Alabama Football: A Major Hole to Fill?

Earlier this week, Alabama offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Major Applewhite ended weeks of speculation about his situation in Tuscaloosa by accepting a job at Texas. 

Applewhite is leaving Nick Saban’s staff after one year of service to the Crimson Tide to become the running backs coach at his alma mater.

Alabama now finds itself in search for a new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.  However, no matter who Nick Saban hires, it will be a step up from the nomadic Applewhite.

Alabama fans were excited about the potential for the offense under Applewhite and co-offensive coordinator Joe Pendry.  The Crimson Tide were enjoying a conservative coordinator with NFL experience mixed with a young gun coordinator who was named for an Alabama favorite son, Major Ogilvy.

However, the honeymoon ended quickly.  After a quick start, the Crimson Tide faithful found some key problems with the offense and this new, exciting coordinator lost a lot of his charm and fell out of favor with the fans.

First, the offense was beginning to struggle.  In games against Georgia and Florida State, Alabama scored 17 and 14 points in regulation.  Fans were getting upset that a team with so much returning talent at skill positions couldn’t move the ball.  The blame fell on two sets of shoulders, Quarterback John Parker Wilson and Applewhite.

Fans were expecting a fun and gun offense from a guy who led a Rice offense the year before to the No. 1 offense in the country.  Instead, running plays were out numbering passing plays and there seemed to be a bit of nervousness to take shots down the field.  The Tide struggled down the stretch, losing four straight and averaged 12 points a game in their final three regular season games.

Second, quarterback John Parker Wilson was going backwards.  Wilson struggled many times this season with his mechanics.  Applewhite was hoping for Wilson to change minor things with his throwing motion, but it in turn caused Wilson to regress in comparison to his sophomore year under former coach Mike Shula. Shula was an Alabama Quarterback during the mid-80's and seemed to connect with Wilson much better than Applewhite ever did.

Finally, once the season was over, fans saw no improvements in the offensive numbers from the years previous.  Wilson had only one more touchdown, two more interceptions and a hundred more yards from 2006.  His quarterback rating also took a 12-point hit from 2006.

The running game to compliment this “high-powered offense” fell apart as the season progressed.  Fans felt that the running plays were going behind the wrong side of the line.  Alabama has a two-time All-SEC and freshman All-American in sophomore left tackle Andre Smith, but all the runs were going to the right side of the line.  

Alabama fans are now getting anxious about the offense, which has sputtered over the past five seasons.  However, whoever the Tide hires, they will no doubt be a step up from Applewhite. 

There will be more experience as well as a better understanding of the game and the players, seeing as Nick Saban will be implementing most of his players this season.  After Applewhite’s departure from Alabama, Tide fans see greener pastures in the future.