Shula fired after 6-6 season.

I kind of had a feeling that something like this was going to happen after the loss to Miss. St.. As I have said in earlier blogs I thought the Tide would go 8-4 this season. After the way Arkansas has played this year the loss Alabama suffered to them does not seem as bad. So 7-5 to me would have been acceptable if Alabama had not shown that they could have beat any of the teams that they played this season. Some changes needed to be made but I honestly thought that Shula should have been give another season. That is until I heard that he was not open to making changes on his staff. I respect him for being loyal to the people that he hired as that is an uncommon trait among coaches these days. But you have to wonder if he wasn't ready to give up the team anyway. He had to have known that he was on the hot seat and something had to be done. If he had fired his offensive coordinator he could have saved his job but he decided to go down with the ship. I really do like Coach Shula and I think he was a good hire at the time. He took on a team that was coming into some hard times because of probation and drove them to respectibility. I guess that some of the powers that be in T-town felt that he wasn't the man to get Bama to the next level. I wish Coach the best and hope that he will not hold a grudge against the university. He will always be a legend as a player and respected as a coach by me and many others.
Now for the next step! Who we gonna get? Will anybody worth having want to risk coming to a school with such a short fuse for coaches? I honestly don't think Spurrier or Saban will come to Alabama. I think the ole ball coach is trying to prove something in S. Carolina and he is on his way in my opinion. They have improved so much since he has been there and when he gets some of his type of players in there they will contend every season. Bama will probably throw a lot of money at him but I look for the Gamecock alumni to make sure the gets a raise and finish what he has started. Saban is a lot like Spurrier in that he loves challenges and he sees the NFL as his biggest challenge. He was already at a college power house in LSU and left it in great shape to pursue a rebuilding job in Miami. He has only been there a year and a half and is not close to a turnaround so far. I think at this point he would look at a return to college as a failure no matter how much money he was offered. The coach that I would like to have the most Bobby Petrino from Louisville but I don't think he will come either. After watching the way the Cardinals have played this season I think Bama will have the athletes to run his system the best. John Parker Wilson seems to be a perfect QB for his style of offense as are Brown and Hall at WR. If we could keep Kines from going to Texas and get Petrino I don't think we could ask for anything more. Let's just hope the process doesn't take too long and hurt recruiting like it did the last few times this happened.

Week 12 NCAA Football

I had to wait for a few days before I wrote on my blog this week because I like to have a clear head. After the Auburn game I was so aggrivated that I didn't feel like I should write for a few days because my emotions were all over the place. I guess I was like a lot of other Alabama fans in that I was ready to fire the whole coaching staff. After calming down for a few days I have a more clear perspective on the situation. Everyone should be fired BUT Shula and Kines and Shula should give up the play calling on offense. And if the team has a bad season next year Shula should be fired at that time. All of this talk of bringing in a new head coach now is only hurting Alabama. If you were a hot shot recruit and were thinking of coming to Alabama would you now?? You would have no idea who will be your head coach and what kind of system you would be playing in. Hasn't recruiting been Bama's major problem for the last few years? We are just now getting to the point that we have a full recruiting class. We sure don't need to have any reason for the best high school players not to want to come to Bama. I think Shula is a good recruiter simply because of his name. The Shula name is big in Florida and will get him into doors that some other coaches can't get in. It is pretty clear that Kines is a great defensive coordinator, every year that he has been there Bama has ranked very high nationally. The play calling should be given to someone other than the head coach in my opinion because he has plenty of other things to worry about during the course of the game. Very few head coaches can do both. Only Steve Spurrier comes to mind right now. The smart move would be to get an offensive coordinator who may be ready to become a head coach soon and then if Shula somehow messes up next season we can just move the new guy up. But I would stick with what we got right now. He is a good guy and I hope he does well.

Week 11 NCAA Football

Well it's finally here, Iron Bowl week!!! At the first of the season I already had this game marked up as a loss for the Tide. But Alabama showed some signs of life against LSU and the Tigers looked nothing like they did early in the year. Auburn seems to be going backwards with even their defense looking weak at times. It looks to me like running the ball right up the middle is the best way to attack Auburn and then when their LB's come up to stop the run bring your TE and WR's over the middle for open lanes. Alabama has been successful at this at times this season so there is hope. But do we really know which teams will show up this week? Alabama is still young and makes mistakes like you would expect. The play calling has been questionable on offense but was a little better against LSU. Auburn can play great one week against some of the best teams in the SEC and then lose to Georgia who has been struggling for weeks. It is a hard game to figure but my gut tells me the Tide is due. Shula needs this game and you know the few seniors on this team would like to go out with a win like this.
Bobby Knight is back in the news. Again it is for all the wrong reasons. He is a great coach who knows more basketball than probably any coach in the nation. But he can not control his temper. After watching the incident on ESPN I think he should be suspended at least. The reports are that he was raising the kids head up to make him pay attention to him. But was there any need to use his fist and jar his head back like he did? The bad part in all of this is that the coach, the AD, the parents, and the player are all acting like it is no big deal. How can it not be a big deal? Other coaches are seeing this and it will be an open invitation for them to use their own ways of getting attention. I have always respected Coach Knight but he needs to get some help or retire.

Week 10 NCAA Football.

How low can Bama football go? How can a team go backwards in their development? Shouldn't you see improvement over the course of the season? There are a lot of questions to be answered by the Tide coaching staff. The rumblings have already started that Shula should be fired and after losing to Miss. State I can almost see why. But not quite. He went 10-2 last season and got a contract extension and everyone was happy. We lost a lot of starters and the expectations were not as high as they were for last season. That is until the season started and then some fans were expecting to be playing for the national championship. That was completely crazy thinking. This was going to be a rebuilding year and it still is. Bama should not have lost to the Bulldogs but you have to give the coach a chance to make changes. If the fans run off Shula what kind of coach do you think will take the job? Mike Dubose is the only coach that should have been run off. Fran couldn't handle the expectations and deserted his players. Price wanted to party and his character was called into question and he was fired. Fire Shula and what decent coach is going to want to even try the Capstone out? You have to give Shula 6 seasons in my opinion and this is his 4th. After that, if he hasn't made them consistantly a good team then he should be replaced.
Louisville has thrown a wrench in the BCS picture. If they go undefeated should they play for the national championship? Are they better than Florida, Auburn,Tenn, or LSU? I don't think so. A playoff would be nice right now.

Week 9 NCAA Football.

I have heard from different people that Alabama is playing to the level of it's opposition and after the homecoming game I would say they are right. At one point the score was 3-0 FIU. Bama was leading 10-3 at the half. FIU hasn't won a game all season and was playing without 18 players because of suspensions. How can the same team that played Florida, Tenn., and Arkansas so tough have any kind of trouble with FIU? They also had only 224 yards of total offense and got scores from the defense and special teams to help the score look as lopsided as it was. They had two chances to get a TD from inside the 1 yard line and couldn't get it in. The offense just looks bad and it don't seem to be getting any better as the season goes on. I don't really have a clue what they should do but a shake up needs to happen. Bama has 6 wins and is bowl eligible which is great but does anybody really expect us to beat LSU or Auburn with the way the offense is playing? Maybe we can get enough points to beat Miss St. but it will probably be a close game.
I am looking forward to the Lousiville-W.Virginia game on thursday night. Two undefeated teams with BCS hopes playing a primetime game during the week. The winner will get a lot of attention from the BCS because there won't be any competing games that night. I look for W.Virginia to win because of their powerful offense. I thought Louisville's win over Miami was impressive but the Hurricanes haven't done anything since that game and now it don't seem like such a big win. If Louisville loses look for them to drop all the way out of the top 10. After thursday night the big question will be should a undefeated Big East team be considered over a one loss SEC team for the national championship game? The answer is of course no. But the sportscasters will need something to run their mouths about for the next few weeks.
Auburn didn't look that great against Ole Miss but that shouldn't come as a surprise. Like I have said before anything can happen in the SEC. The thing that I have noticed about the Tigers is that their defensive line can be shoved around pretty easily. You can't run outside on them because of their speed but you can run right up the middle. This may hurt them in the coming weeks and if they make it to the SEC championship game I am sure Florida will have learned their lesson from the first game.
Tenn. and S. Carolina was a good game and it looks like the ole ball coach is turning the Gamecocks into SEC contenders. He still doesn't have the QB he needs but you know their are high school QB's who are just dying to play in his offense. Tenn. is a hard team to nail down because the offense is talented but plays in spurts and the defense is not really stoping people like it has in the past. I look for LSU and Arkansas to beat the Vols but you never know. Tenn. played good against Florida even though they lost. And also beat Georgia pretty easy so it's hard to say which team will show up.

Week 8 NCAA Football.

How many more games is Bama going to give away? You will have to forgive me for going on a rant but it is so frustrating that the losses we have could very easily be wins. There were some calls that should have been made that may have changed the game (Bama's recievers couldn't get a call all day). But I just had this gut feeling that when Tenn. needed to score that they would. And I knew that when Bama had to score that they couldn't. Something has to be done with the offense because it is getting to the point where you just scratch your head at some of the play calling and playing time. Here are some of my suggestions for Coach Shula and I know he will be hanging on my every word. (1) Darby has got to sit. OK maybe not sit but use him as a third down back kind of like the Saints do with Reggie Bush. He is quick and has speed so use him out of the backfield catching passes and beating LB's in the open field on third and long situations. If Shula does (1) then (2) will be letting Jimmy Johns get the bulk of the carries. He is a straight ahead power runner who hasn't lost yards when he has had the ball. At least if he is getting 2-3 yards per carry third down won't be for such long yardage and won't put as much pressure on John Parker Wilson to bail us out. (3) Shula should let Dave Rader make all the calls or none at all. I don't think this sharing the play calling is working. It's like a friend of mine said Shula should just worry about being the head coach and let his assistants do their job. Shula and Rader are good about saying all the bad calls were theirs and all the good calls were the other guys. Trying not to let anyone know who is really making the calls so nobody can get blamed. Well Shula needs to realize if nobody knows who is to blame then the head coach will usually take the blame. He can always hire another coordinator if Rader is not doing a good job but don't let him take you down with him. Like I said I am just on a rant. Alabama is young and I look for big things from them next season. But they are killing me this year!!!!
How the heck did W. Virginia leap over Auburn in the BCS by beating UCONN???? We need a playoff in a real bad way.

Week 7 NCAA Football.

Week 7 NCAA Football.
College football is getting down to the nitty gritty as far as the BCS is concerned. And it is already getting screwed up with the very first BCS rankings coming out. Here is the way they have it #1 Ohio St.,#2 USC,#3 Michigan,#4 Auburn,#5 W.Virginia,#6 Florida, #11 Tennessee,#13 Arkansas,#18 LSU. I got a question, How the heck is USC #2???? Are they that high because of what they have done in the past few seasons? This year they have almost lost to two are three unranked teams and they are playing in a weak conference. I know they blew out Arkansas in the first game of the season but Arkansas is a different team now that they have a new starting QB and are healthy. I don't think they could beat them again. And I really don't think it will matter anyway because Oregon,California,Notre Dame and possibly UCLA will give the Trojans losses that will knock them out of the race. With Auburns big win over Florida the Tigers are back in the National Championship hunt. If they can win out (which could be hard with Georgia and Bama still left) they should be in position to play in the last game of the season. They way I see it Ohio St. and Michigan play and the loser will be out of it. W. Virginia and Louisville play and the loser will be out of it also. I see Ohio St. and W. Virginia being undefeated but I don't see how the BCS could take the Mountaineers over Auburn if the Tigers win out and win the SEC Championship. If Auburn makes it they are going to have to start playing a complete game to beat Ohio St..Their defense played great the second half and the offense played good in spurts against the Gators. Makes you wonder where that team was when they went up against the Razorbacks? Alabama played Ole Miss and took it to overtime and made the plays it took to win it this time. The Rebels probably played the best they have played all season and made it a very close game. Kenneth Darby is beginning to look like the runner he was before his sports hernia last season. DJ Hall is becoming a big play reciever to complement Keith Brown who strained a knee against Ole Miss. I look for the Tennessee game to be a good one with some hard hitting and probably a lot of points scored. Backup QB Marc Guillon quit the team because of lack of playing time this week. Did he really expect that when he didn't win the starting job in the spring he was going to get a lot of reps? Bama has a soph. QB with a lot of talent who is playing good. Do you think the coaching staff should put in a senior who has never lived up to the hype since transfering from Miami? I don't either. It seems he has been looking for drama ever since he transfered. The only problem is he was the backup and he did get some reps in practice so if John Parker Wilson gets hurt the Tide will be in trouble. Jimmy Barnes will move to the number two spot behind Wilson. He is a big 6'5" 239LB QB from California who is supposed to have a very strong arm but you have to wonder why he didn't win the backup job in the spring. I hope the practice time he will be getting now will show the coaches something and there won't be a big drop off if he does have to play.

Sports Illustrated finally coming around.

Sports Illustrated is finally saying what I have been saying all season and for the last 20 years. The SEC is the best conference in the nation. On this weeks cover is a picture of the Tenn. vs Georgia game with the headline SECPOWER On Any Given Saturday The Southeastern Conference Proves It's The Toughest In The Country. My thoughts exactly! I am glad to hear Phil Taylor feels the same as I do. He is the writer for Sports Illustrated who seems to be the only media guy in the nation who is giving the SEC the credit it deserves. He even said if a team makes it thru the SEC with one loss it should still be in the BCS championship game. Most are saying a team will have to run the table to get there but if you play in this conference one loss will be as good as going undefeated. Speed and athletes are what the story is mostly about and it hits on some good points. Steve Spurrier had the best quote in the story. He said "in the SEC even the water boys can run." They also talk about all of the NFL prospects in the SEC. In the LSU vs Auburn game there were 27 prospects being scouted that day. Most other high level college games may have about half that many. The SEC has the best non-conference record in the nation and it is easy to see why. The article is a good read if you want to pick it up. It will make you proud that you support an SEC team. I just hope when it come time for the BCS the nation and media will remember the story.

Week 6 NCAA Football

I was feeling pretty good about Alabama football after watching and listening to a few games saturday. Arkansas pretty much dominated Auburn the whole game winning 27-10 which made me feel better about Alabama's loss to the Razorbacks 3 weeks ago. In that game it looked like Bama was the better team all day until the end when they gave away the game on missed FG's and extra points in double overtime. If you just look at it game by game Alabama played better against Arkansas than Auburn did which was the #2 team in the nation. So I thought maybe this will help give Bama some respect since they played the Hogs so tight. Then there was the LSU and Florida game that turned out just the opposite of my prediction. After watching Auburn beat LSU in a tough defensive game I thought the Bayou Bengals would be too much for the Gators. Wrong! Florida put a whipping on LSU that moved them to #2 in the AP poll. So after Alabama played Florida a pretty good game even leading at halftime I felt like the Tide could play with anybody in the SEC. But then my bubble burst as Alabama came out looking unprepaired to play and was down to Duke at the half. Understand this is Duke now! They haven't won a game this season and only had one TD for the year. There were boo's raining down in T-town and I can see why. This was supposed to be one of those games to give your team a confidence boost for the rest of the season. It may have done the opposite and put more questions in the players and coaches heads. If you can't dominate Duke what is going to happen against the Vols and LSU? Some people will be calling for Coach Shula's job but as I have said in earlier blogs you have to give him time. If the fans keep running off coaches after down seasons we will never be able to get or keep a good coach. Shula got a contract extension because the team has improved every season and the fans didn't say a word about it. Now after some tough losses we can't just give up on him. He will make the changes that are best for the team either different starters or assistant coaching jobs at the end of the year. If he don't make the changes that are needed he already knows that the University is not affraid to make some changes of their own.

Shula or Croom? Looks like Bama made the best choice.

I don't know if many people remember or not but almost four years ago there was a big debate about who Bama should hire as their next head coach. After watching Shula and Croom at the schools they are coaching you have to wonder what the debate was about. I know Croom had ties to Bama just as much as Shula does but I didn't really see what all the fuss was about then and I sure don't now. To me just the Shula name is going to get him into recruits homes that other coaches wouldn't get close to. Coach Croom may yet turn Miss. St. around but there doesn't seem to be any progress being made. They may win two games this season and this team is mostly his recruits so he can't blame the previous coach. Coach Shula has brought a cool even tempered personality to the sideline that I think the Tide needed. He handles all team matters behind closed doors and not in the papers. The players have to respect that and respect him for not hurting their reputations. The Tide has improved every season and even though they probably won't win as many games as they did last season they are getting better with a young team. Coach Shula has reached down into Florida where his name has to help to get some players that normally would never consider Alabama. I don't look for Shula to leave for another college or the NFL and he is young so he will be around for a long time. I think that stablilty will help with recruiting for years to come. Coach Croom may be looking for another job before this season is over. I think he is a good man but some people are just not cut out to be head coaches. Just look at Mike Dubose. He was a well respected defensive coach for years but he just couldn't handle all the responsibility of the head job. Let's hope Croom don't fall as far as Dubose did on the coaching ladder. He is a better man and I don't think that will happen. But I do think Bama got the better man for our head coach.

Week 5 NCAA Football.

Another tough loss for the Tide! I tought after the heartbreaking loss to the Razorbacks we were due a win that we shouldn't get. And after the first half saturday I thought we may just get it. The defense played great and the offense was steady. In the second half our youth showed up in a bad way. John Parker made some bad decisions but he hasn't made many this year and he is only a sophmore. We were not expected to win this game but still it seems we should have. It was a hard loss but the lessons learned in the Arkansas game were different than the Florida game. And every different lesson will only help for the future of this young team. There was improvment from last week to this week and if it keeps up a win against the Vols is not out of the question. Does Jamie Chistensen not have the ugliest kick in the NCAA? Has he ever kicked a pretty FG or PAT? As long as they go thru the up rights I don't guess it matters. Florida and LSU coming up. From what I have seen LSU should dominate the Gators. Russell will pick apart the Gator secondary and the Tiger defense will shut down Leak and Tebow. Auburn didn't look that great against Spurrier and the Gamecocks but the ole' ball coach has a way of making good teams look bad. As usual the media was ready to drop Auburn out of the top 10 for playing a close game against another SEC school. Why is the SEC taking such a beating from the media the last few years? Like I have said before if a team goes undefeated in the SEC and wins the SEC Championship game they should play for the national championship period. As much as I hate to say it Auburn got screwed the season they went undefeated and didn't get to play for the championship. I don't think they could have beat USC but they would have given them a better game than Oklahoma. They should have been given a shot becaue they played a tougher schedule than the sooners did in my opinion.

Week 4 NCAA football.

Alabama, what a way to lose a game. That has to be gut wrenching for all Bama fans. It was clear that Alabama was the better team which I was worried about after their efforts the last few weeks. But they did come away with wins before. They just gave this one away period. Some people will want to blame Leigh Tiffin and that is understandable. But the thing about Tiffin is he is a true freshman so nerves had to play a part in him missing like that. After he missed the first one it just kind of snowballed and he got worse and worse. In the spring you never heard what a great kicker he was. I think the only reason he is kicking now is because Christensen hurt his leg and they had no choice. Christensen has been doing kickoffs the last 2 weeks trying to get back to normal and I figure he will be back for good against FL. But you have to be carefull to not distroy Tiffins confidence because he will probably be our kicker for the next 3 years after this one. Other people will want to blame Coach Shula for being conservative at the end of the game. I may lean that way myself because they were moving the ball well and then just played to get the ball set for a FG attempt. There was plenty of time to keep trying for a TD but this has been Shula's norm the last few seasons. I don't think people need to start calling for Shula to be fired because a freshman missed some FG 's. If he had made one of them Shula would be getting the praises today for having confidence in such a young kid. Look, Bama wasn't going to win a National Championship this season. Or even the SEC for that matter. We just have to look at these games as good learning experiences for our young guys. John Parker Wilson looked very good playing in his first away game. The defense did good against the passing game other than the last TD catch (And that guy was covered pretty well). The O-line seems to be getting better every week. Andre Smith looks like a future All-American. We just need to look down the road a season or two when I think we will be highly ranked and contending again.
Ohio St. still is the class of the NCAA right now. Michigan is getting a lot of respect from the sportscasters right now but they have to play Ohio St. and one will lose and drop out of the championship race. It still looks good for Auburn right now but anything can happen in the SEC. What happend with Georgia this weekend? They should have blown out the Buffalos who hadn't won a game yet and even lost to a Division II school. Games like that don't help the reputation of the SEC in the BCS. Talk about the luck of the irish!! Michigan St. is killing me. They had that game won and gave it away.

Week 3 NCAA football.

What a great week for college football!!! The Tide Rolled against an overmatched ULM team. But a win is a win and the game experience will help our younger players. Now is when the fun starts for the Tide. How will we stack up against a pretty good SEC team in Arkansas? I think we can win but I look for it to be a very close game.
Auburn is without a doubt the #2 team in the nation and I may even put LSU at #3 after the game they played saturday. That is what SEC football is all about,DEFENSE. They beat the crap out of each other all day and neither team seemed to really get their offense going. JaMarcus Russell is the real deal at QB he will be a great NFL player as long as he don't get injured. He led LSU on some good drives but Auburn wouldn't let them get in the red zone. If Auburn can get by Florida they could get their chance to play for the championship. But it is a long season and anything can happen.
I have been saying for 2 weeks that Notre Dame is overrated and Brady Quinn is no Heisman candidate and Michigan proved it to the world saturday. What a thumping!! I really enjoyed the highlights of them getting brought back down to earth. That was almost as good as Florida beating the Vols in front of 109k people. Fulmer may still be on the hot seat at least I hope so anyway.

Trev Alberts or Lou Holtz?

College football on ESPN is a saturday tradition at my house. My tradition took a nose dive when Trev Alberts got fired and replaced with Lou Holtz. Trev was good at what he did. He and Mark May had a good chemistry between them. They didn't always agree with each other and both would have good reasons why they didn't. Lou may have been an OK coach back in the day but commenting on teams,players,and other coaches is not his strong point at all. He picked Arkansas to beat USC!!! He should have been fired that day. He just kind of sits there with that aw shucks grin and seems to say the first thing that pops in his head about what ever team is being discussed. And I have noticed that Mark May seems to be holding back on some of his opinions out of respect for his elder I guess. The show is not as entertaining as last season. Not even close. What is it with these networks and their old guys? Lee Corso,Lou Holtz,Billy Packer? Don't get me started on Billy Packer it's football season.

Week 2 NCAA Football.

What can I say? Alabama looks like they will have a long season. I saw a little improvement from the QB John Parker Wilson. His deep throws were more on target and didn't look like hail marys. He is very good at controling the game and making the short passes. I think he will continue to improve as he gets more playing time under his belt. I think they will be fine at the QB position for the next couple of seasons. As for the overall performance of the Tide I was again very disappointed. This is Vandy folks! The doormat of the SEC played the Tide almost even for the whole game. Granted I thought it may be a tough game after the way that Vandy played the Wolverines the week before but they didn't seem to be playing as good against the Tide. The running game seemed to get a little better as Darby gained a few more yards than last week. Still,it seems like Jimmy Johns should be getting a lot more carries even though he did have a fumble that may have cost them a td.. The defense played a little better also but they will have to pick it up when the SEC's better teams come around. If they can get by La. Monroe (which they should do) and Arkansas (which could be a tough one) they will be 4-0. But the faithful shouldn't get too excited because that is when the wheels may start to fall off. Florida will show every weakness the Tide has. Duke and Ole Miss should be victories for a 6-1 record. At Tenn. will be very tough as Ainge looks to be out of his funk at QB. Fulmer is a jerk but he has his off. coordinator back and they seem to be rolling along. Right now I don't see the Tide winning that game. After FIU and Miss St. 8-2 for the Tide. Then 2 games that could get ugly. Depending on what happens this weekend (LSU v/s the barners) either LSU or Auburn could be playing for the National Championship. If either one of them is undefeated at the time of the game they will be wanting to make a statement with the voters. So they could be wanting to try to run up the score as much as possible. The Tide D looks good but I don't know if they can stop either one of these teams right now. Hopefully there will be a lot of improvement between now and then but Tide fans should be pretty happy with an 8-4 record.
I don't see Notre Dame as the #2 team in the nation. Auburn,USC,W.Virginia,LSU,Florida any of these teams should be #2 over the Irish. They just have not impressed me at all. It's got to be a media thing with them because Brady Quinn is no Heisman candidate either not yet anyway.
The SEC has 5 teams in the top 13 in the nation right now and if we didn't have to keep beating up on each other one of them might win it all. How can anyone say the SEC is not the best conference in the nation?

Alabama v/s Hawaii and other games.

Alabama v/s Hawaii and other games.
First of all, I know this was only the 1st game of the season and maybe I shouldn't jump to conclusions. But I will anyway. I debated about ordering the game on pay per view because it was just Hawaii and it should be a blow out right? Not by a long shot. I decided to go ahead a get the game because I wanted to see what the new team looked like. With a new QB, a revamped o-line,and a lot of holes to fill on defense I was curious to see what we had. I was very disappointed and here is why.
John Parker Wilson is going to get our recievers killed. He seems to do ok on the short routes but anything over 20 yards is like a hail mary. Keith Brown made some spectacular catches but that was because he had to. The throws were really just jump balls that he went and got or they were thrown behind him and the defender and Keith went back and got them. And this is Hawaii poeple!! This isn't LSU,Auburn, or Tenn. SEC schools who have great DB's who will pick those passes off like it's nothing. Wilson will really have to improve on his deep throws if Bama is going to have any kind of winning season.
What is up with Kenneth Darby? After his first few runs I thought "Oh no, the o-line is going to stink again". But then Jimmy Johns comes in and looks like he's going to rush for 100 yards before the half. So then I am thinking "well maybe it just took the line a little while to get going" and that is the reason Johns looked so good., So the line is blocking good now so you would think when Darby comes back in he will run like crazy thru a weak Warrior defense. Not even close, he can't do anything and when he does break one for 7-8 yards it gets called back on flags. I have to question Shula on not giving Johns more carries in the 2nd half. I understand that Darby is a senior and has been the work horse for the last few years but you still need to go with what is working. Darby was trying to pitterpat at the line and get outside and couldn't do it. Johns was busting his own holes after he got thru some desent blocking at the line. I'm not saying don't start Darby but go with what is working.
This years Bama defense isn't close to last years defense. I know Hawaii passes a lot and has a complicated attack but come on! Hawaii could run the ball whenever they wanted. They couldn't hang on to it but they could get down the field. Think about this, if they could have hung on to it they probably would have won. There wasn't very much pressure on their QB in the second half and it showed in the way he moved them down the field. Our DB's were getting beat pretty regular and the LB's looked like they were young. They have a long way to go before they are ready for SEC games.
I though Shula had a good game plan and I didn't disagree with anything other than not letting Johns have more carries in the 2nd half. The stadium looked GREAT!! I will have to make a trip to T-town soon just to see the statues.
Let me start by saying that I can't stand Tenn. or Auburn but you have to pull for SEC schools to win. It only helps in the national rankings if when we beat them they are undefeated..But from what I seen of them yesterday they are the best teams in the SEC by far. Tenn. is always overrated in the preseason but this is one time they may be underrated. They dominated the #9 team and it wasn't even close. Auburn looks legit at #4 and should be #3 this week after the way the Irish played . How is Brady Quinn a Heisman candidate??? The Irons kid from the Barn looks to be the front runner to me. Like I said I know it was only the first week of the season but I had to rant. Later....

Agents should be held responsible.

I recently read a story on Kennedy Winston who said that he had regrets about leaving Alabama with one year of eligibility left. He is currently playing pro ball in Spain and waiting for a chance from an NBA team. He said that he got some bad advice from an agent that helped him make the decision to go pro. Makes me wonder where that agent is today. He is probably talking some young underclassman into declairing for the draft while Kennedy is playing ball for 1/20th the salary of an NBA rookie. He is playing for $100k per season which is not bad money but he could have had a degree if he had only stayed one more season and probably raised his draft status in the process. Now he will probably never get his degree and if he don't manage his money right then when his playing career is over he may have trouble. After thinking about this for some time I have come up with a solution for agents like this. If these guys think these players are ready for the NBA then they need to put their money where their mouths are. If they sign a player to represent that is an underclassman then they should be responsible for that players salary for 4 years if he doesn't make the NBA. And I am thinking that it should at least be for 1 million per year. A first round pick will make from 4.5 million for a #1 pick down to 2 million for the last pick in the 1st round. This is the only promised money, 2nd round picks are not guaranteed a contract (just ask Rod Grizzard who is in Japan the last I heard,he was a sure fire 1st rounder who ended up in the 2nd). Anyway,you know the agent will make a killing if his player is a first round pick and as the players contract grows so will the money the agent is making. An agent is basically hoping to hit the lottery with any number of players that he signs. If only one player makes it big then that agent is set for his income. If the agent knew he was going to have to support a player for 4 years for about 4 million bucks don't you think he would choose his clients a lot more carefully? If he had any doubts about a guy being ready then he wouldn't be trying to talk them into coming out early. Then at least the guy would have a chance to get his degree. I think this would be one way to get rid of the sleazy agents who are ruining the lives of players all across the country by telling them they are ready when clearly they are not.