SEC Football: Five teams with the most experience from juniors
Jan 1, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide running back Derrick Henry (27) runs the ball during the first quarter against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2015 Sugar Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
3. Alabama Crimson Tide
Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide only return 13 starters for the 2015 season, but Alabama is a top five recruiter nationally year in and year out so it makes sense that everyone expects Saban’s club to go nowhere.
The Tide was projected as the team to win the West by the media at media days and came up four points shy of the top spot in the SEC, coming in second to only Auburn.
While the Tide has question marks at quarterback and along the offensive line, Alabama played a ton of underclassmen a year ago. Bama ranks 24th in the country by the cfbmatrix as far as number of sophomores played a year ago which is not a good thing for the rest of the league. Alabama sophomores started in 239 total games; 103 of them on the offensive side of the ball and 123 on the defensive side.
Derrick Henry is the bell cow of the sophomore class and should be a beast in the backfield for Alabama this year, a year after coming up 10 yards shy of a thousand at 990.
O.J. Howard, along with Chris Black had fantastic sophomore seasons and both are expected to play significant roles in the passing game this year.
Jonathan Allen returns on the defensive front and his five sacks from a year ago now pace the Alabama defensive line. Eddie Jackson should mesh well with some other upper classmen to give the Tide a much improved secondary and Adam Griffith gives the Tide a seasoned kicker, an area where Alabama has had some short comings as of late.
All in all, Alabama should be just fine in 2015 due to the immense amount sophomores who are now juniors and got extensive time a year ago.
Next: South Carolina