Alabama Football: Leadership and necessity of Upperclassmen, Part 3

Today we continue our look at leadership in the Alabama football program, this time focusing on the 2017 recruiting class.

Well, folks we’ve reached the point where Alabama football’s second-most talented recruiting class under Nick Saban are upperclassmen. (Only 2019’s ranks higher according to 247Sports.)

Yup, a whole bunch of really good football players with, at least, a year’s worth of meaningful playing time under their belts are now third-year players. And if we’ve learned anything from the previous two posts, it’s that the “upperclassmen” designation doesn’t necessarily make for great leadership on its own.

The disparity between the five national title-winning teams and five of the teams that didn’t win it wasn’t as great as I had initially thought. The idea of the “Upperclassmen Ratio” took a hit when I realized that the 2010, ’13, ’14, ’16 and ’18 teams were not all that different from the ’09, ’11, ’12, ’15 and ’17 teams in the way of starting upperclassmen.

The only outlier was last season’s team which ended up having a 13:9 “Upperclassmen Ratio,” with thirteen third-to-fifth-year players and nine first-to-second-year players. That team went 14-1 with the “1” being a glaringly bad 44-16 loss to Clemson in the national title game.

On that team, eight of the nine underclassmen were from the 2017 squad, all second-year players with a wellspring of athleticism and no real experience leading the players around them. This doesn’t even include Najee Harris, LaBryan Ray and Phidarian Mathis, who all played a significant amount of time in 2018.

So, when we look at leadership at Alabama, the “Upperclassmen Ratio” may be important, but experience within the system is what obviously takes it to another level. This is what makes championship-caliber teams from start to finish and with the 2017 recruiting class, Alabama football has some doozies.

And remember: six members of this class were on the field in the second half of the title game against Georgia when the Tide won in overtime and they were all true freshmen.

Everything starts with junior Alabama football quarterback Tua Tagavailoa. A year wiser, Tua’s on his third offensive coordinator in three seasons, but his effectiveness on the field shouldn’t be any lesser.

As Saban brought up at SEC Media Days, Tua’s main issue as a QB is knowing “when to say when.” Anyone who watched Tua against tougher competition could see this. He hung on to the ball too long or threw passes that simply weren’t there. When we think about a quarterback going through his progressions and recognizing when a play breaks down, Tua still tried to make something out of nothing. This was to the detriment of himself and his team.

The six interceptions he threw in 2018 were against the four best defenses Alabama football played and the two he threw against Clemson resulted in 14 points for the Tigers.

Experience is key for a guy as talented as Tua, but personal growth and maturity is what puts it over the top.

Surrounding Tua, offensively, there are six other players from the 2017 class who are projected starters: Najee Harris (RB), Jerry Jeudy (WR), Henry Ruggs III (WR), Devonta Smith (WR), Jedrick Wills (OT) and Alex Leatherwood (OT). Junior running back Brian Robinson should be Harris’ primary backup this season and redshirt sophomore Mac Jones is in line to fill in for Tua if necessary. All third-year guys.

Defensively, the 2017 class isn’t as well-represented as the offense, but the ones who are projected to start will be considered leaders of their squad. On the line, you have the aforementioned Ray and Mathis, at “Mike” linebacker will be Dylan Moses (the signal caller of the defense) and, on the back end, do-everything safety Xavier McKinney.

If healthy, outside linebacker Chris Allen should play a more prominent role in 2019, as well, especially with the recent news of sophomore OLB Eyabi Anoma not being enrolled in classes.

All told, you could have thirteen members of the 2017 Alabama football recruiting class as major contributors to the 2019 team and possibly 50% of the offense and defense. From one recruiting class. Third-year players. That’s insane.

This is why the 2019 team could either be really special or really regressive. Judging by Saban’s decision to bring three juniors as his player reps at Media Days, he has some amount of confidence in the guys who played throughout Alabama football’s last national championship team.

They certainly brought it from an athletic standpoint in 2018, as well, but putting it all together as a way of affecting the ones around them will be major. While seniors like Raekwon Davis, Anfernee Jennings, Terrell Lewis and Trevon Diggs can certainly help out with this, having up to eleven guys on both sides of the ball who lead by more than example is paramount.

The fact of the matter is, the 2010 team had ten guys starting from the 2008 recruiting class, all third-years, and they ended up losing three games. Granted, five of those guys had not started the previous season, but it goes back to the original question: does the upperclassmen designation matter as much as the amount of experience one has within the system?

Members of the 2017 recruiting class are going to provide an answer. It could be the championship-defining answer for 2019.