Bombs Away! Why Alabama Will Surprise The Sporting World This Year

Larry Burton (Panama City Beach, Fl) Everybody knows that Alabama will be returning a Heisman Trophy winning running back this year. It's no longer a surprise that his immediate backup, Trent Richardson, may wind up winning one of his own some day.

And to risk a flag for piling on, Alabama will also unleash Eddie Lacy this fall and let a few other dazzling backs loose on defenses. That's what everybody is expecting.

What they aren't ready for is Alabama's version of Tora Tora Tora! So you will know in advance, it's going to be bombs away in Tuscaloosa and opponents stadiums this fall.

A little known fact last year, hidden away in all the statistical data was the fact that Alabama was one of the nation's leaders in completions of balls thrown over 40 yards deep.

Greg McElroy seems as comfortable throwing a bomb than a 10 yard out route and Nick Saban has indicated that he's turning the flood gates open a little more this year on those types of passes.

He indicated several times last year that they weren't doing it enough, but in the end, seemed content to let the offensive coordinator take long scoring drives that simply wore down the opposing defenses and made the fourth quarter Alabama's playground.

There were other reasons that Saban didn't want to let out of the bag last year on why it wasn't being done as often as he wanted.

For the second year, though still very productive, Julio Jones was nagged with injuries that kept him from top form. That just left the "Bama Blur", Marquis Maze with most of those duties.

This year, a healthy Jones, a returning Maze and returning Darius Hanks will have deep backups that will be fighting them for not just playing time, but highlights as well.

This could be the deepest and best receiving corps Alabama has had in over a decade and Saban is not going to allow this talent to spoil on the vine. So expect to see Brandon Gibson and Earl Alexander also return to contribute along with a couple of stars in the making, Kevin Norwood and Michael Bowman a couple of red shirt freshmen.

Norwood and Bowman each possess the ability to go deep and make any completion a touchdown and are both big like Julio, six foot four inches for Bowman and six foot three for Norwood.

Redshirt freshmen Kendall Kelly and Kenny Bell are also ready to go from their redshirt years to highlight reels. Incoming freshmen likely to be redshirted are Ronald Carswell, Keiwone Malone, DeAndrew White, and Blake Sims.

When you throw the tight ends and backs into the equation, McElory will have more targets than a hunter on a turkey farm.

So, look for Alabama to start increasing the number and length of passes this year. So ahead and tell all your sporting buddies now it's coming. You'll impress them later when they see it happen for themselves.