Are You Serious?! The Whoo Pig Fooey Edition

The above Tweet from @TheBigLead makes the assertion that Arkansas will be better than South Carolina and Alabama next year, and that Alabama will lose to Michigan. Since I’m not an expert on Gamecock football and I actually think he may be right there, I will respond to the notion that Alabama will lose to both Michigan and Arkansas next year:

Are you serious?!

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One of my biggest pet peeves is when people make baseless comments. To back up his statement, he included a link to an article from  a website: his own site. The article merely stated that Tyler Wilson would be returning for his senior season, and that as a team they will be “poised for a run at the SEC crown and perhaps the national title.”

Now, I have given Arkansas their props. They were a tough competitor in a very difficult SEC West, but just because Tyler Wilson is staying Arkansas doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be going all the way.  It certainly doesn’t pinpoint a specific reason as to why the Tide will fall to both Arkansas and Michigan.

First of all, TheBigLead brushes off the fact that Wilson will be missing his two best receivers in Wright and Adams; that’s kind of a big deal. The great Tyler Wilson offense scored 14 points against the Tide, and 17 against LSU. While these are numbers aren’t terrible when you consider the defenses they were up against, the fact that the Razorback defense allowed a combined 79 points against Alabama and LSU is troubling. That kind of weak defense is going to make the visions of a crystal trophy with a hog head rested on top of it unlikely.

With names like Hightower, Kirkpatrick, Upshaw, Barron, Menzie, Harris, Gentry and Chapman leaving, the Tide is losing a lot of leadership. Even though those losses sound painful, there are players like Robert Lester, Jesse Williams, Will Lowery, C.J. Mosley, Vinnie Sunseri and others that impacted the game against Arkansas last year that will still be with us.

Also, in case you’ve been living under a rock, Alabama’s recruiting skills are out of control. Alabama will be replacing those key players with 4- and 5-star recruits; so unless Tyler Wilson can start blocking for himself, they will need more talent in that area to move up the field.

So, is it impossible that Alabama could tragically fall victim to the Pig Call in September?  No. Arkansas will be good. It also helps them that they get to keep their running back Knile Davis. However, I don’t think Davis, Tyler Wilson and his two new, shiny receivers are sure things when it comes to matching up with Bama’s defense.

As far as Michigan goes, this game isn’t a lock, but I don’t see any glaring reason to believe Alabama will lose this game. Sure, Michigan has beaten Alabama more times than we’ve beaten them. They also have a lot of tradition. Neither of those things will matter in any way for this matchup. Alabama has a history of success in kickoff games on neutral territory, beating both Clemson and Virginia Tech recently. You can’t knock the Tide out based on records, either: Michigan went 11-2 this year, while Alabama avenged their only loss.

The Wolverines have a great recruiting class, but so does Alabama. So, what is it exactly that makes you so sure that the Tide will fall to Michigan in the first game? Again, I won’t say that an Alabama win is guaranteed. But if the Wolverines can’t get past our staunch defense early on, I have the feeling that Bama will be making Cowboy stadium their b*tch in 2012.