SB Nation User Blog: TopDaddy

I don't know what to make of this...

TopDaddy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:25:10 -0000

...but our very own Leigh Tiffin is leading the nation with 20 field goals. Granted, he's only second in the "Field Goals Per Game" category, as UCLA has only played 7 games, and their PK currently has 19, but this is a stat that I don't recall Bama topping in quite some time, if ever. I guess it's good that he's "Money" (anyone? anyone? Beuller?), but I just feel that this is not the greatest of signs. As the title states, I just don't know what to make of this...

Ingram Leading Tebow for 1st Place in the ESPN Experts List of Heisman Voting

TopDaddy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:26:15 -0000

Ingram Leading Tebow for 1st Place in the ESPN Experts List of Heisman Voting

I don't put much emphasis on this for many various and obvious reasons, but it's interesting nonetheless. Plus, looks like McClain's getting some "Expert" love.

Simple man's analysis of a few key points

TopDaddy — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:46:02 -0000

I just had a few thoughts on the game that I needed to get down on "paper" before my head explodes, and what better way to do that than to offer it up to The Process faithful for their opinions. Here goes:

1) Brad Smelley is not very good as an H-back. This was made evident in our first offensive play from scrimmage when he basically ran though the 4 hole as a lead block for Ingram. The play is beautifully set up, especially for the first play of the game, and it appears that Smelley and Ingram are running free for at least 15-20 yards, but 5 yards into the run and with no one to block, Smelley quits on the play and essentially tackles Ingram, who wasn't very excited about this decision. Smelley continued to look lost throughout the first half, but by the second half I was one too many Killian's in the hole to look for this pattern to continue.

2) One difference that I loved about Mac, as opposed to JPW, was the fact that when he looks off his primary receiver, his first instinct isn't to give a souveneir to the 10 row, but it's to run the ball for whatever yards he can gain. Now, this may have been a jittery coincidence for the first game for Mac, as McElwain has historically taught his QBs (Brandstater at Fresno and JPW) to get rid of the ball in the face of adversity, but hopefully this is just one of Mac's weapons he can offer the Tide this year.

3) Saban has a ton of confidence in this D. This was very evident in his decision to go for 2 very early in the 4th quarter. Some coaches have the "When to go for 2" spreadsheet on hand, and some just have it memorized, but neither will tell you to go for 2 in that situation. Also, Saban isn't what doctors would call a "risk taker", so this was simply a decision based on the fact that our D wasn't giving up another TD. Jumping into Saban's mind for a moment, he was thinking: If we make it, we're up 7, so that gives us a tie in the unlikely event that my damn kickoff coverage falls asleep again. However if we don't make it, we're still up 5 and we'll just have to win this one by 5 and not cover the spread.

Now unfortunately, Saban wasn't omniscient enough to forsee the most blatant "hold" non-call anyone has ever seen which lead to VT's only "legit" TD of the game, so obviously more points were scored, but this call spoke volumes to me in how "pleased and happy" he is with our D.

4) Upchurch is an absolute animal! That is all.

5) Got real excited about how our 4th string RB (Richardson) decided he was not going to settle for 1 and 2 yard carries, but figured he'd go ahead and muscle out 5 more each time just because he could. Bright future in our offensive backfield.

6) Not too thrilled about the Wild Tide formation. From what I'm hearing, Star is supposed to be running it, but was out with the flu, so hopefully this was a patchwork formation that we saw.

7) I loved the Pistol Formations that we ran. Hope we keep that up.

8) VT is a very stout team, and I feel that they held their own in a game that could have very easily been 45-10. I wish them the best, and honestly feel that they could rule the ACC this year.

9) I heart Colin Peek.

10) Running Backs did a great job of pass protection. It was so good at times that you never really noticed that our O-line missed multiple assignment on a consistent basis. I'm very worried about our O-line this year.

Honorable mentions included Mark Barron's good performance, 9 in the box and bringing the house, Tyrod is one fast mofo, losing the toss, WTF Mclain, really? 5 FG attempts, and While You do the Math I'm Doing the Alfredo.

Feel free to add, subtract, or multipy from anything you see on this list, or just tell me I'm a moron. Everyone have a good one. RTR!

Charlie Higgenbotham to South Alabama

TopDaddy — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:48:14 -0000

Charlie Higgenbotham to South Alabama

Being a South Alabama alum (undergrad), I'm very excited about the upcoming inaugural football season, and I'm even more excited about getting this kind of talent. Obviously the Tide is my passion, but things like this are exciting as well. Word is that USA is also going after Preyear and Matchett, both Mobile natives. We'll see.

The Case for 1941

TopDaddy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:39:10 -0000

ed.- bumped from the fanposts. kind of a controversial subject, and i tend to agree that there are "better" years in which alabama could claim a title (*cough* 1966 *cough*), but it's still a good read.

I titled this “The Case…” because at times I feel like a defense attorney in trying to explain and defend all things Bama. Some say this desire to explain the “inconsistencies” created by the opposition comes from a sense of insecurity, I say it’s simply the desire to bring the ignorant to a place of enlightenment. For years, I’ve defended and explained the championships from the 1920’s. For years, I’ve fought off claims that Bama is dead and gone among the upper echelon of NCAA football. However, a subject I always shied away from was that of the 1941 National Championship claimed by the University of Alabama.

As more time has passed, the more I got to thinking about the fact that I got tired of ignoring it. The nay-sayers have a right to know, and the faithful need to be informed as well. Most may say that “it is what it is” and that should be acceptable, but that’s not the way I work. Putting myself in their shoes: Had any other program won/claimed a national championship (especially a rival) given the final record and ranking of the 1941 Alabama National Championship Team, having dug no further than those two facts alone, I’d likely be up in arms as well.

The face value facts: Alabama finished 1941 with a record of 9-2, and a final AP ranking of 20. Minnesota, the reining national champions, went undefeated at 8-0. Texas, at 9-1-1 even seemed a more viable candidate for the NC, and also received a NC vote. So what’s the problem? There is an undefeated, major team (I say “major” because two other teams went undefeated as well), Bama wasn’t relatively close to matching that record, so why would anyone vote Alabama as the national champion, and furthermore, why would Alabama accept the vote? Surely they didn’t just take any ole vote that came their way, and turned and ran with it. Surely there was a reason, something deeper, the rest of the story, so to speak, that no one of this generation would know about. Well, come to find out, there is.

First, let’s take a look at the Final AP poll of 1941:

As you may or may not know, the final AP poll of that day was done after the regular season. In fact, the “final” AP poll of 1941 was done while some teams still had 2 regular season games left. So basically, the “final” AP poll was put out on November 29th, while teams like Texas, Texas A&M, and Mississippi St. (all teams who had a legit chance to still becoming champions) still had games left. So essentially, the AP national champion was crowned before the regular season was even over. And what’s more, Bama drops two spots after they throttled an 8-1 Miami team. And forget the bowl game, where Bama beat a once beaten Texas A&M team, because bowl games weren’t taken into account at that time anyway. And for all you AP advocates out there who still think it’s the final word on crowning a NC at the time, a 5-3 Northwestern team was ranked #11 in the “final” poll. Northeast bias, much? 7 of the top 11 AP teams were northern teams, but that’s just conspiracy theory on my part.

Houlgate? Who the hell, and why can we legitimately take that as a NC vote?

Glad you asked. In 1941, Houlgate was the oldest remaining recognized system for crowning National Champions. It began in 1927, and was highly regarded for its systematic approach to finding out who the best team in the nation was. In fact, it was the only system at the time that took strength of schedule into account, and which we’ll find out later, may have played a large roll in its final selection. The AP poll was in its infancy, 5 years old to be exact, while Houlgate was on its 14th year of service. You can essentially compare this to the AP poll versus BCS debate of 5 years ago. The AP poll of that day was the opinion of 44, grossly uninformed writers who could only keep up with teams from around their general area (due to the overall lack of national coverage), which just happened to be the northeast for the most part.

Let’s look at it this way: Think of the high school football teams around you, whether it’s 5, 10, or more. Chances are, if you halfway keep up with the whole gamut of local games each weekend, or even read the final scores in the newspaper; you will come up with a list of about a third of those total teams that you think are good teams. However, with the lack of national high school football coverage, you have no idea how these teams that you deem “good” could square up against teams across the country. All you know is that Mountain Brook in Birmingham is 9-1, while the 6A state champion from Pennsylvania went 8-2. Not knowing anything about Penn high school football teams, you’re limited to looking at records to determine which of these teams is better. You may even look at the records of the teams they lost to in order to give you a better idea, but how much more inaccurate could this be? This was the life of an AP voter in the 40’s. They only knew their Big 8 schools, the military schools, Ivy League, and Notre Dame, and the rest of the nation was compared to them (thus NWestern finishing out at #11 with a 5-3 record). Therefore, other schools were essentially doomed to mediocrity after one loss or tie, especially if the loss or tie came against a team that was equally as unknown to these writers. Also, the poll was changing its makeup every year at that point to try to come up with the best system. At this time, they were still trying to get all the bugs out. Houlgate, however, took a mathematical approach, which saw each team as equals on a level playing field. I am sure it has its flaws as well, but it simply had to be better than the opinions of a handful of ill informed, geographically locked people who surely didn’t take this as seriously as we would like to believe they did today.

So, ultimately, I’m not saying that the AP was complete garbage and Houlgate was essentially the only way, I’m just trying to overcompensate for each to get people to realize that they were, at a minimum, on a level playing field, and that Houlgate deserves the same, if not more, respect as the AP poll of that time.

But Bama still had two losses:

Now it’s about to seem quite homerific if you’re on the outside looking in, but you have to understand that I’m just trying to take a look at what would make the Houlgate System pop out Bama as its NC, and why Bama would take it with a clear conscious.

One loss came at the hands of a one loss Mississippi State, 14-0. Mississippi State’s only loss that season was to an undefeated Duquesne, who Massey (the BCS Massey) has as his system’s national champion in his retro-ratings. The other loss came at the hands of an 8-2 Vanderbilt, which I’m sure was not the proudest of moments, but nothing to hang your head about. But still, with two losses, even to quality opponents, something still must lie under the surface to emerge over Minnesota and Texas.

A look at Texas:

First off, this team was voted NC by Williamson. They, however, do not consider this as one of their 4 national titles, as Williamson never really had much clout in determining a champion. Moreover, in all honesty, this season’s title was Texas’ to lose. After the first 6 games of the season, Texas had pitched three shutouts and given up more than a touchdown only once while playing arguably the nations toughest schedule at that point. But upon becoming the AP #1 team in the land going into game 7, pissing the bed was in order. In comes 3-3 (and eventual 3-6-1) Baylor who played the Longhorns to a 7-7 tie. The following week, Texas loses outright to a very decent (and eventual 7-3-1) TCU team, 14-7. That two week span was more than even a 23-0 whipping of the #2 Texas A&M team the following week could overcome for a southern team in an AP world. So was Bama better than Texas? Probably not, but Bama’s two losses combined didn’t look nearly as bad as Texas’ tie.

A look at Minnesota:

Reining national champions, undefeated season, they’ve got bias (for being national champs less than a year ago while playing the toughest schedule in the nation) on their side and they’ve won all their games, how could they not be national champs? Well, if you’re the AP, and you make a severe habit of only going by record, their golden (gophers). However, if you look at their opponents, you’ll soon realize it’s the one eyed paraplegic ruling a conference full of blind quadriplegics. You would be hard pressed to find a worse schedule for any national champion in history. I realize that you can only play your schedule, but if that’s the case, then why didn’t Duke or Duquesne get some undefeated love? Duke had more convincing wins than Minnesota, while Duquesne and Minnesota have relatively identical schedules strengths, according to Massey.

Alabama/Minnesota, side by side:

Record:

Minnesota: 8-0

Alabama: 9-2

Opponents’ Record (Teams played with winning records)

Minnesota: 31-35-1 (3)

Alabama: 69-23-2 (9)

Strength of Schedule (according to Massey’s retro-ratings):

Minnesota: 41 out of 119

Alabama: 5 out of 119

AP Ranked Teams Played (either ranked during week played or ranked in final AP poll)

Minnesota: 2

Alabama: 5

Teams Played Who Finished With 2 or Fewer Loses:

Minnesota: 1

Alabama: 7

Ok, I realize that I’m beating the “schedule/opponents” thing to death, but the difference is staggering. And based on my findings, a team’s record was the main tool to base rankings on in that day, so I am trying to take that a small step further to see why in the world this team was considered the best in the nation. I mean, it would seem to me that this team is one point away from tying a very mediocre Northwestern team and being essentially one of the many forgotten teams in college football history, but unfortunately, the exact reasonings and other intangibles are as lost as the sands of time.

Rankings, by design, are supposed to yield the best teams from top to bottom. Rarely does that feat hold true, but over time I believe the process has gotten better. Every system used to provide the task of determining the best has its flaws, nowadays it being evident that a one loss team will be ranked higher at the end of the year the earlier that loss comes. In yesteryear, the problem was the lack of national exposure for even the elite of college football teams, and those teams having a lot less “wiggle room” as far as losses and ties are concerned.

So the question in this case is: Which team is better? A team who can win 9 out of 11 games amid the nation’s toughest schedules, while having 2 down weeks due to injury or simply not being game ready (e.g. Bama, Mississippi State, Texas)? Or is it the team who can win all 8 games, while only having to exert themselves once or twice in the midst of powering through the remainder of a schedule that can only be described as insufficient (by any standards)? The answer to this question will directly support or refute the claim that Alabama is deserving of at least a share of this national title. The choice is solely yours on a personal level, however, if you chose the latter, Utah’s got a question for you? WTF!?!

Just got banned from TET...

TopDaddy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:37:04 -0000

...for calling Jay out on comments such as the one professing that Bama is the most corrupt program in NCAA football history behind SMU. I merely told him the facts: that Auburn has 5 major infractions stemming from football (2nd all time behind SMU), while Bama now has 4. I even did the math for him and posed a simple question: since 5 > 4, what does that make Auburn? I may have added something additional about Auburn also leading the category of "Most National Championships While on Probation", and how any Auburn fan could call Bama's program corrupt is the epitome of the pot calling the kettle black.

He then deleted this post, to which I reposted, only to find my repost redeleted. I then reposted a third time with the explaination that he was simply being held accountible for posting vomit on his main page, and now he chooses to take his ball and go home instead of facing the music?

I know how some of you feel about that site, but I actually enjoyed going over there and engaging in some decent discussion from time to time. They have their guys who do nothing but bash, as any site does, but a select few were very intellegent and could think outside the box for the sake of discussion, which I greatly appreciate (Todd82, WEA, Gump). But because a site director gets called out and proven wrong for posting absolute nonsense, he feels the need to ban me, which granted, I told him to do if he planned on deleting my post for the third time, simply stating that if he did, I was going to make an absolute fool of him in his own front yard if I had the capability to continue posting.

Now, I'm not going to tell anyone not to go over there, as you are all big boys and girls, but if you enjoy going over there, then for the sake of the children, please do not counter Jay's uniformed, ignorant rants with hard facts that prove him to be an idiot. He doesn't like being held accountible for his actions. He has some issues he needs to work out, so it may be best to leave him alone for a while.

Have a good one, and Roll Tide!

Yet Another Kiffin Ordeal

TopDaddy — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:06:10 -0000

Yet Another Kiffin Ordeal

Kiffin and his Strength and Conditioning Coach, Mark Smith (who was one of his first hires) agree to part ways...

What Has Scheduling Games in ATL Done for Recruiting?

TopDaddy — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:50:04 -0000

ed.- bumped from the fanposts.

This is partly for my own bookkeeping, and partly to show what Saban scheduling these big games has done thus far. Talk about thinking outside the box, using OOC games for recruiting purposes is one of the best ideas I've heard of. Now, these are a list of players that I believe (someone prove me wrong if need be) chose Bama, or came close to doing so, simply because of Saban's desire to play big OOC games in ATL:

Michael Bowman; 4 star WR; Rossville, GA - Rossville isn't incredibly close to ATL, however, it is in GA and he did commit 2 weeks after the Clemson game. Makes sense.

Jonathan Atchison; 3 star LB; Atlanta, GA - He committed mid-December,and I think that he, much like the other guys, liked the prospect of being able to play in front of a hometown crowd against VT in Atlanta and hopefully other big games throughout his college career at that venue.

Darius McKeller; 3 star OL; Jonesboro, GA - Committed prior to the '08 season, but same goes with him as did Atchison, IMO.

Chance Warmack; 3 star OL; Atlanta, GA - Same as above.

Kellen Williams; 3 star OL; Snellville, GA - Same as above.

Darren Myles; 4 star DB; Atlanta, GA - Obviously didn't commit to Bama, but we were up front down the backstretch, and even his dad thought he was going to Bama until he actually signed.

Branden Smith; 5 star DB; Atlanta, GA - Also didn't commit to Bama, but we had just as good of a chance, if not better, than most through December.

I mention Myles and Smith because none of our recent coaching staffs would have gotten a second look from these guys, and we almost had Myles. No sour grapes here, just pointing out that kids like them were not options in the past 20 years until now.

I really think this is just the tip of the iceburg as far as what these games and a little extra recruiting in this area is going to do to expand Bama's recruiting area. There's a ton of talent here, and it appears that Saban is staking his claim to just as much of this area as Richt and Meyer. This is why Saban is...

Please add if you have additional info, or if you think I'm full of it, and you're not a troll, let me know why.

Just to drive the point home...

TopDaddy — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:15:45 -0000

Just to drive the point home...

This is a pictured list of the top recruiting classes since 2000, and guess who's pictured in the last two? Interesting to see who made up some of the top classes, and whether or not it panned out...

Question for those smarter than me...

TopDaddy — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:23:56 -0000

We just landed an amazing recruiting class, possibly and probably better than last years. My only concern is that we just had 27, or so, guys sign LOI to play ball with Bama this coming up season, and we only have 11 sho' nuff spots open. I know there will be acedemic casualites and such, but there's gonna have to be some major shifting and moving in order to get this square peg to fit in that circle. If someone has a somewhat laid out plan for how this may work, please let me know, because it's kinda concerning at this point. I mean, we were worried about oversigning by 8 spots last year, and now we've got double that...

Roll Tide!