Rich Rod

Rod is a complete tool. I'm going to write an extensive post after work today. The media (and when I say media I mean ESPN, ESPN.com) is a lap dog to the population centers of the north, east and west coast. He told his AD he was resigned via a letter that he gave a grad assistant to pass along. Michigan did not ask permission to speak with Rod either. (translation=Rich's agent told MI not to do anything because they didn't want WVU to get involved and try to up the ante.) But Saban is the devil and Petrino is his dog.

Number 1 and 2

“Playoffs? Playoffs?” - Jim Mora, Sr.

What the hell happened last night? The better question: “What the hell happened this season?”

It has been an incredible college football year. The problem is that it is over. There is no clear-cut number 1, and there is no clear-cut number 2. Wait, Ohio State should be number 1. If you get to number 1 by default then you probably should not be there. The way they played last year in January combined with a horrible schedule does not give them any brownie points.

Missouri lost twice…To the SAME team. Kansas turned out to be a bust. Georgia lost to Tennessee (that in itself should disqualify a team from being number 1). Florida had the best player in college football and lost three games. I could write a dissertation on LSU and coach Less Miles. They are my vote for number 1 (they were undefeated in regulation). Hawaii does not even need to be mentioned for a spot in the top five.

There are other teams worth mentioning, but my point is, there should be a playoff. Ten or Sixteen spots would take care of the current mess. That way everyone with a claim would have a shot. This year might as well been the year that leads to the downfall of the Bowl Championship series as we know it today.

Everyone deserves a shot but come Sunday afternoon, only two will get there shot.

Tuberville?

Everyone on the net tonight seems to think that "Ears" Tuberville will be the next head coach at R-Kansas. This is crazy if it is true.

There is some other scuttlebutt regarding the fact that Nick Saban may be in line for the job at LSU. I would not be surprised.

Maybe Alabama could hire Ogeron.

Auburn 2007

After seventy-two hours of letting the football season soak in, it is necessary to take a hard look at the past three months.

Unfortunately for Alabama the season had to be three months. Fans would be glad to have ended the season in November clear above .500. But the Tide had to play two teams from Louisiana, Mississippi State, and Auburn. What failed the Tide in the month of November? Was it something to do with the leaves falling?

An answer to this question is going to difficult and hard to explain. It will sound like an Alabama/Nick Saban bash, but here goes.

Coach Saban could not reach the players after the LSU game. Alabama fans want to put the blame solely on the players, players that Mike Shula recruited. Alabama fans essentially want to say, “It wasn’t Saban’s fault, it was Mike Shula’s; Alabama is great because we’re Alabama.” Translation, I don’t know a damn thing about psychology and football. Why psychology, because that’s where Saban lost the players. The players got tired of being yelled to by Nicky and just quit. He realized this fact after Louisiana Monroe and that’s when he threw the players under the bus in his post game press conference.

Then the offensive coaches put together an offensive game plan that would have made Mike Shula happy. Go to the “I” formation, JP and don’t fumble away the game. Well, JP didn’t lose the game for Alabama, but he sure as hell won the game. Why go to this conservative game plan after playing Tennessee tossing the ball around like a hot potato? Saban was afraid. He was afraid of the players and that he did not have control over them. He did not have control. That’s why fans saw Travis McCall line up as a fullback in the “I” formation. (This is a formation that Saban has repeatedly lambasted in the media as unimaginative and predictable.) The game plan might have worked if DJ Hall had paid attention to a pass in the end zone, if Keith Saunders does not hit Brandon Cox two seconds after he throws, if Alabama does not run into the kicker on a punt deep in Auburn territory. But those things happened, Alabama players were not disciplined enough to refrain from committing mental mistakes like those. That falls on coaching.

Everyday Alabama fan says: “Yeah, I can’t wait for next year, we’ll have Saban’s players and JPW won’t be the quarterback.” Yes and No. Saban’s players will be freshman and Sophomores, a minority of the team still. Who’s going to play quarterback if JPW doesn’t? … The quarterbacks that were on the bench this year? Some quarterback still going to Sonic after school today? No. JPW will still be the Alabama gunslinger that he is. (He is 1st and 2nd in the Alabama record books in single season passing yardage 2006, 2007, look it up). Saban is still going to have to learn to motivate players that he didn’t recruit. He’d better learn fast with four big road games on the docket next year.

All that said, Saban is still the better guy for the job. He is the last ditch effort to resurrect a program from the obscurity of the middle tier college football programs.

Auburn Game

Alabama Notes:
With the Iron Bowl comes tradition. This year it seems more like the toilet bowl. Auburn comes into the game with token ranking of #25 while Alabama played itself out of the rankings in its last two games. A win for the Tide gives both teams a solid 7-5 record and a exciting bowl games likely in Memphis and Shreveport. A win for Auburn might give them a Peach Bowl Birth.

Around the SEC:
Tennessee looks to be enough for Kentucky as I observe. How ironic is it that the best team in the SEC, Georgia, is likely not going to be playing next week? I think I noted on another website before the season started that LSU would be coached to a few losses this year. Who would have thought those would come to Arkansas and Kentucky? I hope Les Miles is in the SEC for a long time.

Coaching Changes:
I glad things worked out for Dennis Franchione out in College Station. He was such a good person and the Aggies were always on his short list. Tuberville will not be taking his place at Texas A&M. Too bad there are no fast athletes in Michigan. If there were any, Lloyd Carr might still have a job. Too bad Les Miles might get the job in Ann Arbor. His idiot coaching is good enough to win ten games a year at Michigan. Nebraska fire Bill Callahan. Funny how the national media pays little attention to their coaching woes and loves to hate Alabama and Nick Saban. Nebraska has about the same past as Alabama.

Sly Croom:
He's the man. I never thought he stood a chance.

Charlie Weis:
...

Nick Saban:
...

Keys to winning the Iron Bowl:
The winning team is going to have to exhibit confidence, move the ball, stop the other team, and score more points than the other team. The winner is going to be the team that blocks the other team better.
IT'S THE SAME LOGIC IN EVERY DAMN GAME!!!

I wish the Tide well and hope they win. I think it happens today. With this crazy and whacky season it only seems fit for a downtrodden Tide to beat an unemotional War Eagles.

Iron Bowl 2007

After the forty-eight hour rule?

Yes, after a loss to ULM, I needed to take a forty-eight hiatus from commenting (after my initial comment) on the Tide. We as fans need to take a step back and a deep breath. We as fans need to also realize that football is not everything. Everyone needs to keep the family of Siran Stacy in their thoughts. He and his family was in a horrible automobile accident.

The knee-jerk reaction is to condemn Nick Saban and the football team for this past Saturday. Fans, although they cannot forget what happened, need to realize the bright future ahead. This past week’s loss has been equated to the loss five years ago to Northern Illinois. The ULM loss is probably worse on paper, but it stands to be a tool for teaching. The current team has not gotten the point until now. They have not seen the whole picture. Maybe the coach has not gotten the point until now. He has said that he has.

I would hate to be Auburn today.

The Alabama team might actually be hungry. The best thing for Auburn would have been Alabama beating ULM by forty. Isn’t there enough reason for Alabama to be hungry? Did they really need another reason? Judging from the performances in the MSU game and the ULM game, the players need as many reasons they can to perform. There is the potential in that team. That potential has been evident in games this season.

It is Coach Saban’s task to aid the team in realizing its potential. He has not succeeded in aiding the team in that for two weeks now. Maybe he needed a wake-up call. That call was placed November 17, 2007. Who says Alabama will win? I will be sure to watch the game.

ULM

Is anyone really surprised?

Is any Tide fan that has survived the past twenty-five years surprised that the Tide lead by the 4 million dollar man and the 25 cent quarterback got trampled on by (make sure I spell this right) Louisiana Monroe? If anyone answers yes to this question, get real. It is not surprising, only self-fulfilling.

I was the biggest advocate for Nick Saban coming to Alabama. I thought things with the football program would be different. As I sit here typing this, I wonder where my allegiances lie. It hurts over and over again to put so much into cheering for a team that continuously lets you down. (See Boston Red Sox prior 2004.) Would it not be easier just to spend my Saturday afternoons reading and studying and preparing for a career? Why don’t I start playing golf? There is greater utility in that I imagine than sitting through a football game that is not even on pay-per-view television. It was on the radio. Alabama just lost a game that was not televised. Let that sink in.

So Lord Saban rolls into town, not on a white stallion, but in a white Lear Jet. He hires a crackpot staff and installs a new “4th quarter” program. Eleven games later preparing to face Auburn, Alabama sits with the same record as a year previous, having spent millions of dollars in paying off Shula and paying for Saban. It’s evident. Welcome to middle (bottom) tier Southeastern Conference football. Stuck in the muck Alabama is.

A trip into Tuscaloosa for the traveling team no longer means a loss. It means a once in a lifetime chance for every player on that visiting team to imprint history. Unfortunately for Alabama fans, a four or five year stint dawning the crimson jersey no longer means excellence. It means mediocrity. It means losing to Auburn six straight years (trust me). On Saturday, who had more to play for? La Monroe or Alabama? The question does not even need answering. Alabama players could care less about playing on Saturday. They are more interested in drinking, yelling in the streets, stealing textbooks, and playing on Sunday.

This negativity does not help the football program but it does help me sleep at night. Additionally, I think Alabama proved my point for the SEC not being that good.