Alabama Football: Talking Bama talent vs. rest of SEC

There will be a lot of talking next week in Nashville. For the first time in a long while, Alabama Football will not garner the most attention. Sure, Nick Saban’s comments will be noticed as much as ever. But the Crimson Tide will not be the SEC team most mentioned. Instead, it will be Georgia.

With the Bulldogs just weeks away from embarking on a season with potential historical significance, every other SEC team, including Alabama will be measured against Georgia.

There is another sure thing for SEC Media Days. Dozens of players will be talked about over and over as being the ‘best’ in the SEC. This July, the most talked about players will not include as many Alabama players as in past years.

As a clue of what to expect, take Joe Vitale’s recent Athlon story on the SEC’s 10 best offensive players for 2023. Only one of them plays for the Alabama Crimson Tide; J.C. Latham. Vitale has LSU QB, Jayden Daniels at No. 1. Daniels has earned such attention, but two more SEC quarterbacks were listed in the top 10, including a new starter, and none of them will wear crimson and white.

Alabama will arguably have the best running back group in the nation, but in the preseason, none can be ranked above Quinshon Judkins of Ole Miss and Rocket Sanders of Arkansas. There is no debate the top SEC tight end is Georgia’s, Brock Bowers.

It would not be hard to pick the top six wide receivers in the SEC, with none from the Crimson Tide.

A similar exercise could be done for SEC defensive players. Alabama’s Jaheim Oatis, Dallas Turner and Kool-Aid McKinstry would have a good chance to be in a top 15. Georgia would have at least four defenders in strong contention and LSU would have a number equal to Alabama.

What Alabama football fans have been hearing for months is that the Crimson Tide is short on elite talent for 2023. There have been a small number of dissenting voices.

A week ago Bama Hammer elaborated on the Crimson Tide’s level of talent based on an observation by Josh Pate and a calculation from 247’s annual Blue Chip Ratio (BCR). Pate pointed out the 2023 Crimson Tide roster will be populated with players from “three of the six highest-rated recruiting classes in history.”

Alabama Football No. 1

According to the 2023 BCR, Alabama Football is No. 1 at 90%. Georgia is 77% and LSU is 71%. The gap (according to the BCR) is not insignificant.

During SEC Media Days, when Alabama’s 2023 level of talent is underplayed, Crimson Tide fans need not be alarmed. There’s a good chance this fall, the SEC team with the best 40 players on its roster is the Alabama Crimson Tide.

One more thing; don’t look for signs of ‘Bama Fatigue’ in Nashville. Instead, media attention will be saturated with current ‘best’ stories and for a change, the Tide may be outshone.