He was a freshman, man. I'll take Saban's word that he was the best RB they faced over message board hand wringing. Before his injury he could break tackles and he had speed. He's a shell of what he was. People hang on to the fumble against UW, but the dude has 9 carries for 64 yards and a TD at 7.1 ypc a clip. Dude still had almost 700 yards rushing @ 5 ypc and 5 TD's, with 156 yds receiving. That's over 800 yards from scrimmage, and he shared the ball with Brooks for most of the season. Had he not torn every ligament his knee had to offer, he was going to absolutely punish people with the muscle he added.
I really don't get the hate. He has exactly 1 fumble in 186 carries. That's, uh, pretty fucking good. Yeah, it sucked that it came at the wrong time, but people are living in some kind of time distortion or alternate dimension regarding his abilities.
I wouldn't say "quiet." Dude has done really good for a first year starter with 2,763 pass yards, 23 TDs with only 7 INT's. Not to mention a 67.7% against top 25 teams, and 62% overall. People also shouldn't forget he has 7 rushing TD's. 34 total TD's and 7 INT's is more than solid. He's grown up before our eyes, he's processing the speed of the game much faster, and he's not trying to fit a square peg into a round hole by forcing the ball into triple coverage for the most part.
He went from being enigmatic to understanding the assignment. Next season he's going to be indomitable and inexorable. He's already showing his rating and now after he pummeles aggy on Friday we can look ahead for him hulking out.
I understand the hesitations and reservations regarding Wingo (who is on his way to close to 900 yards if he balls out Friday and he could reach 1k if he plays in the bowl game, along with 6 TD's at 16 ypc), but he's gotten better each season, and I expect him to take the next step, along with Moore (who is arguably our most underrated WR), Mosley, Livingstone, McCutcheon, and we'll probably finally get to see some more of Lockett, Ffrench, and Terry in actual game time.
As for RB help, other than Wisner, hopefully Baxter is much healthier and more dominant between the tackles as his knee should finally be healed. He will never be what his ceiling could have been, but that doesn't mean he can't be a healthy co-starter. Hopefully one of Cooper, Simon, and/or Clark steps up along with a (hopefully) elite portal RB (they're not like WR's out there, but there are plenty to be had).
Our OL hopefully gels and we never have to see Stroh again. Goosby (LT) [maybe Neto/Cojoe here] (LG) Robertson (C) [Chatman maybe here] (RG) and Baker (RT). These are just guesses for G, but I can't think of anyone else who would be old enough or good enough to overtake them. The LG battle will be one to watch for. If Neto can't take the job at that point, he's a lost cause.
TE we'll still have Endries, Washington, Winston, and Townsend; Shannon as a blocker, who surprisingly wasn't as bad as I thought. He's not really good or anything, but maybe average to a smidge above. He's not total dog shit, tho.