For the R3cord: Predicting Alabama's record in 2023

Alabama‘s record in the regular season caused it to miss the College Football Playoffs for the second time in the last four years in 2022, coming up a little short despite having a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and arguably the best defensive player in the sport.

So where does the Crimson Tide go in 2023?

Obviously there are some question marks to sort out at quarterback, but Alabama is once again loaded across the board at most positions. Enough to make a run at a national title? Possibly, according to BOL’s Tim Watts.

Watts joined On3 founder and CEO Shannon Terry for a segment on Alabama in the latest episode of “For the R3cord.”

“I think they’re going to go 11-1,” Watts said. “I think that they’ve got tough matchups. They’ve got Tennessee, LSU and Texas and they’ve got other schools that can compete with them. I think they win two of those three.”

CLICK HERE to get SIX months of premium access to BOL for just $1, or you can also get monthly access with your first month being 50% off!

But only one of those three games are early in the season. Alabama and Texas will play in Week 2, with the Tennessee and LSU games not occurring until Oct. 21 and Nov. 4, respectively.

So we might have a pretty good idea what direction Alabama’s record is heading early on.

“I certainly think we’ll know more after the Texas game, that’s a good team and obviously they’ll be fired up,” Watts said. “And Alabama’s not going to be sleeping on them. Last year, that was a hell of a game. It was an ugly hell of a game, but it was a hell of a game. It was a good one. So I’ll go with 11-1 with knowing that they could absolutely lose a second one. Lot of uncertainty.”

The next obvious question on the episode was, given a projected Alabama record of 11-1, the Crimson Tide could win a national title. With a projected 11-1 regular season, that would leave the Crimson Tide in the thick of playoff contention in most years.

Will 2023 be the year Alabama returns to the top of the mountaintop for the first time since 2020?

“National title? I don’t have a great pick,” Watts said. “I think Georgia is in good shape. I’m not going to start a whole debate about their schedule, it’s not a strong schedule. They still have to win the SEC Championship. But I think Stetson Bennett — and (DawgsHQ’s) Rusty Mansell will tell you, I was a Stetson Bennett fan when his fans were trying to kick him off the team — I think he’s a bigger loss than you think, just because he did so many intangibles.

“I mean there’s not a team I would say yes to if you said, ‘Are they going to win a national championship?’ There’s not a single team I would say yes to.”

In other words, it’s a pretty wide open field with no absolutely dominant powerhouses you’d readily put money on.

That usually makes for a pretty fun season.