for ? for baby jesus ? 

I think Luke still needs help finding a QB and a historical great RB.  OL will always be decent to great there, so just a few missing pieces on offense.  Maybe a dynamic WR too would really help them.  They look like Iowa on offense right now.  I like Luke, but he has a rough schedule too.

Hook’em!!!

Posted
On 9/2/2025 at 1:40 PM, Newy25 said:


Comparing a third year player to a true freshman is interesting.  One, Alabama’s situation has nothing to do with Arch Manning. Arch is a college veteran who is just not as good as we thought. The reason I predict Russell starting at some point is he is significantly more talented than Ty Simpson and eventually that will win out. 

It was merely a comment about guys experiencing true elite defenses for the first time in their college careers. Russell would have to go through that same learning curve. I was just pointing out the fact that the results may not look much different than Simpson in year 1. No doubt he has a higher ceiling and more talent in the long term. 

Posted

Bama needs about a 50 year walk in the desert like we had over the 10 years from the end of Mack through Strong and Herman.  Fuck those guys.  After them, Ohio State needs a 100 year meltdown, since they've never had an extended down period, those fucks.

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Posted
On 9/2/2025 at 11:25 AM, closetojumping said:

Castellanos is so awesome that he was benched last year at BC. He is a baby when it comes to handling adversity. He pouts and quits. Wait until a team is containing him and forcing him to be a pocket passer and watch him lose his shit. 

The reality is that Alabama was absolutely owned in the trenches on Saturday and then they quit. It reminded me of what the best Bama teams under Saban did to many of their opponents. FSU just made Bama excited to get on the bus and go home. 

That OL is B-A-D and FSU's front was eating their lunch all day. Every time I looked up, FSU was in the Bama backfield. It was somewhat hilarious. FSU recorded 3 sacks and 7 TFLs but you could have told me they had 10 sacks and 20 TFLs and I would have believed you. They held Bama to 87 rushing yards.

Conversely, FSU ran for 230 yards, averaging 4.7 ypc. Castellanos spent most of the day free to do whatever he wanted. 

31-17 might as well have been 54-17 because it felt more like that watching that game. 

Alabama had 87 rushing yards AND had 67 of those yards ON ITS FIRST DRIVE. 

Alabama is trash this year. 

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Posted
On 9/2/2025 at 11:41 AM, closetojumping said:

I don't disagree about thinking they're talented, as I have the same struggle. On paper, they have a lot of highly ranked players who, on the field, look like shit. I feel similarly about Deboer. The guy has won everywhere he's been. Why does he have 4 losses to unranked teams in his first 14 games at Bama? That's wild shit. Auburn was making up an affair scandal to get Harsin fired after his 4th loss to an unranked team and that didn't happen until his 25th game. 

We have discussed this, likely including earlier in this thread, but the last few classes that Saban signed, while as highly ranked as ever, weren't as well regarded off the Internet by guys I trust on evaluations. There was a halo effect, similarly to what was afforded to Mack Brown in the end at Texas. If Deboer's staff isn't excellent at development, and it's looking rough right now, then they've got a little bit of a doom loop going. 

I'm sure everyone is somewhat overreacting and they'll wind up 9-3 and pushing for the playoffs, but what I saw in the trenches and the footage folks are passing around on the quitting, those things are real. Bama has a brutal schedule ahead of them, so they'll need to turn things around quickly. 

at FSU (L)

ULM

Wiscy

BYE

at Georgia (L)

Vandy (? surely this is a W, right?)

at Mizzou (?)

Tennessee (?)

at SCar (L)

BYE

LSU (L)

OU (?)

FCS

at Auburn (?)

We can quibble about those 4 Ls coming to fruition, but we can also argue about the ?s as well, as those aren't sure Ws either. This shit has an outside shot of becoming hilarious. 

 

 

 

Alabama will absolutely lose to Vanderbilt if it plays anywhere near as poorly as it played against FSU. Pavia will eat them alive. 

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Posted

The backup for the injured DT, Keenan, was Jeremiah Beaman. Beaman was a high 4 star in the 2024 class. He tore his knee up yesterday in practice and will be out for the year. 

On top of everything else, injuries are starting to mount for Bama. You hate to see it. 

The Crimson Tide are down to 6 healthy DTs. They have a junior starter in James Smith, 2 freshmen, a redshirt sophomore who has been a disappointment, a transfer from Florida who's done nothing and wasn't on last week's depth chart and then some other dude who didn't even travel last week. Thin isn't a descriptive enough word. 

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Posted

It's a bit too early to throw in the towel on the Deboer era... but I thought the guy would be a slam dunk hire.

College football is so odd that the guy who seems perfect for the job rarely turns out to be. Tom Herman was the hottest coach in the country when we hired him. Pete Carroll was like USC's fourth or fifth choice. Sark wasn't anybody's first choice here. 

Posted
1 minute ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

It's a bit too early to throw in the towel on the Deboer era... but I thought the guy would be a slam dunk hire.

College football is so odd that the guy who seems perfect for the job rarely turns out to be. Tom Herman was the hottest coach in the country when we hired him. Pete Carroll was like USC's fourth or fifth choice. Sark wasn't anybody's first choice here. 

Good points. Mack Brown was a slam dunk hire that worked out. They're out there, but it happens far less than surface thinking would tell you. These days, I just basically start with skepticism, because I've been wrong in either direction so many times. 

Like you, I thought Deboer would just keep Bama winning and I still wonder if he can pull that off, but time is not on his side. The Bama 247 site is an abattoir for all things Deboer. The writers are slamming him, boosters are sharpening their knives and talking to the $9.95ers, and ex-players are publicly running the current players and staff over. In the meantime, Deboer states yesterday to the press that he's "proud of his team" and "has their back". The "proud" comment is being shredded because that is the antithesis of something Saban would say after a humiliating defeat. 

Posted
3 minutes ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

It's a bit too early to throw in the towel on the Deboer era... but I thought the guy would be a slam dunk hire.

I thought the same. I figured they would take a step back, but still be really good. Or not. This has a Rich Rod at Michigan vibe.

Posted

How did anyone think that the combination of the loss of Saban, the shift to NIL, the portal era, and the addition of Texas and ou to the SEC could spell anything but doom for Alabama? Deboer is a good coach, but I don't think anyone could've kept that program running at such a high level with all of those seismic changes occurring simultaneously.

Posted
1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

Good points. Mack Brown was a slam dunk hire that worked out. They're out there, but it happens far less than surface thinking would tell you. These days, I just basically start with skepticism, because I've been wrong in either direction so many times. 

 

I recall the slam dunk hire at the time was Gary Barnett.  I forget what poster with inside knowledge said it at the time but the sentiment was generally "I'm stunned, I'm pissed, it's Mack Brown."

Posted
4 minutes ago, Not a cat said:

I recall the slam dunk hire at the time was Gary Barnett.  I forget what poster with inside knowledge said it at the time but the sentiment was generally "I'm stunned, I'm pissed, it's Mack Brown."

That was texlarry. Yeah, the olds were all pissed on GoBig12. I was a lurker and not a poster during that period. Various candidates were brought up and rumored to be interviewing. A contingent of people wanted Mack Brown but didn't think he'd take the job because he was set up pretty well in Chapel Hill. My view was that that dude was a dream hire. I was pretty excited when he was hired. I never wanted Barnett and a lot of folks were "meh" on him. 

I wanted no part of Steve Patterson, Barnes, Strong, Herman (I'd slightly interacted with Herman and we lived near each other and folks who lived by him had nothing nice to say about the guy), Pierce or Sarkisian. I thought CDC, Garrido, Brown, Shaka Smart, and Schlossnagle were awesome hires. I'm pretty "meh" on Miller. Somewhere along the way, like I said earlier, I have realized that skepticism is always warranted and that personally, my initial reaction is to be ignored. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, closetojumping said:

That was texlarry. Yeah, the olds were all pissed on GoBig12. I was a lurker and not a poster during that period. Various candidates were brought up and rumored to be interviewing. A contingent of people wanted Mack Brown but didn't think he'd take the job because he was set up pretty well in Chapel Hill. My view was that that dude was a dream hire. I was pretty excited when he was hired. I never wanted Barnett and a lot of folks were "meh" on him. 

I was somewhat nonplussed on passing on Barnett, until I heard Mack speak at his first PC. Mack wasn't a perfect coach by any means, but at the time he was exactly what we needed. I mean fuck, he had to tell us to get there by kickoff and maybe put on an orange shirt.

Posted

Even if the FSU game was a precursor to a 6-6 season, does Bama have the $$ to buy him out?  That's $60MM+ after the season as I understand it.

Posted
20 minutes ago, Skipper said:

Even if the FSU game was a precursor to a 6-6 season, does Bama have the $$ to buy him out?  That's $60MM+ after the season as I understand it.

Some journalist, and I don't remember who, posted on X the other day that the payments would be monthly until the contract expired. If that's true, there's no lump sum to worry over, therefore canning him might actually be doable. I don't know if what that person wrote is true or not, but I thought that was plausible.

If you're a coach and Bama fires a proven winner just 2 years into his deal, and Saban still looms large over the program, does being the next guy sound that appealing? Any coach on the list of candidates would know fully well that Bama didn't have the same NIL as other programs, putting significant risk on recruiting and retention. Yeah, they have a highly ranked class now, but their retention has been trash. They're always going to have to push and pull in one direction or the other. 

Posted

What's interesting to me is that all the commentary on Ryan Williams is that he hasn't improved. Lazy route running, bad pad height, etc. AJ McCarron went off on him the other day. People are saying he doesn't look any bigger or faster this year either. I guess that goes to the comments up thread about the lack of S&C work. Someone like Williams is likely to be fielding offers from other schools constantly. At what point does he start taking those seriously?

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