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Crimson Tide 2016 Season

2016 Report: Will the Tide Roll or Fold?

The nation is packed full of SEC fans; after all, the Southeastern Conference is the most powerful in the NCAA, and some even suggest that the SEC is more like a pro football division juxtaposed against the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC. While that might be a touch on the hyperbolic side, it’s still proven every year that the SEC has a wide assortment of top-25 teams, like Auburn, LSU, Georgia, Florida, A&M, Ole Miss and, of course, the Alabama Crimson Tide. It seems like every year since Nick Saban has been coaching the Tide, Alabama has at least threatened the top spot in the nation and made a lot of money for those to enjoy Alabama sports betting. Will things change this year, or has Alabama finally lost too much talent on the field? The answer may be bittersweet, depending on where your SEC loyalties stand. If you’re not a fan of Alabama, be prepared to punch the wall. If you’re a Tide faithful, get ready to cheer. At least on paper, the Tide are looking just as strong as ever.

Despite losing Derrick Henry and Kenyan Drake, a few key offensive linemen, and about half a dozen defensive starters, the Tide actually scored an A+ this off-season by recruiting the strongest class in the nation. And if you want to get into specifics on why Alabama will have a strong shot at repeating as SEC Champions this year, then look no further than their corp of wide receivers. Although it’s questionable on whether or not the Tide will have a top QB prospect to put the ball out there, what’s not in question is that they may actually have the best WR corp in the entire nation. Let’s start with their returning superstar, Calvin Ridley. Ridley really came on strong near the end of last year, and many predict that he can actually be better than Amari Cooper, which is definitely high praise. Last season, although only coming on after the midway point, and not having a stable quarterback for the first five games, Ridley caught 89 balls for 1,045 yards and 7 touchdowns. He has speed like Randy Moss, can run a route like Tim Brown, and can catch the ball like Odell Beckham, Jr. That’s certainly a deadly combination.

On the other side of the field, you’re going to find ArDarius Stewart, the junior whose 63 catches and 700 yards came in handy last year as the Tide won the National Championship. Stewart was actually a quarterback before joining Alabama, and coupled with his 4.3-40 speed, these intangibles make Stewart a nightmare for defensive backs. Then you have Robert Foster and Cam Sims in the mix. Both freshmen last season who didn’t do much on the field, they’re a year older and a year better, and they’re ready to really get down and dirty with some big-air football. Throw OJ Howard into the mix, and any QB the Tide puts out will have a large security blanket at the tight end position.

Naysayers of the sporting world are shaking their head and are pointing out that the Tide lost defensive coordinator Kirby Smart to Georgia’s head coaching vacancy, along with too much talent to replace. However, the Tide has a relatively new-look defensive front seven this season. Their secondary is much improved, which means their pass defense is shored up. But Saban has done something out of character and has shifted from a run-stopping juggernaut to a pass-rushing squad of commandos. Only two teams the Tide faced last year had a top running back that threatened to do damage, Leonard Fournette in LSU, and Nick Chubb in Georgia. Both were stopped and Alabama won both games. However, in the game they lost against Ole Miss, and in the games they could have easily lost against Tennessee, Auburn and Arkansas, it was the passing attack of those offenses that stung Alabama the most. Even though they had the best pass rush and the most sacks, their secondary was weak. This season, they’re putting out a strong secondary and even more of a pass rush. So while Fournette might go over 100 yards, look for multiple interceptions and sack-fumbles.

Nothing is written in stone here, of course. By the time Alabama puts its product on the field, injuries, miscues and other mishaps might plague the Tide and they could end up losing three games. However, when looking on paper and at their spring training alone, the Tide seem like a team ready to roll yet again in 2016.

Alabama Verses Miss State

Alabama Snubbed By CFP Selection Committee Again

Alabama Verses Miss State

The College Football Playoff selection committee has ignored Alabama once again when projecting the top 4 teams in the country at the end of the season. Announcing their selections on November 11 for the 4 playoff teams to compete for the National Championship at the end of the year, powerful Alabama was snubbed yet again. Without an argument the strongest team in college football since 2007, claiming 3 national titles in that span, the Crimson Tide is coached by self-proclaimed perfectionist Nick Saban. He demands perfection in his own life, from his players, and in each and every football game. So how does the Alabama coach feel about the CFP snubbing? “None of that really matters.”

Baylor Snubbing Just As Much of a Head Scratcher

Alabama and Baylor fans took to Twitter as soon as the latest CFP Top 25 poll and Top 4 projections came out. Baylor is ranked #7, 3 spots behind TCU, even though they beat the Horned Frogs earlier this year and have an identical record. TCU jumped Alabama to land in the #4 spot, ahead of Bama at #5. Under the current College Football Playoff format, the 4 top ranked teams at the end of the season have a playoff for the NCAA Division I College Football Championship. If the Crimson Tide stays at the number 5 spot or lower, they will play in a really big, important and financially profitable bowl game. But they will not have a chance to notch their 4th National Championship in 8 years. Although Bama Nation is in an uproar over the ranking, head coach Saban couldn’t care less.

Why The #5 Alabama Ranking Doesn’t Matter

That is because Alabama is 8 – 1 and plays in the most difficult conference and subdivision in all college football. There is no argument that the SEC West is the premier conference and division in NCAA Division I ball. And Alabama hosts #1 ranked Mississippi State on Saturday, November 15. A victory easily slides the Tide into the number 4 spot at least, and possibly as high as number 2 or 3. Alabama also must play intrastate rival and #9 ranked Auburn the last game of the season. A win there followed by a victory over the Bulldogs this Saturday and they would lock up probably either the number 1 or number 2 spot in the playoffs, easily guaranteed at least inclusion in the top 4. In the weekly SEC teleconference on Wednesday, Nick Saban surprised reporters and calmed the fears of Alabama fans when he stated that, “I didn’t even really know what we were in the poll, and it really doesn’t matter at all to me or our team or our players.”

Alabama – Win Out and You’re In

And when you think about it, that is exactly how you want your coach and players to face each week. It is not as if Alabama would play harder to move up the rankings. Does that mean that they would take it easy if they were the #1 ranked team? Of course not. As Saban said, “If you don’t have success in the games that you play, the poll’s not going to matter.” Exactly. He understands that Alabama consistently, year in and year out, has to “play really, really good teams in our league” and escape the season with no more than one loss to have a shot at the national title under the current playoff format. With Mississippi State up next, you had better believe that perfectionist Saban will have the Tide positioned for a victory. Mississippi State has been ranked #1 in all 3 of the midseason CFP rankings so far.

Beat #1 to Be #1 … or at Least #4

Beating the Bulldogs on Saturday would knock the #1 ranked team off of its pedestal, leaving that spot for some team to move up. And obviously, it would make Alabama’s playoff resume that much more impressive. But just like Baylor fans are complaining, Crimson Tide backers are upset that the CFP Selection Committee is obviously weighing margin of victory greater than strength of schedule. With Baylor’s defeat of TCU, an identical 8 – 1 record and TCU being named the 4th playoff team, there is definitely some appearance of lack of integrity on the choices made by the selection committee. But Saban is right about one thing. Beat the #1 ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs Saturday, then defeat #9 ranked Auburn 2 weeks later, and the Tide forces the CFP committee to give the Tide a shot at their 4th national title in the last 8 years.

Betting Line On This Game

Even though Alabama has 1 loss this season and Miss State is undefeated, the experts in Vegas still  have Alabama winning by 8 points. Link For Alabama Crimson Tide Betting Lines

SEC Heisman Watch List For Week 7

Due to the problems surrounding Georgia running back, Todd Gurley, the Heisman watch list has a new SEC player up top for the Heisman, and maybe for the entire nation as well.

With Gurley being suspended due to violating NCAA rules, that leaves Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott out on top for the Heisman. Even though Gurley leads the SEC in rushing yards, touchdowns and yards per carry, its still unclear whether or not he will return this year or not. Gurley has returned to practice this past Monday but we don’t have any further information. But at least its good for Prescott in this situation, hell I wouldn’t be complaining if it were me.

Prescott has led the SEC the entire season thus far, totaling for 2,089 yards on offense and 23 touchdowns. Other than leading the SEC in numbers, the last three wins against top 10 teams may have a little to do with it. During those three wins, Prescott has averaged 361.7 yards of offense and 11 touchdowns. Not to mention he has thrown for 200 yards and rushed for 100 yards in his last four of five games. This guy is legit.

Here are a few other SEC players who you should watch out for.

  • Mississippi State running back, Josh Robinson, isn’t slowing down for the Bulldogs and neither is the rest of his team. The junior back has averaged 133.7 yards on the ground and five touchdowns during the past three wins among top 10 teams. Robinson leads right behind Gurley in the SEC with 689 rushing yards and is tied for first with eight touchdowns.
  • Ole Miss quarterback, Bo Wallace is my next choice. You can’t overlook what this kid has done this season, especially what he did to Alabama. With three SEC games down in the books, Wallace has averaged 310 yards of offense with seven touchdowns and no turnovers. In SEC play, he is in second with 1,700 passing yards and 15 touchdowns. No doubt in my mind that Wallace will be up for the Heisman running for the remainder of the year.
  • The last one is Alabama wide receiver, Amari Cooper. Cooper leads the SEC with 58 receptions and 768 receiving yards but has seemed to fall down the ladder after being held to just two catches for 22 yards during the win against Arkansas last Saturday.

Ole Miss Students Carry Goalpost To Apartment

It had been several hours that passed by after the fans tore down the goalposts at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium after a thrilling 23-17 win over No. 1 Alabama on Saturday, but somehow the goalpost ended up wandering the streets, being lifted by several students.

“The police are kind of tough around here,” said Buckner Corso, who is in his fifth year at Ole Miss and finishing a graduate degree in accounting. “But we were just walking down the street, people were honking, and they were laughing at us.”

Corso said that some of his fellow friends brought the goalpost from the field to his tailgating area, and then him and about 20 of his friends carried it around campus before it ended up at his apartment which was a mile away.ncf_e_goalpost01jr_400x600

Corso tweeted a picture of the goalpost at his apartment and shortly after, athletic director Ross Bjork replied to his tweet;

Corso decided on Sunday to cut the goalpost up into 30 pieces with his friends using a saw.

“I know I want to put an inscription on mine, and I’m going to keep it,” said Corso, who didn’t know if the others would take a more opportunistic route and try to sell their pieces.

This may seem ironic to you, but this isn’t the first time this had happened.

Back in 2002 after Ole Miss defeated Florida, the Ole Miss Loyalty Foundation sold 100 six-inch pieces of the post that were placed on wood plaques with every detail about the game for $100 a pop.

According to ESPN, the goalposts are about $4,000 to replace. I got a kick out of reading Bjork’s other tweets he posted.

I guess there really are crazy Ole Miss fans in Oxford!

Emmit Smith has ‘seen enough’ of Jeff Driskel

Well the hits keep coming for Jeff Driskel and I’m not talking on the field.

The unranked Florida Gators suffered a 42-21 beat down against No. 3 Alabama on Saturday. Former legendary Gator running back Emmit Smith tweeted for Driskel to be benched during the fourth quarter.

We all know Driskel had a bad game. He completed 9 of his 28 passes for 93 yards, two interceptions and once touchdown. Driskel attempted a career high of 13 passes for 15 yards or longer with just one completion.

He also led the Gators in rushing, carrying the ball 11 times for 59 yards and a touchdown.

If the Gators continue to struggle offensively, its going to be another long season and you can say good bye to Will Muschamp.

The Gators (2-1, 1-1) will travel to Tennessee next Saturday.

Alabama Quarterback Battle Brewing

With AJ McCarron and his now wife Katherine Webb now living in Cincinnati, Alabama fans were left to wonder just who their next QB would be in the Saban era. While some have jumped to the conclusion that graduate transfer Jacob Coker (transferred from FSU) will be handed the starting job, Nick Saban has said otherwise. Saban gave non-committal answers to the press about his quarterbacks, even going as far as to say he hadn’t seen them throw the ball very much yet. While that’s hard to believe from a control freak like Saban, it is very believable that the quarterback race is wide open as the new SEC season approaches.

Along with Coker, two other names can be thrown into the ring in this boiling QB battle. Senior Blake Sims who has been a backup for the tide the past two seasons, and redshirt freshman Cooper Bateman (solid name).

While Bateman is considered to be a longshot to win the job, both Sims and Coker have a legitimate shot to be the face of the Alabama offense this year as they try to climb to the top of the mountain again. In fact the two have been battling so tightly and the race is so close that Saban even said he has considered running some sort of a two quarterback system at the start of the year.

Here is what Saban had to say about that possibility:

“It’s not something that I would hope would happen. Is it something that I can totally rule out? Not really because I think the skill set of Blake Sims can create problems for a defense. If we wanted to utilize him to do that in some kind of way, I guess you could say that we could possibly have a two-quarterback system.”

While I don’t believe that will actually happen (if you have two quarterbacks, you have zero), it speaks volumes to just how neck and neck these two are coming down the stretch into August.

Blake Sims seemed to be headed towards becoming the lead man as last year ended and AJ departed to the NFL, but Coker coming in shook up the plans. At 6’5 Coker is the prototypical QB and could fill the shoes of Mccarron quite nicely if given the shot, and would give Alabama a similar look and style on offense as we have seen the past few regimes under center. Sims on the other hand presents an entirely different set of skills under center and can wreak havoc on a defense from inside or outside of the pocket with the ball in his hands. With the speed of SEC defenders, Sims’ play making ability and use of his legs when plays break down can become increasingly valuable and as the game evolves, the mobile QB becomes increasingly more effective as well. Don’t forget, Saban badly wanted Jameis Winston, a guy who has a huge arm but also posses the ability to make something out of nothing and throws on the run at a high level.

Both Coker and Sims have proven they can handle the reins of the Tide offense and will have an excellent safety valve to lean on in the backfield with junior running back TJ Yeldon lining up beside them. Along with Yeldon, Kenyan Drake will also be featured in the ever star studded running game that we have become used to seeing from a Nick Saban led team. As the season inches closer and closer, so does the quarterback race, and with reviews raving for both players, Saban will have one of the most difficult decisions he has ever made on his hands when choosing his new leader as he aims to further cement his legacy with another championship year.

The Tide will open their season against the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Georgia dome on August 30th.

 

BCS Rankings: Two SEC teams in top 10

Connor Shaw and the Gamecocks shook up Missouri’s run and top five BCS hopes after a 27-24 victory last weekend. Missouri earned their first loss of the season and dropped to No. 9 in the BCS rankings. If Alabama fails to remain undefeated for the rest of the season, you can kiss the SEC’s championship hopes goodbye.

Alabama still holds the No. 1 spot while Oregon moves back to No. 2 after passing Florida State. Even though Alabama and FSU look like the top two teams in college football right now.

Four other SEC teams are listed in the top 15 as seen below.

Second BCS Rankings:

1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. Florida State
4. Ohio State
5. Stanford
6. Baylor
7. Miami
8. Clemson
9. Missouri
10. Oklahoma
11. Auburn
12. Texas A&M
13. LSU
14. South Carolina
15. Texas Tech
16. Fresno State
17. Northern Illinois
18. Oklahoma State
19. Louisville
20. UCLA
21. Michigan
22. Michigan State
23. UCF
24. Wisconsin
25. Notre Dame

Alabama strength coach placed on leave

Alabama assistant strength and conditioning coach Corey Harris has been put on administrative leave after providing benefits to safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, ESPN confirmed on Thursday.

Clinton-Dix was given a loan less than $500 from Harris over the summer, which he repaid Harris before the season started. Head coach Nick Saban has suspended Clinton-Dix indefinitely for a violation of team rules.

The loan would constitute a violation of NCAA bylaw 16.11.2.2, which says, “an institutional employee or representative of the institution’s athletics interests may not provide a student-athlete with extra benefits or services, including, but not limited to … a loan of money.”

Sources close to ESPN said Clinton-Dix was the only player who was involved.

Clinton-Dix will miss the upcoming game against Georgia State and is expected to return within the month.

“When guys get suspended, I never, ever say what it’s for, so I’m not going there, so don’t ask me,” Saban told reporters Wednesday. “It’s the way I’ve always handled this — every guy. They do right, they wouldn’t be getting suspended. And I don’t know for how long this will be, so don’t ask me that either.”

Now with Clinton-Dix gone, who will fill his shoes? It will either be Landon Collins or Geno Smith. Collins was a five-star safety coming out of high school and has seen a lot of action at cornerback this year. Smith hasn’t seen too much playing time this year due to being arrested for driving under the influence before the season started.

Saban is all about team discipline, he won’t put up with no crap. These kids have it made there at Alabama. They need to get their acts together and stay out of trouble if they want a shot at another title.

Bama tops SEC recruiting chart

The Crimson Tide have 13 commits ranked in the top ESPN 300 and is back on top of the recruiting rankings.

Alabama has No. 2-ranked quarterback David Cornwell, No. 2 Bo Scarbrough, No. 1 OLB Christian Miller, No. 1 offensive guard Ross Pierschbacher, and the most recent No. 6 wide receiver Cameron Sims. Alabama has pieced together a talented offensive line class that features ESPN 300 players Pierschbacher, Viane Talamaivao and J.C. Hassenauer. The list doesn’t include Scarbrough, who just switched from a school in Alabama to IMG Academy in Florida.

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