Alabama Football Daily Insider Report: What Is Wrong With The Offensive Line?
By Ronald Evans
Alabama football fans have a big appetite for information and we’ll be serving up healthy portions of hot food for thought with a side of seasonal inside information every morning this Spring.
There was a time when getting to the Waysider early on a weekday morning was the best way to learn what was really going on with Alabama football.
In the compact dining area, all you had to do was listen. Most conversations included tidbits of information about the University and the football program.
These days there is more to be gleaned by surveying the digital landscape of multitudinous sources. The problem with this wondrous abundance of information is in separating the sense from the nonsense.
That’s where we come in. This column will endeavor to guide that process of discernment.
We’ll peruse message boards, podcasts, tweets, talk radio and numerous digital communication platforms. We’ll ferret out the most worthwhile information and offer our take on what it means.
The Daily Insider: April 12
At its core football is a territorial game. The team that controls the three yards on each side of the line of scrimmage will usually win. Even in the offense hyped era of spread football, the foundation of success is which team gets the greater push at the snap. Alabama football championship teams thrived in the trenches.
The 2011, 2012 and 2015 national championship teams dominated opponent’s defenses in the fourth quarter, often with power running. In those seasons, the Tide also converted third-down at a rate of 49 percent.
In the 2016 season, Alabama football’s third-down conversion rate was 43.75 percent. Too often during the 2016 season, the Alabama offense could not convert third-and-short. Most of those failures came from lack of push by the offensive line.
For 2017 to end differently than 2016, the offensive line must be improved. We reviewed the 2017 Offensive Line Options a few weeks ago. More than halfway through spring practice, little has changed.
After a lackluster offensive line performance in the first spring scrimmage, Saban expressed concern rolltide.com
"“I don’t think there is a position where we don’t need to make improvement … we gotta do a better job up front getting movement on people and finishing plays and finishing runs … pass protection is something we need to improve on”"
Saturday, the closed scrimmage was viewed by select visitors. Those football-savvy observers say the defense stuffed most of the rushing plays in good-vs.-good competition. Additionally, the first team defense regularly overwhelmed first team pass protection, giving Jalen Hurts little time.
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Yesterday we reported indications from the scrimmage were that the 2017 offense is ahead of the defense. That may not be the case. Much of the offensive explosion in the scrimmage evidently occurred against defensive back-ups.
On Monday it was reported Chris Owens was practicing at right guard ahead of Lester Cotton. However, the Owens bump into the first group is likely due to a Cotton injury on Saturday.
How serious are the offensive line problems? Will there be changes in the starters? Can the 2017 offensive line get the push demanded in third-and-short situations?
Alabama football fans, we may have a long wait for those answers.
Next: The All-Time All-Alabama Team
Before we raise too much alarm over the 2017 offensive line, remember who they face in the scrimmage trenches. Not many teams will be able to block the trio of Payne, Hand and Buggs.
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