SB Nation User Blog: outsidethesidelines

As most of you probably know, Mark Ingram was recently on the cover of The Sporting News, but...

outsidethesidelines — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:19:57 -0000

As most of you probably know, Mark Ingram was recently on the cover of The Sporting News, but here's the first image I've seen of it. Enjoy.

Southeastern Conference coaches have voted Alabama's Nick Saban as the league's coach of the year,...

outsidethesidelines — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:50:12 -0000

Southeastern Conference coaches have voted Alabama's Nick Saban as the league's coach of the year, linebacker Rolando McClain as the SEC defensive of the year and Javier Arenas (pictured) as the SEC special teams player of the year.

Saban shared the award last season with Ole Miss' Houston Nutt and Vanderbilt's Bobby Johnson. He won it outright this time.

Gentry Estes: SEC coaches honor Alabama with three individual awards

Early bettors are siding with No. 1 Alabama in the BCS national championship game, driving up point...

outsidethesidelines — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:49:15 -0000

Early bettors are siding with No. 1 Alabama in the BCS national championship game, driving up point spreads across Las Vegas casinos. The Crimson Tide faces No. 2 Texas in the Jan. 7 game.

Oddsmakers say it is a combination of Alabama's impressive performance against Florida in the SEC championship game and Texas' struggle with Nebraska.

Bookmakers said the Longhorns offense struggles against good defenses, and the Tide has one of those.

Austin American-Statesmen: Bettors flocking to Alabama over Texas

You know, they really ought to build a statue or something on the LSU campus for this guy.

outsidethesidelines — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:21:22 -0000

You know, they really ought to build a statue or something on the LSU campus for this guy.

There was criticism from some three years ago when the university agreed to pay him as much as $32...

outsidethesidelines — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:12:20 -0000

There was criticism from some three years ago when the university agreed to pay him as much as $32 million in an eight-year deal. That $4 million-a-year mark set a record at the time.

But the gamble has paid off. Despite a recession that has wrecked businesses large and small and left thousands of Crimson Tide fans unemployed, federal records show Alabama football turned a profit of more than $38 million in the last academic year. That's an almost 40 percent gain from the year before Saban was hired in 2007.

The Associated Press: University of Alabama wins $32 million bet on Saban as profits soar

I saw this yesterday afternoon and wanted to post it to make a point. With big-time college football programs now generating well over 50+ million dollars per year in revenue, this is a huge business -- and the one whose simple existence allows for all of the other non-revenue sports -- and at some point you simply have to look at coaching salaries with respect to their return on investment.

We may have gotten a lot of hell from a bunch of idiots for coughing up so much money back in January 2007 for Saban, but from a pure financial perspective -- all competitive issues notwithstanding -- his hire was an absolute boon. We had to spend an extra 2.5 million dollars per year over the cost of Shula to get him, but to date football profits have increased somewhere in the neighborhood of 16-20 million dollars per year on his watch. We are basically spending a dollar and getting eight to ten dollars back in return. Again, at some point with modern day college football being such a big business, you have to put the raw dollar amounts aside and simply look at your ROI. Criticism be damned, even had Saban not done what he has ultimately done on the field, it would have been an absolutely stupid financial decision to not give him the big bucks.

Random Musings From the SEC Championship Game

outsidethesidelines — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:12:27 -0000

It's a bit late in the week for musings on the SEC Championship Game, but with the BCS Championship Game still one month away, I figure we have plenty of time to fully dissect the victory in Atlanta. With that in mind, here are a few random musings I had from watching the SEC Championship Game:

Florida ran their combo option / shovel pass play on the opening play of the game, and Eryk Anders chased down Hernandez from the backside to make the tackle for a minimal gain. Anders followed Hernandez the entire way and we were obviously prepared for such a play, but the interesting thing of it was that Florida never went back to that play the rest of the game. That really surprised me, especially given how successful that play has been for them the past couple of years.
A large degree of Florida's lack of point production in this game can be traced back to three key offensive mistakes on the Gators' part, namely two costly drops and a terrible throw by Tebow. The first big mistake came on the opening drive when Jeff Demps dropped a pass out of the backfield that was destined for big yardage (Florida ultimately went three and out on that drive), and the second was Hernandez dropping a pass at the goal line after he left Cory Reamer in the dust (Florida had to settle for three points there). Finally, Tebow made a terrible throw on the interception to Arenas... it was an easy touchdown pass with the proper arc on the throw, and instead it ended up being the dagger through their hearts. I'm not saying Florida would have won had they capitalized on these three plays, but the game would have certainly been much closer.
Speaking of that throw by Tebow... it's throws like that why he'll never be a legitimate NFL quarterback. Call him the greatest college player ever if you want, but he has a slow wind-up in his delivery and he doesn't throw the football vertically very well. You can get away with that, combined with the rest of the positive things he can do for you, when you are playing the SEC East, but the NFC East? That stuff doesn't fly up there. Tebow will probably be a first round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, and he may be an outstanding player in some type of a hybrid role or at another position, but in terms of his potential as a traditional NFL quarterback, his prospects aren't much better than mine.

I found our defensive strategy pretty interesting. We had some blitz packages and mixed up our looks, as per usual, but it certainly seemed like our strategy was to make Florida throw the football vertically down the field against six or seven defenders in coverage. We wanted to take away the interior run and the short passing game, and from there we wanted to make Florida beat us by having Tebow sit back in the pocket and throw the football down the field into tight windows. That was a fairly different strategy than what we used last year in this game, and if nothing else the end result was a lot better.

Only allowing 13 points to the Gators looks impressive on paper, but in all honesty we didn't exactly stop them, hence why they averaged almost seven yards per play. They are an elite offense and they had a lot of success against our defense. Fortunately, though, they shot themselves in the foot just enough at critical times, and our offense scored so many points that they were forced to push the envelope later in the game when they would have otherwise taken easy points. Combined, that kept them to only 13 points, despite the fact that they generally moved the ball well.

And speaking of that latter point, the game on Saturday reinforced the long-held notion that the best defense is a good offense. That was on display all afternoon in Atlanta.

I sincerely hope that Aaron Hernandez goes pro, and he's a fool if he doesn't. In terms of pure match-up issues, I think he probably gave us more issues than any other single skill position player we faced all year long. I hope he's playing somewhere in the NFL next year when the Gators make the trip to Tuscaloosa.

You know the corner blitz from Javier Arenas that we see all of the time? For whatever reason, I don't think we saw that a single time against Florida. Again, I think it was clear that we wanted to force Tebow to throw the football down the field into tight windows.

The play of the game... from P.J. Fitzgerald? If he doesn't make a great open field tackle on Brandon James, undoubtedly James will score and Florida will take a 10-9 lead and have all of the momentum despite 'Bama having controlled the first quarter. That play didn't get much attention, but it was absolutely critical.

As great of a player as Julio Jones is, I think it's clear at this point that it is in fact Marquis Maze that makes our passing game go. Jones is a great player in his own right, but he draws so much attention from opposing defenses that it really limits his production. He always draws the opposing team's best cornerback -- Joe Haden followed him around the Georgia Dome like he was his shadow -- and opposing defenses usually have either a linebacker or a safety giving assistance of some form to the corner. All in it all, it really just limits what he can feasibly do, and from there it is really all up to Maze -- who is usually isolated on the second or third corner -- to make plays. And notice that Maze's best games (Virginia Tech, Arkansas, LSU, and Florida) have been the best days for our passing game as well. I highly doubt that is a coincidence.

Brandon Spikes was absolutely abused in this game. Josh Bynes may have had a career day in the Iron Bowl, but we beat Spikes to a pulp in Atlanta. Far from the career day that I feared he may have, that was probably the worst performance of his collegiate career.

Could there possibly a more inconsistent player than Greg McElroy? I tell you, that guy has been all over the board this year. He has played perfect (Florida), extremely good (Arkansas), good (Virginia Tech), decent (Kentucky and LSU), poorly (Tennessee and Ole Miss), and ungodly terrible (South Carolina). Pretty much anywhere along the performance spectrum, McElroy has been there at some point throughout the year. In terms of variance, I don't think I can ever recall a 'Bama player who has been as all over the board as McElroy has this year.

Speaking of Greg McElroy's performance against Florida, if that was not the best performance of my lifetime by an Alabama quarterback, I don't know which one could legitimately be considered better. He played at an extremely high level against an elite defense, and made plays with both his arm and his feet. Personally, that was the best performance I have ever seen by an Alabama quarterback.

As a closing thought, could there ever be a bigger SEC Championship Game than this? Considering that both teams came in undefeated, #1 v. #2, and a rematch of last year's game, I really don't think you could ever have a bigger SEC Championship Game, even as a theoretical matter. Tim Brando mentioned something to that effect on the CBS broadcast Saturday afternoon, and I think he is right. For all intents and purposes, this is as big as it will ever get.

The N.C.A.A. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the University of Tennessee’s football ...

outsidethesidelines — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:44:08 -0000

The N.C.A.A. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the University of Tennessee’s football recruiting practices, according to interviews with several prospects, their family members and high school administrators. A significant part of the investigation is focused on the use of recruiting hostesses who have become folk heroes on Tennessee Internet message boards for their ability to help lure top recruits.

N.C.A.A. officials have visited four prospects and are scheduled to visit two others this week in an investigation covering at least three states. The inquiry is unusual in its scope and its timing. It is rare that the N.C.A.A. looks at this wide a swath of one university’s recruits before the players have signed with a program in February.

New York Times: N.C.A.A. Scrutiny Seen on Tennessee’s Recruiting

On the cover of SI again this week...

outsidethesidelines — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:47:59 -0000

On the cover of SI again this week...

That bell you hear at the mention of Mr. Ingram's name means it's time for my Heisman Trophy...

outsidethesidelines — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:51:54 -0000

That bell you hear at the mention of Mr. Ingram's name means it's time for my Heisman Trophy ballot. I've avoided getting caught in the stiff-arm hype all season, as the award is really won in the final weeks, and also, I find it rather boring. But it's my duty as your college commentator to give my thoughts on the nation's best player. And I think Ingram deserves it after Saturday's performance -- 189 total yards and three touchdowns against the nation's (previously) top defense.

My major criterion when splitting hairs at the top of the ballot is how a player performs in his team's biggest games. Ingram was dominant in the opener (185 total yards and two scores) and finale in Atlanta and had monster games at Ole Miss and against LSU as well.

The second place finisher played in the Big 12 title game -- and it sure as hell ain't Colt McCoy.

Robert Weintraub: Championships Past and Heisman Futures

Per the good people at New Life Art (warning: PDF), Daniel Moore will be releasing a new print...

outsidethesidelines — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:14:09 -0000

Per the good people at New Life Art (warning: PDF), Daniel Moore will be releasing a new print commemorating the 2009 SEC Championship Game. No details whatsoever are given, and apparently he won't start working on it until after "Maximum Block," but it's on the way.

At any rate, that's at least two Daniel Moore paintings this year (to go along with the two last year), and if Ingram wins the Heisman that will definitely be another, and if 'Bama wins in Pasadena that will definitely be yet another. So we could get four Daniel Moore paintings in a five month stretch. I tell you, that guy ought to start donating a large chunk of his paycheck to Saban. I believe he has gotten more financial gain off of Saban's arrival than anyone aside from Saban himself.