Urban Meyer is probably right here

Can’t argue with that.,

Might be a scUMbag but doesn't mean he's wrong!

I absolutely agree more of the resources should go to recruiting proven guys out of the portal. I would also not have more than 60-65 players.

Anon866797 said:

I absolutely agree more of the resources should go to recruiting proven guys out of the portal. I would also not have more than 60-65 players.

Not a single team in CFB has a team of 60-65 players. Even the NFL has more available bodies.

TheRealJCB206 said:

Not a single team in CFB has a team of 60-65 players. Even the NFL has more available bodies.

I completely understand no one does it. NFL has a 53 man roster that is active for the games.

It’s almost like…that’s what Alabama has done this off season

dp rtr said:

https://www.tmz.com/watch/2021-10-03-100321-urban-meyer-1261759/

Looks as though he was sitting in a chair.

Anon866797 said:

I absolutely agree more of the resources should go to recruiting proven guys out of the portal. I would also not have more than 60-65 players.

It would be nearly impossible to field a quality team at this level with 65 guys. Think about how thin Alabama has gotten at certain spots over the years with 85 scholarship type guys plus another 20 walks ons or so. Remember when we had to move a WR and LB to runningback? Or when Shane Lee and Christian Harris were the only two natural, healthy ILBs for a whole season? I don’t even want to think about the time that Keith Holcombe has to play ILB. He made day 1 starter Shane Lee look like prime Ray Lewis. It’s not feasible. You’ve gotta have bodies and you’ve gotta have atleast some carry overs every season to ever have any kind of culture established. If you’ve got 65 guys on the roster you better hope like hell you don’t ever have a missed evaluation and they better all stay healthy for 4 straight months.

bamabreeze said:

It would be nearly impossible to field a quality team at this level with 65 guys. Think about how thin Alabama has gotten at certain spots over the years with 85 scholarship type guys plus another 20 walks ons or so. Remember when we had to move a WR and LB to runningback? Or when Shane Lee and Christian Harris were the only two natural, healthy ILBs for a whole season? I don’t even want to think about the time that Keith Holcombe has to play ILB. He made day 1 starter Shane Lee look like prime Ray Lewis. It’s not feasible. You’ve gotta have bodies and you’ve gotta have atleast some carry overs every season to ever have any kind of culture established. If you’ve got 65 guys on the roster you better hope like hell you don’t ever have a missed evaluation and they better all stay healthy for 4 straight months.

NFL teams play a harder schedule with less players. The majority of the roster never sees the field. Pointless to pay players who will never contribute to the program.

Anon866797 said:

NFL teams play a harder schedule with less players. The majority of the roster never sees the field. Pointless to pay players who will never contribute to the program.

The NFL also carries a 17 man practice squad putting them at 70, then they can also sign free agents to replace injured guys that go on the IR. Big difference. 58 players, played snaps for the Houston Texans this season, NOT counting the offensive line, specialist, or anybody that may have only played special teams snaps. If we add the offensive lineman, I’m going to be conservative here and say only 6 played, plus your specialist, punter, kicker and long snapper. We’re at 67. That’s just the players that took snaps. Naturally you’ve got to have a 2 deep on the offensive line, even if they don’t get snaps, then you also can’t go into a season with only one specialist per position. There’s 7 more. Now we’re at 75. NFL teams also carry 90 players on their preseason rosters. That alone should tell you how many players are needed to have scrimmages and run an adequate practice. A 65-70 man college roster would be nearly impossible to compete with or sustain any success with. You can argue with a wall if you want to. Suggesting a 65 player roster is one of the most asinine things I’ve seen on this board, and that’s saying something.

bamabreeze said:

The NFL also carries a 17 man practice squad putting them at 70, then they can also sign free agents to replace injured guys that go on the IR. Big difference. 58 players, played snaps for the Houston Texans this season, NOT counting the offensive line, specialist, or anybody that may have only played special teams snaps. If we add the offensive lineman, I’m going to be conservative here and say only 6 played, plus your specialist, punter, kicker and long snapper. We’re at 67. That’s just the players that took snaps. Naturally you’ve got to have a 2 deep on the offensive line, even if they don’t get snaps, then you also can’t go into a season with only one specialist per position. There’s 7 more. Now we’re at 75. NFL teams also carry 90 players on their preseason rosters. That alone should tell you how many players are needed to have scrimmages and run an adequate practice. A 65-70 man college roster would be nearly impossible to compete with or sustain any success with. You can argue with a wall if you want to. Suggesting a 65 player roster is one of the most asinine things I’ve seen on this board, and that’s saying something.

You conveniently left out they play the games with 48. So make the number 70 but no way a team needs to pay 105 guys. Also not arguing with you, I don’t care if you agree.

Anon866797 said:

You conveniently left out they play the games with 48. So make the number 70 but no way a team needs to pay 105 guys. Also not arguing with you, I don’t care if you agree.

They have the ability to move their roster midseason. College does not. Sure they may suit up 48 on Sunday, but that 48 is not the same 48 as it was last Sunday. It’s a fluid situation where college is not. They can sign guys when needed, pull guys from the practice squad etc etc… plus the college teams aren’t paying 105 guys. Behind probably the normal 85, the other 20 aren’t getting any of the rev share money. That’s been reported here 50 times over the last month. It would be nearly IMPOSSIBLE to be a competitive football team while annually only having 60-65 players. Did you miss the part where ATLEAST 67 different players played snaps in a real life game for the Texans this season? You don’t even have an argument. College football is still a developmental league. You’re not developing anybody when there’s nobody there to develop. I’m losing brain cells here. If you’re big idea held any weight whatsoever, somebody, somewhere would be trying to follow your model. If a college football HC tried to get through a season with 60 bodies on the roster they would haul his ass out of the facility in a wheelbarrow if they had to just as fast as they could get there.

bamabreeze said:

They have the ability to move their roster midseason. College does not. Sure they may suit up 48 on Sunday, but that 48 is not the same 48 as it was last Sunday. It’s a fluid situation where college is not. They can sign guys when needed, pull guys from the practice squad etc etc… plus the college teams aren’t paying 105 guys. Behind probably the normal 85, the other 20 aren’t getting any of the rev share money. That’s been reported here 50 times over the last month. It would be nearly IMPOSSIBLE to be a competitive football team while annually only having 60-65 players. Did you miss the part where ATLEAST 67 different players played snaps in a real life game for the Texans this season? You don’t even have an argument. College football is still a developmental league. You’re not developing anybody when there’s nobody there to develop. I’m losing brain cells here. If you’re big idea held any weight whatsoever, somebody, somewhere would be trying to follow your model. If a college football HC tried to get through a season with 60 bodies on the roster they would haul his *** out of the facility in a wheelbarrow if they had to just as fast as they could get there.

The majority of the 105 will never develop and play any meaningful downs at Bama. So if 67 played than 70 will do just fine. Much harder to play an NFL schedule. Not even close

We let some grown a$$ men walk that I wish we hadn’t let walk.

Realistically you can effectively coach and prepare about 50-55 guys to play on Saturday. The rest are practice dummies but are necessary to be able to practice the way you should. Unless of course you do it like Cignetti. Other than when coaching changes occur it appears teams are bringing in about 20 guys per portal season to be one of the 50. So Urban is onto something in terms of balancing your recruiting emphasis. Mature teams are rising to the top for sure.

TheRealJCB206 said:

Not a single team in CFB has a team of 60-65 players. Even the NFL has more available bodies.

Actually a NFL team has 69 players including practice squad. They only have a 53 active man roster and only 48 of those can dress out each week.

I like that we picked up some really Big guys in the portal on both lines

Simon said:

Realistically you can effectively coach and prepare about 50-55 guys to play on Saturday. The rest are practice dummies but are necessary to be able to practice the way you should. Unless of course you do it like Cignetti. Other than when coaching changes occur it appears teams are bringing in about 20 guys per portal season to be one of the 50. So Urban is onto something in terms of balancing your recruiting emphasis. Mature teams are rising to the top for sure.

But now the 50-55 become practice dummies. More injuries less bodies available for games. And less development because they are not learning system they learning the other teams system weekly. Football is a numbers game. Why do they separate high schools into classifications? Because they have a numbers advantage.

uofa9899 said:

Actually a NFL team has 69 players including practice squad. They only have a 53 active man roster and only 48 of those can dress out each week.

Is 69 more than 60-65? They also have an IR and trades in season.

bonecoach said:

But now the 50-55 become practice dummies. More injuries less bodies available for games. And less development because they are not learning system they learning the other teams system weekly. Football is a numbers game. Why do they separate high schools into classifications? Because they have a numbers advantage.

Right. In my mind one approach becomes - let’s go to 100, take some lesser recruited guys and get them in a robust Alabama development program. But do we actually have such and/or is our staff thinking that way? I’ve actually had a SEC head coach challenge this idea saying that kids are better off signing at a lower level where they can play than they are being one of the 70-100 group on a roster in our conference. Then he’s going to pluck that guy from the portal who has 15-20 starts already.

TheRealJCB206 said:

Is 69 more than 60-65? They also have an IR and trades in season.

Yes, but you can only take 48 to each game. That's less than 60 last time I checked.

uofa9899 said:

Yes, but you can only take 48 to each game. That's less than 60 last time I checked.

you can't add players in season in college. That's a huge difference and nfl has practice squads that increase the number. Lastly, not much development on NFL teams. Colleges carry guys they know aren't playing this season for future seasons