- stable of running backs in the country - wide receiving corps in the country - linebackers in the country - defensive backfield in the country - young collection of quarterbacks in the country These are just some I recall from the forum in recent months. No doubt these young men bleed purple and gold a LOT more than those of us here do... No doubt they are HIGHLY talented athletes. No doubt they give it their all on each and every play. However, I do doubt that any of these individual groups are the are the "best in the country". Where do people come up with this? Recruiting rankings as someone else recently mentioned? Perhaps many of them continuously over-achieved under the Saban coaching staff because they brought out the best in them? It just seems a lot of us around here hype of the talent level of this team a whholllllleeeee lotttttt. :geauxtige
Yep, glad there's a thread on it, b/c I suspect there is a lot of confusion between "the best" and "potential." For a lot of these men, the sky is truly the limit for them. But for the most part, they're very far from realizing that potential, which makes SOME of the expectations a bit high. IMO, anyway...
Possibly because the national media stated a lot of those things--namely the running backs though. Even dating back to last season, our WR's have been a little on the inconsistant side. They've all, at one time or another, have games where each one looks like "the man", but then they'll all have their game where one of them looks lost. Our QB's are young, so we shouldn't compare them to some of the elder statesmen in the SEC (Croyle, Leak, Cutler), because our oldest is but a RS-Soph with minimal starting experience....which translates into "expect some mistakes". Our DB's are average as a whole--not great and possibly just good. Landry is a ledgit All-American and/or All-conference selection. Jessie Daniels is "a gamer" and I'm happy with him. It's our CB's that worry me some. Prude is not the "anchor" we were all hoping he would be and after two games, I'm beginning to believe his potential is maxed out as a nickel back--possibly a #2 corner but the problem is that Stevenson, Chevis Jackson and Sammy Joesph haven't exactly stated a case to be #1 besides Prude. Our LB's are above average in the conference. There are teams with a better collection ('Bama for instance), but there are a lot of teams in the SEC that wish they had some of our LB's. Vaughn is dependable. Hollis has been making plays and Highsmith is going to make it hard for Kuale to come back from injury and reclaim the starting spot he had prior to the injury. But I'm ok with the LB's as a whole.
yes well it would seem that the word talent is getting misused a bit. some say talent is seen at the recruit level before it develops, and to a certain extent they are right. I think they mean the potential is there. Can a player really have talent without proving it? Can a wide out have world class speed but never be able to catch the ball? does this mean he lacks talent? quite possibly he could be moved to DB and be excellent right? then his potential could be used to it's fullest. AS a WR his inabilities kept his talent from being recognized. So is it wrong to say he has no talent at WR? It's a fine line... just an example folks, I have no one in mind..... I guess it's all based on what you classify as real talent or potential for talent. to me you have no talent until it's producing results. that's the way this old world works, it's results driven.
I'm in agreement with Boston Bengal's assessment. Before AB got hurt, I would agree that our stable of RBs if not the best, was in the Top 3 depth wise in the country. The rest of the groups aren't playing anywhere near the pre season hype and press clippings.
We are fans. There is nothing rational about our thought process. We all want to believe we have the best. It takes more than talent to be successful. Coaches must put them in the right position to be successful. Saban did that and that's why he's a special coach. This coaching staff has to figure out how to put these talented players in the right position. It doesn't matter how much speed we have at WR if we don't use it. Our playcalling neutralized our speed, making Tenn's job easier to defend us. Same with the DBs. Deion Sanders would look bad playing our coverage schemes. It takes talent AND coaching to be successful ... we have talent, but the jury is still out on the coaching.
