2009 Schedule per Tide Pride

[BamaPride1979]

Looks good to me.. To bad there is not a game on Oct. 31:biggrin:

Roll Tide Roll

 

[Alasippi]

Schedule looks promising, But playing N. Texas, and Chatt. is a little lame. We'll get no props for that.

RTR:BigA:

I agree. What we all have to do as Tide fans, no matter how difficult it is, we have to pull for Auburn to be good next year, we have to want LSU, Ole Miss..even Tennessee to be good. If they're not, strength of schedule is going to be extremely difficult to overcome in the BCS computers ratings.

Maybe someone can tell me.....were North Texas and Chattanooga "late additions" to our schedule? If so, it's probably because we couldn't get better teams to play us at home.

 

[bamacon]

I think adding a Va Tech more than makes up for 2 lamos on the schedule.
They are only the ACC champs.

 

[Stephen323]

Maybe someone can tell me.....were North Texas and Chattanooga "late additions" to our schedule? If so, it's probably because we couldn't get better teams to play us at home.

To some extent, yes. We had to scramble to make the VT game work and got out of the Tulane game to do so. But most other BCS schools have a similar schedule. You play either one big-time OOC game or 2 decent ones, and use the other two to schedule a 1A pansy and a 1AA team.

 

[deliveryman35]

Nice to see us starting out with another marquee game in Atlanta. We always play well there. Hope this continues to be a trend. We get instant street cred with a win and probably a big bump in the polls, not to mention major confidence booster for all the new starters we will have. Also a nice road trip for the fans. Atlanta LOVES Alabama!!

 

[CHATTBRIT]

Very winnable schedule but I wonder how Florida Int, N. Tex, and Chattanooga will negatively impact us in the polls, esp Chatt being at the end and they only won one game this season -- against a NIAA team.

 

[Cox036]

I am looking forward to Spurrier coming to ttown...

 

[BigEasyTider]

I am looking forward to Spurrier coming to ttown...

Same here.

Something tells me he won't be so eager.

 

[tru2thaduce]

The game I always see as the measuring stick is the arkansas game.Next year Petrino will have a better QB and a team with a year in his system under their belt.Their RB Smith is a spark plug and will be dangerous.Arky is a team that got better as the season went along and I think will be a dangerous opponent next season.

 

[RammaJamma10]

I am looking forward to Spurrier coming to ttown...

He may not if the rumors in Aubyland I'm hearing are true.... but that's for a different thread.

Any stabs on what our preseason ranking will be at the beginning of next year?

 

[RhodeIslandRed]

Schedule looks promising, But playing N. Texas, and Chatt. is a little lame. We'll get no props for that.

RTR:BigA:

We tried putting in Notre Dame, but they refused. :biggrin:

 

[G-VilleTider]

However, as mentioned earlier, a green quarterback at a neutral site, going against an aggressive defense, that may be another story...

Adding an almost completely new O line to that equation tends to damper my expectations of blowing out VT like we did clemson this year. Still think we win of course cause I think that about every game, I just dont' expect the blowout like our opener this year.

 

[TiderB]

He may not if the rumors in Aubyland I'm hearing are true.... but that's for a different thread.

Any stabs on what our preseason ranking will be at the beginning of next year?

If we beat Utah, and look okay doing it, I'd say we'd definitely be pre-season top ten. Maybe between 5-7.

 

[BigEasyTider]

Any stabs on what our preseason ranking will be at the beginning of next year?

If we beat Utah, we finish up probably third this season, and with us only losing nine seniors, I would imagine that would at least get us somewhere in the bottom half of the top ten.

I think somewhere between 7th and 10th would be a fair ranking. We return an awful lot for next year, the schedule is very manageable, and quite frankly we have just as good of a chance of winning the SEC West as anyone else (and I think you can make a good case that we are actually the favorite).

That said, though, I wouldn't be shocked if we were ranked a bit lower, somewhere between 10th and 13th. We've never been a team that got any media love, even during the Bryant era, and that's not going to change now. You can rest assured the pollsters will look for any reason they can to drop us, just like they always have, so that might put us a few spots lower.

 

[Crimson Speed]

Playing Ole Miss in Oxford will be a great game.

Yes, it will. Given what we know about strengths and weaknesse of SEC opposition, I would not discount LSU, even though it is in Bryant/Denny.
It's nice not having to play Florida and Georgia in the regular season next year.

 

[ukrednek]

I don't want to sound negative, but I am really disappointed in our schedule. We have established ourselves as one of the top teams in the nation and we have two top 25 teams in next year's schedule.

I know you can't predict where teams will be when you're putting the schedule together, but there is little doubt that this rotation put us in a little easier round of the SEC (no Georgia or Florida). VT is a good call, but they're currently #21AP. We're going to get a little stick for this in the press next year unless a few of these teams really perform.

Obviously any SEC run is going to be tricky, but I for one hope that UT, LSU and Auburn get it together so that our schedule strength looks better. Having said that, we should end up in a pretty good pre-season position. So, if we can run this schedule out, then we will be sitting pretty.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[ukrednek]

I am looking forward to Spurrier coming to ttown...

My God, me too! I want to pull an Urban Meyer on him. I lived through the prime of the "fun and gun" era (although we did pretty well with it). I cannot bring myself to feel sorry for him when someone hangs 56 points on him after what he did to some of the cannon fodder they played in his time.

 

[Vinny]

Sweet, finally, finally, two back to back home SEC games in October :biggrin:, I am so happy about that, we'll be there for those two :biggrin:

 

[dave12]

Oh well, we didn't get credit for Tulane and Western Kentucky either, but that worked out okay.

At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. One way or the other, we're going to be judged on how well we came out against Virginia Tech and the eight conference opponents. As always, that is what will tell the tale, and that is what our ultimate ranking and positioning will be based on.

And besides, nine other SEC schools have Division 1-AA opponents, and of the two that don't (LSU and Tennessee), the former still probably has the easiest non-conference schedule in the conference, and the latter has Western Kentucky, who will have their first year in 1-A in 2009. It's not like we are the only ones...

Well, what i ment by that sometimes small schools are ok because everybody plays them, but Chatt. is a div. 1AA school. That's stooping to the barn's level.
At least W. Kentucky, and Tulane are div. 1A programs.


RTR

 

[Stephen323]

Well, what i ment by that sometimes small schools are ok because everybody plays them, but Chatt. is a div. 1AA school. That's stooping to the barn's level.

No it isn't. When the schedule expanded to 12 games, most teams in major conferences added a 1AA team as their extra game. Off the top of my head just this year, Oklahoma played Chattanooga, Florida played The Citadel, and LSU played App. State. It worked out ok for Oklahoma and Florida and playing Western Kentucky did not hurt us.