Happy Gump Day: Help is coming on the offensive line?

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Happy Gump Day, one and all.

It’s a very big weekend for the Crimson Tide: The No. 4 Alabama football team hosts the 5-3 LSU Tigers. Don’t sleep on them either. Despite the trio of SEC losses, they were all to teams ranked inside the Top 10, and LSU even held the halftime lead against A&M. Sagarin has the Tigers sitting at 15th, SP+ 26th, and FEI at 14th. This is a very dangerous team for a reason many may not expect: It’s not the secondary, which ‘Bama should rightly respect; it’s LSU’s tandem of running backs, guys that would be 1000+ yard players behind most lines in the conference.

But, would they be 1000-yard running backs behind the Tide’s line? Alabama has not had one since B Rob’s 13o0 back in 2021. Well, don’t get too dispirited about the state of line play. Sure, it’s a mess now, and definitely lacks physicality in the ground game, but that could be changing if this weekend pans out.

Fittingly for series that has become defined by its trench warfare, Alabama’s recruiting focus this week is on the big uglies, in a big way:

If you will notice the official OVs this week aren’t from tackles or a cadre of 5-star wideouts: they’re on the interior line. And no one in the SEC needs more help right up the middle more than the Crimson Tide. They’re also joined by the nation’s No. 1 TE recruit, the mammoth and athletic Ahmad Hudson.

This does signal that the Tide understands its deficiencies, and perhaps may be indicative of a more physical game plan against the Tigers. But Alabama needs to impress, and Morgan needs to seal the deal and then I will stop bitching. So truly, hope for the best.

LRG Jatori Williams has already committed, so take a look at this technically sound beast for Gump Day: Head up, ass low, great balance, arms wide, finishes his blocks, nimble feet. He’s going to be perfect for the Tide’s man blocking scheme:

We have mercilessly ridiculed Nicole Auerbach here before, but she went in on the CFP commission for the right reasons this morning: They can’t keep spouting off about strength of schedule, CVs, allude to metrics and the like, and then just rank teams willy-nilly based on their eyes. Like vibe-coding, we’re apparently supposed to be fine with vibe playoffs.

Based on the comments made by first-year CFP selection committee chair Mack Rhoades, it was clear that subjectivity ruled the day. Another way to put it: It was all about vibes. It was the eye test. It was whatever the committee wanted to do — and could justify by saying that there were a few former college football coaches who watched these teams, and the entire selection committee could rely on their film evaluation.

Seriously. Rhoades said multiple times that Ohio State had better offensive line play than Indiana. That was one of the main reasons the Buckeyes were ranked ahead of the Hoosiers, apparently! Even though both were unbeaten and Indiana had a better win on its resume … but I digress.

“We refer to it as art and science,” Rhoades said Tuesday night. “The art is watching the team on film and tape and how good they are, how physical they are up front, offensive line, defensive line play, how good are they up the middle, their quarterback play, their skill players — and then certainly contemplating and looking at metrics.

“Not any one metric weighted heavier than the other. We use them all at our disposal to try to get the very best answer, and I think that’s where the public misses out a little bit; just the beauty in this is the actual debate and discussion and conversation in the room when we’re talking about all of those metrics.”

OK, so … vibes it is!

She’s right, you know.

Warde Manuel may be gone, but Mack Rhoades has shown that their idiocy is alive and well…especially since by offensive objective metrics, Indiana actually has the better line.

She wasn’t alone either. Ari Wasserman pilloried the committee for their vibe-based rankings as well. But in his case, he went specifically with Notre Dame at the 10 spot, and deservedly so. Data cannot support this — almost any of this.

That was the story yesterday, the initial CFP standings being released. There weren’t really many surprises in the first half-dozen. But there were several of curious selections thereafter. Three in particular really stood out to ball-knowers though: 9 through 11. Oregon, Texas, and Notre Dame are 0-4 vs. the Top 10, and 5-6 vs. the Top 30. They’re firmly Top 25 teams. But Top 10? Have they done enough against others in their alleged peer group to justify that? No. In fact, what happened on the field shows the exact opposite conclusion: None of them is a Top 10 team.

But they do fall within the Golden Rule: Them with the gold makes the rules. It’s just a coincidence I’m sure that all three of these teams are in the Top 10 most profitable football programs, with Texas and Notre Dame being in the Top 5.

One interesting side story did emerge, however.

It was the ACC-Big 12 proxy war spilling out into the open as the Minor Two vie for playoff spots. In the battle of these mid conferences, the committee was very blunt about the perpetual underachievement of the ACC, and that it would not be rewarded this year. (Also just a coincidence, I’m sure, that this year’s chair is from Baylor.)

Specifically, he pointed at the two darlings:

“I think you can say this about the ACC, [there’s] not, at least at this point, a lot of nonconference signature wins,” Rhoades said. “We looked at Georgia Tech at North Carolina State, and it just felt like North Carolina State dominated Georgia Tech on both sides of the ball. A bad night for Georgia Tech.

“We all believe Miami has got a talented team when you look at their roster,” Rhoades said. “Certainly think they’re really good defensively. I think if they can maybe correct some of the woes that they’ve had just in terms of turnovers, and certainly on the offensive side of the ball, they can certainly have an opportunity to win games.

“I think for Miami, I’m just going to say it: For Miami, it’s about consistency and their lack of consistency. We just need to see more consistency out of Miami headed down the stretch.”

This seems to indicate what I said last week: Outside of Miami running the table but missing the ACCCG, I do not see a path forward for the ACC to claim two spots this year. It looks like a one-bid conference, and it probably should be. But the Big 12 ought to be concerned as well. It has even fewer (2) teams in the Sagarin Top 30 than does the ACC (3), and not a single OOC comparable to what Miami has pulled off…at least if these morons had any consistency, the flyover would be under the microscope every bit as much as Tobacco Road, and then some.

And, about Alabama, Rhoades pointed out the obvious: No one has done more than the Tide:

Hat tip to Casagrande for this one. I think it should be Alabama’s motto: It’s weird, but it’s working:

Alabama’s offense is weird.

Sorta like the awkward kid in school, perhaps an aspiring magician who nobody can figure out until he punches you in the nose and walks away.

Unorthodox. Tricky. And ultimately leaves you seeing stars.

It’s a composite of some of the program’s recent greats — except the complete opposite.

So, when they said the 2025 Crimson Tide offensive experiment with Ryan Grubb would be a shift in thinking, we should have listened.

Just look at its working identity.

This is a ball-control team rooted in the passing game, which is safe but not explosive. It grinds opponents down like the early Nick Saban championship teams, except with the pass and not the run.

* * *

For Grubb, defenses are getting the hint that the traditional ground game isn’t working, so he’s crafting his play sheet to overcome that.

A seven-game winning streak, which included victories over playoff-caliber defenses, is his proof of concept.

The entire piece is worth your time. And, for what it’s worth, the data like that same outcome this weekend too: Highly efficient offensive day for the passing game in a win and cover. Like the scoreboard, it’s weird but it’s working there too.

Want some intel behind enemy lines? Interim Coach Frank Wilson’s press conference yesterday hinted that the Tigers could have a short trigger for the erratic Garrett Nussmeier, which in turn only fuels my suspicion that the talented Berry and Durham are going to be the key focus of the LSU attack on Saturday:

Football is not the only major event this weekend for ’Bama. The No. 15 Alabama Crimson Tide basketball program does not have a soft-launch into the season, that’s for sure. It travels immediately to New York this weekend to face Rick Pitino’s No. 5 St John’s Red Storm at Madison Square Garden.

SJU was simply awesome on Monday night, dismantling Quinnipiac even more handily than the Tide dispatched North Dakota. Then again, St John’s wasn’t playing without 75% of its backcourt, including its two best perimeter shooters. Nor were they without their crucial sixth man (Keitten Bristow), and McDonald’s All-American shooting guard.

Will they be back Saturday? Nate Oats was cagey, and some of it sounds minor. But in the backcourt at least, these are shooting hand injuries. And that’s not good:

“It’d be good to get some of these injured guys back,” Oats said. “We’ll have to see where they come. They’re all day-to-day. Keitenn’s got an ankle injury, Holloway’s got a wrist injury, and Wrightsell’s got a finger injury. Wrightsell’s Achilles is fine. He just hurt his finger in the Furman game, re-hurt it in practice. I think all three of those guys getting back would be big.”

Here was Nate’s press conference following the UND victory. We’ll have more coverage for the St Johns game as Saturday approaches.

And, finally, your moment of levity: Absolutely the funniest story I may have ever heard. (There’s definitely some salty language in here, for those offended by such things. But one assumes you wouldn’t be on a football website if you were.)

Embeds everywhere across the internet are flaky now. But when AWS gets their act together, I promise I’ll include it. For now, the direct link above works.

That’s all for now. Have a great day, and remember to Gump to a standard.

Row Tahd.

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