Earlier today ESPN came out with an article breaking down which schools produce the best players at certain positions. The article titled Position U: Which schools produce the most talent at each position is a really fun idea… when done with clear criteria. At the beginning of the article, they made it clear that they were shortening their scope of players to just athletes from the BCS and CFP era.
Ok, no problems there.
But the fourth paragraph is where my eyes began to roll because it began with the words “ESPN Stats & Information dug deep into the numbers…”.
Look, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with analytics or advanced statistics. It’s really cool to look at and sometimes can be very useful. But when it says in your title that the point of the article is to rank positions based off of the school’s talent at those positions, I tend to think that an old school approach is most effective.
Put on the tape.
Not everything within the article was blasphemy. In fact, a lot of where Alabama was ranked was correct.
Below are the positions where the crimson tide was ranked fairly.
Running Back
- Alabama: Notable Players – Mark Ingram, Derrick Henry, Shaun Alexander
Offensive Line
- Alabama: Notable Players – Andre Smith, James Carpenter, D.J. Fluker, Cam Robinson, Jonah Williams, Ross Pierschbacker
Defensive Line
- Alabama: Notable Players – Cornelius Griffin, Antwan Odom, Terrence Cody, Marcell Dareus, A’Shawn Robinson, Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne, Da’Shawn Hand, Quinnen Williams
The thing is with these rankings, I didn’t need a computer full of numbers to tell you that Alabama has produced the best running backs and lineman in college football. All I did was take a couple of hours every Saturday to watch them dominate their competition.
While I do think that the rating system got these positions correct, there were others which were borderline unforgivingly bad.
Wider Receiver
9. Alabama: Notable Players: Amari Cooper, Calvin Ridley, Julio Jones, Jerry Jeudy
Are you kidding me?!
Over the last decade, the crimson tide has produced some of the best wide receivers in the entire country. With guys like Cooper and Jones at the top of your crop, how can you consciously rank receivers from Michigan, Florida and USC over the tide?
According to ESPN’s Stats and Information department, USC produces the best wide receivers naming players like JuJu Smith-Schuster, Mike Williams, Marquise Lee and Dwayne Jarrett. I mean no disrespect when I say this, but those guys have no business being ranked ahead of Alabama’s receivers.
Defensive Back
3. Alabama: Notable Players: Minkah Fitzpatrick, Mark Barron, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix
I’m willing to concede to LSU in the defensive backs department. The players they’ve had over the years are definitely worthy comparisons to Alabama. But the problem here is that Ohio State is ranked ahead of both of them.
Ohio State definitely has had its fair share of talented defensive backs come through the program, but I’m willing to argue that Alabama’s exceeds them. The article didn’t even mention the likes of Kareem Jackson, Landon Collins, Roman Harper, Dre Kirkpatrick, Javier Arenas, etc. I’m not sure the Buckeye’s can go as deep as Alabama in terms of secondary when you start to pull back the curtain. If you are trying to rank schools based off of position like this, you can’t just look at three players.
Linebacker
2. Alabama: Notable Players: C.J. Mosley, Rolando McClain, Dont’a Hightower
Based on the calculations the only team ranked ahead of Alabama here was Georgia. Much like the argument against Ohio State, Alabama has had a much deeper crop of elite-level linebackers go through the school than Georgia. If this article claims to be completely based off of data then allow me to throw some of my own numbers into the mix.
In the last 10 years, Alabama has had five linebackers drafted in the first round of the NFL draft while Georgia has only had two. Within those same 10 years, Georgia has had five All-America linebacker selections. Alabama has had nine. Take that for data.
At the end of the day, the only true way to determine how good players are is by physically watching them play. Numbers can definitely help but the best test is the eye test. Maybe the criteria of the rankings were based so much off of a specific equation, so other schools would have a chance at competing with the tide.
That honestly wouldn’t be too shocking.
*Get the BEST Alabama football insider information, message board access, and recruiting coverage today! SIGN UP HERE to unlock our subscriber only content!*
Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
