Revisting the last Iron Bowl

GrayTide said:

This is what is so hard for Alabama fans to accept. They reason we have the best coach in football and a team unequaled in talent, so how can we lose. Sometimes it just happens when one team wants it more and plays a full 60 minutes.

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I think Gray, when you have two teams that are somewhat close talent wise, that "want to" becomes about an 80% factor in the outcome of the game. I agree with you.

Alasippi said:

I think Gray, when you have two teams that are somewhat close talent wise, that "want to" becomes about an 80% factor in the outcome of the game. I agree with you.

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I agree, sip. We can wallow around with MSU, UK, Vandy and probably OM, but most all other SEC teams better get our full effort.

While Saban is the best recruiter in the business, possibly ever, he's only about mid pack as a game day coach. He wins with better talent and preparation. Nothing wrong with that! But in 7 seasons he's only won the SEC West 3 times and has lost to 3 DIFFERENT Auburn coaches. Just Saying.

I understand the tendencies to wallow and analyze. I just wish we could have a time limit as a fan base. Like others I have had my time of reflection.

What I will do is jump to a defense of Coach Saban.

While some do not like Saban's approach, I personally prefer it. Yes the game is more important to us fans, MAYBE they would perform better if he jacked them up emotionally more for this one than the others. I just do not think that is the best way to run an overall program.

As for jumping into A.J. after the LSU game. I personally thought he was trying to do what he thought was the best for A.J. He learned that A.J. played better with a little emotion. So he showed a little emotion. Nothing more or less than that.

As to the statement that he is a poor in game coach, I couldn't disagree more. Does he make mistakes? Sure he does. Does he make decisions that turn out wrong, but are not really a mistake? Probably every game, and obviously it happened in this one. I would still rather have him on the sidelines running the overall game than sitting back and watching after preparing the team.

While some may disagree any team wanting to make the 4-team playoff better plan on winning the SEC title. Something tells me this "committee" has agenda written all over it, and to all the people thinking the SEC will have a better chance of getting a 2nd team in, you might want to think again. Better treat all games like they could cost you your chance because they can.

Bamabuzzard said:

For me I don't think he's a poor in game coach. However, IMO one of his shortcomings (granted there aren't many) is that sometimes he and the staff are too slow handed in making in game adjustments on the fly. I'm not talking about going into halftime, having thirty minutes to gather themselves then come out. I'm talking about from drive to drive. I'll go to the other side of the spectrum. For the life of me I've yet to understand when we're running down a team's throat and they've yet to stop it. We'll actually go completely away from it for multiple plays at a time. And at times go completely away from it. IMO, if the other team hasn't been able to stop you from running the ball and you're gashing them then keep pounding it until they can. THE ONLY game I can recall us doing that is the second half of the LSU game. Our OL was road grating their defense and we just kept running it because they couldn't stop it. We knew it and they did to.

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On the specific strategy I agree with you, and guess I have to admit to throwing a stomping fit in my basement yelling "JUST RUN THE BALL! THEY CAN"T STOP IT!" But when they see the secondary creeping up on every play it starts to make sense to try a passing drive. We have to keep every aspect of the game involved, and I think he is right in trying to maintain a balanced offense even when I am furious.

If we were hanging around 500 all the time, or even doing very well and having trouble getting over the top there would be more reason to question things. I personally am pleased as punch with 12-2, 14-0 NC, 10-3, 12-1 NC, 13-1 NC and 10-2 I get keeping the expectations high, I get Auburn matters to us more. I just don't think he deserves as much scrutiny as he is getting.

CrimsonProf said:

We are not paying him to go 4-3 against Auburn, and if the chips had not fallen our way vis a vis the BCS, we'd all be a lot more upset about that record. And no, I wouldn't trade CNS for anyone.

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I agree, we aren't paying him to go 4-3 against Auburn but we can't be so short sighted that we miss the bigger picture. Ultimately we are paying him to compete for championships and keep Alabama relevant, something we had not done in a while before his arrival. He has brought us 2 SEC titles, 3 National Championships, 5 BCS bowl appearances, and 79 wins in 7 seasons. I will take that and he is not done yet.

I know the IB means more to the barn (for the most part) but I find it odd that they have not been able to beat Alabama by more than 10 points since 1969 yet Alabama Bama has done it with ease.


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BamaJama17 said:

I know the IB means more to the barn (for the most part) but I find it odd that they have not been able to beat Alabama by more than 10 points since 1969 yet Alabama Bama has done it with ease.


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Lol....hey Jama I've noticed something on this thread. About 25 people have posted that the IB means more to Auburn than to Bama. My first thought was, "Yep, that's why this off-season thread on the Iron Bowl is only nine pages and growing fast!" lol

crimsonaudio said:

I don't expect to win every game - I do expect Bama to look prepared and motivated for each game. When the team looks like they did against Auburn, I simply don't accept the 'you can't win them all' line as an excuse. Bama played poorly - looked like they had't seen any film on the barn. Had Bama played well and lost I'd be fine, but they failed in following 'the process' badly, period.

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Not much to disagree with there. However, I am not sure that it is Saban, or even the coordinators that really should be blamed as much as they are if at all.

If this was a repeated issue over a significant time period against multiple opponents, yes. If he was saying the right things and the players were not buying in, maybe. I think he is saying and doing the right things. He is coaching at a high level, recruiting at a high level, and being a mentor at a high level. Sometimes a loss is his fault (maybe this is the case here, but I just don't buy it). Sometimes the a loss is a surprise that the other team was able to pull (I don't think that is the case here either). Sometimes the players just do not get up or focused for a game no matter what the coaches do. Sometimes a few plays makes a close game against a talented, motivated, well prepared, and well coached team go the other way. I think these are more likely what we saw.

If a bus is driving by and I am forced at gunpoint to push someone under it for each loss. He would be the last guy I would consider.

This probably does not matter much but wasn't the record last year 11-2 not 10-2?

Getting back to the original ? about whether the rumors had an effect on the team? Do you not think Saban would have talked to the team about the rumors? Don't know, just asking.

10Bama54 said:

This probably does not matter much but wasn't the record last year 11-2 not 10-2?

Getting back to the original ? about whether the rumors had an effect on the team? Do you not think Saban would have talked to the team about the rumors? Don't know, just asking.

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I don't know, but I would be interested in knowing that myself.

mittman said:

I understand the tendencies to wallow and analyze. I just wish we could have a time limit as a fan base. Like others I have had my time of reflection.

What I will do is jump to a defense of Coach Saban.

While some do not like Saban's approach, I personally prefer it. Yes the game is more important to us fans, MAYBE they would perform better if he jacked them up emotionally more for this one than the others. I just do not think that is the best way to run an overall program.

As for jumping into A.J. after the LSU game. I personally thought he was trying to do what he thought was the best for A.J. He learned that A.J. played better with a little emotion. So he showed a little emotion. Nothing more or less than that.

As to the statement that he is a poor in game coach, I couldn't disagree more. Does he make mistakes? Sure he does. Does he make decisions that turn out wrong, but are not really a mistake? Probably every game, and obviously it happened in this one. I would still rather have him on the sidelines running the overall game than sitting back and watching after preparing the team.

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the 57 yard field goal attempt was a bad decision and serious mistake and it cost us the game and more...although i think we would have lost in overtime at that point because we were completely deflated anyways.

it's quite obvious that LSU is THE game for saban when it comes to the conference schedule and we seemed to let up after that game as if it was smooth sailing after that.

and at the risk of pulling a "we told you so," i and some others interjected in the "pick the score" thread about the iron bowl (in which the general consensus was that we would win by 4 touchdowns) that the game would be much closer than anyone expected and that it could be an ugly result for us. we were generally "mooed" off the page.

for whatever reason, saban doesn't focus on auburn the way he does on LSU and as a result, we can only beat them under his watch when they are just this side of terrible.

as for being a "poor" in game coach...i wouldn't go that far, but in-game management (and half-time adjustments) are clearly his biggest weaknesses as a coach.

he's the best coach in the business and one of the best ever, but the field is catching up to him and the final two performances of the season were pretty much abysmal from a coaching and player standpoint.

crimsonaudio said:

I don't expect to win every game - I do expect Bama to look prepared and motivated for each game. When the team looks like they did against Auburn, I simply don't accept the 'you can't win them all' line as an excuse. Bama played poorly - looked like they had't seen any film on the barn. Had Bama played well and lost I'd be fine, but they failed in following 'the process' badly, period.

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about 2/3 through the game i looked at my wife and said "the team looks like fran's last iron bowl team."

considering what was riding on the game this year (and how meaningless the sugar bowl was in comparison) this year's iron bowl was hands down the worst performance of a saban-coached bama team since his second season at the capstone.