Is Bama Back?

Last Saturday Alabama pulled off a win against Arkansas with a final drive down the field in less than two minutes of game clock, and with no timeouts. Not only did Alabama defeat a respectable team in this, but John Parker Wilson showed signs of a great quarterback, and the team showed guts and effort in their final drive. Is this a sign that finally, now under Nick Saban, that Alabama is back?

Alabama did show signs of being a pretty good football team, but let’s not rush into calling them "back" whatever "back" is supposed to mean. Wasn’t this said after they defeated Florida in 2005? They then lost to LSU and arch-rival Auburn at the end of the year, and went 6-7 the following year. That was hardly back, if back is considered to being in national power and consistently contending for national championships, so should we call them back now?

We should not take anything away from Alabama- they did defeat Arkansas, who was a ranked team. But out of the little I have seen from Alabama, I’m not so sure if they have proven me a whole lot. Western Carolina was a push over. So what that they beat them big. That is expected, or at least, it should be. Vanderbuilt is Vanderbuilt. They may not be the push over that they were, but they are not a great team. Beating Vanderbuilt by 14 points should be expected. So, Arkansas was supposed to be the big test, to see if they were back.

Well they did win the test, if winning the test means winning the game. But there are still questions in both Alabama’s offence and defense, as well as their special teams. The win at the end might could give them confidence, but then again, we can’t assume that. Many times, a drive that Alabama makes will make the quarterbacks career. But there are plenty of times it does not. Cox hit an open man on fourth and fifteen against Georgia, on the road, in 2005, and Auburn went on to win 32-31. Cox is obviously not a great quarterback. He had the drive against Kansas St. just some two and a half weeks ago, but is obviously not a great quarterback. Not to take away the talent from Alabama, but they did catch brakes on that final drive- and they did blow a twenty-one point lead.

Now they have Georgia. Their schedule works good for them with how each game leads into another. They have a good chance at beating Georgia and a good chance at beating Florida St. They can win all the games left on their schedule, although LSU will be a really hard one. But there are several they can lose as well.

Is Alabama back? We really don’t know. We don’t know much more now than we did a week ago. If they lost, it would probably show that they weren’t. But they won. They showed potential, but they also showed some problems. Alabama does have talent- it is not as if they are 3-0 on a really young team. Talent is there. Only time will tell if they are, indeed, "back."

What do you think?

God Bless America

Pray For Our Troops

September 19, 2007

Ryan Hampton