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!!!

Interesting...

During my usual game day morning browsing, I found something rather interesting on FSU's official athletic site. This bit of knowledge is part of the Alabama Football Trivia that was compiled by Alabama Sports Information:

2. Prior to today's game in Jacksonville, when was the last time Alabama played a regular-season neutral site game?

A: Alabama defeated Ohio State 16-10 on Aug. 27, 1986 at the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

That's right, Legion Field was not a neutral site.