Last year’s Alabama-Texas game eventually boiled down to Bryce Young’s putting the team on his back and carrying the Crimson Tide to victory in Austin. Now, the return game beckons after both teams have had a week to work out the kinks against lesser opponents.
Keys for Alabama
This Tide team is much different from last year’s. Young is gone, as is running back Jamhyr Gibbs, and in steps new offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, who is revamping Bama’s offense. Early signs point to Bama going much heavier than it has in recent years—a clear nod to the style Rees has brought from Notre Dame to Tuscaloosa, and what Nick Saban told Sports Illustrated last week is the way he thinks the pendulum of football schematics is trending back toward. It gets the Tide’s offensive identity back to something approaching Saban’s first era in charge.
