Year six of previewing LSU-Bama with Roll Bama Roll’s Brent Taylor
I really do love Alabama week because it lets me check in and talk ball with Roll Bama Roll’s Brent Taylor, one of my favorite people I’ve gotten to work with in all my time with And the Valley Shook. This is the sixth year we’ve done this, and here’s to many more.
1. Heh. So. How’s it feel being “just another team”?
It sucks.
Ha, Tennessee still rushed the field when they beat Alabama. As long as that keeps happening, we’re still at the top. Once someone beats the Tide at home and doesn’t rush the field…. That’s when I know it’s all finally over.
To opine for a second though, this isn’t new. From 2011 to 2018, Alabama only lost games when things went crazy (Kick Six, Game of the century missed field goal bonanza, Ole Miss fumble-helmet-double-bounce-pass) or an opponent had a QB go super saiyan for one game. Alabama won games before they started with just the aura of invincibility.
That broke in Santa Clara when a freshman Trevor Lawrence led a blowout over the Tide. After that, Alabama was beatable. A couple of seasons later (2021), an unranked Texas A&M beat the Tide when Alabama just refused to play a functional game of football. That was the second inflection point. Since then, teams want to play Alabama because it’s fun to beat them. That mentality has changed everything.
My point is, and we’ll go further into this in a second, this isn’t something new after Saban retired. It’s been building for years.
2. But seriously, there was no way any team just “replaces” the greatest coach of all time and not take a step back. How would you rate Kalen DeBoer’s not yet completed first year on the job? What’s gone better and worse than you anticipated?
I’m somewhat in a minority of overreacting Alabama fans, but I’m still pretty happy with DeBoer. I feel like I have a good idea of what he’s trying to do with the program, and year 1 was always going to be extremely tough with the Tide losing over ⅓ of their roster, and DeBoer is having to start overcoming the problems that building for years, and it’s going to take some roster churn to get the team attitude right.
3. One more DeBoer question: people aren’t ACTUALLY putting him on the hotseat are they? Is there any way he exhausts all of his goodwill in year one? Oh wait I know, what if he loses to this dogshit Auburn team???
DeBoer was on the hot seat before his first plane ever landed in Tuscaloosa. He almost got fired after a bad first half against South Florida, and then losing to Vandy? Woof. Nothing short of perfection was going to be good enough (again, ignoring the fact that Alabama has lost similar games in similar ways 2021-2023).
But yeah, losing to Auburn in the same season as Tennessee would be a disaster.
4. Gameday will of course be in town meaning Nick Saban will be, too. I really have no idea what kind of reception he’ll receive from LSU people, what about you?
Are you guys about done with this yet? The Saban PR tour the last couple of years has been a thing of beauty to watch as the national perception around him has changed from pure hatred to mostly genial respect. Some of that of course coincides with Alabama becoming less of a threat, but it’s also been a concerted effort from Nick to be much more grandfatherly.
It’s been 18 years. The LSU students were but infants when Saban took the Alabama job, so they likely aren’t harboring that same heartbroken hatred that led to burnt effigies in the 2010s. I wouldn’t be surprised if the booing starts turning more good natured this time. And I wouldn’t put it past Nick to pick LSU to win – it’ll gain him some favor from the locals while also (hopefully) serving as fuel to the Alabama team.
5. I mean this in the most loving, respectful way possible: does this Bama team stink? Because I think they stink.
They stink at a number of very important parts of football. They can’t run block. They get a million stupid penalties. The QB can’t hit the broad side of a barn every other game. The secondary is a MASH unit of true freshmen.
And yet, they have still been winning games against a crazy tough schedule. Why? See in the next question.
6. It’s been a while since Alabama’s had a receiver that scared me as badly as Ryan Williams does. Jesus where’d y’all dig this X-Men/Avenger/Kryptonian out from? What’s his ceiling?
I say this with the utmost confidence: Had Ryan Williams not reclassified and skipped a grade in high school, the 2024 Alabama squad would have 3 wins and 4 losses right now. Alabama would not have won the Georgia or South Carolina games without Williams pulling off miracle plays that I don’t think any other WR in college football would have made.
He’s the most important and impactful recruit Alabama has pulled in since Julio Jones.
And he’s got a LONG way to go to really clean up his game. Williams has otherworldly body control, athleticism, and an infectious personality, but his hands still need some work, particularly on balls that are over his head. Even with that, I think he’s the best player on Alabama’s team right now… Not just the highest potential.
7. Let’s talk quarterbacks: has Jalen Milroe improved, regressed, or plateaued from last year to this year?
If you’d asked me 4 weeks ago, I would have told you that Milroe has made a lot of strides at working in mid range passes to his tight ends and had really stepped up at identifying blitzes and throwing to beat them, rather than trying to run from the blitz.
For the last three games, though, something happened. Starting at South Carolina, Milroe stopped feeling pressure and took a whole bunch of sacks. Then against Tennessee he… well… lost the game. It wasn’t even poor decision making or anything… He just couldn’t hit his receivers. It was a horrendous performance that, honestly, we haven’t seen from an Alabama QB since probably Jalen Hurts in 2017 before he got benched for Tua Tagovailoa.
Milroe got some of it back against Missouri, but still missed some throws and his rushing game has totally evaporated.
So all of that said… I don’t know. He went from a talented deep ball passer with Michael Vick speed that was showing a lot of improvement in the mid-range stuff to turning into a pumpkin, and we have no idea why. There’s been a lot of speculation of an undisclosed injury, but who knows.
Whatever the case, Alabama can’t win much with him playing like he has been, but if he gets back to his form against Wisconsin, UGA, and Vandy, then he could be a 1st round draft pick.
8. I wouldn’t say LSU’s defense is “good” but they’ve definitely got a knack for causing havoc, especially up front. How confident are you that Alabama’s line can keep the pocket clean for Jalen Milroe?
Oh not at all. Alabama’s OL is allergic to blocking speed rushers, and Bradyn Swinson is probably going to double his sack count on the season.
Alabama’s center, Parker Brailsford, is great. Dude’s been pretty close to perfect all year. The rest of the group? They’re a bunch of holdovers from Saban’s final year when he decided he wanted the entire OL to bulk up to 350 to get back to running the ball, and all it did was make a bunch of guys out of shape and bad at most everything.
DeBoer’s staff has been pulling the weights back down into more normal ranges, but both OTs still have major issues with speed rushers, and the run blocking is just bad across the board.
9. Did Tennessee or Vanderbilt (wait that can’t be right) do something against Alabama that LSU can replicate?
Vanderbilt? No. Unless you want to rely on your offense getting stopped on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd down all game and then just converting every single 4th down for an entire game while pulling off a bunch of shovel passes, then no, I don’t think that’s replicable.
As far as Tennessee…. I’m not sure LSU has the defensive talent to pull it off. The Vols totally stuffed any semblance of a run, and Milroe chose that game for his arm to lose screws and fling the ball out of reach all game.
I honestly think the best path for LSU (or really anyone else) is to follow what South Carolina did – win the edges with speed rushes, get a few early sacks, and force Alabama’s offense to play with fear while shortening the game with some QB boots into mid-range passes to convert 3rd downs.
10. Speaking of the Vols and Dores. I watched with my own eyes Alabama struggle on the road against Vanderbilt and Tennessee, now they’re coming to Tiger Stadium. Why should I expect this Alabama team to not self-implode on the road once again?
Alabama hasn’t not self-imploded against an even semi-hostile crowd since 2020. And since there was nobody in the stadiums that year, then really it’s been since 2018. Again, we’re back to that loss to Clemson at the end of the 2018 season.
So yeah, Alabama will self implode. The only real question is will they get enough explosive plays to buffer out the implosion. That’s been the M.O. for 4 years, and nothing has changed.
11. That said, I’m not so arrogant to think that Alabama CAN’T win this game. So what’s their path to winning and ending LSU’s season look like?
Oh Alabama can beat anyone in the country. Just ask Georgia. Jalen Milroe, Ryan Williams, Germie Bernard, and Jam Miller are 4 of the biggest of big play guys in college football, and they span across the whole offense. Meanwhile, Alabama’s defense is young and in a new scheme, but they are going ALL OUT for interceptions. If Alabama channels that for even ¾ of a game, then I don’t think it really matters who they’re playing against.
It’s a crazy volatile team, though, and they haven’t managed to sustain that for more than a half yet. They’ll have back-to-back 60-yard TDs, then go an entire half without a first down.
For LSU, the strategy has to be to shorten the game. The more possessions, the more likely Ryan Williams is to do something superhuman. But If you cut things down to 8 or 9 possessions and Alabama does their usual screw ups and penalties on five of them, then you’re holding the Tide under 30 points.
Alabama’s defense is good on a play-by-play basis, but can struggle situationally, and if LSU can take advantage of that without turning the ball over, then they can outscore Alabama’s offense as they pre-snap penalty themselves into oblivion.