The University of Alabama Football and Crimson Tide Sports Source
April 19, 2024
August 30, 2014
It’s finally here!
Game one of the 2014 season couldn’t get here soon enough. The train wreck that was the end of 2013 lingered over the long off-season and left fans in a funk. The quarterback battle that was supposed to be a coronation didn’t turn out that way either.
West Virginia will pose a challenge for Alabama. They run a hurry up no huddle offense and a quirky 3-3-5 defense. Alabama has played the up tempo offenses better than it is perceived that they have played them. The fact that they have lost games to those types of teams seems to indicate that up tempo is a weakness. The fact that most teams run this sort of offense is not factored in to that equation.
Regardless, on ESPN perception is reality, so up tempo offenses are Alabama’s and by extension Nick Saban’s kryptonite. OK fine. I’ve said this a number of times Alabama’s defense was built to stop LSU. That worked. It has now been retooled to stop up tempo teams. West Virginia will be the first test to see how well the tweaking has paid off.
This is the first game of the season. If you have watched the last couple of nights you have seen what that means. Jitters and inconsistency – did you watch the Ole Miss-Boise State game? It was a tale of two halves. That’s what we should expect in Atlanta.
On paper Alabama is a better team than West Virginia. But, they don’t play the games on paper. In case you missed it Alabama is breaking in a new quarterback or two. That will be the key, that and pass defense.
West Virginia is going to stack the line, shoot gaps and dare the new quarterbacks to beat them passing. Alabama is going to run X number of scripted plays. My guess is a series of plays for each quarterback. It will be conservative designed to get them comfortable and to pound the undersized West Virginia line.
The Mountaineers on the other hand are going to try and go fast and strike quick and get a big lead. Think Texas A&M last year. They might score first. It all depends on how quickly the defense gets used to their speed and make no mistake they are a team blessed with speed.
Alabama will win the game, but it will not answer all the questions. Those answers will come in the next two weeks.
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