Although the Crimson Tide’s football record this season did not turn out to be what many expected, most students say that they are still satisfied with the program and are already looking forward to next year’s season.
“I feel like 9-3 is a pretty good season for most teams, but considering the players we have, we should have done better,” said Michael Khalilian, a junior majoring in management information systems.
This year’s 9-3 regular season record falls short of many students’ expectations after a perfect 2009 season.
“I thought we might lose one, but I never imagined three,” Khalilian said. “Especially when we had our whole offense returning from a championship year.”
Khalilian said he believes that in past years, the football program has done much better with considerably less talent.
“I think we were more driven in the 2008 season because we hadn’t tasted success in a while,” Khalilian said.
However, he believes that last year’s national championship title is not the only reason this season did not turn out the way most Alabama fans had hoped.
“I think that we definitely played with more drive last season when we hadn’t just come off winning a national championship,” Khalilian said. “But we may have just been overrated this year because of last season.”
Tyler Mills, a senior majoring in management information systems, said he does not feel that the Alabama football team played to their potential.
“I expected the secondary to have the struggles that they did, but the real disappointment to me was the offense,” Mills said. “I think play calling was a big part of it but there is no excuse for the inconsistency we had running the ball. We just didn’t have poise in big games like we did last year.”
Mills has followed the Tide closely since Nick Saban’s arrival in 2007 and said he is very impressed with what Saban has done for the program, this season not excluded.
“I think the team has made huge strides in terms of the effort they give week in and week out since he got here,” Mills said. “As far as this season goes, I think it’s less Saban’s fault and more the fault of those players that enjoyed a national championship last season and got complacent coming into this year.”
Mills said despite a disappointing season, he still has great confidence in the Tide and is excited to see what happens next year.
“Saban has already been on record that next year’s team will be the most talented he’s ever coached, and we continue to recruit extremely well,” Mills said. “I think losing three games this year, especially the way we lost them, will be fuel for some of the younger guys to get better. I don’t think anyone can say they aren’t satisfied with the program after all that it went through over the past decade. We are definitely on the right track going into the future, and we’ll bounce back.”
