That was a very excellent Report, Commissioner. Thanks for sending it so promptly.
Games like these are sort of odd to watch. This year, with the opponent also looking
forward to a potential championship run, it was more odd than usual. Another odd part of the game was that it was
just really a lot of fun. As you so
correctly point out, it could have been a lot different -- ask Georgia, Florida
or South Carolina. After so many games
in a row that were “must wins”, repeated predictions from the football experts that
Alabama was ripe for an upset, concerns about the performance of this or that
unit against a mobile quarterback or a talented running back or a set of future
NFL defensive ends, blah, blah, blah, it
was nice just to take a minute to admire this edition of the Crimson Tide.
Did you notice that starting in the third quarter they just
let the game clock run all the time? Which
is good and bad. Less chance for injury
and no use us scoring any more points.
It already looked pretty humiliating.
On the other hand, with so many players we have not seen too much of
before, it was exciting for them to play and for us to watch. It would have been ok for them to have a few
more chances.
Every college team has its own identity. By definition, a significant percentage of
every college team turns over every season.
Even teams with long-established coaches, traditions, and yes, even a
Process are different from year-to-year.
And while small organizations tend to take on the personality of their
leadership, there still are variations from one to the next.
Saban-led teams have been described as business-like,
ruthless, determined, entitled, disciplined, fractured, tough, old school,
etc. Interestingly enough, the term we
would use to describe this year’s team is, well, a Team. That is not always the case in college
football and harder to pull off in reality than it might seem. (Looking at you OSU/Zeke Elliott). Even two years ago there questions raised
about the unity of the Alabama team.
These guys genuinely seems to support each other. They look like they have fun playing together. They regularly praise one another. Former walk Michael Nyeswander, who goes by
the nickname Highway 46, was mobbed when he scored a touchdown this year. When Adam Griffith hit a 55-yard field goal
in the LSU game, defensive leader Reggie Ragland was one of the first to
congratulate him. Plenty of fans were
worried about Griffith early in the season with good cause, but we never heard
a peep of doubt from his teammates. He
was struggling, but they just supported him and, we expect, suffered along with
him.
In the obligatory post-game interviews this year, we cannot
recall a time where, no matter the question, the player being interviewed didn’t
deflect praise on to his teammates. Derrick
Henry, in hot pursuit of the highest individual honor in the game, was the
first one off the sideline to congratulate his backups for scoring Saturday. Hard luck Kenyan Drake was walking around the
sidelines, arm in a sling, congratulating and encouraging. Richard Mullaney from Oregon was on a tour of
five or six schools to see where to go to graduate school and spend his last
year of football eligibility. His first
stop was at Alabama and he never visited anywhere else. His leaping touchdown catch (a call almost
blown by Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne) brought out the biggest smile we’ve
seen in a long time.
This defense, so full of quality players that there may be a
young man (or two) on the team who will be playing in the NFL next fall who
didn’t start for Alabama this year,
plays together as a team. The front seven is the consensus best defensive front
in college football. That issue has been
settled for so long that the discussion now centers on their place in not just
Alabama history, but all of college football. The young defensive backs have
grown by leaps and bounds. Cyrus Jones,
the leader of that group, had a career day on Senior Day and loved every minute
of it. He knew he was a part of
something special. Players accepted
moves to positions that they really didn’t prefer without grousing and gave
their best.
Even Nick Lou Saban, who knows a thing or two about it, has
said that this is a good team to coach -- a team that likes to play together. Though none of us has really wanted to say
this out loud, it would have been very easy for this team to give up after the debacle
of the Mississippi game. Alabama was
facing the consensus toughest schedule in the country. It gave away its first conference game, at
home, and looked pretty terrible doing it.
The starting quarterback was still unsettled. Jake Coker could have been sullen because Bateman
started the game, instead, he led an epic comeback that fell just short. Bateman, who also could have pouted, gave a
good account of himself Saturday. Many
of Alabama’s opponents had off weeks or games against much lesser opponents
scheduled the week before Alabama. The
four SEC schools whose records now place them at the bottom of the conference
didn’t appear on Alabama’s schedule this year. You couldn’t turn on the tv or
radio, log onto a sports website, or read a newspaper without being told that
the season was over for Alabama, and maybe even its recent run of great
achievement was also a relic of the past.
Four or five losses were predicted.
Questions were raised about whether the game itself was passing by Saban
& Company.
This Alabama Team, however, didn’t listen. They did not pack it in. The players didn’t hang their heads. They believed in themselves whether anyone
else did or not, righted the ship, lined up, and beat people.
They look like they are enjoying themselves. Thus, despite the level of competition, we
enjoyed watching them on Saturday as much as any time this year.
That’s enough with the pansies and daffodils, though. It is a little hard to believe how quickly
the season has reached its last regular season game. Time to get back to business. The Alabama Polytechnic Institute Plainsmen
War Eagle Tigers of the Jungle await. That
team was supposed to have its own Heisman candidate and was the preseason sportswriters’
pick to go the SEC Championship game. All
of this Alabama Team’s very lofty goals go through Lee County. A win there puts Alabama in the SEC Championship
game against Florida, which is the key to making college football’s version of
the final four. They would like nothing
better than to disrupt all of those plans and destroy Alabama’s dreams. (Their defense isn’t very good, but they do have
a very large television set at the stadium.)
Their coaches have been vocal, saying they should have scored 60 points
last season, how close they were to beating Alabama, how they have special “packages”
that will surprise the Tide, etc. Their
players have been only slightly less reticent. In truth, however, there’s not really a need
to use any of that for motivation. We should
want to whip them like Bill Monroe’s mandolin because they are Auburn and,
therefore, they have it coming.
From everyone down here at the Tire Store, we wish you and
your families a happy Thanksgiving. We
are thankful for all of you, the kind things you take the time to say, and your
participation in this community. Don’t
know about you, but I hope we hang half a hundred on them. And, as honesty is the best policy, no we won’t actually be satisfied with a
one-point win.
Roll Tide, everyone.
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