2014 Season Preview

Tuscaloosa,AL- Alabama enters the 2014 season as the 2 time defending SEC and BCS Champions. The Tide completed back-to-back undefeated seasons and defeated Michigan in back-to-back BCS Title Games. 2014 looks to have no fewer expectations than years past as the Tide have a host of letterwinners returning and a string of 3 straight top ranked recruiting classes.

Junior Demetrius Fowler (6'2", 214) is the man in charge at the QB position. He has seen limited action the last two seasons but was a highly touted recruit. At running back the Tide boast a trio of burners in Doug Vaughn, Melvin Freeman and Eric Mack who should all vie for time with Vaughn being the favorite to be the feature back. The strength of the Tide this season remains their receiving corp and offensive line. Aaron Colvin, Anthony Bryant and Tommy Hawk are 3 of the best receivers in the entire country and the fact that they are on the field together makes Bama an explosive offense. The O-Line reloaded again this year and feature 5 preseason all-SEC performers. The young but exceptionally talented defense is led by preseason All-American selections in Junior linebacker Doug Maxey and Junior defensive end Chad Roland. Freshman Jermaine Smith takes over the kicking duties and as the highest rated kicking recruit it appears as if Bama will once again excel in the kicking game.

One key difference for the Tide this season in comparison to the previous two is the strength of the SEC. Aside from the top ranked Tide, the SEC boasts fellow top ten teams in LSU, Georgia and Florida. Just behind the cream of the crop are top 25 picks in Auburn and Tennessee. 'This season certainly is shaping up to be a much more difficult run than years past' said Jones. 'with a host of teams littered throughout the top 25 and a team that has a larger mix of underclassmen than previous iterations, we're in for a real fight. Whoever comes out on top of this conference will certainly have earned it.'

Despite the incredible talent of the SEC teams, Alabama has a rather favorable schedule. They do have 2 tough road games at Tennessee and at LSU. Aside from that, their road games are Arkansas, Kentucky and Georgia Tech, all talented teams to be sure, but none should truly give Alabama a run for their money. Alabama's nonconference schedule features home dates with Pac-10 member Arizona and Big-12 North member Iowa State.

With the number of players back with experience, a rather favorable schedule and a bunch of 5 star prospects ready to take the field, we expect Alabama to finish the regular season undefeated for the third straight season and to match up against Florida for a repeat of last seasons defensive minded conference title game. We expect Alabama to still be just a touch better than the Gators and to meet Michigan for a third straight season in the BCS Title Game. Although the Wolverines appear to have closed the talent gap this season, we expect the experience of head man Aaron Jones and his talented Tide to once again roll the Wolverines.