![]() ![]() Robert Gillespie had a full year of a healthy roster, and between he and Bill O’Brien, were able to scheme and coach Jahmyr Gibbs into a First Round selection. Eric Wolford and Coleman Hutzler shined at OL and at ST/OLB. The University of Alabama shed a lot of coaching deadwood following the 2021 season, and brought in a less splashy, but significantly more impactful group of coaches. It faced four teams on the road that are or were in the AP Top 10: 2-2 is about what you’d expect from that, since against Top 10s, an average fellow Top 10 wins 51.6% of the time. It faced nine teams in the Top 25, and went 7-2 against them. Will Anderson became one of just six players to ever sweep the defensive awards, and just the the third to win back-to-back defensive Heismans.Īlabama faced a much more difficult schedule. Individually, the Tide banked its first ever No. Yet, for all that, it was a successful season. Almost half the schedule was decided by less than a touchdown, and the Tide finished a mediocre 3-2 in those tight games. Alabama was unable to score 28 or more points in regulation against Efficiency Top 25 teams in 4 of their 6 contests. Offensive playcalling against competitive teams? Somehow even that got worse. ![]() All of those drops? The Tide biffed more in 2022. The penalty issue? It wasn’t resolved it actually worsened. 6 Kansas State, the Big 12 Champion, was hardly a thing of gridiron beauty, as the Tide out-talented a well-coached team who able to scheme and muscle their way over, around, and through Alabama’s interior defense.Īnd throughout the season, some of the mistakes that doomed Alabama in 2021 reared their heads in 2022, and they did so in spades. Even a fairly convincing Sugar Bowl win over No. Then, two weeks later, Auburn set an Iron Bowl rushing record on the Tide, and rang up the most ground gainers ever surrendered by a Nick Saban team - college or pro. Just three weeks later, Alabama would follow up that sloppy loss, with an even more listless one in Baton Rouge. After flirting with it a few times, Alabama finally lost to the Tennessee Volunteers for the first time since 2006, ending the longest one-sided dominance in the century-long rivalry. That sense of something being off would eventually strike calamitously. The center of the cupcakes still stuck to the toothpick. ![]() Yet, it seemed for its 6-0 record that Alabama wasn’t quite baked. some of its weaker teams - which culminated in an injury to Bryce Young in Fayetteville: it would be a sprain of his throwing shoulder that would linger much of the year. The Tide then began a tour of destruction vs. It was a sign of things to come: that was the second-lowest points allowed by Texas’s average defense all year. Desultory, mistake-prone, and then bailed out by what-many still believe to be a questionable flag, somehow UA secured a one-point 20-19 road win. To those watching closely, it was hardly an endorsement for those who believed 2022 would be much improved over the previous season’s national runner up. The year began with a desultory trip to DKR for the much-hyped Texas-Alabama tilt. And another Top 5 finish would make practically anyone envious.īut, for all that success, you’d be pressed to find the casual fan who thought the 2022 season was a success. By the standards of 130 FBS teams, the 2022 Alabama Crimson Tide was a success - an elite one even: Only 18 teams cracked double digit wins only a dozen had more than 10 wins. ![]()
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