Here we go again.
An offseason is never an offseason, unless a news outlet or a reporter puts out information on Alabama football no longer being the best.
Prior to Dan Wolken penning his piece to USA TODAY on the Crimson Tide’s run of championships being over in 2015, media pundits gathered together at SEC Media Days in July and said the Tide had too many issues.
Alabama turned the criticism into a national title, and now Brad Edwards of ESPN is resurfacing an old story. After its second year without a College Football Playoff title, Edwards did an SEC Preview video on last week and said the Tide is ‘no longer the undisputed king of the SEC.’
For the first time in a while, Alabama isn’t the defending champion of anything. Will the Tide get back on top of the SEC? And will the SEC stay on top of college football? https://t.co/2cxEaBN2Ti
— Brad Edwards (@JBradEdwards) June 22, 2020
“LSU unseated the Crimson Tide in 2019 by first winning in Tuscaloosa, and then bringing home both the conference and national titles,” Edwards said. “Auburn has beaten Alabama in two of the last three years, and Georgia took the Tide to the wire in both the 2017 and 2018 seasons.”
Although all of these were true, LSU had to hold on to win by five points, there were questionable calls in last year’s Iron Bowl, and Georgia could not pull the trigger in both matchups – despite having a lead on the Tide in both CFP title game and SEC title contest.
The biggest thing Edwards mentioned was the aspect Alabama built itself on under Nick Saban has started to crumble.
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While the offense is trending forward, he said the defense is heading in the opposite direction.
Alabama has dealt with unfortunate injuries in the last two seasons and it has led to Saban parting ways with Scott Cochran, the Tide’s head director of strength of conditioning for the last 13 years. With a healthy roster and a new sports performance staff, Saban anticipates making national media eat its words again.
It has been the third year in a series to serve as a national title year. This fall represents the third year in a series for Alabama.
He does not pay attention to the information from the media, but Saban is ready to see his team return to the big stage and finish the job.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
