Alabama's Road Back to the College Football Playoff
Alabama players on Monday night were a little angry. They were inspired. They worked out.
It's starting to become an unusual feeling for the Crimson Tide players to be sitting at home when a championship is on the line. In 2015, Alabama will only have seniors and redshirt seniors with championship rings to show. That's a far cry from a couple of years ago when Alabama was winning three in four years.
Because of the expectations that Nick Saban's run in Tuscaloosa has created, suddenly, back-to-back two-loss seasons elicit these kinds of feelings, the us-against-the-world, backs-to-the-wall mentality. The theme of next year, and really the entire offseason, will be taking back what Alabama feels is its rightful place atop the college football world.
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That starts in the College Football Playoff, which was a roaring success—except, of course, for Alabama.
How does Alabama get back? What will the Crimson Tide's road back to the top of the mountain look like?
Holes to fill
First things first: Alabama needs players to step up at several critical positions.
Not the least of those positions is quarterback, where the Crimson Tide will be playing their third quarterback in as many years. Can whomever the new guy is catch on as fast as Blake Sims in time for a tricky opener against Wisconsin?
Elsewhere, the Crimson Tide will have three new starters along the offensive line and three more in the secondary, if you count nickel or dime looks.
Gone are recognizable stars like Sims, Amari Cooper and Landon Collins. Who are the next faces of Alabama greats?
Defensive adjustments
The status quo on defense is no longer good enough at Alabama.
The Crimson Tide gave up 1,480 yards combined over their last three games of the season, all to teams that run some sort of a spread or tempo offense. On the season, Alabama's opponents averaged 328.4 yards per game, good for just No. 12 in the country. Both the yards and national ranks are Saban-era lows.
It's not clear exactly what, but something needs to change.
The game is obviously trending toward high-flying offenses, as it has the last few years. That isn't going to go away.
Can Saban and Kirby Smart come up with an answer?
In-season roadblocks
Alabama's SEC cross-division opponents are looking more and more menacing. The days of a brain-dead Tennessee and Vanderbilt on the schedule are gone.
No, this year, the Crimson Tide first get a trip to Athens, Georgia, to take on a hungry Georgia team with an unfair offensive backfield. Then they host a Tennessee team that looks to be reaching its potential under Butch Jones. The Vols, for example, were picked No. 23 in ESPN's early 2015 Top 25.
Otherwise, Alabama opens the season with a tricky neutral-site game against Wisconsin, which just ousted Auburn in the Outback Bowl. It travels to Texas A&M, hosts LSU and finishes the season in Auburn, where weird things happen.
This will be no easy walk in the park for Alabama, schedule-wise.
A rivalry renewed
If you thought we had seen the last of Saban and Urban Meyer when Meyer stepped down from Florida in 2010, boy, were you wrong.
Meyer got the best of Saban this year in the Sugar Bowl and CFP semifinal. His three national titles—at two different schools—are moving him closer and closer to Saban's mark of four.
Ohio State returns almost all of its production from its national championship team, including, potentially, its three Heisman Trophy-caliber quarterbacks.
If Alabama can make it through its SEC grind and into the playoff, there's a good chance that Meyer and the Buckeyes will be waiting once again.
Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.
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