11/24 The Auburn Game
I thought I’d try something a little different this time. I’m starting this blog during the game, because I know exactly what’s going to happen. Auburn is going to score a TD to go up by 10 with about 3 minutes left (there are 7 minutes left now). How do I know? Because it’s crunch time, and we’re Alabama. That’s right; time to choke. Actually, I can’t fault the effort of the players tonight. They certainly are trying, but we aren’t very good, and we’re not very smart. The running into the kicker penalty was absolutely crushing. And as I write this, guess what, Saunders just roughed the passer, effectively ending the game. Choke Central! The thing is, everybody knew it was going to happen. If he didn’t rough the passer, we would have roughed the field goal kicker, or we would have jumped off sides 3 consecutive times, or we would have given up a fourth and 19. You get the picture.
It’s a shame, because this was a game that if we weren’t Alabama we really could have won. We had ample opportunities to both score on offense and stop Auburn on defense, but we managed to do just enough to blow it every time. Tiffin missed a field goal that would have allowed us to not be playing from behind the whole game. The Auburn CB, Jerraud Powers, schooled DJ Hall on a perfect pass in the end zone. I already mentioned the running into the kicker penalty, but I suppose I should bring up the fact that it was committed by a member of the Textbook Posse. Saunders missed the easiest sack of all time, simply whiffing on a sitting duck QB. Caddell fumbled a punt out of bounds at the one-yard line. Zeke Knight missed on a trivial sack on the play that ultimately led to the Saunders roughing penalty. Any of those plays could have changed the outcome of the game, but Alabama has such a tradition of choking that it’s going to take Coach Saban a few years to beat it out of us.
I know I sound extremely negative, and after losing to Auburn for the sixth straight time (though the game isn’t technically over yet), it’s hard not to feel that way. But I said before the season started that Saban was a can’t miss coach, and I stand by that. You have to understand that it’s tough to turn a soft team into a physical team, and Saban took over a team that was so soft it made Snuggle the Bear look tough. Saban’s teams are extremely physical, and that kind of transition takes time.
OK, the game just ended, and I want to mention one more thing. On Auburn’s fourth and 1, did any of you think we had any chance of stopping them? Seriously, if they allowed us to play 40 men on that play, do you think we would have stopped them? You know the answer as well as I do. Funny how Louisiana-Monroe doesn’t have any trouble stopping people of fourth and 1! J
So that’s it. The last time we beat Auburn was in 2001, in Coach Franchione’s first year. At that point, I never would have dreamed that I’d be sitting here in 2007 saying that we haven’t beaten them since then. We’ve certainly had our share of hardships since then. We had the absolutely crippling NCAA probation. Our coach darted off to Texas A&M (how’d that work out, Frannie?). We hired a coach that thought he was Hugh Hefner, and he was fired before he coached a game. We hired Shula over Sylvester Croom, and then took a beating in the media because we picked a white coach over the African-American coach (funny how the media didn’t have a problem with all of the other teams that hired white coaches without even having an African-American candidate receiving serious consideration). We gave Shula every chance, but finally his buffoonery couldn’t be ignored, so we miraculously hired Saban, only to get pounded by the media again. And then of course this year we had the Textbook Posse, which absolutely killed our season. But after all of that, we’re going to be all right, because the one good thing that we did, which was hiring Coach Saban, will be enough to right all of those wrongs. Don’t believe me? Just save this blog and reread it in two years. You’ll see.
Finally, I want to thank everyone for all of the feedback on this blog. Because so many people seem to enjoy it, I’ve decided to keep it going here in the off-season. I’m going to have another one (or more) on recruiting. I’m going to post one on the BCS (guess how I feel about that!). And I’ll probably post a few more on topics that should interest Alabama fans. So keep checking back, and as always, feel free to send me your questions and comments.
Better times are coming,
Kenny