Sunday, January 10, 2010

BCS CG Grades

It didn’t come easy.  None of it came easy.  Not the game, not the championships, not the undefeated season, not the individual awards, none of it. 

It didn’t happen by accident.  It wasn’t a gift.  It didn’t happen because it was just Alabama’s turn.

Alabama stands atop the college football world today because it worked for it, planned for it, fought for it, and refused to yield to everyone else who was also planning, and working and fighting.

And when I say that “Alabama” is the reigning champion of college football, I’m not limiting that name to just the players and coaches.  And neither is Nick Saban.  In every post-game comment Coach Saban has made, from the very first interview with the ABC sideline reporter, while his shirt was freshly stained pink with Gatoraid, to Friday’s formal press conference, Nick made the point that the achievement of this team was the work of thousands.  Yes, only players get to compete each game.  But what does it take to recruit the right players? To coach them up?  To teach them how to succeed in sports as well as in life?  Nick always started by thanking Dr. Witt,  whose successful efforts to improve the national exposure and reputation of the University makes it easier to recruit.  (For my money, Robert Witt is the most influential and successful president of the University of Alabama since George H. Denny.)   He always thanks Mal Moore, and he credits Moore for having the foresight and drive to improve the athletic facilities even at a time when the program was struggling.  (Mal has been the target of lots of criticism-some of it well deserved-but is there any campus in America with a better physical plant from practice field to stadium?)  Saban credits the players, the trainers, the coaches and the staff.  But he never missed the chance to say that a major component of the program’s success is attributable to its fan base.  He said in his 30 year career as a coach, he has never been any place where 92,000 people would see the spring game while 10,000 more couldn’t get in the stadium.  For Nick Saban, that is a tangible index of the passion and energy that fuels the efforts of players, coaches, administrators, and staff.

Winning this game did not come easy.  It was the culmination of a season’s effort, to be sure, but it was also the result of The Process.  In many ways, the dramatic arch of the game is an analogue for the path the program has taken from the day Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa 36 months ago.   Texas proved to be a worthy opponent.  The Longhorns performance against Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship Game was no indicator of how good Texas is.   And with its initial possessions of the game, Alabama did not seem to be the same team that had dominated the defending national champions in the SEC title game.   But the offense found its footing-literally-as Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson shredded a Texas defense that was the nation’s best against the run.  The defense was relentless in the pressure it brought at the point of attack and at intermission, Alabama was up by three scores.  Excellent coaching by the Texas staff, great senior leadership by Jordan Shipley and amazing competitive resilience by a talented freshman quarterback, combined in the second half to pull the Horns within a field goal of erasing an 18 point half-time deficit. 

The arrival of the fourth quarter, however, brought Alabama’s superior conditioning and competitive effort into the mix.  Over the last 6:15 of the game, Texas possessed the ball for only 42 seconds while Alabama forced three turnovers and scored 13 unanswered points. 

Here’s how I grade the game:

Readers of this space know that I take into account the quality of opposition and the significance of achievement when assigning letter grades.  What other letter grade than an “A” is fitting for the most important game of the season, played in the most storied arena of the sport, against an opponent the Tide had not defeated in 7 previous tries?  Consequently, I will dispense with letter grades for this game, and simply use a system of plus and minus, except, for one particular category at the end.

Offense:              +             Alabama’s ability to run the football was the difference maker in this game.   Mark Ingram disproved the existence of any “Heisman Jinx” by rushing for 116 yards on 22 carries.  Mark added 12 yards on 2 receptions and was never tackled for a loss of yardage.  Trent Richardson gained a net of 109 yards on 19 rushing attempts including a stellar 49 yard streak down the middle of the field for a touchdown.  With 3:02 to play in the fourth quarter, leading by 3 points, Alabama had the ball, first and goal from the Texas 3 yard line.  We ran the same play three times in a row.  GMac described it in the locker room as “the most basic play in football, every team runs it, we call it ‘Gut’ “.   I call it “the road-grader”.  Terrence Cody lines up at full-back and leads the tail-back into the hole between the guard and tackle.  Mark Ingram gained a yard each time.  Before the third down play, Texas took a time out.  Were they wondering who was going to get the ball?  More likely, the defense was drawing straws to see who was going to have to meet Cody in the hole.

GMac had a tough day trying to throw the ball.   The official stats account for 11 passing attempts by GMac of which he completed 6 for 58 yards.   Julio Jones caught only one pass, good for 23 yards and a much-needed first down.  Marquis Maze was the only other wide receiver to catch a pass and his one catch was good for a mere 4 yards.  Richardson gained 19 yards on two receptions.  GMac was sacked 5 times.  On TV it was hard to tell exactly what GMac was seeing down field.   It seemed that he was holding onto the ball too long, but the coverage achieved by the Texas DBs on Alabama’s receivers may have simply been too good.  To his credit, GMac had no turnovers.

Alabama had three drives that gained more than 40 yards [57, 49, 60].  They resulted in two TDs and a missed field goal.  Bama possessed the ball for a combined 33:39 including 9:30 in the second quarter and 9:16 in the fourth.

The fake punt on Alabama’s first possession provoked a great deal of debate at my house.  Yes it was high-risk, and yes it was uncharacteristic.  But Dre Kirkpatrick was open behind the defense and if Fitz had gotten the ball to him there was nothing but grass between Kirkpatrick and the Texas goal line.  We didn’t execute the play.  Consequently, Texas started the game with great field position.  I suppose the Alabama coaching staff was confident that the defense would rise to every challenge.

Defense:             +++        Did they ever!  The stop-troops held Texas to consecutive field goals when the Horns started possessions deep in Bama territory.   Although Marcel Dareus was named Defensive MVP, and his TD-scoring interception return was awesome to behold, my pick for defensive honors goes to Eryk Anders.  Anders was credited with 7 tackles [6 solo, 2 for loss of 16 yards], a forced fumble, and a pass breakup. 

Roland McClain, playing perhaps his last game for Alabama, made 4 tackles [2 for loss] and broke up a pass.  Mark Barron and Robby Green each made 6 tackles.  Javier was credited with 5 tackles, 2 interceptions and a break up.

From the 8:04 mark in the first quarter, until the 1:28 in the third, Texas had 10 offensive possessions; 7 ended in punts, 2 ended in interceptions [one of which was returned for a score by Dareus], and the Horns ran 41 plays.  The last three Texas possessions each ended with a turnover [1 fumble, 2 int.] and Texas only ran 5 plays.                

Special Teams:

Punting:               ++           I’m not grading the faked punt as a special teams play.  Fitz averaged over 37 yards per punt and dropped 3 inside the 20.  Five punts were fair caught, and Texas had zero return yards on punts.  Texas did everything imaginable to limit Javier’s opportunities to return punts, but he nevertheless managed to gain 19 yards on 3 punt returns [long of 12].

Place Kicking:     -             Leigh Tiffin made 1 FG from 26, and  missed from 52.  He also missed his last PAT attempt as an Alabama player.

Kick offs:              - - -         Have we ever had a more absurd performance in the kick return game than we did last Thursday night?  The official drive chart shows that Texas ended one possession with a field goal, and began its next possession with a kick-off, with no score by Alabama in between. Julio Jones had a brain-cramp on the play and instead of fielding the pooch kick, he let the live ball bounce in front of him.  A Texas player blocked Jones to the ground while others covered the ball.  Later in the game, Texas recovered a fumble attributed to Brad Smelly who failed to handle the ball when a squib kick hit him.   Tiffin did a decent job kicking off, and the coverage team did a very good job containing an excellent Texas return specialist.

Coaching:            ++           Thirty two days is a long time to wait between HUGE championship games.  Nick Saban and his staff made excellent use of the time and brought Alabama into the game ready to play.  The Tide was penalized 5 times for 38 yards compared to Texas which was flagged 8 times  for 77 yards. 

The Process:      A+          Who can doubt that Alabama and Nick Saban are a perfect match?  In only 36 months Saban has brought the Tide back from disgrace, and dysfunction, to its rightful place as first-among-equals in the elite of college football.  When Mike Shula’s team beat Florida five seasons ago, Sports Illustrated had Alabama on the cover with the declaration “Bama Is Back”.  It turned out to be a false dawn.  This time, there is no doubt.


Saban was asked on Friday about the prospect of repeating as BCS Champions in 2010.  His reply was very interesting.  Naturally, he pointed out the obvious: the Tide will sustain significant attrition in its marvelously good defense.  But then he said something that struck me.  Of the 60 players who routinely see action, the “bottom 40” are more important to success on the field than the “top 20”.   Yes, we will have GMac and Ingram, Richardson and Jones on offense, with Dareus and Barron, Hightower and Chapman on defense.  But we will need to find replacements not just for the Terence Cody’s and Brandon Deaderick’s of the team.  We will have to find the next Cory Reamer, Eryk Anders, Javier Arenas, Leigh Tiffin, P. J. Fitzgerald, and Brian Selman.

It won’t come easy.  None of it will.  It won’t come by accident and it won’t be a gift.

Saban has already started to work on it. 

Mal Moore has said that Nick’s statute is going up along the Walk of Champions.   The year “2009” will be carved into the stone balustrade.  Mal better tell the stone carvers to leave room for more.

The Commissioner