Alabama football: 3 reasons Nick Saban’s crew won’t win a national title
Alabama has been one of the best teams in recent college football history, but they still have flaws hindering them.
When head coach Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2007, he got off to a rocky start, ending that season with a record of 7-6. But ever since that lackluster campaign, the Crimson Tide has been an absolute college football powerhouse.
Throughout Saban’s tenure, Alabama has won five national championships and has perennially been a top team in the SEC. At this point, it seems like it is a guarantee that the Tide will be a very serious contender for the national championship each season.
Nonetheless, Saban and Co. still have flaws plaguing the team that has played a role in preventing them from winning the title the past two season and will continue to do so in the future.
Here’s what the Tide needs to focus on in order to be able to go out and win a sixth national championship.
Alabama football flaw No. 3: Will the injury bug bite again?
In the 2019 college football season, the Alabama Crimson Tide were riddled with injuries from start to finish. Before the season even got underway, the Tide lost linebacker Dylan Moses who was expected to be the leader on defense.
The injuries then continued as the season progressed with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffering a high ankle sprain in October and then a season-ending hip injury in November. Defensive lineman Raekwon Davis then suffered an ankle sprain late in the season. He was joined by star wide receiver Henry Ruggs III who went down with bruised ribs.
These injuries proved to be detrimental to Alabama in their 2019 campaign and derailed their season. Tagovailoa’s first injury with the ankle sprain happened shortly before the Tide’s matchup with LSU where he completed around half of his passes, fumbled the ball, and threw an interception. Tagovailoa’s more serious injury then thrust in an inexperienced Mac Jones, who was nowhere near as talented as Tagovailoa.
Without its star quarterback, Alabama went on to lose to a much less talented Auburn team at the end of the season, which gave the Tide its first regular season with more than one loss since 2010. Sometimes injuries are uncontrollable, but strength and conditioning also play a role in a players’ durability. It couldn’t hurt Alabama to look at that part of their program and see if they can make some improvements because so many injuries in a single season don’t just occur due to bad luck.