AL.com All-Access: Some closing thoughts on Alabama, Auburn bowl games – AL.com, Al.com

(The) ************************************************** college football season is not over for another days , but it is for Alabama and Auburn.The Crimson Tide ends its season at – 2 after beating Michigan – 28 in the Citrus Bowl. The Tigers finish 9-4 after losing 35 – 26 to Minnesota in the Outback Bowl.

With the caveat that I don’t put a ton of stock into the non-playoff bowls because it’s difficult to tell going in which teams really want to be there, here are some closing thoughts from Alabama and Auburn’s bowl games.

• What was up with Auburn’s offense?

The Tigers rushed foryards on 24 carries on Wednesday, an average of 2.2 yards per attempt. The longest run was a – yarder by Bo Nix. Minnesota is a pretty good defensive team, ranked No. 35 overall and No. against the run. Pretty good, but not great. The Golden Gophers are right around teams such as Alabama and Kentucky in the national defensive rankings, whom no one accused of being great on defense this year. This maddening inconsistency has to be well, maddening, for Auburn fans. Maybe Chad Morris will make a real difference in 2020, maybe not.

• Malzahn’s **************** bowl record takes another hit

The Auburn head coach is now 2-5 in bowl games, with the two wins over a 6-6 Purdue team and a Memphis team whose head coach had just left. Strangely, Malzahn is 0-3 in bowls in years in which the Tigers won the Iron Bowl. A great bowl record does not necessarily a great coach make – Bear Bryant once went eight years without winning a bowl game – but it speaks to Malzahn’s ability to game plan and get his team motivated against unfamiliar opposition, particularly when there is no championship on the line.

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Is Auburn better that it was in the ********?

To paraphrase President Ronald Reagan during the campaign, “are the Auburn Tigers better off than they were two years ago?” Just as with (**************************************************, Auburn won the Iron Bowl over an Alabama team with championship aspirations and then lost its bowl game. The Tigers went 24 – 4 that year, and have followed that up with 8-5 and 9-4. Auburn is losing its entire offensive line, about half of its defense (including arguably three of its top four or five players) to the NFL, and there are now rumblings Anthony Schwartz might decide to focus on track. Sure, the Iron Bowl win was exhilarating (and winning two of the last three is even more exhilarating), but is Auburn football trending upward or just maintaining the status quo?

• Nick Saban, Najee Harris stick it to Jim Harbaugh**************Make no mistake, Harris’ fourth-quarter touchdown on Wednesday – which was completely unnecessary to the outcome of the game – was a message to the Michigan head coach. Harbaugh openly accused Alabama of cheating in recruiting a few years ago, and you don’t have to be a genius to read between the lines that Harris – who was reportedly seriously considering Michigan right up until he boarded a plane for Birmingham after the 2017 US Army All-American Bowl – was the player in question. So Saban, who quite often will take his foot off the gas and have his quarterback take a knee in the red zone late in games, did no such thing in the Citrus Bowl. He punched it in with Harris with 28 seconds remaining, giving Harbaugh another embarrassing on-field moment.

• Tua’s decision looms largeAs my colleague Joseph Goodman wrote, Tua Tagovailoa’s impending announcement regarding his future will hang over Alabama football until Monday. What’s the right decision for Tua? It’s hard to say, because while it’s likely, there’s no lock he’d be a top 5 draft pick should he turn pro. There’s still too much time left in his rehab from a broken hip, and we have no idea if he’ll look like the old Tua once he’s medically cleared and can work out for NFL scouts. We saw a player (Mississippi State defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons) get picked in the first round last year after suffering a torn ACL during pre-draft workouts, but the closest comp to Tagovailoa might be Sam Bradford, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who missed much of his final season at Oklahoma with a shoulder injury. Bradford still went No. 1 to the then-St. Louis Rams, but has been unable to stay healthy, playing in a total of games in nine NFL seasons. • * (Was) ************************************************** a ‘blip’ for Alabama?************************************** Much was made after Wednesday’s victory that Alabama now has an unprecedented nine straight seasons of at least 11 victories. That’s true, though they play more games now than they did years ago, and teams like Florida State in the s and even Alabama in the s might have matched that had they played 11 regular-season games and an extra round of playoffs. Regardless, the question we need to ask ourselves was whether 2019 was the beginning of the end or just a “blip” for the Crimson Tide. Much will hinge on Tagovailoa’s decision, as well as those by fellow NFL draft candidates such as Devonta Smith, Henry Ruggs, Xavier McKinney and Jedrick Wills. Mac Jones showed he could be a winning quarterback in the SEC, and incoming freshman Bryce Young is by all accounts the next great one Alabama. But can the Crimson Tide fix its defensive issues from 2019 Is health the real X-factor? Aschedule that trades Duke for USC, South Carolina for Georgia and includes a trip to Baton Rouge in November will make it a difficult mountain to climb.

So what’s your take-away from Jan. 1? I’ll take your questions and comments on that or anything else on your mind beginning at (am) ****************************************

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