Alabama Football: It Wasn’t Supposed To Happen This Year

Some of the expectations for Alabama football were unreasonably low this season. Some probably thought that some were way too high.

We’ve heard it all in just about every season before. Take this season for instance. Most said Alabama would see a bit of a decline, and maybe lose two or three games during the regular season. Even I thought it was possible. The Tide had a lot of uncertainties coming into this season. Alabama would have to break in a new quarterback, new “quarterback” on defense to take the place of C.J. Mosley, and would have to replace countless stars at positions of need. It would be tough to do anything this season.

Some of the media even helped stir it up as well. People thought that Alabama would struggle on offense because Saban hired Lane Kiffin and he is just a cancer where ever he goes. I was optimistic of the hire but knew in the back of my mind how his offenses had performed before and knew that if anyone could keep him reeled in, it would be Saban.

Then you have Blake Sims. One media member from Atlanta actually tweeted out that he had heard from a “source” that the Tide had a divided locker room all because of the Jake Coker/Blake Sims quarterback battle. Each group was wanting their own choice as signal caller. Looks like the information was crossed up somewhere after hearing Coker and Sims talk during the first part of the season. They pull for and support each other.

One other media member also said that western division rival coach Gus Malzahn would own Nick Saban for the next few seasons. Now all of you know that I am an Alabama fan and I’m not going to say Malzahn is an awful coach, but right now the records are even and it could be two great coaches going at it each season. We will know more with a bigger sampling size on down the road.

More from Bama Hammer

• Alabama Football: Gut check time for 11 guys Saturday afternoon
• Alabama Football: Moving past Crimson Tide quarterback rumors
• Alabama Football: How improved is the Ole Miss defense?
• Alabama Football: Power Ranking the SEC after week three
• Alabama’s latest win total projection hints that team is in trouble this season

Those were the talking points but there were different results.

Quarterback Blake Sims didn’t get off to a great start during the first game but as the season progressed. he got better. Last night, he broke the SEC Title game completion percentage with an 85.2-percentage. Sure, he has had some not-so-great games and we even dropped one against Ole Miss. When we needed a win in the worst way when another loss would probably do them in, the boys in crimson dug deep to find just a little more fight.

The run defense this season has been fantastic but the backside has given up some big plays. In years past, that would have been a problem. Enter Lane Kiffin. Kiffin’s different uptempo offense has scored enough points to cover up the secondary issues. It all works so well together.

What about the “divided locker room” story? I think that went out the window too. If you hear any of these guys speak, you hear how much they try to lift each other up as well as be there for one another when the other makes a bad play or mistake. They are family. They work hard and they are resilient.

The Tide lost the already mentioned Ole Miss game and then got into a tight contest with Arkansas in Fayetteville that ended in a one-point win. Saban has said many times this season that the last few minutes of that game was a turning point. A turning point, indeed.

This season wasn’t supposed to happen. We were supposed to be at home watching some other team in the SEC Title game. But it didn’t happen like that.

The few losses never happened in the regular season. The team grew together, improved and some even set individual records.

At the time of writing this, I saw all of those “question marks” the media had, standing on the podium accepting the trophy as the 2014 SEC Champions. Order restored.

But guess what? It’s not over yet. There’s still one, possibly two games to go with the National Title on the line. There’s not a team I would rather cheer for, either. Just don’t tell them “this isn’t supposed to happen this year”.

On second thought after reading back over this, please do. See you in the College Football Playoff.