Friday 8 January 2010

The Future is Now

Thanks to the shoulder of Marcell Dareus last night become something more than this years national championship. The 2009 national championship could easily have been a showcase game for the 2010 seasons and beyond. The devastating loss of Colt McCoy knocked the wind out of Texas for the majority of the first half, more than ever it showed how much Colt meant to the Texas offence. What those on 90,000+ in Pasadena and the huge television audience got to see was like looking into a crystal ball (pun intended). Alabama was already lucky this year to have an incredible number of talented underclassmen, the two running backs are prime examples, they also had the sprinkling of draft stock that played their last game yesterday. Texas on the other hand will be re-building on defence, especially on the line, but offensively the future arrived last night.

Alabama will be hurt most by the departure of linebacker Rolando McClain, defensive tackle Terrence Cody and cornerback Javier Arenas. It is simply outstanding what these players contributed the Crimson Tide this year, Cody provided the indelible image by blocking the two field goals against Tennessee at Bryant-Denny earlier in the year and keeping ‘Bama on the road to the Rose Bowl. It’s also widely reported what McClain brings to the defence. Tagged the ‘defensive quarterback’ he provides Kirby Smart and Nick Saban confidence in their defensive audibles as well as in the line backing core. He alone shows so much on defensive series that the Tide may have to play a 4-4 defence to compensate. Whilst Arenas is a shutdown corner it is on special teams that he will be missed most, it is here that he has broken various records for return yards and gave both Florida and Texas reason to game plan especially for his kick returning. The loss of McClain will be somewhat offset by the return of Dont’a Hightower, who missed the entire year through injury, will have had the benefit of a year watching and learning from McClain and should be able to move into the position reasonably easily. It is on offence that Alabama showed the brightest signs for at least the next 2 years. Heisman trophy winner Mark Ingram is only a sophomore and went for 116 yards against the number one rush defence in the country, Trent Richardson is a freshman who rushed for 109 yards against the same defence. The admittedly underwhelming quarterback Greg McElroy who only threw for 58 yards on 6 completions from 11 attempts, but his performances against Auburn and Florida leave little doubt that he could be a senior star. This without mentioning the star wideouts, Julio Jones and Marquis Maze, who will both only be juniors next season. The biggest losses will be offensive lineman Mike Johnson and Colin Peek, the tight end transfer who become something of a comfort blanket to McElroy in the tougher times. Both will be replaced, Alabama is returning approximately 14 O-linemen and losing only 2, they will also have junior Preston Dial taking over the tight end position having seen action already this year. This is without even considering the number two ranked recruiting class in the country. Alabama could be stacked to dominate the SEC and BCS for the rest of this decade if everything goes according to the Saban plan.

The experience that Garrett Gilbert gained inside Rose Bowl stadium will be unmatched by no other sophomore starters next year. You could see him growing as the game went on, even seeming to read the complex ‘Bama defence. He wasn’t helped by receivers dropping the ball, but now that he’s going to have all spring to work with those same receivers who won’t be dropping balls next year. Ok, so all his big plays were to Jordan Shipley who won’t be there next year, but the others will learn to trust him just in a little longer time than it took Shipley. Greg Davies will get to know Gilbert’s strengths and weaknesses and by September he will have an offence tailored to Gilbert not McCoy. It was incredible to see the success of the Texas run game when McCoy went down. In all likely hood with Colt in the game the number of rushes would have been maybe half, as it was they recorded 27 rushes without him for 81 yards. Without huge success it was a lot better than it was expected to be and freshmen Tre’ Newton and DJ Monroe were to the front. Texas will start the 2010 season with a sophomore quarterback and two sophomore running backs. Add to that the 15 receivers returning, including every member of the receiving core from the championship game. Oh and Alabama came be happy with the number two recruiting class, Texas has the number one class.

Could these two meet in the national championship again? If next years rosters are anything to go by then some of the 2009 players could be playing against each other again. And that might be well before some play against each other in the NFL.

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