Alabama Football: Reason to be Optimistic and Obnoxious This Season

Alabama fans have reason to be both Optimistic and a little obnoxious this season. Kevin Jairaj-US PRESSWIRE

Alabama Football: Reason to be Optimistic and Obnoxious This Season

By: Larry Burton

It’s been said that Alabama boasts some of the nation’s more obnoxious fans. While there may be some truth to that statement in certain circles, the truth is that it will get worse as the season goes on this year.

Success breeds obnoxiousness and no one has the success that Alabama has been enjoying. Not in national titles, NFL draft picks and recruiting results. Yes, everything is coming up roses in Tuscaloosa lately and those are certainly Crimson roses whose thorns seem to wind up in opponents sides year in and year out.

This could easily be Alabama’s easiest path to a championship in many years for a multitude of reasons. The offense looks absolutely unstoppable should they choose to run or pass and knowing Nick Saban, he’ll do about equal measures of both. Even with the broken legs of Derrick Henry and Kevin Norwood, the Tide boasts the unquestioned most successful quarterback in the nation, perhaps the best running back group and questionably one of the deepest and most dangerous receiving corps.

Put that together with an offensive line that my prove to be one of the best in the SEC and you have an offense that could arguably score on every possession and be one of the most prolific in the entire nation.

Alabama’s defense is legendary and though they’ll be a lot of holes to fill, if you expect a heavy drop off in defensive numbers, then you don’t know Nick Saban and Kirby Smart very well. The youth on this defense is simply outstanding. Coming into the season, the concerns were at cornerback and a thin line backing corp, but in studying the early season practices, the missing pieces are falling into place as they always seem to do once you dip the ladle in the talent pool that Saban keeps amassing every year.

The other reason that this could be Alabama’s easiest road to the championship game is the schedule.

While Virginia Tech can be and usually is a dangerous team to play, this won’t be the year that they knock off a top team like Alabama. Texas A&M has proven to be much more than dangerous, but Alabama will benefit from playing them early before they get on a roll like they did once things got going last season.

With a patchwork offensive line and some other key losses in personnel, A&M just isn’t the threat in the second game this year as they were late in the season last year. Can you say sophomore slump for Johnny Football?

After an exciting first two games, contests against Colorado State, Ole Miss, Georgia State, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee will simply give Alabama time to fine tune and strengthen themselves up for the test of the season when they then face an LSU team sorely missing many departed players.

Following that game, Mississippi State, Chattanooga and Auburn will simply be scrimmage games before they go to the SEC Championship Game to face who many think will be a rematch with the tough Georgia Bulldogs. This may be the toughest battle the Tide will face and with just the Texas A&M game reaching the tough category, it should be an easy walk back to Rose Bowl to play for history and destiny once again.

No matter who the opponent is, it is sure to be a tough one, but can you imagine having to face Alabama in the Rose Bowl, a place where Alabama’s storied legacy all began and endures until today?

Yes there’s really a lot of room for Alabama fans to be optimistic and unfortunately a little obnoxious too and opposing fan bases will just have to deal with both these scenarios.

Larry is an award winning writer whose work has appeared in almost every college football venue. Now he primarily writes for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. Follow Larry on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter