Alabama football: 3 biggest offseason questions facing Crimson Tide
By John Buhler
Even Nick Saban’s Alabama football program will have questions to answer this offseason.
The Alabama Crimson Tide went 13-0 en route to one of the most impressive championships in college football history.
Nick Saban’s Alabama football team went unscathed through a 10-game, SEC-only, regular-season schedule. The Crimson Tide outlasted the Florida Gators in the SEC Championship game. They defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Rose Bowl before crushing the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2021 National Championship game to win the College Football Playoff.
But with so much talent leaving for the 2021 NFL Draft, as well as so many pieces from last year’s team venturing elsewhere, Saban knows his 2021 team will be vastly different from arguably the best one he has ever coached in Tuscaloosa. So even a program as impressive as Alabama will have questions to answer during the winter, spring and summer before next football season.
3 biggest offseason questions for the Alabama Crimson Tide
3. Does any team stand as a real threat to Alabama in 2021?
This is not about if Alabama has what it takes to combat complacency. Saban coaches this team, so complacency is a foreign language in Tuscaloosa. So we should expect the Crimson Tide to win somewhere around 10-to-12 regular-season games next year. What we are not sure of is how the rest of the SEC and the upper crust of the Power 5 will match up with next year’s Alabama team.
While Florida gave them a run for their money in the conference title bout, the team most likely to challenge them in 2021 will be the Georgia Bulldogs. Kirby Smart’s team is poised to play in its fifth straight New Year’s Six bowl. If the Dawgs beat Alabama or whoever in Atlanta, they will make the College Football Playoff for the second time in five years. They are a huge challenger.
Inside of the SEC West, look for Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M Aggies to remain their biggest threat. Quarterback Kellen Mond turned pro, but Fisher has his program humming in College Station. Do not be surprised if the hated Auburn Tigers pop in year one under new head coach Bryan Harsin, as well as Ed Orgeron’s LSU Tigers to potentially have a bounce-back season.
Outside of the SEC, other playoff-contending teams include the Clemson Tigers, the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Oklahoma Sooners. Again, those teams compete for playoff spots every year. Besides them, maybe teams like the Iowa State Cyclones and the North Carolina Tar Heels could be interesting? Alabama will be threatened by someone, but we do not know yet who it will be.