Let's keep our perspective grounded, Alabama fans

I wrote about college football, and specifically Alabama, a lot more in the earlier days of BoWilliams.com than I do now.

I still follow the sport pretty thoroughly, though my enthusiasm for marinating in it as I once did has waned substantially. I think that’s most of the reason I stopped writing about it at length here. (The other reason is that I can say most of what I want to say with social media.)

However, occasionally enough people lose their minds that I feel moved to restore what sanity I can with the considerable influence of this blog. The ongoing rhetorical fallout of Alabama’s 32-31 loss to LSU last night is such a moment.

Though the 2022 Crimson Tide contains many talented athletes, serious problems have been evident all season. We’re all about setting records, but “number of penalties” is one you’d rather someone else have. It is only against clearly inferior competition that Alabama has had any measure of offensive consistency and rhythm. There are flashes of brilliance on defense, and then long periods of poor reads and tackles. (And at times, the corners would have been just as effective standing in line for hot dogs.)

Escaped Texas. Escaped A&M. Fell to Tennessee and LSU. Could easily lose to Ole Miss.

It’s never been a championship-caliber team. We looked improved and more on the same page against Mississippi State, but definitely regressed in Baton Rouge last night.

Something is missing. “Discipline” is the word I keep returning to. There may be a better word for it. There are some tasty beverages here, but the six-pack ring is missing.

This Alabama team might finish 11-2, but will probably finish 10-3. Disaster, right?

Of course not.

Way back when the topic was when it was appropriate to say “‘Bama’s back,” I provided a simple and accurate definition. When Alabama is legitimately in the conversation for the national title, then Alabama is where it belongs.

It doesn’t mean winning it every year. It doesn’t mean going undefeated every year. It means being a genuine threat every year.

And we’re there. We’re still there. Finebaum is quacking about the end of the dynasty, but he’s smarter than that. (Guess what? The first hits I got looking for his recent comments were three years old. He “thought” it was over then too.)

Finebaum is getting eyeballs. That’s his job. This may be the beginning of the end of the dynasty or it mayn’t, but at three-quarters of the way through one season that hasn’t met the Tide’s omni-stratospheric expectations, we don’t have sufficient evidence to be asserting such. He knows that. (You should know that too.) Let’s see how the Iron Bowl goes. Let’s see how the bowl game goes. Let’s see how 2023 goes.

Because this feels more like 2010 than anything else to me. Guess what happened in 2011?

Let’s keep our perspective grounded, Alabama fans

You might also like:

Leave a Comment Cancel reply