Thanks for doing such a great job this week,
Commissioner. We can’t really think of
much to add, except that it is clearly a great problem to have when what was unquestionably
the weakest unit on your team features the national defensive player of the
week. In fact, if Fitzpatrick played
wide receiver his receptions and yards would have landed him just outside the
top 25 performances on the weekend.
So we’ll not gild the lily of your analysis of the offense,
defense, and special teams. So, what is
left? Plenty.
Coaching: OK, let’s
start with “this was less than an outstanding effort by the coaching staff”. It looked suspiciously like the team decided
the game was over at half time (which, to be fair, it was). That attitude is exactly the opposite of The
Process and will lead to a loss or maybe two or three if we keep it up. That’s on the coaches. I don’t know what Pruitt said to the head
coach when he made that funny face, but it had to be pretty cheeky. As you so eloquently point out, Saban was
furious on the game’s last play. I don’t
know what scheme we have that lets the All-Conference player on the other team
run across the middle uncovered, but somebody needs to fix it pronto. Harrison, Humphrey, and Jackson all made very
questionable decisions in coverage on Saturday night. Our clock management before the half is, to
use technical coaching parlance, a big stinky pile of it. Earning a dollar for every time we’ve
screamed “Call Time Out” in the half time drill would let us quit the Tire Bidness and be live in a beach house in Gulf Shores. This is not new. In the SEC Championship game against Georgia
Coach Saban admitted this part of his system left a lot to be desired. Given the degree of management of other phases
of the game, down to practicing what to do if someone fails to get on the field
on a special teams play, I do not understand how this continues to be left
behind.
Having said all that, I need to say that I’m thankful we have the coaches we
do. Specifically, Saturday night this
team was generally prepared for the game.
Often, the scheme had players in place to make plays -- sometimes they
didn’t, but sometimes they did to devastating effect. The players did not appear to be looking ahead
to Tennessee next week. The week-to-week
improvement by the offense is reassuring.
The very noisy crowd did not seem to affect our performance. Our lines on both sides of the football were
dominant, which will win a LOT of football games. We continue to have players leave because they cannot crack our two-deep chart and they end up starting for our competitors.
Also, looking generally around college football, I want to go on record as saying that I am proud of the professionalism generally shown by the
coaching staff. Sure, the coaches get
overly-excited some times. They lose
their temper with players and each other.
But they don’t run out to the middle of the field, yelling at
(incompetent) officials until flags are thrown.
They don’t fall to their knees at mid-field and cry over winning a
football game. They don’t “flop” on the field
to try to get penalties called on the other team’s players. They teach the players not to “talk smack” or
stomp on an opponent’s privates or try to wring the neck of the opposing
quarterback lying defenseless on the ground.
Our players don’t do choreographed crawls or dances before taking the field. Our coaches don’t put the starting
quarterback into the face of a murderous pass rush with the game out of reach
to try to make the score look palatable or mollify fans with how they were “coming
back” or to pad statistics. They don’t
over-water the field in hopes the other team slips down a lot. The don’t do cutesy formations like the “centipede”
or having the offensive linemen spin around to the line of scrimmage like a bunch
of Broadway showgirls to absolutely no effect. They don’t “sleep over” at recruits’ houses. And they don’t go into games with laughingly
over-matched opponents and then run the score into the 70s so that, well, I don’t
understand exactly why you would ever do that.
Sure, we have criticisms of our coaches and they get paid well enough
take some decidedly amateur belly-aching from down here in the grease pit. But, yeah, we don’t lose sight of the fact
that we are far better off than what some of our friends and fans at other
schools have to tolerate.
Officiating: Words
fail me. Regular readers know, this is
not usually a problem. Calling them
incompetent is like referring to the rains from Hurricane Matthew as a “mist”. Calling them “clowns” is an insult to every
entertainer who ever put on makeup for Barnum & Bailey. It’s bad enough for the officiating crew to
miss calls. And as often as we complain
about the quality of SEC officiating, we genuinely, truly, do understand the
problem with officials needing to see all 22 players plus some of the sidelines at once. That’s why we don’t call for the reprimand of
the blind mice who did not see Arkansas’ defensive team captain JaMichael Winston
trying to dislocate Jalen Hurt’s neck while he was lying on the ground. One would hope the Conference would
intervene, though given their gross incompetence this week on a much bigger
issue, those hopes would be in vain. One
might also hope such a player’s head coach would intervene, as USC’s did
earlier this season. Given the other,
um, stuff we’ve seen out of Coach Bielema, that’s a vain hope, too.
Holding calls are so inconsistent that offensive/defensive linemen
have no chance knowing what will be allowed in a particular game or even on any particular play. It’s as if the state troopers could decide
the speed limit after you go by their speed trap. "Yes, the speed limit was 60 yesterday and will be 70 tomorrow but today it's 35 and here's your ticket for reckless driving." On at least two occasions there was no call
when the Hog offensive linemen held onto the face masks of our rushers to keep them from getting to the
quarterback (who is a tough customer, by the way). The play that called back
the Arkansas touchdown was, at best, ticky tack.
We have purposely engaged in some hyperbole in the past to
gain attention on this issue. That’s no
longer necessary. A few years ago, we
saw a casino manager interviewed about the large crowds making reservations to
come gamble on the supposedly auspicious date of 7/7/11. The reporter asked (sort of jokingly), “Do
you think that date will be especially lucky for players at your casino?” The casino owner gave a small smile and said, “I don’t believe in luck. I
believe in math.” Good point.
So here is some math for you. Prior to Saturday night, on average, Alabama’s
opponents had had 2.5 accepted penalties assessed against them during their
games against Alabama. In their other
games, they were assessed yardage on average over 6.5 times a game. Arkansas got 5 first downs through penalties
Saturday night. Alabama got 0. Among all
FBS teams, Alabama ranks 128th in opponent penalties against. Out of 128 teams. So what conclusion do those numbers lead you
to? Teams that play Alabama decide their
best chance is to make sure they adhere more strictly to the rules during that
game than any other? Sure they do. And Texas would have won three straight championships if Colt McCoy hadn't gotten hurt.
Moving replay responsibility to Birmingham has only added to
the time it takes to make a decision not any improvement in the quality of the decisions made. We
thought Jacobs did fumble before crossing the goal line (and we are inclined to
give him a one-time pass on that because the hit he took apparently deadened
the nerve in his arm, which is probably going to make you drop what you are
carrying no matter how careful you are being).
However, how anyone saw definitively and conclusively who recovered the ball
is beyond us, based on the replays we saw.
Even when the video is clear as a Crimsonette’s complexion, such as
whether Harris stepped out of bounds on his touchdown run, reviews just drag
on, killing the momentum of the game as irritatingly as CBS commercial breaks.
Even accepting all of that, what cannot and should not and
must not be tolerated is officials who do not understand the rules of college
football. Seriously. The call for roughing the passer was not within the letter or spirit of
the rule. It's intended to stop defensive players from diving at the knees, shins and ankles of opposing quarterbacks with the intent to injure them while they are standing in the pocket. The rule is not to keep a player who has been blocked to the ground from reaching up to try to tackle the quarterback by the legs. This simply cannot continue. Usually, we feel as lonely as the place kicker
trying the 49-field goal to win or lose the game when we are whining about the
officiating. The last couple of weeks,
we have noticed a lot of real journalists are joining in. And I’m sure that is in the face of the
Conference leaning on them not to discuss the issue.
The SEC is in better fiscal shape than probably half the
state governments represented in the Conference. It’s time to spend some of that television
and bowl largesse to make sure that the best players, on the best teams, with
the best coaches, and supported by the most loyal fans in college football, at
least have officials who understand the freaking rules. It doesn’t sound like much to ask. If the current leadership can't get it done, then let's change that, too.
Roll Tide. Beat the
Low Down Dirty Snitches.
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