Alabama hasn't looked like Alabama this season. That seems painfully obvious. A lucky win at Texas by a single point early in the season. Absent-mindedly letting Arkansas back into the game in the 3rd quarter before shutting the door. Somehow being a play away from losing to Texas A&M, another team having a disappointing season. This past weekend, finally, a loss at the hands of an upstart Tennessee team led by a 2nd year coach. That too, with an absurdly talented team. A top-5 pick at QB, a game-breaking first round-pick at RB, multiple 5-star receivers, and a defense absolutely loaded with studs led by Will Anderson Jr, a player believed to be the best in the nation. Any expected holes were also plugged in the offseason with some of the top transfers in the nation. Early mock drafts before the season started showed up to 8 Alabama players being selected in the first round. All of this begs the question: what the hell happened to Alabama?

I thought it would be appropriate to look at the last time people asked these questions of Saban and Alabama. It wasn't that long ago. Before Saban's Alabama absolutely shredded the pandemic year of college football in 2020, they lost 2 regular season games in 2019, famously to Joe Burrow's LSU team and Auburn led by Bo Nix. Were there warning signs that year? Not really. Each of Alabama's closest games during that season outside of their losses featured games that were essentially over at halftime (24-10 against South Carolina, 38-10 against Ole Miss, 24-13 against Texas A&M), unless you count Michigan somehow leading them at the half in the bowl game following that season. Bama didn't seem to have the issues that season that have plagued them this season (poor on the road, bad receiver and offensive line play, undisciplined) with the exception of maybe subpar secondary play against talented opponents. 

There are some obvious similarities between 2019 Bama's loss to LSU and this iteration's loss to Tennessee: both opponents were led by dynamic, unflappable 2nd year transfer QBs unafraid to step up in the pocket and launch the ball downfield to receivers or take off and run with it themselves, buoyed by innovative offensive minds and receivers running rampant downfield. But the similarities end there. This Tennessee team is great, but it's no 2019 LSU, which was possibly one of the most talented teams ever assembled. That LSU team also had a well-regarded coach at DC, Dave Aranda, while Tennessee has Tim Banks, the guy they went and got because they couldn't pry Al Washington from Ohio State (lol). Alabama losing this game is absolutely worse than that 2019 loss to LSU, and their performance during this season is absolutely worse than that of the 2019 Alabama team.

But I hope you don't mistake this post for an obituary. We know all too well what Alabama became in 2020: one of the greatest, most dominant teams of all time. They may yet go onto win the national championship this very year, since Tennessee isn't in the SEC West. The team is still absurdly talented, and we'll still hear many Alabama names called in the upcoming NFL Draft. Fixing Alabama's issues may be as simple as making some staffing changes. Though perhaps somewhat obscured by Texas A&M signing the highest-rated recruiting class of all time, Alabama's 2022 class actually had a higher average rating per recruit. The talent is certainly there. Perhaps the coaches aren't. 

I'd also like to clarify that I'm not writing this post because I think OSU would beat Alabama if they played on the field this year (though I do). Regardless of how OSU is doing in any given year, it's always interesting to study the greatest college football coach and dynasty of all time, especially when they lose, since it happens so rarely.

What do you folks think? Is it different this time? Or is another monster 2020 season lurking around the corner? Is this even worth discussing?