News Article: MSU wrap-up: Special teams, special players key win over Bulldogs

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From TideFans.com:
November 16th, 2008 03:45 AM

MSU wrap-up: Special teams, special players key win over Bulldogs
By Jess Nicholas
TideFans.com Editor-in-Chief
Nov. 16, 2008

Special teams have arguably been the weakest point on the 2008 Alabama team. Until Saturday against Mississippi State, anyway.

Now the question is whether this team has a weak point. Every facet of Alabama’s special teams – kick returns, kick coverage, punting, placekicking, punt block unit – was better than average at worst and game-changing at best. Given how much trouble the Alabama offense had in the early going against MSU, the improvement in special teams couldn’t have come at a better time, as it turned the momentum of the game several times and the Bulldogs simply weren’t good enough to weather the experience.

Along the way, Alabama managed to slug out a 32-7 win that showed Mississippi State the roadmap for how things are going to look for the Bulldogs in the coming years: Alabama was physical, used superior players and a superior plan, and pretty much kept the Bulldogs under its thumb for the entire game. Look for a repeat of this next year, the year after that and the year after that.

Alabama’s blue-collar, tough-guy victory makes the specter of the Crimson Tide’s 17-12 loss in Starkville last year look like something out of a bad sci-fi film – in other words, it no longer makes any logical sense. One cannot suspend disbelief long enough to conjure how Alabama could have actually lost that game. So what happened in the year following that loss?

What happened is that Alabama’s players are becoming special. They aren’t necessarily becoming great, but they are becoming special. Whether it was lowly-recruited Brad Smelley – who played well enough in practices this fall to convince the coaches to burn his redshirt at the halfway mark and play him in front of guys who had many more recruiting stars attached to their names – catching a key third-down pass, or the all-substance/no-flash Glen Coffee making tough yardage when he had to, Alabama’s players are learning how to take over games.

Alabama didn’t attack Mississippi State with a flashy plan. Alabama’s most unique playcall Saturday was to run a receiver, Marquis Maze, at running back for one play and send him out on a wheel route. Smelley ended up making the catch on that play, anyway. Other than that small twist, Alabama simply beat MSU with discipline, toughness and resiliency – the same plan it used against Clemson, Georgia and LSU.

In other highlights from this game, Alabama got some late snaps for Jeramie Griffin, a fullback recruit who had fallen completely off the depth chart, but who responded Saturday from the tailback position with a catch for 9 yards and 5 carries for 26 very tough yards inside. Can he play a larger role on this team? Who knows, but the potential seems to be there.

Receiver Darius Hanks appeared to get a battlefield promotion after senior Mike McCoy dropped a long bomb thrown right into his breadbasket, and Hanks responded with two clutch catches. This is how championships are won; everyone is stepping up at the right time.

The defense quietly went about its business and held the Bulldogs to 36 yards rushing and 166 yards overall, and the aforementioned special teams were truly special.

There is now much talk over whether Alabama can stop the high-powered offenses of Florida and Texas Tech. The topic has provided much fodder for football pundits, most of whom are offering variations on a theme – Alabama has little chance to stop such offenses, they say.

Perhaps the better question would be whether those offenses can score on Alabama’s defense. Many seem to forget that great defense beats great offense about 70 percent of the time.

Alabama, fortunately, is in a position where if it simply continues to win, it controls its own destiny. Questions about how a blue-collar team of determined, scrappy players will fare against the flash and dash of high-powered opponents will be answered not by the pundits, but by Alabama.

And if Alabama keeps winning these special games in special ways, what’s said about it won’t matter. What will matter is the hardware.


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