Another excellent effort by the Commissioner’s Son &
Heir. Many thanks.
We have heard it said that the worst thing you can receive
from an enemy is not hate, but pity. So,
for the last few days, we’ve tried to work up a little sympathy for the
Tennessee Vols. It even seemed to be
working there for just a bit. Safe to
say that Tennessee has suffered through a raft of injuries, has a terrible
record against the SEC, has a coaching staff that appears to be, shall we say,
struggling, and has missed a chance to take charge of the eastern division of
the conference during an era when it has been relatively weak. Plus, they have to wear that “puke-inside-of-a-pumpkin-orange”.
And then there was the game.
We tend to think the word “mistake” is getting stretched far
beyond its original meaning. When we
leave the store at night and forget to lock the front door that is a mistake. Not tightening the lug nuts on a wheel before
the boss takes the car on the test drive down the Atlanta Highway is, too. (Looking at you, Mr. Poole). The point being, there’s a difference between
a mistake and exercising really poor judgment -- not to mention demonstrating just
out-and-out rottenness.
This shows up on the football field. Both wide receivers standing near the line of
scrimmage watching the game when the play call was the flea flicker was a
mistake on someone’s part. Forgetting
the snap count and false starting, yes, that’s a mistake, too. We feel some pity in those situations.
However, there were events in the game on Saturday that,
despite the descriptions we’ve heard from several sources, were not “mistakes”.
Not once, but twice, the same Tennessee
defensive lineman was flagged for “Hands to the Face.” That was putting it about as nicely as
possible. That rule is in place to keep
(mostly) linemen from grabbing their opponent by or under the facemask and
pushing them backwards. Such should be
against the rules. The physical dangers
are obvious. On Saturday, “hands to the face,” didn’t really
accurately describe what happened. The
Tennessee defensive lineman was grabbing
Jonah Williams by the throat and (we presume) squeezing as he pushed him
backwards towards the quarterback. So
that wasn’t a mistake, it was a choice.
I mean, once you find your hand grasping someone’s throat, is it that
hard to, you know, let go? We do not
mean to imply that the Tennessee coaching staff is teaching that move. However, it happened twice. We do blame the coaching staff for not
putting a stop to it after the first time.
An old coach of ours used to say
“once is a mistake, twice is a habit.”
That move looked like a habit.
Then there was the “mistake” by the Tennessee player in the
Alabama end zone. He chose to make a
gesture to the crowd at a time when he was sure the cameras would be on him. For a family-type blog let us just say that
he chose to express the utmost disdain and disrespect he could manage while not
being able to be heard verbally. With
both hands. Again, we heard this
described as a “mistake”. We have a hard
time stretching the concept quite that far.
Crass? Yes. Classless?
Most certainly. The functional
equivalent of adding one and one and getting eleven?
And so, despite the predicament that the football program up
in Knoxville seems to have worked itself into, we are going to have to say that
as much as we’d like to pity them, we just can’t do it.
Speaking of pity, we feel sorry for everyone who had to sit
through the lousy officiating job done by the Three Stooges Crew of Mark
Curles. Or, as we like to call them,
Curles, Larry and Moe. (Actually, that’s
an insult to Moe.)
As usual, there were egregious calls and non-calls in this
game. For our money, the very worst was
the non-call of the block in the back on the Tennessee interception return that
changed the play from being a Tennessee first down at about the 45 to a touchdown.
We will certainly listen to an argument
that the block in the back they did call, as ably described by the CS&H,
was worse. The crew seemed to need to
have an extensive huddle to figure out which rule to apply and how. Fumbles out of your own end zone are a weird
and relatively rarely-presented situation.
We don’t claim to know all the rules and how to explain them all -- but
if we wore striped shirts, whistles, and knee socks every Saturday, we’d darn
sure understand the rule book.
For what it is worth, this is not particularly new. Back in 2009 Curles and his crew gained the
distinction of being the first SEC officiating crew ever publicly-suspended for
poor work.
The pitiful part for us is the expression on the faces of
the coaches as they watch events unfold.
It reminds us of when we used to have a youth baseball team. The umpires for the younger leagues tended to
be in the 15 and 16 year old range. They
had taken the job because it was better than working the drive thru window at
Taco Bell. On a basis about as regularly
as you would expect, they would miss an obvious call, not understand when a
play was a force play or whether a tag had to be applied, etc. Your first season or so dealing with them
could be terribly frustrating. After
that, however, most of the coaches would just adopt an attitude of “life’s too
short” and after a minute or so of trying to explain that the first phrase of
the infield fly rule reads “When less than two are out….” When it went against you, the other coach
would just give you a sympathetic shake of the head. When it was for you, then you just figured
this sort of thing evened out over a season and it wasn’t like you were trying
to get in the NLDS. They were minimum
wage jobs and you get what you are able to pay for.
All that to say, we have started to note the same
expressions of frustration, disdain, and well, resignation on the faces of SEC
head football coaches. Saban
occasionally still has a hissy fit at the officials, but you can tell his heart
really isn’t in it. He’s protecting his
players, but he knows nothing is going to improve the situation. He is the dean of SEC football coaches so he
knows better than anyone alive, us included.
The consequences of sorry officiating are great in each circumstance –
Jones trying to save his job, Saban trying to reach ever loftier heights in the
coaching pantheon while putting his deserving team in position to play for a
championship. We cannot imagine the
pressure of doing that knowing that you’re going to have all of it hanging in
the balance while Shemp and Curly Joe do everything but poke one another in the
eyes and say “Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk”.
In any event, the regular season is now two-thirds
over. It doesn’t quite seem
possible. Alabama definitely needs to
rest and heal. Little things (which
could become big things down the stretch) need to be cleaned up. A couple of guys look just a step slower than
in the past. Punt catching has turned
into an adventure that would drive a middle school coach crazy. Former starters who have been healing need to
resume their places on the field.
Fundamentals, from swing passes to open field blocking, have gotten a
little sloppy. We’ve probably developed
some tendencies that tip off our play calls and blitzes.
On the other hand, it is important to remember just how
outstanding the Alabama football program is at this juncture, on both a current
and an historic level. Without the two
kneel downs to end the game, Alabama would have outgained Tennessee by 500 yards. In this week’s polls, Alabama received every
single first place vote, both in the AP and Coaches’ versions. Sunday marked the 98th time that
Alabama has been ranked #1 in the AP poll.
A new poll will be released next Sunday and it seems highly unlikely
that with Alabama’s bye this week another team will pass it into the top spot,
which will give Alabama sole possession of third place on the list of Most
Weeks Ranked #1. (Oklahoma has been #1
ranked for 101 weeks. Ohio State holds
the top spot at 105.)
Next Saturday
night, the first College Football Playoff poll for this season will be released.
Alabama has participated every playoff
since the program was instituted.
Tennessee? Not so much.
Hate the Volunteers?
You bet. Feel sorry for
them? Nah, not so much.
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