Tire Store Report MTSU

If, for some reason, you want to get the Nick Saban guy irritated, there are a few sure-fire ways to do it.  One would be to ask him a question in public that seems to disrespect or belittle a future opponent, especially if it is the next opponent on the schedule.  A reporter managed to squirt some water on this particular hornets’ nest just last week.

We are not just quite sure of what it is in the coach’s make up that causes him to respond so testily.  Maybe he believes that every team and coaching staff should be respected and that if you didn’t intend to respect them, you shouldn’t have scheduled them.  Perhaps he worries that an attitude like that from fans, press, etc. will seep into his team’s thinking and cause them to give less than 100% in preparation for the game.  Maybe at some point while a member of a less than traditional powerhouse like Kent State, he was on the receiving end of some of that and decided if the tables ever turned….  Maybe the answer is more like “All of the above”. 

In any event, the head coach once again proved that he knows more about college football than you do.  If you think any team on any given week isn’t a danger to your squad then please take a few minutes today to look around at what happened in Lee County yesterday afternoon, when a team literally not in the same league took a consensus Top Ten team to overtime.  Or maybe check up what happened to Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks at home against perennial also-ran Kentucky.  Notre Dame lost its starting quarterback to an injury (if you haven’t seen the video, don’t look, you can’t “unsee” it) and took nearly the entire sixty minutes to dispatch an unranked Virginia team.  The mighty ground and pound game at Arkansas was bottled up by lightly-regarded Toledo.  Even Tennessee, which was surely paying attention to a visit by Oklahoma, jumped to an early lead, throttled the Sooners for nearly three quarters, and perhaps, just perhaps, didn’t give them the respect they deserved leading to a critical 4^th quarter collapse.

And so we come to MTSU.  The Blue Raiders came to Tuscaloosa partly to play football in one the game’s loveliest settings, partly to pick up a big paycheck, but also hoping to continue a day of improbable upsets and scares.  For one quarter or so, that seemed like it might be in the cards.  With a variety of looks that Coach Saban admitted the team had not prepared for, MTSU moved the ball down the field.  However, a funny thing happened on the way to the upset.  Alabama took a team that had scored 70 points and rolled up yardage nearly at will a week ago, and held it to three points until the outcome was long-since decided.  In fact, Alabama’s first string defense has not surrendered a touchdown to two teams that have scored a combined 128 points against their opponents not named Alabama.

So, the good outweighs the bad.  Alabama gave MTSU at least enough respect that it never trailed, nearly doubled its opponent’s offensive output, played numerous second string players, got a good look at the style of offense they will see next Saturday, put up a score that will not raise eyebrows elsewhere in the country (especially on a week where there are a goodly number of eyebrow-raisers out there), and apparently came through relatively unscathed injury-wise.

That said, there will be much to talk and worry about as this week moves along.  The Commissioner’s Son and Heir has done a very good job of highlighting those issues.  Alabama seemed lethargic and not terribly focused on the game at the beginning.  The offense, in particular, got off to a very unspectacular start.  Alabama’s quarterback play was not at the same level it was against Wisconsin.  Neither QB seemed particularly efficient, making incorrect reads, forcing balls into coverage that should have been thrown in the stands, throwing away a ball on 4^th down, under throwing open receivers, etc.  The right side of the offensive line showed a weakness to an edge rush that was not evident against Wisconsin (presumably leading to some of the QB issues).  It took the defense almost a full quarter to catch up to the tempo and scheme used by MTSU.  We cannot seem to make a field goal.  The one ball that was kicked on line for the season fell a mildly embarrassing length short of the crossbar….

So what to do with Mississippi, which has scored 70 or more points on each of its opponents this season?  For one thing, Mississippi will go fast, just like MTSU did.  Mississippi will show our defense things that we have not seen on film, just like MTSU did.  Mississippi has a defensive front built for speed and will certainly be planning to make a day of running around our offensive line, just like MTSU did.  Mississippi is fully capable of beating Alabama, just like it did last season in Oxford.  Whatever else, there is no way, no how that any reporter, fan, coach, or player at the University of Alabama will be taking the Ole Ackbar/Rebel/Black Bear/Hotty Toddy/Land Sharks lightly.  Perhaps that’s the best news of all.

Focused and playing to its standards, Alabama should beat Mississippi at home.  We’ll not contemplate to the contrary.

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