College Football Postseason Review - Alabama

Reviewing the season, important team by important team. Alphabetically. If I skip your team, it was probably irrelevant.

Season in 3 sentences – Started number two in the preseason and never saw number one during the regular season after getting passed by LSU's superior resume. Lost in the Game of the Century at home to LSU but was granted a rematch in the National Championship Game, controversially. Then obliterated poor LSU in the rematch to take the National Championship.

Season Expectations – It was National Title or bust. Consider that part of the equation met, but winning the SEC is close to being as important and Alabama struck out on that count, losing the division and the conference in that Game of the Century loss to LSU.

Team MVP – Trent Richardson. Richardson was the engine that made the offense go all season. At times when AJ McCarron struggled, he was the offense. That said, the defense was really the engine and if there was a dominant defender on this team (none were more dominant than many others on the roster) he would have beat Richardson out.

Biggest Game – Alabama 38, Arkansas 14; No, I'm not picking the Game of the Century of the Year. It's result was invalidated to some degree in the National Championship game. Beating Arkansas by such a large margin was one of the keys to Alabama getting the nod for the championship game and it showed the offense could score enough points to allow the defense to do its thing.

Bowl Game – Beat LSU 21-0 in the BCS Championship Game; Just a horrifying beatdown. The Alabama defense took the LSU offense behind the woodshed and the result would kindly be described at abuse. It was just flat out brutal and violent.

Historic Comparison – 2003 LSU. This Alabama team is a bit better than that LSU team that won a share of the National Championship, but the comparison remains. Dominant defense (this one better than that one) and good enough offense (the 03 LSU offense was probably a bit better than this Alabama offense). The common denominator on both teams: Nick Saban as head coach.

What Comes Next? A team that looks a whole lot like 2010 Alabama. Young in some key places, returning quarterback, strong running game. Should be good to pencil in 10 wins and then see what happens from there with a brutal schedule (open against Michigan, at Arkansas, at LSU along with the rest of SEC play). 11-1 should be good enough for SEC Championship game next season and an SEC Championship with less that two losses is pretty much an automatic ticket to the National Title Game barring bizarro circumstances (loss is to Michigan who goes undefeated and either Oregon or USC also goes undefeated only scenario I can see).