Commentary: Shula could soon find out how important Auburn is

[JessN]

"Peaking at midseason and then fading??....Don't you thing it could have something to do with:
(1) The "meat" on our schedule is the latter part of the season?
(2) Undermanned and lack of depth can cause weariness?
(3) Lack of depth (again) shows up more when players are nicked and bruised?
(4) Lack of depth (again) is impossible to overcome when key players are injured and out for the season?

1) That's true against LSU and Auburn, but what about Ole Miss and Mississippi State? Both teams have decent defensive lines, but both had holes. There's no reason MSU should hold Alabama to three offensive points and get free shots on Croyle. For that matter, Utah State hit Croyle quite a bit, and they have exactly one defensive lineman (E John Chick) with any ability.

2) Auburn started a third-string center against UA and pretty much played the same "A" group they played all year at the other positions. So one team got weary and the other didn't? Maybe we need to expand the critique to include strength and conditioning.

3) and 4): If the problems against Auburn were just limited to reserve C Taylor Britt, I'd agree. But the positions that struggled most were the tackles, and both players there are at 100 percent health and had started at least 11 games. The one reserve that made it into the game at tackle, Cody Davis, struggled too. And we had three right guards available that had started games for us (Stabler, Sanders, M.Davis), yet we struggled there, too.

The answer seems to me a mix of talent and coaching, but the key there is the word MIX. Some people don't want to consider coaching to be part of the problem because the resolution to coaching problems (i.e., replacement) doesn't make us comfortable.

 

[BAMAFAN61]

After reading every post in this thread...

(including my own post again) I have come to the conclusion that BAMA fans are some of the most dedicated fans in the world. I don't know how so many of you find the time to go back and review posts from several years ago. Oh well, I digress.

Now to the point of my latest post. I would like to address this post to the fans who feel that some of us have forgotten about the effects probation has had on our team. Those of us who are questioning the coaching staff and its preparation for the allbarn game are NOT overlooking the difference in talent between BAMA and the rest of major college football. We realize the effects that probation have had on our beloved team. However, there was no excuse for an apparent lack of preparation for our game against the barn last weekend. The CBS announcers noticed it, I noticed it, my two college-aged sons noticed it, and the local sports talk show in Boone, NC (my home town) noticed it and it was still being discussed as late as yesterday.

If you think we were not prepared, please turn the clock back one year to our 2004 game against the barn. I have been going to BAMA games for over 30 years and that was the first game I have ever attended when I knew that we had no shot of winning. Because of injuries to every key person in our offensive backfield, we were totally overmatched by an allbarn team that was playing as well as any team in the country. Even though we were overmatched, we totally outplayed allbarn in the first half and we were in the game until late in the 3rd quarter. So even though we did not have the talent to win the game last year, we were prepared with the players we had and came into the game with a game plan that gave us a legitimate chance to win the game.

This year, even though we were weakened by injuries and the continued effect of the loss of scholarship players, we had a better team than we had last year. Yet, we were out of the game before the end of the first quarter. The team showed no emotion and coach Shula had that "deer in the headlights" look that he had on his face in his first season as a coach.

Were we still hung over by the lswho loss? Probably so. Did that contribute to our perceived lack of emotion? Most likely. However, there is no excuse for a lack of preparation and it was obvious that our team was not ready for what happened to us in the first quarter.

To the credit of everyone involved (coaches and players), we regrouped and played better during the last three quarters but the damage had been done. In spite of our lack of emotion and preparation, the barn only gained a little more than 250 yards against our defense and we held them scoreless during the second half. I just wish we had played better in the first quarter. If we had been better prepared things would have been better in the first quarter.

It hurts me like crazy when BAMA loses a game but I can handle a loss a lot better knowing our coaches and players did everything they could do to win the game. I knew that we did all we could do to win the lswho game. They just made one play more than we did. I'm just not sure the same effort was given in the barn game, and in my humble opinion, there was no excuse to be flat in the rivalry game.

Sorry for the long post. I did not intend for it to be this length but these thoughts kept coming to me as I typed.

 

[TexasBama]

Good article, Jess, and spot-on.

 

[RamaJamaDog]

Has anyone considered

We won't be back to full strength until the first full recruiting class are seniors. If that first full class was the 2004 class then when they become seniors in 2008 we will have totally recovered from sanctiions.

Also have you noticed that Don Shula a hall of fame coach is watching and taking notes every game. He and his son, Coach Mike Sula break down every game discuss it on Sunday.

Now, I guess you are going to tell me that Don Shula can't coach.


Give me a break.

 

[Ldlane]

We won't be back to full strength until the first full recruiting class are seniors. If that first full class was the 2004 class then when they become seniors in 2008 we will have totally recovered from sanctiions.

Also have you noticed that Don Shula a hall of fame coach is watching and taking notes every game. He and his son, Coach Mike Sula break down every game discuss it on Sunday.

Now, I guess you are going to tell me that Don Shula can't coach.


Give me a break.

Don Shula doesn't know about the Auburn rivalry!!

 

[MegaVars]

The answer seems to me a mix of talent and coaching, but the key there is the word MIX. Some people don't want to consider coaching to be part of the problem because the resolution to coaching problems (i.e., replacement) doesn't make us comfortable.

You hit the nail on the head. Mix is the key word. Put in the numbers. This year a little better talent level and senior leadership mixed in with an easier than expected schedule and picking up on your coaches system = 9 wins. We didn`t have this small luxury the past few years. Imo, next year with the loss of major players in key positions could make the coaching look worse (see this years O-line). Not a knock on coaches or players. Reality is it`s tougher to coach freshmen and sophmores than juniors and seniors (see this years Oklahoma Sooners), although I believe Stoopes did a better job getting his underclassmen to progress. His QB was awful at the beginning of the year, but, has made steady improvement throughout, though against some weaker teams, it was still improvement. The concern I see was our lack of improvement on the O-line against Ole Miss. and Miss. St.. LSU and Auburn were just train wrecks.

 

[GulfCoastTider]

Were we still hung over by the lswho loss? Probably so. Did that contribute to our perceived lack of emotion? Most likely. However, there is no excuse for a lack of preparation and it was obvious that our team was not ready for what happened to us in the first quarter.

I don't think people realize how much of a dart in the heart the loss to LSU was. Losing that game, in overtime, devastated the team's emotional state. They knew that losing that game ended any hope of doing something special this year. I don't know if there's a motivator on the planet that could have gotten the team over the loss in time to be mentally and emotionally ready to play Auburn. Brodie Croyle was still talking about the loss on the Thursday before the Iron Bowl. Forty-eight hours before the biggest game of the year, and the team's senior leader is still in mourning. Who gets a team over such an emotional deflation? Knute Rockne? Bear Bryant? Vince Lombardi?

Also, this is still a very young football team. We started 13 true freshmen last year and almost that many again this year. Young teams don't just "get over it." Not when their fifth year senior quarterback is down in the dumps over losing his roommate and best friend (Closner) to a season ending injury and losing any chance to compete for a championship.

The positive side of that youth is that these kids will have tons of experience by the time they reach upperclassman status. Our juniors and seniors in the 2007 and 2008 seasons will be battle tested veterans of the SEC. They will have seen it all and felt it all.

And they will kick some Vol and Tiger tail. You can bank on it.

 

[JessN]

We won't be back to full strength until the first full recruiting class are seniors. If that first full class was the 2004 class then when they become seniors in 2008 we will have totally recovered from sanctiions.

I don't disagree with that, and if you'll notice, the point of the article was a what-if situation if Alabama loses to Auburn in 2007. If Alabama loses to Auburn in 2006, 2007 and 2008, odds are we're going to be having a coaching search here.

Also have you noticed that Don Shula a hall of fame coach is watching and taking notes every game. He and his son, Coach Mike Sula break down every game discuss it on Sunday.

Now, I guess you are going to tell me that Don Shula can't coach.


Give me a break.

Don't get ahead of yourself. No one is saying Don Shula can't coach. But at the same time, the offense has looked like one step above crap ever since the end of the Florida game, so something is not working. Whether Don Shula is helping his son or not isn't relevant. Results are.

 

[JessN]

And I'm going to add this since it either got lost in the translation, or people are trying to project their own biases onto it:

The problem, in my opinion, is not in Shula's coaching. The problem on offense is on the offensive line. If Shula is part of the problem, it is because he's too stubborn or reticent to make a change there.

A lot of the complaints about Shula's playcalling, etc., will go away once the line starts holding up their end of the deal. A lot of the complaints against Dave Rader or whoever the QB/OC at that time is or will be will go away as well.

The only way this problem becomes a mandate on Shula himself is if the OL continues to struggle and Shula refuses to react to it. We're not to that point yet, but we very well could be in a couple of years.

 

[Bama-94-00]

Road vs Home

..
If you think we were not prepared, please turn the clock back one year to our 2004 game against the barn. I have been going to BAMA games for over 30 years and that was the first game I have ever attended when I knew that we had no shot of winning. Because of injuries to every key person in our offensive backfield, we were totally overmatched by an allbarn team that was playing as well as any team in the country. Even though we were overmatched, we totally outplayed allbarn in the first half and we were in the game until late in the 3rd quarter. So even though we did not have the talent to win the game last year, we were prepared with the players we had and came into the game with a game plan that gave us a legitimate chance to win the game.

This year, even though we were weakened by injuries and the continued effect of the loss of scholarship players, we had a better team than we had last year. Yet, we were out of the game before the end of the first quarter. The team showed no emotion and coach Shula had that "deer in the headlights" look that he had on his face in his first season as a coach.
..

Good post, but one difference you neglect here is playing at home vs. on the road. Bama is playing better but still not that well on the Road. I expect road play to continue to impove as the team gets more upper classmen playing.

 

[Alabama Larry in Ky]

For ih8au...Its Kentucky, and the fans here want a winner just as bad as you do in football. They just have made some bad coaching hires. Coach Curry called UK and asked them if they would be interested in talking with him. I know this is off the subject, but he spelled the school wrong.

 

[ih8au]

Alabama Larry... my apologies for misspelling Kentucky.

As for Curry, if not for Alabama he would not have been considered for any job paying him what he got at UK. He should be grateful he got the opportunity to coach at Alabama, where he boosted his won/loss record considerably. It had been horrendous before he got to UA and was horrendous after.

 

[TerryP]

Some great posts here...and I have to ask one simple question.

When Kines had two years with his defense what was the result?

When Connelly has had two years with the OL what is the result?

When you look at this team where do you see "toughness?"

Answer these questions and the picture is pretty clear as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Ldlane]

Some great posts here...and I have to ask one simple question.

When Kines had two years with his defense what was the result?

When Connelly has had two years with the OL what is the result?

When you look at this team where do you see "toughness?"

Answer these questions and the picture is pretty clear as far as I'm concerned.

Great questions Terry, I think next year will be the acid test for the excuse bowl as far as the OL.

I still say it is about youth and depth.

 

[GulfCoastTider]

Some great posts here...and I have to ask one simple question.

When Kines had two years with his defense what was the result?

When Connelly has had two years with the OL what is the result?

When you look at this team where do you see "toughness?"

Answer these questions and the picture is pretty clear as far as I'm concerned.

I don't think that's quite a fair comparison yet. I'm not saying it won't become fair--it just isn't quite ripe. Part of our problems up front on the offense are directly and inextricably linked to franphoney's failure to recruit linemen. If Coach Connelly has quality raw material (and right now, he doesn't yet) and the job is still not getting done, then we'll see which of the two variables in the mix were most influential.

Pretty much everyone agrees that the two variables are talent and coaching. The talent isn't there yet, so we're not quite ready to properly evaluate the coaching issue.

There is one strong argument for keeping Connelly on the staff in some role--and that is his recruiting ability. The man IS getting that job done.

 

[BamaSkins]

Nailed it! I have to live around and work with those dasteredly barn fans every day and I am sick and tired of their comments...'beat them or else' is my motto - period!!!

 

[BAMARICH]

I don't think that's quite a fair comparison yet. I'm not saying it won't become fair--it just isn't quite ripe. Part of our problems up front on the offense are directly and inextricably linked to franphoney's failure to recruit linemen. If Coach Connelly has quality raw material (and right now, he doesn't yet) and the job is still not getting done, then we'll see which of the two variables in the mix were most influential.

As stated in a couple of other threads and also on this thread, our talent level IS NOT that far behind the vast majority of the SEC schools... that is simply a perception that is not true. In the SEC right now, three teams are at the top of the heap when it comes to recruiting blue chip OL... they are UF, UT, and LSU. In regards to actual rankings out of HS, we are close to both UGA and AU (just a level below). We are vastly better (on paper) than all the remaining teams... that includes Arkansas, Vandy, USC, etc. Yet, several of these teams did decent jobs with their OL both last year and this year (especially USC/Arky). Can you chalk it all up to age/experience? Absolutely not... chalk it up, if there is not a change made this offseason (either in personnel or philosophy), the majority of those who are blindly saying "it's the talent" will be calling for the change themselves by the middle of next year.

 

[cbi1972]

Auburn's sacks this season:

Georgia Tech: 1
Mississippi State: 3
Ball State: 2
Western Kentucky: 3
South Carolina: 2
Arkansas: 0
LSU: 0
Ole Miss: 1
Kentucky: 1
Georgia: 2
Alabama: 11

I don't see a talent deficit as the reason for Alabama's offensive line problems. Three teams gave up more than two sacks to Auburn's defense this year: Pitiful Mississippi State and Division I-AA Western Kentucky. Alabama gave up more sacks to Auburn than the rest of the SEC combined (11 to 9). Sure, our guys may not be the cream of the NCAA or even the SEC, but they should play at least as well as the O-lines of the worst in the SEC, or an average Division I-AA team.

My impression of Alabama's offense against Auburn was that they were confused, slow to make adjustments, and failed to pick up the blitz. This may be due to inexperience, but coaching should be able to make up for some of that. In no case should Alabama give up 11 sacks in one game. Losing a starting center will hurt when we're already thin, but it shouldn't hurt THAT badly. Other guys need to be able to step up and fill in or we will always be blaming injuries for poor performance.

Coaching should lead to steady improvement, but instead, we've seen a decline in performance. It may be that it took time for our fatal weakness to be exposed, but I'm not buying it. I don't want anyone fired, but I do want to see some improvement.

 

[ChattTide]

Everybody is beating around it...

and here is the bottom line:

Execution

We saw it big time the last couple of games of the season. We were not executing the offense the way we could. Between dropped balls and poor blocking, it was a wonder we finished the way we did. And where does execution begin? In my book, the coach.

With that being said, I believe we have had 3 years to see how the OL could work uder this coach. Mind you, this coach was here when Price came and had a Spring to work with them before Shula and Rader got there. I think the proof is in the pudding.

Another bottom line: We have seen the weakness. I don't know if we are waiting for the bowl game to get done, but a change need could be coming. It is not my place to hire or fire. I'm just a fan. But if I can see the problem, just guess what Shula and Co. are seeing.

I'll borrow a quote from Remember the Titans. During the 1st game, Boone looks over to Yoast and says, "Better fire up that defense, Coach."
Yoast- "you worry about the offense. Let me take care of the defense."
Boone- "If the score again, I'm takin' over."

Roll Tide!!
ChattTide

 

[RTnDC]

This just in...

Alabama is ranked #14 in the BCS, AP, and USA Today. Thank God many of you on this Board do not have a vote. Great job Coach Shula, team seniors and even the OL.