My thoughts on the Spring game; 1. Quarterback is the linchpin (we all knew that) and as usual we are very thin at that position. Mauck looked good most of the time, but he still has problems. I'll chalk that up to still not having enough real playing experience under his belt and still not being 100%. I just hope he's at 100% by fall and stays that way the whole year. Randall is better, but still not SEC material. He constantly overthrows receivers and misjudges coverage. Clausen looked MUCH improved, he threw the hardest balls I have ever seen him throw. He may overtake Randall for the starting job. 2. We lose Double D and Toefield, and yet we are as deep at running back as any team in the country. Addai, Carey, Spadoni, and Vincent could start for any team in the country, but they all play for us. That said, I would bet the farm that we will NOT do running back by committee this season. By the end of fall, one of the four will separate himself from the pack and be the featured back. My money is on Addai. But Carey and Spadoni will see playing time in some capacity, if only to spell Addai. 3. Offensive line is AWESOME. Big, mean, aggressive, deep, and talented. If we achieve the correct run/pass balance and have good play calling, no telling what this group could do. 4. I was impressed with our fullbacks, Stielz and (I believe, someone correct me if I'm wrong) Hurley. I'm glad to see Saban hasn't eliminated that position. We will need a good fullback for blocking if nothing else. 5. Defensive linemen look great. We will have an awesome front four next year, they will be incredible. If our linebackers are just half as good as the group we had last year, this defense will be top quality, because the secondary looked good as well. 6. Kicking game concerns me. I want us to have a kicker with distance and accuracy up to 45 yards. We will need that to be good, as I suspect this team will find itself in a lot of low-scoring slugfests next season. Overall, here's what I think. Some of you guys are saying that next year will be another rebuilding year. I disagree. This team is deep and talented at every position except quarterback and linebacker. This team, if they put it all together and make some outstanding efforts, could easily win ten games next year. We could have also won ten games last year. Because this year, like last year, we will live or die on the foot of Matt Mauck. If he's 100% and his game is on, we could go to the Promised Land next year. If he gets hurt, we will be lucky to get 8-4 or 7-5. This team could be great. It needs one final component, a healthy, capable quarterback, to achieve greatness. Let's hope Matt can be The Man for 2003.
I agree that the postions we should be conerned about is: 1. QB (Hopefully Mauck comes around by fall, or one of the freshmen come in and make an immediate impact, which i think they can. 2. LB (These guys will definitely get better as the season goes on, but hopfully that curve is steep!) 3. PK (Corbello really came around his senior year, he was very reliable by the time he graduated IMO, he did an awesome job. Hopefully these guys can come around sooner than that.) I'm excited about our OL, WRs, CBs, and RBs. For some odd reason I'm a little concerned about the DL and safeties.
I'm sure he wil but we would have had a very good kicker this year if we would have offered Joel Thibideuax(sorry bout spelling). He graduated in 2001 from ST. Louis. In the game we played him he hit 4 fg over 50 the longest being 58. We wanted him to use tops but he couldn't afford it. Oh well I'm off to N.O talk to you guys later.
Based on the footage I've seen and comments from the "recruiting experts" it's sounds as though the current PK's and FB's are just warming spots until the frosh get here in August. Don't take offense R_10 but the the Curtis kid and Maryland kid are suppose to be pretty incredible......but as you said Saban will let all competitors compete and the best guy will win...wish your cuz luck. At fullback. I've seen 2 sets of vidoes on the Jordan kid and their isn't a FB on the roster right now who looks as good as him....granted he is playing against high school kids. I think Hurley is their out of necessity and everyone else is just walk-ons. Jordan is the proto-typical FB. With Hurley's combination of quickiness and size he oughta get a shot at DL..yes we're pretty loaded....but a 2 platoon line would be pretty awesome.
