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! 

Tire Store Report SEC Championship

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Excellent job, Commissioner.  As Coach Bryant used to say (really often) “We are tremendously proud of the boys for winning the football game”.  As noted last week, when “winning the football game” also means “securing another SEC Championship” it is particularly sweet.  For those of you who are counting that made number 24.

We like to think Coach Bryant would love this team.  It is for sure they are very fond of each other.  Remember a couple of years ago when one of our very good quarterbacks and one of our very good centers got some unwanted publicity for a testy little shoving match during the National Championship game?  We sort of chuckled about it at the time, especially because they were roommates and we were leading by umpteen points.  Can you even imagine Kelly shoving Sims?  In any situation?  Us, either.  When Sims took his curtain call in the fourth quarter, it looked like everyone on the team lined up to give him a hug, including Lane Kiffin (as you’d expect) and Kirby Smart (as maybe you wouldn’t expect).  In case you missed the news, Blake was named a permanent captain at the team banquet Sunday night.  The way he constantly deflects praise and compliments and shines the spotlight on his coaches and teammates (and even his ex-wife for helping his little girl make it to the game) is more than admirable.

There continue to be lots of new things introduced in college football under lots of nifty-sounding names.  To quote Coach Bryant one more time (cause, why not?) the same things win that always won.  Run the ball, stop the run, and don’t turn the football over are three of them.  Saturday, Alabama outgained Missouri by almost 200 yards on the ground and did not turn the ball over once.  That sort of performance will win games and championships.

As to the grades themselves:

Offense:  If you stop to think about it, the offense had about as impressive a day as you can imagine.  Certainly this was its most consistent overall performance since Texas A&M, against a more formidable defense.  And we clearly left points on the table and hurt ourselves with ball security, penalties, etc.  The offense can improve and probably needs to for the remaining efforts.

But, boy.  You want west-coasty spread, multiple, hurry up, no huddle, run-n-shoot, fun-n-gun, speedball offense (or whatever they are calling it nowadays)?  How about the opening drive that never resulted in a third down play, but did result in six points before lots of fans finished their first hot dog.  You want traditional I formation, full back lead run behind the guard, then maybe a toss sweep and a quarterback draw?  Sure, have a spirit-crushing 90-yard drive that eats half a quarter.  Oh, you want to see a speedy receiver split the safety and the cornerback and catch a beautiful spiral in stride for a play that covers more than half the football field?  Yeah, we can do that.  If you are lucky enough to have a recording of the game, go back and listen to the Sims to White touchdown pass.  It’s as if the whole crowd noticed he was behind the defense and took a collective breath and held it till White caught the ball.  It got really noisy right after that.  Oh, and Kiffin did the signal-a-touchdown-before-the-pass-is-thrown thing again.

There were outstanding individual contributions in this game.  White, Ch. Jones, and Cooper all held on to receptions after bone-jarring hits.  Cooper, in particular, had several key down field blocks.  Some players who are heading to the Heisman Ceremony can get to be prima donnas.  Well, prima donnas don’t do downfield blocking. (For whatever it is worth, I feel somewhat sorry for whomever gets the task of trying to draw a lot of words out of him for the obligatory NYC interview).  I could watch the replay of Sims’ quarterback draw, including multiple spin moves, 20 times in a row and not grow tired of it.  The offensive line played admirably in pass protection and opened holes for the running backs against Missouri’s very good offensive line. 

Henry ran for nearly 150 yards.  Many knowledgeable football observers will tell you Henry is a little too tall, a little too slow, runs too upright, is too underdeveloped in his lower body, and lacks a signature evasive move to be a feature back in the SEC.  Just don’t try to tell the Missouri defense any of that.  Did you see him go over after his touchdown and put his hands on and say something to every single member of the offensive line?  Yeldon did not seem to be 100% and we heard he did not practice much last week though he was still productive in the game.  We hope he has time to heal before New Year’s Day.  Jalston Fowler also had an impressive day, from catching a pass on the game’s first down from scrimmage to just shoving Missouri defensive backs out of the way like they were second graders trying to break in the sixth grade only lunch line.

Defense:  The defense can play better, but not a lot better.  They held Missouri to 41 yards rushing.  Usually that number is skewed based on a lot of quarterback sacks.  Alabama had double digits in hurries, we expect, but we don’t remember any sacks of Maty Mauk.  Playing mostly with four down linemen, Alabama regularly reset the line of scrimmage into the Missouri offensive backfield.  Linebackers and safeties slashed through formations to knock runners not just down, but backwards.  After a rough outing last week, the coaches put Jackson back in the game at corner and he responded well, though we admit no one is going to confuse these Tiger receivers with the ones from last Saturday.  Perry has been a different player since about mid-October for no reason that we can discern, but we aren’t complaining.  Collins and DePriest are a wrecking crew.

In particular, however,  A. Robinson is the darn truth and you better believe it.  He is the curious sort of combination of playing older than he is and looking older than he is.  Go back and take a look at his recruiting photo -- he looked 34-years-old then.  On at least two plays we can remember he “set the edge” on running downs after being lined up over the center.  If you are the opposing offensive coordinator and you do not account for him on every single play, you are not only wasting a down, you may be putting the ball carrier’s health at risk. 

Special Teams:  The contrast to A. Robinson is J.K. Scott.  He looks like he is on his way to his 10^th grade biology lab and stopped off to watch the varsity.  Make no mistake -- this is one cool customer.  We already knew he could kick it 70 yards, because he did last week.  This week, he gets the first bad snap of the year that we can remember, does that nifty basketball thing where you dribble it between your legs, and kicks it to the opponent’s 20 yard line.  Admittedly not his best effort, but compared to what for many teams would have been a blocked punt + scoop and score, it was terrific.  Ch. Jones, who at one time had the most costly fumble of the year on a kick return set the SEC Championship Game record for average kick off returns and twice put Alabama in business past the 30-yard line.

Coaching:  Alabama was well-prepared to play in this game.  Missouri’s most effective offensive plays were ones where the play itself had broken down, the quarterback was running for his life, and heaved up a prayer.  At least once it was answered when the receiver got away with a push off.  On one, we really think he was trying to throw it out of bounds and just didn’t get enough on it.  Smart and Kiffin both called masterful games from their respective positions.  Our favorite quote from the day was a reporter who tried to get Kiffin to answer a question about the offense, in violation of Coach Saban’s standing order.  Kiffin reportedly replied “I don’t think I’d better answer that. The head coach is happy with me right now.”

Officiating:  My stars and garters was that the best the SEC has to offer?  Sadly, we fear the answer is “yep.”  The uncalled pick play led to Missouri’s only touchdown.  One of their field goals was aided because the receiver was permitted to use both hands to shove our player out of the way as the wounded duck floated down the from the sky.  I suppose we should be glad that the officials have finally remembered that there are limits on how far offensive linemen are allowed to run down the field on pass plays.  The targeting call was correct (don’t get us started on this rule) but pretty hard to miss.  In fact, it sort of looked like it should be in the video called: “How to Spot Targeting Fouls -- A Beginner’s Guide”.  On the whole, we have seen worse efforts out of SEC officiating crews, but it is enough to make you want to go over to the message boards for the teams in bowl games that will have SEC crews and just say in advance that we are really, really sorry.

 

Broadcasting:  Verne’s slips of the tongue are slowly infecting the entire crew.  From Gary starting to get the team names swapped from time to time to the on-field reporter asking Saban how it felt to win another national championship, CBS is going to have to step it up.  We actually kind of like Gary.  He has generally good insights, especially on what offenses are doing.  It's just that once he figures something out, he can't leave it alone.  Maybe next fall will be different.

On to the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day to play the Buckeyes of Ohio State.  Sims was asked in the post-game interview if he was ready for the Championship and he responded in his best Georgia drawl, “I shore am”.  Us too, Blake, us too.