Game on Saturday?

I realize I'm a little late in posting this. I went 3-3 last week, and am now 69-25. I won't go game-by-game this week.

So yeah, I picked Bama to beat Auburn. I just had a bad feeling last week. It wasn't a lack of faith, or a reverse-mojo ploy for good luck...just a bad feeling. I'm certainly glad I was wrong! I hope to have a dedicated post about the game later on this week.

So what's with the talk radio this week? No one wants to talk about the game. No one really wants to talk about bowl bids either. It's all about where Tuberville, Muschamp, Borgess, hell, everyone down to Auburn's waterboy will end up.

Sheldon Haygood's talk more about Tuberville leaving the other night than the actual game. His laughable prediction was LSU. I guess he had to come up with something after TAMU was out of the picture.

On my drive home yesterday, Finebaum was interviewing someone and all they talked about was about Auburn coaches leaving. I changed stations and Dunaway and Brown were talking about the same thing. I went to the show with Stabler thinking that they would surely be talking about the game. Nope, Auburn's coaching situation.

Every Monday this year, people have talked about the previous Saturday's games, particularly the Bama games. After all, Birmingham is still a Bama town, though not by as much as it used to be. But yesterday? Nada. No strategy talk, bowl projection talk, or "what if" talk. No throwing SJPW under the bus, or talks of, "if Saban had his own players." It was all talk of Auburn's coaching staff.

This morning, what were they talking about on the Opening Drive? Possible positions that could be filled by Auburn's current coaching staff.

Honestly, this game seems to have disappeared like a fart in the wind. And why? Because the Bama nation wants Coach Tuberville out of town. They aren't used to losing six in a row, so they're panicking like never before.

I will give credit to the many wonderful Bama blogs (check my links) out there that actually have talked about the game. Sure, many have also talked about the coaching situation. After all, it's big news (though, no news). But they haven't completely ignored the fact that there was a game played on Saturday. Why not the "legitimate" media?

Well, shit sells these days. And by shit, I mean a) tabloid "news", and b) stuff that panders to the target audience. That's exactly what the local sports media is doing now.

We all know the ringleader. He's been extremely successful pedaling the tabloid junk. The rest of the local sports media are just following suit. Either that, or they're just drooling Bama fanboys (see Melick/Gattis). I don't know if I should, but I'm giving most of them the benefit of the doubt.

Iron Bowl Pregame

Well, it's that time of the year again. It's hard to explain, but I'm excited for this one...but I'm not.

Overshadowing the players this year are the two coaches. For Alabama, you have coach Nick Saban. He has such a nasty attitude. I wonder why?

For Auburn, you have coach Tommy Tuberville. Some people call him wingnut. What the hell's a wingnut?

Both of these coaches are seasoned veterans with a combined 23 years of experience as head football coaches in Division 1. Their coaching styles are completely different. Saban has a more animated approach.

Yikes. I could, but I'm not going to go there!

Tuberville has a relaxed approach. This is about the most animated you'll see him unless he wants to argue with the officials.

I would have posted the animated gif but it looks exactly like the picture. Exciting, huh?

Usually, I ask some pregame questions before kickoff. This game is different so I decided to do something else. Instead of asking questions, I'm going to make a few suggestions to the players.

I'm not too worried about the defense. To put it another way, I don't want to think about our DBs trying to cover DJ Hall. So I'll focus on the offense.

My first suggestion is for Robert Dunn. I guess this could apply to the other receivers, tight ends, running backs and the defensive secondary (not thinking about it!).

The ball is not a hot potato. It will not hurt you to catch it. In fact, it'll probably feel pretty damned good. All of those people in the stands wearing orange and blue will cheer for you. You might actually put six on the board after you catch it. If you bat it down, all of those people in crimson and white shirts will cheer. You don't want that!

My next suggestion is for the offensive line, mainly Lee Ziemba.

Don't get too excited! Remember playing "red light-green light" when you were a kid? I'm sure you were a big kid. Being so, you were probably pretty slow. I'd imagine you never won while playing it. Well, now you're a man. You definitely aren't the slowest anymore. Think of this game as your time to finally win "red light-green light". You have to remember that if you jump early, you lose. Don't jump offsides, you win! As an added bonus, you could win the football game as well. Then everybody's happy!

My final suggestion is for Brandon Cox.

This is it, man. Sure, you'll more than likely have one more game, but this is the one you'll be remembered for. This is your last hoorah at Jordan-Hare. This is your last chance to beat Bama. Make too many mistakes and some fans, not I, will never forgive you. Just ask Stan White. To avoid this from happening, make your decisions wisely.

No matter how well you think you can throw the ball do not throw it into coverage. Single, double, triple, it doesn't matter. I can't stress this enough.

I've taken the liberty of highlighting all of the areas at Jordan-Hare where you can throw the ball when you get into trouble.

Any area outside of the highlighted area is fine as well. Remember, an incompletion is always, ALWAYS better than an interception.

To the rest of the team.

Relax and have fun. We're behind you 100%. Keep a level head, and we can expect to see some of this Shula-like behavior:
And hopefully we'll see Tubs pull one of these:

I would also accept the following, but my records indicate that Tuberville has no extra fingers.

One last thing before I go... WAR EAGLE!!!

SEC Picks - Week 13

Whoops! I forgot there were games today! The two games that I missed will not go on my record.

East

UGA at Tech - UGA's on a roll. What gimmick will Richt use this week?
UGA 35 - Tech 21

UT at UK - Tennessee has a hard time stopping the pass. Kentucky is pretty successful at passing the ball. UGA's going to Atlanta.
UK 42 UT 41

UF vs FSU - Florida is probably the best three loss team in the nation. Yeah, I know they got blown out by UT, another three loss team.
UF 38 - FSU 30

USC vs Clemson - This one's tough to call. When in doubt, the OBC wins out.
USC 21 - Clemson 14

Vandy vs WF - Vandy...blah.
WF 28 - Vandy 24

West

LSU vs Ark - Believe it or not, I had a feeling this would happen. However, my brain would have probably kicked in before I made that prediction. Never the less, ouch!
Too late!

Auburn vs Bama - My gut says Bama. Seeing as how my gut was right about LSU/Ark, so I'm not going to listen to my brain.
Bama 17 - Auburn 14

MSU vs OM - I was going to call MSU in a close one.
Too late!

Who Owns the Refs? - Revisited

It's Iron Bowl week, so I decided to do another comparison of penalties called in Auburn's and Alabama's games. In doing so, I also compared their opponents' penalties against Auburn and Alabama to what they averaged against other opponents.

When I compiled my first "Who Owns the Refs?" entry, Auburn and Alabama had only played four games. They both have now played eleven games, so we should be able to get a better idea of who really owns the refs in this state.

Here are comparisons of penalties per game and penalty yards per game for Alabama, Auburn, and the SEC average.

Hmmm, interesting. While opponents were penalized more times for more yards against both teams, Alabama certainly takes the cake.

Auburn is on par with the SEC average in penalties per game and penalty yards per game. Alabama is penalized less for far less yards than the SEC average. They're number one in both categories in the SEC. When it comes to penalty yards and opponent penalty yards, Alabama is number four and number three in the nation.

Of course, there is no distinction between offensive and defensive penalties here. I'm definitely not going to sift through a bunch of play-by-plays to get the information either! However, we can see which offense is getting more of a boost from penalties by comparing first downs gained by penalties.

I included the total chart because it paints a better picture of what's going on. Auburn has gotten more first downs from penalties than the SEC average, but so has their opponents. The gap between first downs awarded to Alabama compared to their opponents is amazing. They've received more first downs from penalties than any other team in the nation. There are only four teams in the nation whose opponents have received less first downs from penalties than Alabama. Could this be because of Bama's schedule?

Auburn and Alabama have had six common opponents this year. Are their non-common opponents skewing their numbers? After all, USF and KSU are two of the top penalized teams in the country. Let's see how Alabama's and Auburn's opponents averaged against other teams.

I took the average from the opponent teams, excluding Alabama for their comparison and Auburn for theirs. Western Carolina and Tennessee Tech were excluded from this average.

Teams averaged less penalties for less yards when playing other opponents than when playing Alabama and Auburn. There is clearly a larger gap for Bama's opponents. The teams they've played have averaged less penalties for less yards per game than Auburn's opponents, yet they averaged more penalties for more yards when playing Bama.

What about their opponents' penalties?

Auburn's opponents benefited from the same number of penalties per game against other teams than they did against Auburn. The yardage is about the same as well.

Again, there is a clear difference between the number of penalties called when teams have played Alabama. Those teams benefited from more penalties for more yards per game against other opponents than the teams Auburn played. Head to head, Bama's opponents didn't get nearly as many calls or as many yards as Auburn's opponents did.

What about first downs?

Opponents got more first downs from penalties against Auburn than against other teams. Likewise, Auburn received more first downs from penalties than the other teams they played. That pretty much balances out.

Bama's comparison speaks for itself.

Basically, teams have been penalized more, for more yards, and given up more first downs from penalties when they played Bama than when they played other teams. It's not even close. And it's because of this we can conclude that Bama fans have no business complaining about calls.

I'm not sure if Bama owns the refs. Every team in the SEC has gotten their share of BS calls this year. But this screen cap taken from the Bama/Ole Miss game is mighty suspicious.

Saban

When it comes to Alabama, I don't do a lot of trash talking. Sure, I'll make the occasional jab. I'll call their quarterback Sara Jessica Parker Wilson, and all of that fun stuff. Nothing too serious. I'm not a trash talking kind of guy. I just want to get this out of the way.

The following isn't trash talking. It's merely me expressing my opinions. I apologize if I offend anyone.

Saban disgusts me, bottom line. It has nothing to do with the fact that he's Alabama's coach either.

Pat Forde said it best,

With Nick Saban en route to a coronation in Tuscaloosa, it's officially time to change the vocabulary used to describe college coaches.

"Integrity" is out. "Character" is out. "Teacher" is out. "Leader of men" is out.

"Liar" is in.

Does this apply to all coaches? No, but it certainly applies to Nick Saban.

Why "integrity" is out.

integrity - adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty

This one's easy. "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach." - Nick Saban

As Michael Ventre put it,"the Saban lie is a doozy, a humdinger, that earns him inclusion in the Sports Liars Hall of Fame."

Nick Saban is not a man of integrity. He is an unethical liar.

Why "character" is out.

character - qualities of honesty, courage, or the like

No matter how the local "media" tries to spin it, DJ Hall was supposed to be suspended for the game. After struggling in the first half, Saban decided to play him anyway. When asked about the suspension after the game, Saban's response was, "It was what it was."

Basically, Saban went back on his word (suspension) for the sake of winning at all costs, and then didn't have the courage to answer a simple question about his decision.

Nick Saban is not a man of character. He is a dishonest coward.

Why "teacher" and "leader of men" are out.

From Ian Rapaport's column:

The players on the University of Alabama sideline began to head for the locker room before the clock struck 00:00. Most exited without a handshake for the opponent, and all exited with their chins hanging in the dirt.

Those aren't men. Of course, Saban thinks they are. And among those "men" is Simeon Castille, who Saban says is, "one of the finest young men on our team." This was after Simeon was arrested for disorderly conduct.

If this is an example of "one of the finest men" on Bama's team, I'm at a loss for words.

From the police report.

"The suspect stated that this was going to hurt his draft status and squatted against the wall and appeared to be crying."

It appears that one of Bama's finest only cares about himself.

What did this "teacher" do to punish Simeon? What about Fanney, Upchurch, and Deadrick?

No suspensions. Saban keeps discipline in house, unless your name is Keith Brown, Prince Hall, Antoine Caldwell, Marlon Davis, Glen Coffee, Chris Rogers, Marquis Johnson, or DJ Hall. Which more than likely means that Fanny, Upchurch, Deadrick, and Castille were not punished at all.

Castille went on to throw bottles at the crowd in Mississippi. I'm sure he wasn't punished for that either.

Nick Saban is not a teacher or a leader of men.

Pat Forde is definitely onto something. Liar doesn't quite fully describe Saban though. He's much, much more.

Week 12 Results

I went 5-1 this week. That brings my total to 66-22.

I had my usual results post written. I don't know why, but it disappeared. Out of spite, I'm not going to rewrite it.

SEC Picks - Week 12

East

Georgia vs. Kentucky - Kentucky's offense is more like Tennessee's, so they very well could rack up the points today. Coming off of a big win, Georgia will have to keep their heads out of the clouds and stay focused. They have to win today to remain in the race for the East.
UGA 35 - UK 28

Tennessee vs. Vandy - Like UGA, UT must win this game if they want to make it to Atlanta. A loss would certainly clench the East title for UGA (if they beat UK today). UT should win this one without any problems.
UT 30 - Vandy 17

Florida vs. FAU - At least Florida keeps creampuff money in state.
UF 58 - FAU 21

West

LSU at Ole Miss - Ole Miss had a much needed off week last week (lucky!). It still won't be enough.
LSU 35 - Ole Miss 7

Auburn - Off

Alabama vs. La-Monroe - TAMU beat La-Monroe 54-14. Will this be used as a comparison between Fran and Saban? It will if Bama wins by a wider margin.
Bama 38 - La-Monroe 10

MSU at Arkansas - MSU has earned upsets by forcing turnovers...mostly in the air. Advantage, Arkansas. Felix Jones is injured. Advantage, MSU. McFadden is not injured. Advantage, Arkansas.
Arkansas 28 - MSU 17

Another Egg Laid

Brad Lester...not having fun.

From middle school through high school, my football team had one of the most talented around. A good number of those guys received full rides from Division 1 schools, with one of them ending his career in the NFL. Several others played at 1AA schools, and one or two received scholarships in other sports. There was no doubt that we had some athletes, but we could never really get things going. Everything fell flat at game time.

Pregame was the same every week. We weren't allowed to go home after school. We had to sit around the gym or locker room...quietly. In between playing cards and/or taking a nap, different groups would briefly meet with their coaches to watch film, or go over last minute game notes. We would eat our pregame meal in silence, and file into buses.

We were never allowed to talk on the bus rides to wherever we were playing. The coaches always said that we were supposed to use this time to think about the game. I always dreaded the bus rides. Not a single noise was heard but the bus's engine. I could drink two pots of coffee and still struggle to stay awake in that situation.

After arriving to the field, we would walk to one end zone and then the other without saying a word. We'd put our shoulder pads and helmets on in the locker room and head out to stretch and warm up. We weren't allowed to talk while stretching.

Back in the locker room, we'd huddle around. The coach would give a speech about how every game is important. They always read the same poem in monotone before the Lord's Prayer.

After the Lord's Prayer, it was always something along the lines of, "Alright, you ready to get pumped!?!? You ready to win this thing!?!"

To this day, I don't understand the "pregame logic" of these coaches. I'm not sure how it is/was at other schools, but this is not the way to go about things. We were lulled to sleep for several hours then expected to get pumped up five or ten minutes to kickoff. Not only were we lulled to sleep, but the constant silence never did anything but build tension. This was nothing but a recipe for disaster.

What does this have to do with this past weekend? Look at Georgia. I think one of the main reasons they've turned a corner is because Richt is allowing his players to have fun. The result is a more relaxed team. The result is a a team that's pumped up and full of energy throughout the game. Some people may not agree with his tactics, but the results speak volumes.

You can say that Auburn lost b/c Cox reverted to Mr. Hyde, because our DBs can't cover man-to-man if their life depended on it, or because Tuberville was preoccupied during the week. Whatever the case may be, I think everyone can agree that Auburn's play was completely lackadaisical.

I don't know what goes on during Auburn's pregame. Over the past few years, there have been several games where Auburn came out playing like they had just woken up from a coma. This year, their disappointing performances were against Kansas State, USF, MSU, and Georgia. Auburn was outscored in the first quarter of those games 30 to 6.

The results are similar when looking at last year's games against Arkansas and Georgia, where Auburn was outscored 17 to 0 in the first quarter.

The year before that? 20 to 0 in games against Georgia Tech and Wisconsin.

Even going back as far as 2003, it's evident that Auburn has trouble getting up for some games. That year, they were outscored a whopping 37 to 0 in games against USC, Georgia Tech, LSU and Georgia.

I think you get the point. Something about Auburn's pregame needs to change. If you've seen footage of Tuberville before games, it's evident that he isn't much of a motivational speaker. Perhaps he needs to hire someone on that is. Too bad this guy isn't around any more.

Week 11 Results

I went 3-3 this week. My total record this year is 61-21.

The East went 2-0 against the West this week, making them the king of the SEC. They were 10-8 against the West this year.

East

UGa 45 - AU 20
Richt overpowered Auburn's white jerseys by using ultra extreme black jerseys. Seriously, Auburn just looked flat.

UT 34 - Ark 13
It looks like UT studied some AU/Ark film before this one.

UF 51 - USC 31
No surprise here. I thought it would be a little closer, though.

UK 27 - Vandy 20
Again, no surprise here.

West

LSU 58 - La. Tech 10
Boring.

MSU 17 - UA 12
Like I said pregame, "MSU can pressure the quarterback..." SJPW needs to learn not to crumble under pressure. I almost forgot to add that Saban got Croomed. That phrase is losing its luster, isn't it?

SEC Picks - Week 11

I'm sick right now, so I'll keep this brief.

East

Georgia vs. Auburn - Two good running teams on offense. Auburn gets the edge because of their run defense.
AU 34 - UGA 21

Tennessee vs. Arkansas - UT's defense can't stop anything. Only one team has been able to stop the Razorback's running game.
Ark 42 - UT 34

Florida vs. USC - USC is crumbling. I'm going to break my own rules and underestimate the OBC.
UF 34 - USC 30

Kentucky at Vandy - Woodson should have no problems with Vandy's defense.
UK 35 - Vandy 14

West

LSU vs. La. Tech - It's nice that LSU keeps their money instate.
LSU 45 - La. Tech 0

Alabama at MSU - MSU can pressure the quarterback but seems to have trouble with the finesse run. Saban won't get Croomed this year.
Bama 28 - MSU 10

Week 10 Results

I went 7-0 this week. My total record for the year is now 58-18.

The East went 0-1 against the West for the second week straight. They're now knotted up at 8-8. The two regular season East vs. West games left are Auburn/UGA and Ark/UT. Who will prevail?

East

UF 49 - Vandy 22
Like I said, "Florida will win easily." Why have Tebow and the starters in during the fourth quarter, though? There was no need for it.

UGA 44 - Troy 34
Seven total turnovers between the two? Yeah, this one was ugly. There are two things that stand out to me from this game. Troy UGA, and UGA went 2 for 11 on first downs.

UT 59 - ULL 7
South Carolina still holds the distinction of being one of two teams ULL was able to hold under 30 points this year. 1-7 North Texas is the other.

West

LSU 41 - Bama 34
After repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot, LSU finally prevailed. Without the penalties, this one wouldn't have been as close. Six of Bama's twenty first downs were from penalties. Coincidentally, they are tied with Northwestern for having the most first downs gained by penalties in the nation. I smelled some Cajun spices on some of the replay calls, but Bama has no room to complain about those.

Auburn 35 - Tennessee Tech 3
Wow, I almost nailed this score! It's good to see that the backups got plenty of playing time in this one. I honestly didn't think I'd see Blake Field's name mentioned again. Boring opponent, boring game.

Arkansas 48 - USC 36
McFadden and Felix Jones are both like Matt Jones. They're some of the most exciting players I've ever seen, and I will shed no tears when they leave Arkansas!

OM 38 - NWSU 31
Ole Miss almost blew this one. How many times this year have they fallen flat late in the game? Orgeron should probably look into hiring a new strength and conditioning coach.

SEC Picks - Week 10

My computer time has been short this week. I guess there really isn't too much to talk about this week Auburn-related anyway. Watson Brown is coming to town!

What is this, opening week? The SEC has four out of conference games this week against two Sun Belt schools, and two 1-aa schools. At least Troy has a winning record. Anyway, here are my picks.

East

Florida vs. Vandy - If I told you two things about this game, "One team is coming off of two heartbreaking losses, and the other is coming off of two big wins," and then told you that the teams were Florida and Vanderbilt, you would probably guess that Florida had just beaten their last two opponents. Then after I revealed to you that you're wrong, you would probably argue that Miami (OH) isn't a big win, but any win over a D1 opponent is big for the Commies. Yeah, this has nothing to do with the game. Florida will win easily.
UF 34 - VU 10

Georgia vs. Troy - This has all the makings of an upset. Georgia finally played with a real sense of urgency last week. Now, they play a game that's hard to get excited about. They'll win, but it'll be sloppy.
UGA 28 - Troy 21

Tennessee vs. Louisiana-Lafayette - The Cajuns beat North Texas earlier this year. So they've got that going for them, which is nice. But they're ranked 112 in scoring defense. Teams are averaging 37.8 points per game against them. Can you guess what team scored the least points against them this year? *Look to the bottom of this post for the answer.
UT 42 - ULL 17

Kentucky - Off

West

LSU vs. Bama - This one's tough to pick. LSU's defense can get to the quarterback, and SJPW seems to make stupid decisions when under pressure. I don't think Bama's defense compares to Auburn's, and look what LSU did to them in the second half. On the other side of the coin, Bryant-Denny Restaurant is going to be electric tomorrow night. When it comes down to it, LSU is more talented than any team Bama has faced this year...by a long shot.
LSU 31 - Bama 17

Auburn vs. Tennessee Tech - Auburn will be short several players for this one. I'm sure Tuberville won't even go vanilla in this one. It'll be watered down plain on offense. Even so, easy running for the Tigers.
AU 34 - TTU 0

Arkansas vs. USC - I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Arkansas is going to get their first SEC win tomorrow...Ole Miss doesn't count.
Ark 28 - USC 17

MSU - Off

Ole Miss vs. Northwestern State - If it wasn't for a pesky scheduling error, the Rebs would be undefeated in their out of conference games this year. Seriously, you know they meant to schedule Southwestern Missouri Commonwealth Polytechnical College for the Deaf-Branson instead of Mizzou. Someones head will roll for this.
OM 34 - NWS 10

*answer: South Carolina - Yeah, I actually forgot to answer this!