With all the changes college football has undergone over the last 10-15 seasons, one fact prevails. For Alabama Football and every other true National Championship contender, players must make key plays in tight games. Describing those players as elite is incomplete. Many teams have players of elite talent and ability. In games with two comparably talented rosters, it is game-changing players making game-changing plays that often decide outcomes.
Does the Alabama Crimson Tide roster have enough game-changers for success in the 2023 season. Success meaning, of course, nothing less than winning a National Championship game. The truth is no one knows the answer.
Even with one of the most-gifted game-changers in Alabama football history, the Crimson Tide gained just 11 wins last season. In Tuscaloosa, 11 wins in a season, comes close to defining failure.
No matter how much we Alabama fans may prefer to ignore it, the top of the college football mountain is currently owned by the Georgia Bulldogs. By one projection of the best players in the 2023 season, Georgia is loaded for a three-peat.
A projection provided by Max Chadwick of PFF projects the top 10 players nationally for 11 positions. Eight SEC teams have players included and with future SEC team, Texas added, the list includes 31 players.
Georgia, followed by LSU and Texas have the most players designated. Eight Bulldogs made the list, along with five Bengal Tigers and five Longhorns. The count for Alabama Football is three players, a number equal to Arkansas. The other teams represented are Missouri, Ole Miss and Florida with two players each, and Texas A&M with one.
Even if the projected list of players proves to be quite accurate during the season, it does not mean the Crimson Tide will be outmatched against LSU and Texas. A counter-opinion is that sustained performance by position groups decides more games than game-changing plays by individual players. Gene Stallings would tell players what he learned from Bear Bryant – ‘just do your job’ play after play. Even if that philosophy still holds true, it does not change the need for big-time players to make big plays at critical points of games.
Alabama Football Best Players and more top players
From the projected list of college football’s best players for the 2023 season, Alabama football players, players from five 2023 Crimson Tide opponents, and Georgia players are listed below.
- Alabama Crimson Tide: CB, Kool-Aid McKinstry; Edge, Dallas Turner and OT, J.C. Latham
- Texas Longhorns: WR, Xavier Worthy; TE, Ja’Tavion Sanders; OT, Kelvin Banks Jr.; LB, Jaylan Ford; DL, Byron Murphy II
- LSU Bengal Tigers: QB, Jayden Daniels; WR, Malik Nabers; OT, Will Campbell; LB, Harold Perkin Jr.; DL, Mekhi Wingo
- Arkansas Razorbacks: QB, K.J. Jefferson; RB, Raheim Sanders; IOL, Beaux Limmer
- Ole Miss Rebels: RB, Quinshon Judkins; TE, Caden Prieskorn
- Texas A&M Aggies: S, Demani Richardson
- Georgia Bulldogs: TE, Brock Bowers; WR, Ladd McConkey; IOL, Tate Rutledge; LB, Jamon Dumas-Johnson; Edge, Mykel Williams; CB, Javon Bullard; CB, Kamari Lassiter; S, Malaki Starks
Let’s be clear, Alabama Football could well have the best overall roster in the 2023 college football season. The Crimson Tise is in no way, talent-depleted.