Alabama Football: Final report card for Tide’s 2019 season

Alabama football were left out of the playoff for the first time in its brief history. Here’s a final report card on their season.

The No. 8 Alabama Crimson Tide had a disappointing — by Nick Saban’s standards — season. When you are the Crimson Tide, every season is playoff or bust. Since the College Football Playoff began in 2014, the Crimson Tide have been in the Playoff every year except this one.

Every streak has to come to an end, and that’s no different for Alabama. Despite not being a playoff team — and even being left out of the New Year’s Six — Alabama still won 11 games (again) and defeated the Michigan Wolverines in the Citrus Bowl.

Here’s an interesting fact about just how good the Crimson Tide have been: this 11-win season is their lowest win total since 2013. They had the same 11-2 record and lost in the Sugar Bowl to Oklahoma in the infamous Trevor Knight game.

There were two common themes to the Alabama Crimson Tide season. First was significant injuries to significant players. The two most significant injuries were Dylan Moses and Tua Tagovaolia. Other injured players that were supposed to have an impact on the season were Joshua McMillon and LaBryan Ray.

The second theme for the Tide was the youth movement. The defense played six underclassmen including five freshmen (one redshirt freshmen). The offense was fairly experienced but started one freshman at guard.

Here’s the final report card for the Crimson Tide for the 2019 season.