Rebel Landshark Black Bear Hotty Toddy Grades

So the Commissioner was busy giving away a bride on Saturday and asked if we could get Pee Wee and Big Willie to handle busting down the tires and running the alignment machine to write The Grades this week.  We are happy to do so, though a little nervous -- the Commissioner leaves a big keyboard to fill and, well, Pee Wee is still a little scared of the fancy computer-controlled alignment machine.  Best wishes to the happy couple, Commish.

Saturday was another blazing hot day in Tuscaloosa, with the on-field thermometer needling over to near 110 degrees.  The other thing that was scorching hot was the Alabama offense that lit up the scoreboard the way a lightning strike sometimes lights up entire counties out in California.  The defensive performance left some to be desired given usual expectations.  Nonetheless, a blow out win against a divisional opponent is never to be taken for granted, especially this divisional opponent.

Look at it this way if no other -- Alabama beat Mississippi 31-0 in the second quarter.  Did the players seem to lose a little focus and energy in the second half?  Yes, they did.  Although we’d have been happier to win every quarter by a score of 31-0, we understand that in that heat and with those levels of success, yeah a group of 18-22 year olds may have a little trouble staying in the game.  More below. 

As CBS and Gary Danielson found no end of reasons to reference, Mississippi defeated Alabama two seasons in a row, including one game where they had enough lucky breaks to equal walking into your kitchen on a stray Saturday evening and finding a unicorn standing there. A red and blue unicorn. With a striped horn. Wearing a bow tie.

So Saturday was satisfying in that Alabama logged another blowout win against an over-matched opponent, maintained its undefeated season, and perhaps by the time it returns to the field in Tuscaloosa in a few weeks, the weather will be a little more temperate.  We hope, however, that the team is hotter than a set of drum brakes on a Plymouth Roadrunner.

Here is how we grade the game

Offense:  A+  Let us not mince words.  This was an excellent offensive performance.  A few years back we told the lug nut crew to pay special attention to Julio Jones, because he was such an excellent wide receiver we probably did not have enough football watching years left to see his equal.  And then Amari Cooper.  And then Calvin Ridley.  And now?  OK, Jerry Jeudy was generally considered to be the best WR on the team in August and we think he still is, frequently drawing double team coverage and still getting plenty of catches.  Saturday, apparently having become the all time rock, paper scissors champion, DeVonta Smith caught 11 passes for 274 yards, setting records for TD receptions in a half, game, becoimg the all time receiving TD leader in Alabama history (at least for now), etc.  Neither of those guys is as fast as Henry Ruggs, III.  On perhaps 100 of the top division college teams, Jalen Waddle would be the best receiver by a good bit…..

Tua Tagovailoa passed A.J. McCarron for TD responsibility in a career, in fewer games.  His six TD passes was a career and program high.  Overall, he was 26/36 for 481 yards.  Let us be realistic, Mississippi’s pass defense is somewhere between atrocious and putrid, but these numbers are difficult to achieve against air.

The Mississippi run defense, however, was relatively respectable coming into Saturday.  The running game showed signs of life, with 30 carries for 155 yards and Harris and Robinson combining for 19 carries for 131.  And if you haven’t yet seen the video of Jedrick Wills, Jr. tossing a hapless Mississippi defender backwards like a rag doll, look up the video -- it’s worth 10 seconds of your life for sure.  In all Alabama tallied 573 yards of offense in the contest.

In short, the offense was basically unstoppable and could easily have scored in the 70s.  That’s at the top end grade of an excellent performance

Defense: C  A “C” grade represents a fair performance.  Which this was.  Coach Saban said, rather tellingly, after the game: “The players we have are the players we have.”  Terrell Lewis was a force to be reckoned with -- on the downs he was in the game.  The same was true for D.J. Dale.  The injury losses have been, perhaps, over-documented elsewhere.  Mississippi rushed for 279 yards and passed for 197.  Mayden had a nice pick and return.  Plumee rushed for 109 yards on 25 carries but managed a QBR of only 34.  In his post game press conference, Coach Saban mentioned that the officials failed to give Alabama a chance to substitute after Mississippi did so.  We don’t know why Williamson’s crew didn’t do a better job at this. Oh, wait, they are SEC officials.  Never mind.

The problem is that this is a game where you’d like to get a good bit of experience for your second team players and a number of snaps for your third string.  At some positions, Alabama is starting its second string and the third is pressed into service early in the game for standard relief.  Again, the defense was on the field for over 80 plays, which is unsustainable.  Some of that is due to an offense that is a threat to be in the end zone on every play.  However, some of that is due to not being able to force a three-and-out.  However, when the game seemed competitive near the end of the first quarter, Alabama forced (we think) five straight short scoreless possessions by Mississippi until things were out of reach.

To our eyes, it looked like the defense got hot, tired, and bored with the contest.  Such is youth.  The coaches have work to do here.

Special Teams: ?+/-  Well, we really wish the Commissioner had to issue this grade.  Normally, a game with a blocked punt recovered in the end zone for a touchdown would earn an automatic A.  Fumbling a punt that lead to the other team scoring a touchdown would earn an F.  A game allowing blocked punt -- we still aren’t sure if it was blocked or not because CBS was too busy showing us some graphic about how much better Y.A. Tittle was than Sonny Jurgensen or something equally less relevant should also earn an F.  But Waddle was otherwise electric on kick returns and will eventually take one all the way this year so that deserves a good grade.  Except that one kick return was called back to inside our 10 because of a block in the back. 

With the backup handling place kicking you are inclined to grant some extra credit, but this kicker is an upperclassman who was the starter last season.  (And, we hope Reichard gets well soon after he hurt his leg by kicking the kicking tee.  Perhaps we should get rid of the cast iron model and/or not nail it into the turf with a spike from here on.) Most kickoffs forced fair catches and coverage was generally excellent.  But we kicked off out of bounds one time -- an automatic low grade.  We made a 36-yard field goal, which is great.  But we hit the upright on a 28-yarder that was probably attempted just to help the kicker’s confidence because at that time we didn’t really need the points. We don’t know the conference and overall NCAA record for most uprights hit in a season (we are guessing someone does) but with 3 or 4 that we recall in just four games, we have to be getting close.  Though, is that really the record you want to have writ in crimson flame?  We think not. 

And for all of you who took our grade above to be characters representing a swear word, well, if the kicking tee fits….

Coaching: B-.  The offense was well-prepared and handled the not very good Mississippi defense with ease.  New wrinkles appeared in the offensive play calling.  Defensively, this team was not well prepared for the quasi single wing style of ball Mississippi was playing.  Not to mention their special technique where the tackle or tight end was permitted to Bear hug on the edge till the runner was around the corner.  In fairness, Plumee played a very good game and having only had about two series of tape on him before Saturday, most of the coaching had to be done in game.  It was somewhat like playing one of those pesky triple option teams late in the year with an offense you see about annually.

The markdown is more for the way the team, particularly the defense, seemed to lose interest in the contest after the lead stretched out to about five touchdowns.  Maybe that is human nature.  Unfortunately, this is the opposite of what the Process ™ teaches -- each play has a life of its own and you play for success and excellence on every play.  In short, win each play. Then the game outcome takes care of itself.  It is a process and there is work to do with this team. Good thing we have such an excellent staff.

 

Because of a little quirk in the calendar, every SEC team will have two open weeks this season.  Alabama’s first is next Saturday.   We think it falls at a good time.  Players are getting dinged up.  Some fundamentals need work.  A long trip to College Station is next.

We encourage you to get some household chores done next week.  The next three games are all against SEC opponents.  We’ll see you in two weeks.

Roll Tide.  Beat Texas A&M.

 

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Southern Miss Grades

Nearly fifteen years later, it is still one of the most amazing things I have seen in a football game. Heck, it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve seen anywhere, including a county fair and a ride on the New York City subway.

I’m referring of course to The Catch.

I was there September 10, 2005 in Bryant-Denny Stadium with Alabama trailing Southern Miss by two scores facing 4th down and 13 from the Golden Eagle 43 yard line and only :29 seconds to play before the end of the first half. Brodie Croyle launched a deep ball to the Tide’s most explosive play-maker, Tyrone Prothro, who was covered and being interfered with by the Southern Miss safety. The interference was so bad, that the only thing keeping the ball from hitting the defender in the back of the head were Tyrone’s hands, as he reached completely around the safety’s head, caught the ball, and hung on as they both flipped upside down and crashed, into the end zone.

Prothro landed on his head, which bent at such an angle it is a miracle he survived the play, much less that he maintained possession. The crowd went crazy as the official nearest the play signaled touchdown. Then the crowd went even crazier when the call was overruled and the ball was placed down at the 1 yard line.

Bama scored on the next play to go into the locker room with the score 21-17. Bama whipped Southern Miss in the second half and won the game 30-21, and The Catch took its rightful place along with “The Run In The Mud”, “The Sack”, “The Kick”, “Rocky Block” and “”Second and 26” in the pantheon of famous Alabama football plays .

The 2019 edition of Alabama’s series with Southern Miss did not produce any plays for the ages, but it did generate a number of spectacular touchdown passes from Tua to Henry Ruggs,III, and Jerry Jeudy. It also featured the reappearance of Alabama’s running game, missing in action through the first three games.

As good as the offense played, there is still work to do. Late in the second quarter, the offense seemed to have looked at the scoreboard which showed a 28-0 lead. At least that would explain why we had two lackluster possessions back-to-back as time expired in the half.

The defense played better than last week against South Carolina. Tackling for the most part was crisper. Again, much work remains. There is only one cure for inexperience: playing time. The good news is we have plenty of games to play before LSU on the first weekend in November. The bad news is one of those games is a trip to College Station.

Our kicking game’s performance did not go backwards this week. That’s a good thing. But we still do not punt the ball very well, and placekicker Will Reichard did not play for most of the contest after suffering an injury to his”lower leg”. 

A 49-7 win over Southern Miss is a good win. Because this blog is about taking a dive that is a bit deeper than the score, here is how I grade the Game:

Offense:      A          The Offense gained 514 yards of total offense (the fourth time in four games this season the Tide has gained 500+ offensive yards) achieving 24 first downs, and converting 6 of 10 third down opportunities as well as converting its lone attempt on 4th down. More significantly, the Tide running game has begun to emerge. Bama gained 176 net yards rushing, primarily on the legs of Najee Harris who gained 110 rushing yards, becoming the first Tide player to rush for more than 100+ in a game this season. Alabama ran the ball on 35 plays. Brian Robinson, Jr. and Jerome Ford both scored rushing TDs

Tua completed 17 of 21 pass attempts for 293 yards and 5 TDs. This game was the ninth time Tua has completed at least four touchdown passes in a game and sets a new Alabama record previously held by AJ McCarron. Tua was sacked once, but suffered no turnovers.

Mac Jones subbed for Tua late in the third quarter. He attempted 3 passes, completing 2 for 25 yards and a TD. He threw an interception. Taulia Tagovailoa replaced Jones in the fourth quarter and completed his lone pass attempt for 20 yards.

Henry Ruggs, III was Bama’s leading receiver with 148 yards and 2 TDs on 4 receptions. Jerry Jeudy caught 6 balls for 96 yards and 2 TDs. The Other Jaylen [Waddle] gained 43 yards on 3 receptions. DeVonta Smith caught 2 passes for 26 yards. A total of 9 players caught passes. Najee Harris added a receiving touchdown to his game stats on a play from the So. Miss 5 yard line where he was so open he could have paused at the goal line to sing the fight song, and still scored before a defender could get to him.

The offense had ten meaningful possessions. It engineered sustained drives in 8 of the 10 [54, 91, 91, 56, 77, 68, 43, 43] resulting in 7 TDs and an interception. Bama’s last two drives of the first half gained only 19 and 2 yards respectively, and the Tide was forced to punt on both possessions. On the plus side, Bama mounted three offensive drives that ran 9 or more plays, and collectively accounted for nearly 15 minutes of game time. The Tide’s quickest possession was a 3 play drive that covered 91 yards and scored a TD in :59 seconds.

Defense:             B+.               Southern Miss was held to only 226 yards of total offense [52 net yards rushing], and limited to only 15 first downs. The Golden Eagles were only able to convert 3 of 12 possession downs. The defense yielded only two drives that gained more than 40 yards [74, 55] the first resulted in a TD the second ended with a turnover.

Jared Mayden led all defenders with 8 tackles [5 solo]. Christian Harris had 6 tackles. Xavier McKinney, Anfernee Jennings, and Shane Lee were each credited with 5 stops. Defensive Lineman Phidarian Mathis [RS Soph. 6-4, 312; Wisner, La.] forced a So. Miss fumble that Jordan Battle [DB, Fr. 6-1; 201; Fort Lauderdale, FL] recovered. Trevon Diggs made an interception to give the Tide defense two take-aways on the game.

In addition, Tide defenders made 7 tackles for lost yardage, broke up 2 passes and hurried the Golden Eagle QB twice.

Special Teams:

Punting:           A-                    Skyler DeLong averaged 37 yards per punt on two punts. Jaylen Waddle returned one So. Miss punt 41 yards, and the coverage team allowed only 1 return yard.

Kickoffs:         B+                    Will Reichard and Joseph Bulovas shared kickoff duties [Reichard suffered an injury on his second kick off of the game] and averaged 51 and 59 yards per kick respectively.  The coverage team surrendered one long return [25 yards].

Place Kicking:         A.            Reichard and Bulovas were 7 for 7 on PATs. Bama did not attempt a field goal.

Coaching:                    A-                    Alabama was penalized only once. The participation report lists 66 players who saw action in the game. Five true freshmen [Evan Neal, DJ Dale, Shane Lee, Justin Eboigbe, Joseph Battle] started the game.

The 2019 contest between Alabama and Southern Miss may not have produced a play to join The Catch on the all-time highlights reel, but I think it provided Alabama with what it needed at this point in the season: an opportunity to improve as a team in a game against a competent opponent. We came out of the game relatively healthy. DJ Dale left the game in the first half, but Coach Saban did not seem too concerned about the talented freshman being back in action soon.

Around the league, the Villagers held off the Aggies in the second half to win 28-20 in College Station. Speaking to reporters about the play of Auburn freshman QB Bo Nix, Gus Malzahn said “It’s going to be a lot of fun to have him around in the future, I’ll tell you that.” This is Coach-Speak for: “As long as Nix is starting, there is no way Pat Dye and the rest of that bunch of cut-throats will dare to fire me.”

The Tide notched its second win of the season over the Fighting Chickens. That’s right. After losing to Alabama last week in a game where they gained 459 yards of total offense, made 31 first downs, and scored 23 points, the Yard Birds got turned into Chicken Pot Pie  by Missouri.  South Carolina barely managed to score two TDs in a game where they gained only 271 yards total offense and gave up 421. I have not been able to confirm whether the South Carolina training staff had to restrain Will Muschamp with a straight jacket.

In Athens, Georgia defeated Notre Dame 23-17. The six-point loss by the Irish was immediately declared to be a moral victory by the nation’s elite sports media. …. If you think I’m exaggerating check out the game summary on the CBS Sports app which contains this sentence in the second paragraph: “For No. 7 Notre Dame, it was another big-game loss but a performance that should bring more respect.”

In what might be called The Battle of the Bears …. or maybe not …. the Golden Bears from Cal beat the black variety from Oxford 28-20. Which means it is time to start thinking about The Most Important Game of The Season So Far for Alabama: this coming Saturday’s contest against Ole Miss.

The Commissioner will not be available to write The Grades next weekend as we solemnize the nuptials of The Commissioner’s Middle Daughter. Our Correspondent From The Tire Store has graciously agreed to grade the game. Over the next few days, I will be working on figuring out how to get wedding bells to play “Yeah Alabama”, and trying to convince the Commissioner’s Long Suffering Spouse that leading the reception guests in a chorus of “The Rammer Jammer” is a time-honored tradition.

Roll Tide, Y’all

The Commissioner

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Tire Store Report: South Carolina

Offense:  Not too much to add to your excellent report, Commissioner.  Watching the game, we did hark back to a question Coach Saban asked rhetorically a few seasons ago.  Namely, is this what we want football to become? For good or ill, the trend right now is to do what Alabama did Saturday -- prove it can score at will (Alabama punted once in the game and took a knee once -- otherwise, we think all the drives ended in scores or FG attempts) and otherwise try to occasionally generate a turnover or force the other team to kick a field goal.  We think of it as the boat race strategy.  Is it what we would prefer? No.  Is it what we have?  Looks like.  Are we good at it? Darn right we are.  Perhaps the return of our suspended lineman will improve the traditional running game.  If not, we will just have to get comfortable with thinking of 8-9 yard swing passes and screens as really long handoffs.

Defense:  The growing pains attributable to losing two talented upperclassmen at the inside linebacker spot became apparent on Saturday.  Credit the USC staff for finding ways to try to use those players' inexperience against them.  The good news is that on the job training works.  The more those players are exposed to those schemes and matchups, the better they will defend against them.  It will be interesting to see who takes the field for the first snap on defense the next couple of weeks.  We are not, however, wringing our hands over whether Saturday's effort would be enough to beat some other team appearing later on the schedule.  It was more than enough to beat USC and they were the opponent.  Whether that effort would beat Team X won't matter till our game with Team X.  We'll see then.

Special Teams:  Sorry we mentioned it last week. Totally our fault.  Back to covering our eyes on kicks.  To be honest, we thought the 13-yard punt was the result of a pretty favorable spot by the official.  That was the functional equivalent of a turn over.  Seriously, we know we have readers all over the country.  If you live in Baton Rouge or New Orleans or roundabout, we are willing to see if we can't take up a collection to bury some chicken bones or get a reverse voodoo doll or some other ritualistic program underway to try to undo whatever it is that happens to great kickers when they put on an Alabama uniform.  We tend to not be all that superstitious, but as J.M. Keynes put it, "When the facts change, I change my mind.  What do you do?"

Broadcasting:  We were surprised to hear from Gary about all the good things that Najeeh Davenport did during the game.  We'd have thought that having already won a National Championship at Miami and playing for three or four NFL teams (not to mention being about 40 yeras old) he'd not be eligible.  I guess it's just more recruiting genius from Nick Saban.  The only good thing about the broadcast is that CBS has one fewer chances to show our games this season.  They picked up  the Mississippi game week after next.  Perhaps we can hear what Terrell Owens is doing for our defense or how Brian Russell is shaping up in our backfield in his second turn in college.  Sheesh.

Officiating.  OK, you saw the game.   Though Gary Danielson will still be harping on whether the USC running back's knee touched the ground before he crossed the goal line when your grandkids are in college, he really did miss the point.  If there was an error on that call, it was USC deciding to run another play before a review could be called.  And despite Coach Exploding Head blaming bad officiating, that was a stupid coaching mistake.  Admit it, Coach, you ran the play because you were certain you'd score on the next snap if you rushed it.  You might be right to be angry, but not at the officials.  To be honest, I couldn't tell from the super slo mo or the zoomed in view whether the runner's knee touched the ground or not -- too much shadow.  We did not see light between his knee and the ground.  Is it down if he touches the grass but not the earth underneath it?  The supposed expert for CBS made some remark about not seeing dirt fly up, which was definitely a rule interpretation we had never heard of before Saturday.  I'd say if we are down to that level of argument, whatever was called on the field would stand.  Lousy calls were the order of the day on Saturday.  We could see green grass between our tight end's shoe and the sideline from the overhead view, but he was ruled out of bounds even after review.  The officials were equally terrible both ways.  And before you take any guff from other fans about Alabama always getting favorable calls, we stand at a proud 108 in the NCAA rankings of teams with fewest penalty yards (out of 130).  So the other team always feels that way, but the math doesn't support their feelings.

Based not just on our game (though the targeting call on Barmore has been widely-criticized, including outside the SEC) but on several calls from the last two weeks (see Kentucky vs. Florida as the prime exhibit) it doesn't appear to us that there is any consistency or really even a shared understanding of what targeting is.  Comments from various officials out there make it clear that different strokes apply to different folks.  Quarterbacks appear to be particularly protected.  And while we are at it, we are not fans of this rules expert in the booth concept.  We get that the networks, probably at the insistence of the conferences, want someone to speak "for" the officials.  Networks do not want to be in the middle of that.  However, this has started to seem like nothing more than an on-screen apologist defending whatever the officials at the game have decided.  On a couple of occasions Saturday we could hear them as the great Chico Marx: "Who you gonna believe? Me or your own eyes?"

Unfortunately, before we leave this topic, we have some worse news for you.  That was Hubert's crew doing the game.  That crew is generally regarded as the best the SEC has to offer.  Let that sink in for a minute....

Roll Tide.  Beat Southern Miss.

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South Carolina Grades

           Alabama’s 47-23 road victory over South Carolina provides quite a lot to write about:

        Win Streaks? Bama has now defeated every other team in the SEC in the most recent games played; in other words, the Tide’s conference winning streak is now an astonishing 27 games. Coach Saban’s undefeated streak in games against his former assistants is now 17-0.

          Individual Records?  Tua set a personal record with a career high 444 passing yards. This was Tua’s eighth career 300+ yard passing performance; the most in Alabama history. By completing five passes for touchdowns, Tua became the first Tide QB to throw for more than 400 yards, and five TDs in the same game. Najee Harris accounted for 87 receiving yards against the Gamecocks; the most by a Tide running back in a single game since Shaun Alexander had 110 receiving yards against Mississippi State in 1998.

         Will Muschamp?   Well you’ve got me here. I’m not a licensed psychotherapist. If ever there was a head coach more in need of having his head shrunk I cannot name him, much less come up with a treatment plan. Maybe the South Carolina training staff could carry a roll of duct tape to wrap Muschamp’s cranium. Then again, maybe that idea has been rejected because of the effect it has on game officials when his head explodes.

          SEC Officials?    I will defer to Our Correspondent From The Tire Store to give this crew the review they justly deserve.

         The Good?      Alabama won its conference opener on the road in a hostile environment. Playing in Williams-Brice Stadium before a crowd of nearly 82,000 is the farthest thing from a road game at Vanderbilt where visiting fans have a 5:1 advantage over the home crowd and the students don’t show up until the second quarter.  The Tide passing game shredded the Gamecock defense, which played with great intensity, is loaded with good athletes, and schemed effectively to neutralize the threat of Jerry Jeudy.

            The Bad?        The offense lacked balance; three games into the season the running game is yet to appear. The defense could not consistently contain the Chicken’s offense. Untimely penalties [some deserved, others not] extended South Carolina drives.

            The Ugly?       The kicking game took a step backwards; a 14 yard punt, a missed PAT. Some worrying injuries might contribute to the existing lack of depth on the defensive line.

Because there is a lot to write about, here is how I grade the game:

Offense:          A-        Alabama gained 571 yards of total offense [only 76 net rushing], earned 25 first downs, converted 8 of 14 possession downs [6 of 12 on third down] and controlled possession of the football for 32:37.

Tua completed 28 of 36 pass attempts for 444 yards, 5 TDs, and threw no interceptions. He was sacked twice. Mack Jones was a perfect 3 of 3 passing, for 51 yards. DeVonta Smith was the Tide’s leading receiver with 136 yards on 8 receptions. He scored 2 TDs. Henry Ruggs, III caught 6 passes for 122 yards and a TD. His longest reception covered 81 yards and resulted in his touchdown. Najee Harris was highly effective catching passes out of the backfield; he caught 5 passes for 87 yards and scored 2 of the Tide’s passing TDs. His longest play [41 yds]  came on a slant route across the middle, where he threw a linebacker to the ground, leaped over the corner, and broke an attempted tackle by the safety on his way into the end zone. Jerry Jeudy, although double covered most of the day, still managed to catch 6 passes for 68 yards. Nine different players caught passes.

Najee Harris led all running backs with 36 net yards on 7 attempts. Brian Robinson, Jr. added 33 yards on 8 carries, and true freshman Keilan Robinson ran the ball 4 times for 12 yards. Mac Jones scored the Tide’s lone rushing touchdown with a QB keeper on 4th and goal. Alabama attempted only 22 running plays. The two sacks and an intentional knee on the final play of the game accounted for (-13) lost yards charged against the rushing statistics. In my opinion, we need to run the ball more, and to do that we must have better play along the offensive line.

The Tide offense mounted eight drives gaining 40 or more yards [65, 96, 70, 65, 75, 50, 40, 80] that achieved 6 TDs and 2 FGs].

Defense:         B-                    Alabama surrendered 459 total yards [135 net rushing] to the Gamecock offense, allowing 31 first downs. Four of the Chickens’ drives were extended by penalties on the defense. South Carolina was able to convert 10 of 22 possession downs [8 of 18 on third down, 2 of 4 on 4th down]. 

Xavier McKinney was the Tide’s leading tackler with 9 total stops [5 solo]. Patrick Surtain, Josh Jobe, and Shane Lee each recorded 8 tackles. Tide defenders made 7 tackles for lost yardage [3 sacks], forced [Anfernee Jennings] and recovered [DJ Dale] a fumble, and intercepted a pass [McKinney]. The defense also gets credit for a turnover on downs when South Carolina came up a yard short on 4th and goal at the end of the first half. In all honesty, Muschamp should be credited with an assist due to his incompetent play calling and clock mismanagement.

The turnovers justify raising the defensive grade out of the C range, but readers of this blog should take no comfort from the Stop Troops’ performance against a good-but-not-great South Carolina. Coach Saban told reporters after the game the Tide defense could not afford to be on the field for 80+ defensive plays in future games and expect to come away with a win.

Special Teams:

Punting:           F                      Jaylen Waddle returned one punt for 18 yards. That effort, as good as it is, cannot overcome Skyler DeLong’s 14 yard punt; the only punt the Tide attempted in the game.

Kickoffs:          A+                   Will Reichard averaged 64 yards per kick on his 9 kickoffs, five of which were touchbacks. On the four kicks South Carolina returned, the coverage team limited the Gamecocks to only 62 yards [13 yds avg] and tackled the return man at the SC 14, 20, 19 and 14. That amounts to +29 yards of favorable field position for the Tide defense.

Place Kicking:     C-                   Reichard attempted 3 field goals. He was good from 23 and 21 yards. He missed from 37 and he missed one PAT.

Coaching       B-                      A road win in the conference ought to be an automatic B. The minus however reflects the penalties [11 for 92 yds], one of which was a substitution infraction that allowed South Carolina to extend a drive.  The participation report lists 58 players who saw action in the game.

           Around the league there is also much to write about.

       Kentucky’s win streak over Florida ended at 1. Climate computer models suggest the next Wildcats victory over the Gators will come only if the entire planet achieves zero carbon emissions for at least a decade.

          Up on Rocky Top, Phil Fulmer’s press conference announcing his return as Tennessee’s head coach has been delayed for at least one week by the Vols beating Chattanooga 45-0. Can you imagine what the negotiations between Fulmer as AD and Fulmer as aspiring head football coach are like? Do you think he conducts them by looking into a mirror, or does he use some Super Agent as a facilitator? I guest time, and a few conference losses, will tell.  

         Mississippi State lost to Kansas State 24-31. Neither team is very good. State had as many turnovers [3] as touchdowns. Ole Miss beat Southeast Louisiana 40—29 but allowed 309 yards of passing. It could well be that Southern Miss is the best college football team in the State of Mississippi. We will find out this coming Saturday when the Tide plays The Most Important Game of the Season So Far.  The Golden Eagles average over 260 yards per game passing, and 103 yards per game rushing.  They always bring their best when they come to Tuscaloosa.

            On a slightly different topic: let me give a shout out to three entertaining and informative fan sites available on social media: SEC Shorts, Jermaine Funnymaine Johnson, and The Unofficial Assistant Coaches. Treat yourself to some good laughs, it's a welcome respite from the typical Alabama fan's favorite pastime: fretting about things we cannot control.

Roll Tide, Y’all!

The Commissioner    

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New Mexico State Aftermath

Thanks for your efforts in the unpleasant heat of early September, Commissioner.  An interesting report of a game where the imperatives beyond winning the game, of course, did not include things like “revenge” or “conference standings” and instead focused on things like “don’t let anyone get hurt”.

New Mexico State was clearly physically overmatched, but not intimidated.  The offensive line continued to struggle, though those struggles were mostly in the run game and in part can be attributed to shifting roles on the line.  We also note that D. Brown is still out serving a suspension related to (we read in the papers) a PED.  Six games seems like a lot for that, but four games of that suspension are now served.  Whether he works his way back to the starting line up is a question, but if he is as effective at run blocking on his return as he was last year, we’d expect him to be in the game(s).

The first defensive unit played a solid game and the youngsters there seem to be learning quickly on the job.  We will see about that as the quality of competition goes up.  The 2s and 3s on defense, well, we expect film review was noisy and unpleasant.

We are still cheering every time a kick off goes through the end zone. Even more encouraging were two field goals of nearly 50 yards each which got up quickly, sailed high, had several yards to spare, and split the uprights like an A+ answer on a geometry problem. We are still at 50% on field goals for the season, but they have all been longish and we are hoping the trend continues in the positive direction.  All of our PATs (and there have been plenty) have been true enough that we may go back to watching them instead of sitting with our eyes shut. 

Otherwise we don’t know that there is much else to say about this game.  Credit to the training staff that despite the triple digit temperatures on the field, we only noticed one player coming out for treatment of cramps.  That was probably pretty amazing by itself.

Speaking of, we are inclined to weigh in a little bit on the Athletic Director’s very public complaint to the SEC about Alabama’s repeated day time scheduling in September. 

We won’t try to repeat all the particulars, but you can look them up.  The bottom line is that over the last several years, Alabama and its fans have been subjected to more day time starts in September than any other SEC team.  And it continues.  Alabama will have the 11 a.m. start against Southern Mississippi a week from Saturday.  And no, it is not the “quality of the competition”.  Stretching well back into last century all of the SEC teams played at least two and maybe three “tune up” games at the beginning of the season.  That really only changed somewhat when Coach Saban started trying to organize a marquee opening game at a neutral site every year to open up the season.  Saying "Alabama should play harder games and it will get better timing" is just reinforcing how unfair things are. 

Part of the issue is television ratings.  If you’ve never done it, take a gander at the ratings when Alabama is on television.  Those are routinely highly-rated broadcasts; in fact, is not unusual for the Alabama game to be the highest rated game of the weekend.  ABC/ESPN/SECN, in particular, knows that the 11 a.m. start is a stinker. It reassures advertisers that Alabama fans will be tuning in to see those ads, I mean the game.  Also, in this particular case, they also know that Alabama fans tend to be football fans in general.  They were NOT, under any circumstances, going to schedule Alabama’s game opposite Notre Dame vs. Georgia.  To some extent, we are victims of our own enthusiasm.  This reminds us of when everyone in the conference managed to schedule the week before Alabama against OPEN.  The difference here is that CBS and ESPN were willing to report on that issue and embarrassed the conference into doing something.  That will not be the case here.

Speaking of victims, however, we have lost track of how many people were treated for heat-related issues at the stadium last Saturday.  We understand that many fans retreated to the shade of the concourses to try to beat the heat.  This is to say nothing of the players on the field who are enduring even higher temperatures in full gear.   Without a lucky rainstorm, this weekend’s contest in South Carolina will not be better.  Kickoff forecast is for 93 degrees.  

Tuscaloosa merchants are also victims here.  Tourism related to Alabama football is a driver of the Tuscaloosa city and county economies.  If a game begins at 11 a.m. few people arrive before dinner time on Friday night if they are traveling from out of town.  In fact, we’d bet most people get up way too early and fight the traffic to get to town.  They skip tailgating entirely and head straight to the stadium, because they basically have no other choice.  What food and drink they buy is in the stadium.  Leaving, they do not return to their cars, fetch their gear, and set up on the Quad before spending the night in Tuscaloosa, of course.  They trudge back to their cars, often before the game ends, and head back home because: 1. They are broiling in the sun; and 2. The issue has long since been decided.  I wonder if anyone has done the economic comparison of the difference in an 11 a.m. kickoff and a 6 p.m. kickoff in Tuscaloosa.

Recruiting suffers because recruits are also experiencing what they will be subjected to as an Alabama player.  People arrive late because of traffic and leave early because of the same reason plus the heat.  A half empty wok-like stadium is not a good look for recruits.  The head coach gets testy about this.  However, we expect he’s pretty realistic about what this experience is like for, say, a family who has had to jump through this many hoops to please the TV and Conference Overlords.

The primary beneficiary of this has been LSU, which claims a “tradition” of playing at night and therefore gets their wish.  For example, LSU started the season with Georgia Southern, kick off at 6:30.  This Saturday LSU plays Northwestern State, kick off at 6:30.  I guess scheduling that sort of superior competition lands you evening kickoffs in Baton Rouge.  (At least we can name Southern Mississippi's mascot.)  Reminds us of the Mississippi State “tradition” of ringing those stupid cowbells but if any of their opponents show up with artificial noise makers, they can be ejected.  The standard is apparently: “If you can describe it as a tradition, the SEC will give you an unfair advantage against other teams.”

Most worrisome for us, is that the Athletic Director decided to go public with his complaint.  This indicates a few things, we think.  First, it indicates that people are complaining and he’s hearing it.  That’s probably fans, players, the head coach, etc. and more than a few of them.  People are going to start staying home for a lot of very valid reasons.  Second, it means he has approached the conference privately and he’s either been ignored or politely told to “shut up.” Third, it means nothing is changing any time soon.  Our guess is maybe Mr. Sankey will manage to arrange for one Alabama game next September to be at night.  He’ll claim the conference cares about Alabama and its fans, and we’ll promptly go back to business as usual after that.

I guess we can just pray that it’ll pour down rain on Saturdays in September; that’s a better option.  Right?

Roll Tide.  Beat the Gamecocks.

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