It was fitting that former Tide tight end, Preston Gothard, served as the honorary captain at the coin toss in yesterday’s game against Penn State. Penn State is a program that holds a special place in the hearts of Alabama fans. And why not? PSU is a classy program, with classy fans, retro uniforms and a coach whose longevity intersects with the career of Alabama’s most legendary coach. It was at Happy Valley in 1981 that Coach Bryant coached his 312th career win, tying the record of “Pop” Warner. As far as The Commissioner is concerned, Penn State holds the number two spot on the list of favorite college football teams. Well, actually there’s a three-way tie for second in my affections. The Nittany Lions share the runner-up position on any given Saturday with whoever is playing Auburn or Tennessee. …. But I digress.
Yes, it was fitting that Preston Gothard be accorded the recognition of honorary team captain for the game. He is the personification of out of the greatest officiating injustices ever perpetrated in broad daylight. Bama fans unborn at the time nevertheless know that in 1983, Tide QB Walter Lewis rallied his team in the second half to erase a formidable deficit. With :06 to play in the game, trailing by 6 points, he had Alabama 4th and goal from the PSU 4 yard line, poised to take the lead and accomplish Alabama’s best come-from-behind victory on the road. PSU jumped off-sides but Lewis managed somehow to spin his way out of a tackle and found Gothard in the back of the Penn State endzone. Gothard jumped, reaching for the ball. It took a momentary adjustment of his hands to firmly grasp the ball, but in no more than the time it takes to blink your eye, the tight end from Montgomery secured the ball and brought it into his body as gravity brought his body to Earth. He landed on his back with every part of his body south of the hip pad in the Penn State end zone.
Six points. Game tied. The blue-shirted PSU players were distraught, the Tide players were delirious. Throughout the stadium, and across the nation, fans watching the game knew that Alabama had just scored the tying touchdown.
The only person in the known universe who did not know that Preston Gothard had caught the game-tying TD pass was the person with the best view of the play; an official employed by Penn State, which in 1983 was still years away from joining the Big 10. Legend has it that this official had the sur-name of “Guman”; a relative of the Penn State running back stuffed at the goal line by Barry Krauss, Murray Legg, and the rest of the Tide defense in the 1979 Sugar Bowl. “Ref. Guman”, who was either incompetent, corrupt, or possessed of eyesight worse than Mr. MaGoo, signaled that the pass was incomplete.
Go back and look at the film. You can find it here: http://www.wikio.com/video/alabama-penn-st-bama-robbed-4064415
Bama failed to convert on the play following the off-sides penalty and PSU gets credit in the record book for a 34-28 victory.
That denied touchdown sticks in the throat. So it was appropriate that the man who caught the ball to tie the 1983 game was honored at the coin toss of the 2010 reunion of the Tide and Lions.
Oh, yeah. On the subject of denied touchdowns. As of yesterday’s coin toss, Penn State had not scored a touchdown in its last two visits to Alabama. As of this morning, PSU still hasn’t.
Bama failed to convert on the play following the off-sides penalty and PSU gets credit in the record book for a 34-28 victory.
That denied touchdown sticks in the throat. So it was appropriate that the man who caught the ball to tie the 1983 game was honored at the coin toss of the 2010 reunion of the Tide and Lions.
Oh, yeah. On the subject of denied touchdowns. As of yesterday’s coin toss, Penn State had not scored a touchdown in its last two visits to Alabama. As of this morning, PSU still hasn’t.
Alabama delivered a dominating performance last night, physically beating a worthy opponent that enjoys the reputation for being physical and hard-nosed. As the “Rammer Jammer” reverberated throughout the double-deck enclosure of Bryant-Denny Stadium, those tough kids from the coal fields of central Pennsylvania wanted nothing more of what Alabama brought to the game. The Tide hammered a proud PSU defense with Trent Richardson who, in the first half alone, rushed for more than 100 yards, a milestone that the Lions have denied opposing running backs for the last 18 games. When Richardson was not gashing the Penn State front 7, GMac was dissecting the Lions’ secondary with lazer-perfect passes out of an empty backfield, five-wide, formation. You want power? Here’s our number two running back. You want speed and finesse? Here’s Julio Jones, Darius Hanks, Marquis Maze and just for good measure, another tight end whose first name is Preston. Immediately before kickoff, GMac challenged his teammates to “show these northern boys how southern boys play football”!
They did. And here’s how I grade the game:
Offense: A Alabama bludgeoned Penn State with a power rushing attack and for good measure sliced the Lions apart with a razor-sharp passes. GMac completed 16of 24 passes for 229 yards, two TDs and no interceptions. He was sacked twice. Six different players caught passes, four were wide receivers: Jones, Maze, Hanks and Kevin Norwood. Julio led all receiver with 4 catches for 49 yards. Trent added 4 grabs for 46.
The Tide had four offensive drives that gained over 40 yards [68, 97, 46 and 71] each resulted in points [3 TDs and a field goal]. For the second week in a young season, TR led all players with 207 all purpose yards [144 rushing, 46 receiving and 17 return]. Alabama only converted 3 of 10 third-downs, but that statistic is a bit skewed by the fact that in the second half, and especially so in the 4th quarter, play calling was calculated more to drain the clock than to gain yardage. Moreover, most of Alabama’s 19 first downs came consecutively. For example, in Bama’s first scoring drive, the second offensive possession of the game, Bama ran 5 plays, 4 of which were first downs.
Defense: A Pre-game punditry focused on the fact that PSU was starting a true freshman at quarterback who would be playing in only his second collegiate game. His college debut came against Youngstown State. Needless to say, last week’s game proved to be inadequate preparation for playing against Alabama in a jam-packed BDS. The Penn State passing game produced only 14 completions on 31 attempts and surrendered 3 interceptions. The final game stats credit Tide defenders with 6 QB hurries, 5 pass breakups, 1 tackle for loss and a forced fumble to go with the three interception. Meanwhile, the Lions’ ground attack was stuffed for a meager 127 net yards. Trent Richardson alone ran for 17 more yards than PSU managed on the game. Evan Royster was PSU’s leading rusher, and he managed only 32 yards on 9 carries.
Red-shirt sophomore safety Will Lowery had 3 tackles [2 solo] and snagged Bama’s first pick of the night to smother PSU’s first trip into the red-zone.
Ed Stinson led all defenders with 9 tackles [5 solo] and Jarrell Harris had 7 tackles [6 solo]. Mark Barron recorded 6 tackles [4 solo], forced a fumble, made an interception and broke up a pass. Robert Lester made Bama’s third interception, a beautiful diving catch and was credited with 5 tackles. His most eye-catching statistic is his 89 yard fumble return. That stat however is marred by the fact that he fumbled the ball back to PSU.
That was an odd play. Lester picked up a bouncing fumble and followed excellent sudden-change blocking 89 yards. He then gets caught from behind by a PSU player who strips the ball from him. Dre Kirkpatrick then picks up the ball and falls on his back with the ball in his possession, whereupon a Penn State player knocks the ball free and falls on it. The officials signal Alabama ball, first and goal, but immediately announce that the play is under review. The video replay shows that Kirkpatrick had the ball in his possession while down by contact before the ball is knocked out. Herbstreet and Musberger voiced the same impression that anyone watching on TV would have: Bama’s ball. After some chit-chat, the ref takes off the headset and announces that the replay confirms the call on the field, he signals first down Alabama but says: “First down, Penn State”! It’s been a long time since 1983, but is ref Guman still working Penn State games?
Special Teams:
Punting: A Cody Mandell punted three times for an average of 37 yards. No punts were returned and one was downed inside the PSU 10. Bama has yet to demonstrate that it has replaced Javier Arenas. Julio shagged punts, but none were returnable.
Kick Offs: A For the second week in a row, Bama’s kick offs were high and deep. Cade Foster averaged 67 yards per kick and coverage was good. PSU’s average starting field position was its own 23.
Place Kicking: B Jeremy Shelly was good from 31 yards. Foster missed from 44. All PATs were good.
Coaching: A It was not a perfect game, but it is too early in the season to expect one. Bama had 4 penalties, including the first holding call on the offensive line in 42 quarters of play. Coach Saban told reporters after the game that Bama had planned to go with the empty package to start the game but had to defer that to the second possession due to poor field position following a penalty on the opening kickoff. He also said “We had a real game-management error there at the end of the game which could have been costly to have third and half a yard or fourth and half a yard and want to go for it but then have 12 guys run out on the field after a timeout. Not good coaching. Not smart playing. Not a very good game-management move on our part, so we need to get that cleaned up. “
Defense: A Pre-game punditry focused on the fact that PSU was starting a true freshman at quarterback who would be playing in only his second collegiate game. His college debut came against Youngstown State. Needless to say, last week’s game proved to be inadequate preparation for playing against Alabama in a jam-packed BDS. The Penn State passing game produced only 14 completions on 31 attempts and surrendered 3 interceptions. The final game stats credit Tide defenders with 6 QB hurries, 5 pass breakups, 1 tackle for loss and a forced fumble to go with the three interception. Meanwhile, the Lions’ ground attack was stuffed for a meager 127 net yards. Trent Richardson alone ran for 17 more yards than PSU managed on the game. Evan Royster was PSU’s leading rusher, and he managed only 32 yards on 9 carries.
Red-shirt sophomore safety Will Lowery had 3 tackles [2 solo] and snagged Bama’s first pick of the night to smother PSU’s first trip into the red-zone.
Ed Stinson led all defenders with 9 tackles [5 solo] and Jarrell Harris had 7 tackles [6 solo]. Mark Barron recorded 6 tackles [4 solo], forced a fumble, made an interception and broke up a pass. Robert Lester made Bama’s third interception, a beautiful diving catch and was credited with 5 tackles. His most eye-catching statistic is his 89 yard fumble return. That stat however is marred by the fact that he fumbled the ball back to PSU.
That was an odd play. Lester picked up a bouncing fumble and followed excellent sudden-change blocking 89 yards. He then gets caught from behind by a PSU player who strips the ball from him. Dre Kirkpatrick then picks up the ball and falls on his back with the ball in his possession, whereupon a Penn State player knocks the ball free and falls on it. The officials signal Alabama ball, first and goal, but immediately announce that the play is under review. The video replay shows that Kirkpatrick had the ball in his possession while down by contact before the ball is knocked out. Herbstreet and Musberger voiced the same impression that anyone watching on TV would have: Bama’s ball. After some chit-chat, the ref takes off the headset and announces that the replay confirms the call on the field, he signals first down Alabama but says: “First down, Penn State”! It’s been a long time since 1983, but is ref Guman still working Penn State games?
Special Teams:
Punting: A Cody Mandell punted three times for an average of 37 yards. No punts were returned and one was downed inside the PSU 10. Bama has yet to demonstrate that it has replaced Javier Arenas. Julio shagged punts, but none were returnable.
Kick Offs: A For the second week in a row, Bama’s kick offs were high and deep. Cade Foster averaged 67 yards per kick and coverage was good. PSU’s average starting field position was its own 23.
Place Kicking: B Jeremy Shelly was good from 31 yards. Foster missed from 44. All PATs were good.
Coaching: A It was not a perfect game, but it is too early in the season to expect one. Bama had 4 penalties, including the first holding call on the offensive line in 42 quarters of play. Coach Saban told reporters after the game that Bama had planned to go with the empty package to start the game but had to defer that to the second possession due to poor field position following a penalty on the opening kickoff. He also said “We had a real game-management error there at the end of the game which could have been costly to have third and half a yard or fourth and half a yard and want to go for it but then have 12 guys run out on the field after a timeout. Not good coaching. Not smart playing. Not a very good game-management move on our part, so we need to get that cleaned up. “
That, dear readers, is the kind of self-critique that separates great coaches from merely good ones.
This coming Saturday, the Tide travels to Duke where we will play in a stadium named after Alabama’s first national championship winning head coach. Wallace Wade won three national titles in his 8 seasons at the head of Alabama’s program. His first was on New Years Day, 1926. At the half-time of that Rose Bowl game, Alabama trailed the larger, faster, and nationally celebrated Washington Huskies by a score of 12-0. When Wade entered the Alabama dressing room he had only one thing to say: “And they told me southern boys would fight.” It was all the Tide players needed as they dominated the third quarter scoring three TDs and secured the first national college football championship for a southern team. “Let’s show [them] how southern boys play football”, GMac said to his teammates last night. With continued improvement, great coaching, player leadership and striving to achieve consistently intense performance, the 2010 Tide can replicate Wallace Wade’s back-to-back championship achievement and Alabama can show the nation how southern boys play football.
This coming Saturday, the Tide travels to Duke where we will play in a stadium named after Alabama’s first national championship winning head coach. Wallace Wade won three national titles in his 8 seasons at the head of Alabama’s program. His first was on New Years Day, 1926. At the half-time of that Rose Bowl game, Alabama trailed the larger, faster, and nationally celebrated Washington Huskies by a score of 12-0. When Wade entered the Alabama dressing room he had only one thing to say: “And they told me southern boys would fight.” It was all the Tide players needed as they dominated the third quarter scoring three TDs and secured the first national college football championship for a southern team. “Let’s show [them] how southern boys play football”, GMac said to his teammates last night. With continued improvement, great coaching, player leadership and striving to achieve consistently intense performance, the 2010 Tide can replicate Wallace Wade’s back-to-back championship achievement and Alabama can show the nation how southern boys play football.
The Commissioner
A post-script about ESPN’s broadcast is appropriate. You should know that some of your fellow subscribers to the Bama E-mail Group are members of the Christian rock-band “Third Day”. Their music was featured last night during some of the intros as ESPN returned to the game from commercial breaks. Well done, guys. RTR
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