It looks like the NCAA will be looking into making instant replay be more like the NFL.  I'm not sure what to think of this.  I have no problem with the way it is now.  My concern is that something would be missed and if there is not someone in the booth to decide it needs to be reviewed, then the play will not be overturned.  I like having someone able to review it from off the field.  It seems that it reduces the possibilities of bad calls that way. 

What do y'all think?

Link to article

Hey, I was just needing some answers to a couple of things.

Where will the Heisman and the National Championship trophy be located?  Or do you think they are going to move them and have them on the field or something tomorrow?  I figured the Heisman would be in the Bryant museum, but didn't know where the BCS trophy would be.

Also, where do they do the walk of champions?  Even though I've attended two Bama games (UTEP and music city bowl a few years ago if those count), the only time I've been in Bryant Denny was for A Day the year it filled up.  I didn't attend the walk of champions, so I'm not sure where they do it.

Anyway, thanks for the answers in advance.

Oft-troubled Alabama linebacker Prince Hall will spend his senior season as a part of the football team at Central Washington, an NCAA Division II school in Ellensburg, Wash.

Well, this isn't too surprising.  I'm not upset about this at all, but hope he does well out there.  If he's not going to put forth the effort to keep Saban happy, then this is for the best in my opinion.

Good luck Prince.

Link to article

So it turns out that Kiffin violated SEC regulations instead of Meyer.

 

“I’m gonna turn Florida in right here in front of you,” Kiffin told the crowd at the Knoxville Convention Center. “While Nu’Keese was on campus, his phone kept ringing. One of the coaches says, ‘Who’s that?’ And he said, ‘Urban Meyer.’

“I love the fact that Urban had to cheat and still didn’t get him,” Kiffin said.

However, that’s not an NCAA violation, or against SEC rules, but Kiffin’s comments were.

“Coach Kiffin has violated the Southeastern Conference Code of Ethics,” Slive said in a release. “SEC Bylaw 10.5.1 clearly states that coaches and administrators shall refrain from directed public criticism of other member institutions, their staffs or players.

“The phone call to which Coach Kiffin referred to in his public comments is not a violation of SEC or NCAA rules. We expect our coaches to have an understanding and knowledge of conference and NCAA rules.”

Whoops.

Link to article

 

Here's a lighthearted note you might enjoy ...

The University of Alabama is set to honor Mobile native James M. Fail by placing his name on a prominent fixture at Bryant-Denny Stadium. A donation by Mr. Fail to the Crimson Tide Foundation will result in the visitors' locker room being officially named "The Fail Room."

Mr. Fail served three years in the U.S. Navy before graduating from UA in 1949 and beginning a successful and wide-ranging career in the financial sector. His current duties include serving as chairman of Stone Holdings, Inc., and Bluebonnet Savings Bank.

 

With all the other psychological approaches Saban takes in football, I wonder if he had anything to do with this.  haha.

article

So apparently Auburn fans rolled Toomer's Corner tonight because of our loss.

Do they need to be reminded so soon that we beat them 36-0?  

Do they need to be reminded so soon that they went 5-7 this year?

Do they need to be reminded that their program made an extremely dumb decision in getting rid of Tuberville?

Anyway, I thought it was kinda funny that they did that.  Just shows that their happiness really does depend on us.

Oh, and is this the first time they've rolled it this year?

ed. - bumped from the fanposts

via blog.al.com

The Physical Properties Committee of the University of Alabama Board of Trustees heard a presentation from UA today regarding the proposed $80.6 million expansion of the south end zone of Bryant-Denny Stadium. The committee unanimously approved the project to move into the third of four stages, the fourth being final approval to begin contruction and bring the facility to a capacity of more than 101,000 seats.

This didn't take long.  We've only been at 92,000 for what, 3 or 4 years?

Link to Article

I saw this quote and felt compelled to post it.  Sounds somewhat like something Michael Scott would say.

On if he’ll be happy when this week is over with...
"I have to be real honest with you. I enjoy game week. I enjoy practice. I enjoy preparing. I want you to know something. When I wake up in the morning and I turn that film on, it’s like reading a book, and it’s exciting. I don’t read books, but if I read books, it would be like reading a book. 

via cdn.mqstatic.com

link to quote

So I was watching a video on espn.com talking about Clemson and Bowden leaving the program, and in the video they said, "They were not strong enough mentally it seems, because here we are halfway through the season, have three losses under your belt and you still hear the players talking about the Alabama game that happened in August. That seemed to really bruise the confidence and set things in motion for the end of Tommy Bowden's era."

Wow.  They say that the win over Clemson now is not a quality win?  I'm thinking it can still be considered one.  It's just that we beat them so bad we broke them mentally and they never recovered.  

While it's kinda funny, I was hoping that they'd win the ACC.  Oh well.

We not only killed them, we seemed to have injured half their team.

ATHENS, Ga. -- The off week came at an opportune time for Georgia.

The 11th-ranked Bulldogs are dealing with a rash of injuries, most notably to star running backKnowshon Moreno. He sustained a severely bruised elbow in Saturday night's 41-30 loss to Alabama.

Even with an extra week to recover, there's still a chance Moreno might miss Georgia's next game against Tennessee on Oct. 11, according to coach Mark Richt.

"He's got a pretty good contusion on his elbow," Richt said Sunday in his weekly teleconference with reporters. "The swelling has got to go down. He's got to get his movement back. He's got to feel that's it's not so sore that it keeps him from playing at full speed. It depends on how quickly it heals and when it feels good again."

Moreno isn't the only one hurting.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford, linebacker Dannell Ellerbe, receiver Kris Durham and tight end Tripp Chandler were also injured against the Crimson Tide. In addition, tight end Bruce Figgins sat out the game with a separated shoulder that likely will require surgery.

Stafford was tested for a concussion after taking a knock to the head. The results were negative, he finished the game and shouldn't have any problem going against Tennessee.

"His head was pounding pretty good," Richt said. "But he's fine. He'll be ready to play the next ballgame."

Durham appears to have the most severe injury, a sprained right ankle after he came down awkwardly on a 22-yard catch. Richt said the receiver would surely miss the Tennessee game, and possibly one or two more contests.

Chandler is doubtful for the next game after aggravating a shoulder problem, but the outlook was better than expected for Ellerbe.

Richt said the linebacker's sprained knee, which sent him to the sideline for good in the first half, wasn't as serious as originally thought.

"Ellerbe has an outside shot to play in the next game," Richt said.

Figgins could try to make it through the season wearing a brace, the coach said, but would probably be better off having surgery and gaining an extra year of eligibility with a medical redshirt.

If Chandler and Figgins are both out, the starting job likely goes to redshirt freshman Aron White. The Bulldogs also moved offensive tackle Kiante Tripp to tight end to help bolster the ranks, and there's a chance a fullback could fill in at the depleted position as well, Richt said.

With the loss to Alabama, the Bulldogs tumbled eight spots to No. 11 in the latest Associated Press poll.

"That's about right," Richt said. "Where we're sitting is very fair right now."

link to article

I live in Bowling Green, KY (where Western Kentucky University is) and I was listening to their pregame radio show while driving somewhere, and the guy who was talking (not sure who he was, maybe the AD or something) said he got a call from Arkansas' Athletic Director after the game last week asking if Arkansas stood a chance of beating Bama.  He said, not a chance, Bama's way too good.

Thought it was interesting that it appears AD's are calling other schools to see if they can beat us.

http://blog.al.com/rapsheet/2008/09/a_new_commitment_the_polls_and.html

According to the Atlanta Journal Consitution, 4 star Michael Bowman should be committing to Alabama soon.  He's been wanting to go to Georgia, but since they still haven't offered him a scholarship yet, he's decided to come here.

If there's anything we need depth at, it's receiver.... :)  but seriously, if he is 4 stars, I am glad he is coming.

Roll Tide!

First of all, for all those who watched the game on ESPN360, did the second half pretty much not work at all for y'all too?  I got to the kickoff at the beginning of the third quarter and then it stopped and I'd have to keep resetting it.  Finally about 8-10 minutes left in the fourth I gave up trying and just listened to the radio.  I had it set up nice too.  Had the game being played through my projector and surround sound.  Oh well.  Hopefully next week they'll be showing the game on local television since I live close to WKU.

Does anybody know the status of Arenas.  I read some people saying on here that he's fine, but is that official?  It's hard for me to believe that he didn't come away from that without a concussion the way he was walking off the field.

Oh, and what happened to Marlon Davis?  If it was pre-game I must have missed it, and if it happened at the beginning of the game, then I missed that too. haha.  Stupid ESPN360...

I'm officially not worried about our freshmen having a bad week/stretch.  It seems to be everybody else that's having troubles.  They're doing great.  I thought Barron did a good job coming in for Arenas (at least I'm guessing that's who he came in for.  He was a step behind on one play, but other than that I think he did great from what I saw.  Especially since he probably didn't figure on playing that much.

I don't think Western will give us near as much trouble as Tulane did.  They've still got a bunch of D-1AA players on their roster.  So hopefully we can use that game to bounce back to where we need to be heading into SEC play.

Roll Tide!

PS:

And to the offensive lines' credit, 3 of the (I believe) 4 sacks were not the lines' fault according to Saban.  He said that I think two were because the running backs didn't block like they should have and the other one was one Wilson should have thrown to his hot route instead of taking the sack.  So the line wasn't as bad as we thought according to Saban.

I keep adding to this, but oh well.

Why is it that they moved Ross over and put Motley where Ross was last week?  It seems like it would have been better to only have one person playing a completely new position than to have it even more switched up than it was last week.  I suppose Saban knows best, but it just seems that having Motley being the only one playing a new position would make it easier on the line.

http://blog.al.com/bamabeat/2008/09/tulane_suspends_a_third_player.html

A little breaking news from the other camp ...

Tulane coach Bob Toledo has suspended defensive back David Skehan for Saturday's game at Alabama for a violation of team rules, according to this updateby the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Skehan is one of the Green Wave's most accomplished defensive players. He started 11 games last year at safety and was moved to linebacker during the spring before being moved back to his old position this preseason.

Tulane wide receiver Alan Mitchell and tight end Tyler Helm were suspended by Toledo before the team left New Orleans last weekend.

Looks like the game is gonna be easier (than it most likely already was going to be).

I think I like him already.  

 

 

"The quarterbacks were both just blah," Franklin said. "They were average. I did a poor job of coaching them and it showed.

"Probably the biggest thing was that neither one of them ever got into a rhythm and that's my fault, the way I rotated them. We're going to play them both again, but I'll probably have a different way of rotating them. If one guy goes good, then he may stay in forever."

Franklin said he felt both quarterbacks were nervous thinking that one mistake could end their night. This platoon situation is as new to him as it is to the players.

"I've never done this before," he said. "I've always said you're stupid if you do it. It's funny how the world works. Be careful what you say, because one day it'll come back to you."

 

 

If you think it's stupid, then why'd ya do it? hmm.

Anyway, I'm hoping their passing struggles in the opening game were a glimpse at what the future holds under the new offensive guru that is Tony Franklin.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3563588

Here's my question.

What was that penalty on Burton Scott?  I'm not sure I've ever heard that one before.  Something about him being covered up or something.  Maybe I just missed something, but I didn't understand what they were calling.