Report from The Faculty Lounge

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We're in the time of year where teachers everywhere are administering and grading final exams, totaling all the extra credit assignments, and reporting the semester's work to the registrar.  While crunching the numbers is not a big deal, most of us in the Faculty Lounge will look for anything to keep from grading exams. Clean out the garage?  Rearrange the attic?  Change the air in the tires? (We could just go to the Tire Store and have them do it, but what would we do with all the time we saved, grade exams?) Going back over the game by game grades to get a look at the body of work produced by the Tide over 12 games?  Now's the time!
 

Here's what the season looks like when you covert the Commissioner's grades to a 4.0 scale and then back to a letter grade.  There's some rounding involved, but you get the idea:

Offense: B.  Three A+ efforts (TAMU, Auburn, Mizzou) were pulled down by, shall we say, less that stellar performances against Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Western Carolina.  When you consider the "rehab" projects that were ongoing over the season, a solid B by the offense is pretty impressive.  We'd all like to see the offense play every game like they played against TAMU, but that's not gonna happen.  What is important is that down the stretch in the "big" ones, Sims and Company rose to the occasion.  With A+ in the last two games, we should expect similar results in the next two, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.  The most important game of the season is the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1.  We need an A+ in that one.  

Defense: B+.  Four A+ grades (FL, TAMU, Aub, Mizzou) were offset with rather poor performances against WVU, Ole Miss, and Tennessee.  While giving up some yardage between the 20s in the Iron Bowl, the red zone defense the last two games was something to behold.  The B+ average for the season could have been an A if we gave a little "extra credit" along the way.  But perfect attendance or class participation isn't going to get it done on Jan. 1, so the room between a B+ and an A is there to be taken out on OSU.

Punting:  B+.  What, you say!  Scott was perfect in six games (WFU, Ark, TAMU, MSU, Aub, and Mizzou) and had a solid A against FAU and LSU.  But an F anywhere along the way will wreck a GPA.  A muffed return against USM wrecked this one.  It wasn't Scott's fault, of course, but this is a team sport.  Without a doubt, however, JK is a great kicker and has a bright future.  His ability to flip the field allows the defense to do their thing.  What a weapon.  I'd be tempted to give extra credit to bring the season grade to an A, but we could use that little bit of room for improvement on Jan. 1.

Kick Offs: A-.  Four perfect games (Ole Miss, WCU, Aub, and Mizzou) bolstered by A's against FAU, SMU, Ark, TAMU, and MSU combined to offset the F earned in the opener against WVU.  Obviously, the coverage improved after WVU returned a KO for a TD and the subsequent grades reflect that.  That's what we like to see in the faculty lounge, folks learning and improving.

Place Kicking: B.  Without a doubt the weakest part of the operation.  Griff started off with two perfect games (WVU and SMU) and an A against FAU.  But things started to slide from that point as a nagging injury, and maybe some loss of confidence, took its toll.  A perfect performance against TAMU and Auburn, along with an A- in the SEC CG, may indicate we've turned the corner.  Plenty of time to heal between now and Jan. 1, and plenty of time to kick lots of balls through the uprights at the practice facility.

Coaching: B+  Miserable, read failing, grades against Ark and Ole Miss, along with a C outing against WVU, pulled the average down.  But as the Commissioner so eloquently explained, the rehab projects of Lane Kiffin and Blake Sims more accurately reflect the quality of Nick Saban as a head coach.  In reality, of course, there's no way our coaching staff will ever average an A+, even though they earned it the TAMU, Auburn, and Mizzou games.  It goes against the entire philosophy behind The Process. If we think we've done it perfectly, we're really fooling ourselves.  At this point, the only game in which coaching needs to be perfect is the one scheduled for Jan. 1, the most important game of the season, so far.

So that's how things look in the Faculty Lounge.  Some will complain that the average is too low in light of the performance down the stretch.  But somebody is always going to complain about his or her grade.  Those of us who hang around the Faculty Lounge are pretty calloused to those types.  The Commissioner called 'em as he saw 'em and the grades are what the grades are.  Pretty good overall, but there's still room for improvement.  We have an opportunity to demonstrate that improvement against OSU in the Sugar Bowl.

 Roll Tide!