Western Carolina Grades

Well, that sure didn't take very long.

This time last week, Alabama fans were....what's a polite word for it?.....Dyspeptic! Yeah, that describes it. It looked as if the Tide's campaign to win its 15th National Championship had come to an early and unsatisfactory conclusion thanks to a toxic combination of too little offense, too little defense, too little coaching and way too much Johnny Manziel. Not even breakfast at the Waysider could get the bitter taste of ashes out of your mouth.

Once the BCS standings were recomputed Sunday afternoon, Alabama found itself sitting in fourth place staring up at Notre Dame, Oregon and Kansas State. Sure, the Tide was at the head of the parade of one-loss teams, but there were three undefeated schools ahead of us and the chances of two of them losing at least one game were long odds.

Well, folks, here we are seven days later, on the first day of Iron Bowl week, and Alabama is once again in the driver's seat on the road to Miami.

For a pre-Thanksgiving appetizer, Stanford stuffed the Ducks, and the waterfowl may get gnawed to shreds by the Beavers of Oregon State over the holiday weekend. Oregon had the toughest path to staying undefeated. You could see them losing a game, but how improbable is it that the number one team in the nation would get boat-raced by 4-5 Baylor?

Fan reactions have been hilarious. The text in-box on my phone alternated between score updates from My Son And Heir and one word exclamations like "BAYLOR!!!!!" from our Youngest Daughter. Reports out of Tuscaloosa said that the celebration on The Strip was akin to the joy that followed theTide's comeback win over LSU two weeks ago. But I think that the best reactions have been on Twitter. Here are a few of my favorites:

Reggie Ragland: T'town gone jump all night.

Carson Tinker: THE ROOF THE ROOF THE ROOF IS ON FIRE.

Anthony Steen: Quack Quack Quack Quack CHOKE!!!

Ross Durant: College football is a Disney movie. And Alabama is the main character.

Mark Roberts: My church has 3 Sunday morning services. I think I might just go to all of them.

Mark Schlabach: Even Harvey Updike is hugging trees.

and speaking of trees, the Stanford University's Chancellor, Condoleezza Rice tweeted: And yes, Go Irish and Roll Tide! It's a great day for college football.

The business of this blog, however, requires that I turn my attention to the game that Alabama played. In all of last night's excitement, I hope that you did not forget that Alabama demolished Western Carolina University 49-0 in what might have been the shortest college football game played since the invention of the clock.

Readers of this blog will recall that it is my custom to impose a downward adjustment to the grades in order to take into account the quality of the opponent. So how great a mis-match was this game?

The statistics tell the story: Alabama gained 484 all-purpose yards that included 300 yards of rushing and scored on its first six offensive possession that produced drives of 62, 44, 62, 99, 71 and 61 yards. Bama's defense devastated Western which went 3 and out in seven of its ten offensive possessions. WCU was so bad that the only meaningful thing to do is to treat this game as Pass/Fail

Here's how I grade the game:

Offense: Pass AJ completed his 21st TD pass of the season to become the the school record holder for touchdown passes in a season. That 29 yard, sideline pass to Christion Jones was also his 40th touchdown pass in his career as Alabama's quarterback, a total that moves him to third on the record list behind only Brodie Croyle [41] and JP Wilson [47]. AJ was a perfect 6 of 6 passing for 133 yards and his work for the day was done by the middle of the second quarter. Blake Sims completed 2 of 6 pass attempts for 26 yards.

Amari Cooper caught 2 passes for 50 yards. Cyrus Jones added 12 yards on 2 catches. Kenny Bell, Christion Jones, Michael Williams and Marvin Shinn each caught one pass.

The Tide earned 22 first downs and converted 6 of 9 third down opportunities.

Eddie Lacy carried the ball 10 times gaining 99 yards and scoring 3 rushing TDs. Sims gained 70 yards on 8 rushes and also scored a rushing TD. TJ Yeldon also scored a rushing TD and gained 55 yards on 7 carries. Brent Calloway ran the ball 7 times for 52 yards and The Pride of Gordo, Ben Howell, entered the game in the third quarter and gained a net of 9 yards on 5 carries.

Defense: Pass Alabama's sixth touchdown of the game came on a second quarter fumble return by Dieon Beleu. Western was so out matched that the turning point of the game came right after ".... home of the brave."

The Catamounts' first six offensive possessions gained only 61 yards and resulted in five punts and a lost fumble returned for a TD.

There are few meaningful statistics to report inasmuch as all of WCU's gains all came after the Tide went deep into the roster. However, it is noteworthy that our 2s and 3s held the Catamounts on downs in the 3rd quarter ending Western's only scoring threat of the game.

CJ Mosley lead all tacklers with 6 stops [4 solo]. Nick Perry recorded 5 tackles. Nico Johnson and Brandon Ivory each had 4.

Special Teams:

Kickoffs Pass Cade Foster averaged 64 yards per kick which resulted in 3 touchbacks. The coverage team allowed only 16.6 yards per return.

Place Kicking: Pass Jeremy Shelley continues to be perfect on PATs.

Punting: Here I have to break it down into two parts: punting/coverage and returns.

Punting/Coverage: Pass Cody Mandel was napping on the sidelines until the 4th quarter when he finally had to put on his helmet and go into the game. He punted twice for an average of 42 yards per punt. Neither was returned and one was downed at the WCU 18.

Returns: Fail Christion Jones made some poor decisions in fielding punts, fumbling twice. The first fumble went out of bounds, but the second was a turnover that gave Western the ball back at the Alabama 34. Similar problems have emerged in previous games. This needs to be addressed.

Coaching: Pass Alabama was ready to play and was penalized only once. The participation report lists 66 players who saw action.

While Oregon and K State were being upset last night, the underdog in the Tennessee-Vanderbilt game was being soundly thrashed. The remarkable thing about that, however, is that the underdog was Tennessee. The 'Dores led 13-10 at the half but scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter on the way to a 41-18 drubbing of the Vols. This prompted another one word text from our Youngest Daughter: "VANDY!!!!!"

What a year this has been for Alabama's two greatest rivals! With one game remaining, Tennessee and Auburn each are winless in the SEC. Both have experienced disastrous seasons and the firing of both head coaches are foregone conclusions. It could not happen to two more deserving programs.

Alabama's third greatest historic rival is the only remaining unbeaten team in college football. The SEC partisan in me is hoping for a Southern Cal victory over the Irish next week so that the BCS Championship game will be between the SEC Champion and Florida. But there are two considerations that lead me away from that temptation: I have a really hard time rooting for Lane Kiffin under any circumstances and I believe an Alabama vs. ND game would be good for the sport.

College football has sustained some self-inflicted injuries over the last two years. Auburn's championship will forever carry an asterisk in the minds of most observers because of the dubious circumstances surrounding Cam Newton. The reputations of Ohio State and Southern Cal were tarnished by their lawless recruiting and compliance practices. But the greatest injury came from Happy Valley. The corruption at Penn State did lasting damage to the innocent victims of a criminal conspiracy, the institution whose leadership opted to facilitate unspeakable crimes rather than risk embarrassment to the football program and to the entire sport of college football. A championship game between the two most celebrated programs in the game would be a good way to turn the page and start writing a new chapter for those who value the sport. That seems to be the point of Dr. Rice's tweet, and I agree with it.

I really respect what Coach Kelly has accomplished in South Bend. The Irish are a sound football team that has played a rugged schedule. Sure, they have won a couple of close games, but Alabama is only .500 in the "close game" category. They deserve the top sport in national rankings and Alabama fans ought to be excited about the prospect of playing them for the national championship.

But Alabama's work is far from finished. Georgia awaits the winner of the SEC West and Auburn stands between the Tide and the Western Division crown.

Put all thoughts of trips to Atlanta and Miami out of your mind. There is nothing more important to Alabama football right now than beating Auburn. I don't care that the Tiger program is a dumpster fire. I don't care that Gene Chizik faces the prospect of joining the long list of people that Auburn pays not to coach football. I don't care that this game is a statistical mis-match of historic proportions.

This is Auburn, y'all. Nothing.....and I mean absolutely nothing matters more to the "Auburn Fambly" than beating Alabama.

Early indications are that the Alabama players understand this and will be eagerly awaiting the Tigers on Saturday.

Marc Torrence tweeted last night: Vinnie: "I'm not even doing the 24 hour rule, I'm already thinking about Auburn....it's the civil war of Alabama."

See you on the Quad this coming Saturday for Rammer Jammer practice!

The Commissioner