Should the Alabama Crimson Tide be Favored to Repeat as National Champions in 2010?

their September 25 date at Arkansas. Especially since so many of Bama’s key losses are on defense. Especially in the secondary, where safety Mark Barron may be the only player with any game experience, much less starting experience. Oh, and not having Mt. Cody in Ryan Mallett’s face on every play could also be significant.

If every time a team loses great players, maybe a larger number or great players than average, in one year, it begs two questions: How did those players become great and why wouldn’t there be great players the next year? A great team that truly reloads every year, instead of having to rebuild, will not be effected by losing those players. Obviously, when a team loses a once in a decade playmaker-type, there will be some drop off. But a great coach who knows how to groom the next batch of great players, by coaching them well, making sure they get to play in garbage time (taking a team-oriented approach rather than a individual approach by allowing a player to pad stats*), and putting them in position to be playmakers by enabling them and elevating them to the next level, will not see much of a drop off. I’m not saying I believe that Alabama will go undefeated in the regular season for a third year in a row, but if I had to bet on a coach to do it considering what I said above, there aren’t many safer bets than Nick Saban. A team can’t be afraid of losing their best players each year because the next best players have to be in the wings, ready to step in and make themselves the players you’ll then find yourself OK with losing, because that’s how the reload works. It was a common meme I remember being pushed around with Georgia fans several years ago. “UGA doesn’t rebuild, we reload.” Well, I don’t hear that too much anymore, but it said something about what we had accomplished in the first 4-5 years of Mark Richt’s reign on the Sanford sideline. Losing Knowshon Moreno last year wasn’t fun, but we had to look forward to the next running back to take the mantle. Losing AJ Green at the end of next season won’t be fun either, but rather than dwelling on his moving on, I will look forward to the next wide receiver that comes in and says, “I’m your guy. Put the ball up there and I will get it.” Because if AJ Green is the only guy we can ever count in to do that, then what’s the point of moving forward? Losing a lot of great players every year is a good problem to have. That means you’ve had great players on your team.

*I wonder if the fact that Alabama never having a Heisman Trophy winner prior to last year has any correlation with their historical greatness. No one stand-out athlete, but a lot of really great teams. Then Ingram wins it on a National championship team that had a guy like Richardson running alongside Ingram. Impressive if you ask me. Contrast that to the Corch’s stat-padding approach and you see the difference.

So maybe they will repeat but I doubt it is as NC’s

Maybe SEC Champs

…is that Florida is losing playmakers everywhere, while Alabama is losing a lot of defensive talent while returning the bulk of their offensive starters. Its easier to “reload” when you are looking at only one side of the ball; the offense is loaded at the skill positions and looking to have a breakout year while the defense only has to be serviceable, and considering Saban built an elite pro-style defense out of players that most programs didn’t give the time of day to out of high school he should be more than able to take the super stud spoils of his last three recruiting classes and make it work. I’m not saying they will be as good as last year’s defense, but they should be good enough. And as marktheshark pointed out up there, good coaches have the players waiting in the wings ready. The defense rotates so many players and uses so many different packages that “starter” is almost completely meaningless when talking about the Alabama defense. So even though we definitely lost players that we’d love to have back, there is plenty of talent to step in for them.

Lots of good points on both sides have been made. I’ll just say this:

The favorite: yes.

Favored vs the field: no.

I believe it will be very difficult, not impossible, for the tide to go undefeated in the regular season again. but, not necessarily because of the loss of any particular player or players. actually, having to face six sec opponents off their bye week is going to hurt. just look at how close the tennessee and auburn games were last year; they played bama after byes.

every sec team is talented and well coached. the scheduling deck is stacked against the tide this year. this isn’t a complaint or a whine… just mentioning that I believe it will be a factor. we will get to see what the tide is made of this year. I believe the 2010 crimson tide will have more overall talent than the 2009 squad. just like the 2009 team was more talented than 2008.

We lost more “veterens” than great players. Outside of McClain and Cody..the other players were guys that had been in the system for years and new what to do. And that includes Jackson a 1st round pick.

ON defense the only question mark is at CB and safety. The front 7 will be ungodly good..probably better than last years sqaud. But like a commenter above said, the real worry is that Arky game. If we make it out with a win, I could see us running the table…Thats a big IF but its possible.

The one reason I’m confident will be our offense. If we can churn out long drives and keep opposing offenses off the field, the defense will hold up. But if we are forced into three and outs and the young defense is asked to hold the line…a few loses are to be expected…

Good offseason disussion though…only thing that could destroy it would be if a barner got involved…