Tennessee Grades

Nothing says "humiliating defeat" quite like tens of thousands of empty seats in Neyland Stadium. With a minute to play in the game, there were more empty seats than fans. Actually, from the looks of this photo:

Those might be ServPro employees in the upper deck getting a head start on the post-game clean up. Tip of the hat to Trey Crabb for sharing the picture from his phone.

But, I have a confession to make:

I don't care.

That's right. I don't care.

I don't care that UT is a bad football team. I don't care that they are languishing at the bottom of the standings in the SEC East in a year where the division champion might end up being decided by drawing straws. I don't care that the Vols have lost over 30 players from their football team on account of coaching turmoil. I don't care if Tennessee has more players on scholarship to play volleyball than football. I don't care that the UT secondary was hampered by the fact that safety Janzen Jackson had to surrender his pellet gun at the metal detector. None of that matters, because last night the Crimson Tide beat the Volunteers by the widest margin ever recorded in a game played between the two schools in Neyland Stadium.

UT kept it close in the first half. Just like it did with Oregon earlier in the season. Part of the credit should go to Tennessee. The Vols played hard, especially on defense, and they put a lot of pressure on GMac. He was knocked around by so many untouched pass rushers, that I'm going to watch the replay this evening and count the orange jerseys just to make sure that UT isn't still trying to run that 6-4-3 defense they unveiled against LSU.

The second half was, as they say, another story entirely. Everything worked the way the coaches draw it up on the blackboard. We got away from the oh-so-predictable play calling of the first half and opened up the passing attack with on-target throws down the field. This opened up the running game, and the results were awesome to behold. After intermission, Alabama's offense converted 4 of 5 third downs, and had drives of 70, 65, 80 and 80 yards, each ending with a touchdown. The Tide defense in the second half allowed UT to convert only 3 of 8 third downs, and the Vols' five offensive possessions resulted in a missed field goal, two interceptions, a punt and a turnover on downs.

The peck-sniffs up in Indianapolis, banned Alabama's tradition of handing out cigars in the locker room to celebrate a win in the Tennessee game, but the readers of The Grades are not bound by the PC dictates of the NCAA. So smoke 'em if you've got 'em, because here's how I grade the game:
 

Offense: A- Reader of The Grades know that a reduction of one-letter grade is a convention that I use to take into account the quality of opposition, and just such a reduction was urged upon me by Our Correspondent From Regions Bank. But I will resist that temptation. Yes, Tennessee is not a good football team, but it is a traditional conference opponent and a full letter grade reduction would discount unfairly Alabama's performance in the second half.
 

Alabama earned 24 first downs, 9 by rushing and gained 536 yards of total offense [210 rushing]. Trent Richardson gained 119 yards on 12 carries and had no rushing attempt that failed to gain. His longest run from scrimmage was a 65 yard sprint for a TD in the third quarter. Mark Ingram gained 88 yards rushing on 14 carries and after looking tentative in the first half, ran the ball with much more authority after intermission.

GMac completed 21 of his 32 pass attempts for 264 yards and had no interceptions. He was sacked once. His longest pass was 42 yards and it wasn't a screen play. AJ McCarron played the better part of the fourth quarter and completed all 3 of his pass attempts for 62 yards.

Everyone's favorite target last night was Julio Jones who set a school record for receiving yards of 221 on 12 receptions. D.J. Hall recorded 13 receptions in the Tide's 2007 win over Tennessee, but Hall had fewer yards on his baker's dozen. Marquis Maze added 73 yards on 4 receptions and Darius Hanks caught 3 passes for 10 yards. Eight different receivers caught passes.

Bama had 8 drives that gained 40 or more yards [41, 59, 56, 68, 70, 65, 80 and 80], but while the Tide's long drives in the second half were ruthlessly efficient in scoring touchdowns, the first half saw four long drives yield a solitary TD, 2 FGs and one missed FG from chip-shot distance.

Defense: B+ The stop-troops shut out UT in the second half, but in the first 30 minutes of play, they yielded 10 points including a long drive for a FG late in the half. Moreover, UT's Tauren Poole gained 117 yards rushing; the first time in 41 games that Alabama's defense has allowed an opposing player to gain 100+ yards rushing. Poole gain 59 of those yards on a single play on Tennessee's second possession of the game.

Bama's pass defense was perhaps its best of the year in league play. UT's two quarterbacks completed only 17 of 36 pass attempts and surrendered 2 interceptions. Two other potential interceptions in the first half were dropped; 1 by Phelon Jones, the other by Dont'a Hightower.

C.J.Moseley led all defenders with 9 tackles [4 solo]. Milliner recorded 7 tackles, all solo. Hightower had 6 [3 solo] including 1.5 for loss. He also broke up one pass and is credited with 2 QB hurries. Will Lowery made 6 tackles [2 solo] and seemed to be always around the ball. He played a really splendid game.

Bama's defenders broke up 8 passes and snared 2 interceptions, both of which killed UT scoring opportunities. Robert Lester returned his pick 20 yards. The other takeaway was made by converted wide-receiver, red-shirt sophomore, B.J. Scott [5-11, 193] out of Prichard's, Vigor High School.

Special Teams:

Punting: B+ Bama averaged 47 yards per punt, downed 1 inside the 20 and had 1 punt of 50+ yards. UT failed to return any punts. Bama had a single punt return that lost 4 yards.

Placekicking: C+ Jeremy Shelley was good from 30 and 42 yards, but banged one off the left upright from 25].

Kickoffs: B+ Bama's kickoffs averaged 66.4 yards gross and 45.9 net of returns. We allowed 2 returns in excess of 20 yards [29, 33].

Coaching: A- The turn around between the first and second halves was impressive. According to coverage in The Tuscaloosa News, Coach Saban merely told the players that they would have more fun if they played with more intensity. Marcel Dareus, said that there were no fiery speeches at half-time. Rather, after receiving their adjustment instructions, the players spent some time reflecting on their situation and deciding what sort of team they really wanted to be. Hopefully, the performance in the second half will be what we see from here on. If we are going to win out and return to Atlanta nothing less will suffice.
 

A word or two about the officiating and the television coverage is appropriate.

The Zebras did not affect the outcome of the game, but there were moments of low buffoonery from the Men In Stripes. I lost track of how many times the officials had to convene an all-hands-confab in order to figure out whether an infraction had occurred, what down it was, how much time was left, and the other weighty issues committed to their care. It's one thing for a ref to consult with his colleagues to make sure the call is correct, but when the meetings last so long that the Ref orders in coffee and doughnuts, you know it's gotten out of hand. Plus, the off-setting personal foul call against Dre Kirkpatrick in the second quarter was totally bogus.

As far as the TV coverage goes, the play-by-play and color commentary was fine, except for the too frequent references to Cam Newton's performance earlier in the day against LSU. But the prize for Dumbest Question By A Sideline Reporter has to go to Holly Rowe, who was interviewing Julio after he just set an Alabama single-game record for receiving yards and asked him, "Have you ever had a game like this one before?" To his everlasting credit, Julio did not say anything close to (a) "Are you freaking kidding me?"; (b) "What the $%@# did you just ask me?"; or (c) "Say what?" Instead, he very politely replied: "No, Ma'am" and then trotted off to the locker room to have a conversation with people who had actually watched the game.

The players now get a much-needed bye week to rest, recover and recharge for the stretch run. The Auburn / LSU game proved that LSU has a terrible offense but a very good defense. It also proved that as long as Cam Newton stays healthy, Auburn is a dangerous team capable of scoring from anywhere on the field at any time during the game. Obviously, LSU is the most important game on the schedule.

The last five games have been a brutal stretch, but I believe that we saw Alabama turn a corner last night.   Play like we did in the second half last night, and we win. Play like we did in the first half and we don't. It's that simple.

The Commissioner 

 

Ole Miss Grades

In life, there is a difference between what we need and what we want.

We need food. We want steak. We need hydration. We want Coke products.  OK, for some of our Correspondents that might be a "need," but you get my point.

The Alabama football team entered last night's game against the Ole Miss Rebel Black Bears . . . .  I'm sorry. We will return to The Grades in just a minute, but I must take a detour to comment on the absurdity that is the University of Mississippi's effort to be what it isn't.

The new Ole Miss mascot, a beast whose natural habitat does not include the Magnolia State, is the latest effort of the school to disassociate itself from its past. It started years ago with changing the fight song from "Dixie" to whatever it is now. The "Hottie Tottie" maybe?. There was even a brief period of time when the Ole Miss band would play "Dixie" not as an up-tempo Scotch-Irish jig, but as a languid, mournful ballad; the way Elvis did it in his American Medley. The confederate battle flag was next to go. For a while the stars and bars was replaced by a big blue capital "M", piped in white on a red field, with eleven white stars inside the letter. Did they really think that would fool anyone?

Was it a reasonable idea to get away from "Colonel Reb?"  For me, that particular character was reminiscent of what Sam Watkins described as "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." Not exactly the kind of thing that would inspire me to lay it all on the line for the old Alma Mater, but to each his own. In the end, Col. Reb just could not survive the pandemic of political correctness that has swept college athletics like swine flu. So, why not replace him with a mascot that would be a representation of the more noble aspects of being a rebel?

What about a private soldier, clad in course gray flannel with butternut pipping, a bed role slung over his shoulder, carrying a muzzle-loading rifle? You can find excellent models to choose from standing atop monuments in the town-squares of county seats all across the landscape of the rural South. No. That would not do for the folks at Ole Miss. The aristocracy from places like Hernando, Gautier, and Corinth that comprise the core of the Mississippi alumni base would evidently rather be represented by an ursine beast than a mere enlisted man. I guess that the Ole Miss fans decided that nothing says "rebel" quite like a bear, but with so many variations of bears available, why did they have to infringe on the trade-mark of Tuscaloosa High School? . . . Now back to The Grades.

The Tide came into last nights game with a list of "needs" and "wants." We needed a win. We needed the defense to play with intensity, to tackle, to pressure, to dominate. We wanted the offense to be more consistent. We wanted the running game to return to the lethal efficiency it knew earlier in the year.

The Tide left the game having gotten what it needed. But not what it wanted.

The defense played a much better game, in the first half, than it did in the three halves of football the preceded it. We held the team that had led the SEC in scoring, to only 10 points.

The offense, however, did not take a step forward. The Rebs borrowed a page from Ellis Johnson's game plan and walked the safeties up towards the line of scrimmage. They clogged the running lanes, and the passing game failed to stretch the field north and south.

Julio Jones did his level best to play with a left hand that was only four days post-operative. He's a great football player, but he's not bionic. With Julio unavailable, going forward we will need GMac and the remaining receivers to elevate their game. Opposing defenses must be forced to respect a deep threat. So long as our passing attack consists of medium routes, screens, and sacks, our running game will have no chance to achieve the levels it knew in September.

While we got what we needed from the defense, there is still a list of unfulfilled "wants" on that side of the ball. I want to see us get better on third down. I want the linebackers to start getting a higher number of tackles than the defensive backs. I want the defense to play a full game, just like I want the offense to do.

We have now faced two opponents coming off of a bye week, and we can see how one team took advantage of the open date and how one didn't. Steve Spurrier and his staff did an excellent job preparing for Alabama-they enjoyed their win over the Tide right up to the kick off of their game against Kentucky. Houston Nutt, on the other hand, evidently spent the open week exhorting his team to play more physical, without bothering to tell them that being more physical does not mean being dirtier. The Rebs were the least penalized team in the league prior to Saturday night, yet they were flagged 12 times against Alabama, mostly for late hits, piling on, and other assorted chippy shots. Even so, the refs missed some pretty blatant stuff. Just ask Darius Hanks, who had an Ole Miss player remove his helmet by the face-mask, while the official was auditioning for a gig as a guest referee on Monday Night Raw.

Yes, Alabama got what it needed, even if we didn't get everything we would want, and here's how I grade the game:

Offense:        C+      GMac's passing stats actually look pretty good on Sunday: 17 completions on 25 attempts for 219 yards and two TDs. But 8 of those completions were to running backs [Trent caught 5 passes for 101 yards including an 85 yard screen pass for a TD; Mark caught 3 for 7 yards.] Marquis Maze had 4 receptions for 42 yards and Earl Alexander had 2 for 32. Despite his broken hand, Julio caught one pass for 8 yards.

The rushing statistics tell you all you need to know: Mark ran the ball 15 times for 60 net yards. Trent added 45 yards on 11 carries. GMac was sacked 4 times for 16 yards; fewer sacks by nearly half from the previous week, but still far too many.

The drive chart shows that the offense just isn't performing consistently. Alabama had four drives of 40 or more yards [46, 52, 82 and 40] that resulted in 2 TDs, 1 FG and a punt. Our first six offensive possessions [I don't count the punt return as a possession] ended as follows: TD, Punt, FG, Punt, FG, FG. The opening drive of the second half was a three and out. We only converted 33% of our third-downs.

Defense:        B-      The defense tackled much better than last week, and the intensity of play by the front seven was much improved over last week. Rumor had it, that Coach Saban told the defense on Monday that nobody had a job on the defense unless they earned it in practice. Perhaps that's so, and perhaps it accounts for the clear step up in play by the Stop Troops.

Ole Miss' first six possessions all ended with a punt and all but one of those possessions was a 3 and out. The exception was a 5 play possession that consumed only 2:30 of game time.  In the third quarter, however, the D allowed Mississippi to convert 5 third-downs in a row all from long distance and permitted drives of 41 and 78 yards, yielding a TD.  A 10 play Rebel scoring drive was followed by a 9 play drive that resulted in a punt. For a good portion of the third and fourth quarters, the defense was simply unable to get off the field.

Jeremiah Masoli spend much of the night running for his life. The defensive stat sheet records 10 quarterback hurries, 6 tackles for loss [2 sacks], 6 passes broken up and an interception [Mark Barron].

Dre Kirkpatrick is credited with 7 tackles all solo. Barron also recorded 7 tackles [5 solo] and Dequan Menzie, Dont'a Hightower, C.J. Mosley, and Robert Lester each had 5. It was good to see Dont'a having a good game. This was perhaps his best game so far this year. His photo was on the cover of the game program; which is where it needs to be, rather than on milk cartons.

Will Lowery saw a great deal of action in the game and recorded 3 tackles and a pass break up.

Special Teams:

Punting:        B-      Cody Mandell averaged 38.2 yards per kick on 6 punts none of which were returnable, his longest was 50 yards and he nailed Ole Miss inside its 20 yard line 4 times. Marquis returned 6 Ole Miss punts for 125 yards [37 longest] but lost a fumble on one return. The hit of the game was the block thrown by Junior LB, Alex Watkins [6-3, 232], from Brownsville, Tennessee, on Maze's long punt return. The block decleated two Ole Miss players and left so much equipment scattered on the ground that you would think it was a yard sale.

Kickoffs:       B-      Bama averaged 63.6 yards gross and 44 yards net on kick offs. Trent Richardson returned all 3 Ole Miss kicks for 74 yards. His longest return was 28 yards.

Place kicking:  A+      Cade Foster was good from 44 and 49.
                         C       Jeremy Shelley was good from 19 but missed wide right from 42.
Why are we doing this? I know Shelley is the "short FG kicker" and Foster is the "long FG kicker." But don't you think that someone who can kick it good from 44 and 49 should be able to kick it from 42?

Coaching:        C+     We got what we needed. We didn't get all that we want. The Tide was penalized 8 times for 52 yards, including a delay of game penalty. What's up with that? This was the 7th game of the season, shouldn't we be able to get the play in on time?

For the 7th time this season, Trent Richardson was the leader in all purpose yardage with 220 [45 rushing, 101 receiving, and 74 returning].
 

Tennessee is next.

The Vols are a bad football team, but they are nevertheless very dangerous. They are dangerous because they are bad. They are dangerous because they have nothing to play for but to beat Alabama. They are dangerous because, just like last year going into the Tennessee game, Alabama is tired and beat up.

There were more Alabama players limping as they walked off the field than trotting. We have managed to avoid serious, season-threatening injuries, but we've got lots of guys dinged up. A lot has been written about our opponents having open dates, it's about time that we get one. We need one. But we need to go into the open date with a two-game win streak. That requires us to beat Tennessee.

Beating Tennessee is a "need" not a "want."

My closing comment is about the pre-game ceremony.

Those of you who watched the game on TV might not have seen that the honorary captain for the game was Tyrone Prothro. Few players have given more to the Crimson Tide football program than Tyrone. He was an electrifying, all-purpose player. He had speed, quickness, hands of glue, a head for the game, and a heart like a lion. Anyone who was fortunate enough to witness "The Catch" late in the second quarter of the 2005 Southern Miss game will ever forget it. Prothro astonished everyone with his athletic ability, just as he inspired everyone with his courage as he doggedly pursued returning to the team following the devastating injury he suffered in the Florida game just a few weeks later. The adverse fortunes of a violent game brought his athletic career to a premature end.

When he was introduced last night, 101,832 people roared their heartfelt respects, and lustily cheered as he stood on the script A at the center of the field and waved to every quadrant of the stadium. Legendary basketball coach, John Wooden, once said "things turn out best, for people who make the best of the way things turn out." Tyrone Prothro is a living example of the truth of that observation

The Commissioner

 

South Carolina Grades

This was a long time coming.

A record long time; as long a time as it takes to win 29 regular season games in a row. As long as it takes to beat 18 SEC opponents in a row. It was November, 2007 the last time that Alabama players walked off the field after a regular session game on the short end of the score.

Yes, it was a long time coming. But come it certainly did. And it came with a vengeance.

Alabama didn't just lose Saturday. It was dominated in all phases of the game. The Defense? The Defense allowed South Carolina to score three touchdowns, in three consecutive drives that gained 178 yards and consumed 7:20 of game time before ever forcing the Birds to punt.

The Offense? What was supposed to be the nation's best, most balanced and potent offense, saw its two stud running backs marginalized into being either spectators, or blockers vainly trying to keep Greg McElroy from getting pounded into the ground. Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson combined for a paltry 64 net yards rushing on only 17 attempts. Compare that to the day South Carolina's Marcus Lattimore had; 23 rushes, 95 net yards

Special teams? Alabama's place kicking efforts included a missed field goal and a botched PAT while the punting game featured a shanked kick that sailed out of bounds a mere 15 yards down field.

If you want the Reader's Digest version of the game, here it is: The first 8 times the two teams mounted drives ended like this:

UA-FG,
SC-TD,
UA-Punt,
SC-TD,
UA-Fumble,
SC-TD,
UA-miss FG,
SC-Punt.

In the fourth quarter, after managing to claw back to within a touchdown and extra point of tying the score, the defense made its only quality stop, with Will Lowery intercepting a pass broken up by DeQuan Menzie and giving the offense excellent field position at the SC 35 yard line. A game that at one time looked like it was out of reach, was suddenly within a single score of being tied. And what did Alabama's experienced offense, with last year's Heisman Trophy winner in the backfield, do with this opportunity? We turned it over on downs.

As dispiriting as that missed opportunity was, for me, the most agonizing period of the game came in the third 

quarter. South Carolina gashed the Alabama defense on a 15 play, 82 yard touchdown drive that ground 7:55 off the clock. Along the way, the Birds earned 6 first downs, with three of them coming on 3rd and 8, 3rd and 10 and 3rd and 5. If all you did was read the play-by-play on the stat sheet, you would think that the scribe must have made a mistake. It must have been Alabama, with Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson, Julio Jones and Marquise Maze that sledgehammered an opponent and imposed its will. Right? 

Not yesterday!

We didn't wilt under the pressure of a tougher better conditioned team. We got beaten by a team that was better prepared to play intense physical football for 60 minutes.

Did the open week make a difference? I suppose it probably did. It gave the Chickens more time to put behind them the stink of their 4th quarter flop at Auburn. It gave Steve Spurrier time to do whatever it was he did that allowed Stephen Garcia to play the game of his life. It gave the SC defensive staff an extra week to scheme rushing packages that put GMac under pressure all day. But that's just the way it is. Every team gets an open date. Teams that wait later in the season run the risk of losing a game due to fatigue before they get a break to recuperate. Teams that take the bye week earlier run that same risk late in the season. Does it even out in the end? Probably not for Alabama this year which still must play the remainder of its conference schedule against teams coming off of a bye. But that fact will either be one of two things: a factor or a footnote.

It will be a factor in future defeats only if the coaching staff and players allow it to be. Otherwise, if the coaches, trainers, staff and players take the proper lessons away from yesterday's humbling experience, a footnote somewhere will record that Alabama lost a game at the mid-point of the season, then ran the table against teams that all came off of open dates.

Yes, this loss was a long time coming. Whether it will, like the song lyric says, be a long time gone, depends upon how the Process responds. My guess is that the response began at about the time Nick Saban entered the locker room after the game. We will get an indication whether my guess was correct this coming Saturday in Tuscaloosa.  But between now and then, here's how I grade the game:

Offense:        F       From a 30,000 foot view, the offensive statistics from yesterday don't look too bad.  Sure, the rushing numbers are off-way off-but GMac completed 27 of 34 pass attempts for 315 yards and 2 TDs. Julio Jones had one of his best days receiving with 8 catches for 118 yards and a touchdown. Preston Dial caught 5 passes for 29 yards, and Maze gained 41 yards on 4 receptions. Darius Hanks added 55 yards on 2 catches including a career best 51 yard reception for a touchdown to start the 4th quarter.

The Tide had four drives of more than 40 yards [54, 53, 41 and 85]. But what was missing from all that yardage? Those 351 yards of total offense failed to generate the most important statistic of all: points on the scoreboard. Bama's first 4 drives resulted in 3 points. After the opening drive stalled and we took the field goal, the offense delivered a punt, a lost fumble, and a missed field goal before scoring again right before the half.

What about the second half? Well, 2 points were a gift when, for a brief shining moment, Stephen Garcia reverted to his former self and threw an errant snap out of the end zone for a safety. So, what does the Tide offense get out of the ensuing free kick? Another field goal.

How's this for a statistic: In the second half, Alabama did not convert a single third down.

Looking at these key metrics: (i) net rushing yards [36] , (ii) third down conversions [5 of 13], (iii) QB hurries [4], (iv) tackles for loos [9] and (v) sacks allowed [7], I can only conclude that the offensive game was lost at the line of scrimmage.

I must make special mention of the 7 sacks. I haven't looked it up, but I think this is the highest number of sacks allowed since Auburn sacked Brodie Croyle 9 times. At least 3 or 4 of the sacks taken by GMac yesterday seem to me to have been avoidable if GMac just throws the ball downfield and out of bounds. Granted, on one play by trying to make something happen after protection collapsed, he did manage to find Michael Williams for a long completion. But I'm reasonably certain that part of GMac's post-game film study today will include a note about recognizing when there is nothing to be gained from further effort, and making the decision to avoid a loss.

Defense:        F       The official statisticians do not keep track of missed tackles. If they did, yesterday's performance by the Tide defense would have given them writers cramps.

Did anybody make a clean tackle on Marcus Lattimore? Heck, we couldn't even tackle the lumbering Stephen Garcia! [By the way, I could swear I saw Garcia's photo on the wall of the post office the last time I went to buy stamps!]

As far as coverage on Alshon Jeffery is concerned, I have to say that he made two of his 7 receptions under coverage that could not have been better. In the 4th quarter, Dre Kirkpatrick did everything but tie Jeffery's shoe laces together and he still managed to make a catch. On SC's second touchdown, Mark Barron could not have covered him any better. That was just a fantastic play by a talented athlete. The guy had two one-handed catches in a single game.

On that same TD play, Marcel Dareus had excellent pressure on Garcia who typically would have thrown a ruptured duck down the middle of the field; but not yesterday. Garcia did not throw an incomplete pass until the second half! Does anybody know how Garcia spent the open weekend? Check the mileage on his car. From the way he played yesterday, I think he took a trip to the Mississippi Delta and found that cross-roads where Robert Johnson sold his soul in order to become a great blues guitar player. OK; have you got a better explanation? Was this the same player who stunk up the Pizza Pie Bowl last December against U. Conn? Or who coughed up a hairball in the 4th quarter two weeks ago down in The Village?

When was the last time the Steve Spurrier went a complete game without yanking his starting quarterback for at least one series of downs?

Barron was the Tide leading tackler with 9 tickles, all solo. Marcel Dareus recorded 8 stops [6 solo] including 4 for lost yardage. Mosley, Chapman and Hightower each were credited with 5 tackles.

SC was forced to punt only twice in the entire game, but one of those came late in the 4th quarter, after the Birds shut down their offense in order to run the clock.

Special Teams: 

Punting:        D -     Cody Mandell averaged 34 yards on 2 punts. That average is the mathematical result of adding one punt of 53 yards, with one of 15 and dividing the sum by 2. The coverage unit allowed a 17 yard return on the 53 yard punt, and Maze returned one of SC's two punts for 28 yards.

Kick offs:      B+      The one bright spot in an otherwise dismal day, way our kick-off game. Cade Foster averaged 69.2 gross yards per kick and the coverage unit held SC's return game in reasonable check resulting in a net yards per kick of 47.2. Richardson and Maze each had long kick returns of 31 yards. And, on the strength of his return yardage, Trent, for the sixth straight game this season, led the team in all purpose yards [177; 23 rush, 12 receiving, 142 returns].

Place Kicking:  F       Jeremy Shelley was good from 32 and 39, but he missed from 31 and missed a PAT. In his defense, however, the missed PAT was a combination of a bad snap and hold.

Coaching:           F       Is there any other grade that can be awarded for this stinker of a road game? Alabama never had an answer for what South Carolina was doing. And what the Birds were doing was simply playing harder and tougher than Alabama. We suffered 5 penalties for 31 yards, but had at least 2 off-sides penalties declined because the result of the play was better for SC than the charity yards would have been. We were also flagged for a substitution penalty. Whose responsibility is that?

I want to make it clear: I think Nick Saban is the best coach in college football. In my book, it isn't even a close question. Only a great coach could have brought Alabama from its ragged state at the end of the 2006 season to winning the national championship three seasons later. Only a great coach could implement and oversee a process through which, in the age of artificial parity imposed through scholarship limits, a team could win 19 games in a row against quality opposition, and 29 regular season games in a row playing in the SEC. Only a great recruiter and developer of talent could keep a team at the top of its competitive class playing with 20 first-time starters.

That's right. Twenty first-time starters; 5 specialists and 15 positional, of whom 3 are on offense and 12 on defense.

Inside the Mal Moore Center, there is a hall way leading outside to the practice fields. On the wall is a pyramid constructed out of rectangles containing the logos of each team the Tide faces in the regular season. When each of those teams is defeated, the logo is removed from the pyramid, each player signs the block, and it is placed on another wall where the accumulated blocks are a graphic display of the progress of the season.

The blocks displaying the logos of teams that defeat Alabama remain in their spot on the pyramid. The players cannot avoid going past the pyramid at least twice each day. That means the garnet and black block capital "C" with the stylized gamecock superimposed in the middle, will remain on the wall. There is only one way for it to be removed; if we play the Chickens again in the SEC title game.

After yesterday's games, both SC and Florida control their own destiny on the road to the SEC East Championship. A Florida win over SC on Nov. 13 would give the Gators the tie breaker over the Birds. But if SC continues to play the way it did against Alabama, and if Florida plays the way it did yesterday against LSU, then this will be the year Steve Spurrier returns to the Georgia Dome on the first Saturday in December.

In the West, Alabama, Auburn and LSU each control their own destiny, except that both brands of Tigers have a Mulligan coming to them. They could each lose a conference game and still make it to the Big Show with a win over Alabama. For the Tide there is only one clear path to Atlanta: win out.

Indeed, winning out remains a path that could take Alabama back to the BCS Championship Game. It worked for Florida in 2008. The Gators lost to Ole Miss at just about this same point in the regular season, but by defeating a then-top-ranked Alabama, the Lizards earned the chance to play undefeated Ohio State. A similar scenario could unfold in 2010 for Alabama.

Yes, for the Tide to make a repeat appearance in the BCS CG there are several things that would have to fall into place. For instance, SC would have to win out and come into the SEC CG ranked in the top 5 nationally, and Alabama would have to play better in every phase of the game than it did yesterday.

But all that is speculation for fans. For the players and coaches there is only one game that matters, and it is this Saturday's game against Ole Miss. And this Saturday, if Bama does not not play better in every phase of the game than it did yesterday, all the fan speculation in the world will be less than meaningless.
 

Just ask yourself this: is there any other coaching staff and football organization in America that you would rather entrust with the responsibility of correcting yesterday's errors and getting the team back on track? Is there any other collection of players that you would rather depend on to absorb the coaching and benefit from The Process? Is there any other stadium in America that you would rather return to in order to start the next string of consecutive victories?

If your answer to any of these questions is a "yes," then you are subscribing to the wrong e-mail group.

The Commissioner

Florida Grades

The game clock read 9:32 in the fourth quarter and the north end zone upper deck was nearly empty. Just about everybody wearing some combination of French blue and orange had made their way to the exists of Bryant Denny Stadium to get a head start on the long drive back to wherever they came from. The score stood at 31-6 in favor of Alabama, and the last two Gator possessions had ended with a fumble and a turnover on downs. Everywhere else within the House That Mal Built was just as full as it had been two and a half hours earlier when a national TV audience settled in to watch what Paul Finebaum had written was the most important game in college football so far this season.

The guy who sits behind me in the South Zone took it all in and summed it up perfectly: "you can tell which fans suffered through those bad years and which ones didn't."

Officially, sundown on October 2, 2010 came at 6:34 p.m., Central Time, but in the time zone of college football, the sun set on the University of Florida's reign as the darling of the national media, and purported SEC heavyweight at 2:21 in the first quarter when freshman, Trey Burton tossed a "Tebow-jump-pass" to Bama's Nico Jonson in the Alabama end zone. Johnson's interception killed Florida's 12 play, 74 yard opening drive. The ensuing 80 yard, 9 play drive engineered by GMac and the Alabama offense, resulted in the first of three second quarter touchdowns and killed the vain hope of the Gator-nation that Urban Meyer would merely reload after Tim Tebow's

What of Urban Meyer, one-time "Football Genius?" At least he survived his trip to Tuscaloosa without a relapse into the "medical" condition that spurred his brief "retirement" from coaching after last year's SEC Championship Game. How long was Meyer "retired" anyway? Not long. The only thing shorter was his post-game press conference last night; four questions, two

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that Meyer has little time for the sports media. Recall his petulant rant at a beat reporter who dared to quote accurately a Florida player who said that John Brantley was a better pure passer than Tebow? Well, when you pick a fight with people who buy paper by the ton and ink by the barrel, you often get the worse end of the exchange.

Consider the following samples from today's column by Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel:

"The only difference between this Alabama victory over Florida and the last Alabama victory over Florida is that Urban Meyer could have easily announced his resignation at halftime this time."

"It was so bad that Tim Tebow, though he's now in Denver, is probably crying again."

"This was no contest from the beginning. This was Rocky Marciano knocking out Glass Jaw Joe in the first round."

"Gator Nation has been pointing to this game for months and this is the effort that Meyer and his coaching staff get from their team? Shameful."

"Meyer pumper Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Sweet Home Alabama' into Florida's practice this week to get his players pumped up for the game. After this putrid effort, he should pipe in another Skynyrd song, 'That Smell' "

and my favorite:

"Alabama's offensive linemen chewed up Florida like they were gnawing on a rack of baby back ribs at Dreamland. Meanwhile, Alabama's defense smothered Forida's offense like three coats of barbecue

Yes, it was a dominating performance, but by no means a perfect one. Here's how I grade the game:

Offense:        B+      It might not be completely fair to down grade the superb first-half offensive performance under the weight of a lack-luster second-half. The dynamic of the game was different, the play selection and personnel groupings were different, but the fact remains that a game is 60 minutes long, and Alabama has yet to play a complete game on both sides of the ball against quality opposition.

GMac's stats were respectable; 11 completions on 17 attempts for 84 yards, and no TDs or interceptions. Florida challenged the Alabama offense with its much-ballyhooed "Jumbo Package" of 5 defensive linemen and 2 linebackers. The idea was to smother the Tide running game and force GMac to rely on his arm. He did, to excellent effect. He also relied on his legs to good effect in key situations gaining 33 net yards on 7 carries with a longest run of 17.

Marquis Maze, out of the wild-pachyderm, completed a 19 yard pass to the pride of Reform, Alabama, Michael Williams, for Bama's only passing TD. Mark Ingram scored Bama's other two offensive TDs with runs of 6 and 1 yards. However, Florida did an effective job bottling up Ingram who only gained 47 yards on 12 carries.  Mark was the recipient of 3 passes on which he gained a total of 19 yards. Trent Richardson gained 63 yards on 10 rushing attempts and for the fifth consecutive game led the team in all-purpose yards [63 rush, 58 kick returns].

Alabama's first four possessions of the game resulted in a FG and three TDs. The Tide offense had three drives greater than 40 yards [68, 80 and 42] the first three times it had the ball.

At the half, the Tide offense had 202 yards of total offense. It had 273 for the game. This is partially explained by the fact that Florida had its most productive and time consuming drives in the third quarter [UF time of possession in the third period was 12:29]. Coach Saban told reporters after the game that the second half was not indicative of how Alabama is supposed to play for an entire game. When Alabama plays four quarters of offense the way it played the first half against Florida, there is not a team in the country that will be able to keep the Tide off the scoreboard.

Defense:        A       The Gators gained 281 yards of total offense, 2/3ds of it in the second half. But the bottom line for a defense is keeping the opponent out of the end zone and Alabama's defense did that last night in superb fashion.

Courtney Upshaw showed no signs of lingering problems from a high ankle sprain. He was in the Florida backfield so much that if the game had gone on any longer, he would have qualified for in-state tuition.

Mark Barron led all defenders with 11 tackles [2 solo]. Upshaw recorded 7 tackles [5 solo] and Dont'a Hightower was credited with 6 [3 solo]. Will Lowery had 2 tackles, both solo.

Florida suffered 8 tackles for lost yardage, a forced fumble, 3 interceptions, 8 pass breakups and 9 QB hurries.

Special Teams:

Punting:            C       Alabama netted only 38.8 yards per punt, but had one in excess of 50+ yards that was downed inside the Gator 5. While Tide special teams did not allow any long returns, Julio Jones returned one punt 41 yards to set up Alabama's second TD. Later in the second quarter, however, he seemed to lose track of a punt that hit the turf at the Tide 20 and bounced dead at the 2.

Place Kicking:  A       Jeremy Shelley was good from 28 yards in his only FG attempt and was perfect on four PATs.

Kickoffs:           B+     Cade Foster averaged 68 yards per kick and had 1 touchback. Alabama averaged 23.4 yards per kick return and allowed an average of only 19.3.

Coaching:          A       Alabama was the Gators' first big game of the 2010 campaign. They supposedly had been focusing on this rematch as a chance to expunge the memory of the beating inflicted on them in the 2009 SEC CG. Well, so much for focus. So much for revenge. There can be no serious debate about who is the better coach between Nick Saban and Urban Meyer. Florida fans should be seriously concerned about the state of their post-Tebow football program.

Next week marks the half-way point in the 2010 regular season. When Alabama crosses the 6 game meridian, it will have played four teams that were ranked in the top 10. Will Alabama be 6-0 this time next week? This team is starting to take on its identity, and that is of a team that is tough, physical and intense. The young defense continues to mature each week, and the offense can only be stopped by itself. The SEC East Champion will be either Florida or South Carolina. We will be playing a rematch against one of them the first Saturday in December.  My guess is that "revenge" will be the preparation theme for whichever team is Alabama's opponent for the SEC title.

The Commissioner