Tide Talk

[AdmiralDigby]

Nice to know there are people like Trent. Gives you hope.

I'm surprised she was dateless to begin with .
She seems nice isn't at all unpretty .

Then again - people often get scared of sick people . It's psychological , but it's there .

[TinkTanker]

Alabama defensive lineman Jesse Williams benched 600 pounds the other day, which is like two Auburn cheerleaders or the entire Auburn offensive line.

http://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1389309

[AdmiralDigby]

Alabama defensive lineman Jesse Williams benched 600 pounds the other day, which is like two Auburn cheerleaders or the entire Auburn offensive line.

http://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1389309

Those guys aren't that big ...

[TinkTanker]

Interesting stat: Alabama has not been a dog in the past 28 games.

How Saban Turned the Tide
With all due respect to the 123 other schools that play major-college football, the sport's foreseeable future boils down to one question: Can anyone stop Alabama?

The Alabama Crimson Tide, college football's defending national champion, has become the game's "it" team, an all-powerful and impervious Death Star of a program. Alabama has won two of the last three national titles. Its coach, Nick Saban, won another one while he was at Louisiana State—meaning he has won the title in three of the past seven college seasons he has coached.

The Tide is a 14-point favorite Saturday over No. 8 Michigan—repeat: a two-touchdown favorite against a top-10 team—in its season opener. The last time Alabama was an underdog was 28 games ago, against Tim Tebow and Florida in the 2009 Southeastern Conference championship game. Result: Bama 32, Florida 13.

The stunning volume of victories and championships and NFL draft picks has Alabama redefining college-football success as we know it. How, exactly, does the Tide do it?

Recruiting is paramount. Saban sets aside time every day for assistant coaches to make phone calls, write letters and discuss the country's best blue-chippers. His system focuses on collecting reliable, exhaustive information on players—not always easy to find when NCAA rules forbid coaches from measuring players' vertical leaps or timing them in the 40-yard dash.

To make up for those restrictions, Alabama's coaching staff is as strict as any in the country about gathering information, recruiting experts say. Crimson Tide coaches consult track times and encourage prospects to add the sport in the football off-season. Coaches invite prospects to attend Alabama's summer camp, since they tend to offer scholarships to high-schoolers they have seen in person and not just on highlights.

And before Alabama recruits a player in earnest, coaches produce a comprehensive report on everything from whether he fits their preferred physical prototypes—a cornerback should be about 6 feet and 185-190 pounds—to his ankle, knee and hip movement. If a lineman's heels are raised when he is crouched in a stance, he is probably too inflexible for Alabama.

Finally, coaches talk to family, friends and others to go "seven-deep into a guy's life" to gauge his mental strength, said former Alabama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain, who is now the head coach at Colorado State.

Saban also embraces technology for his multipronged pitch. He started using videoconferencing as a recruiting tool several years ago—early enough in the software's life that some players spoke to him using equipment at their local libraries. CoachSaban.net, Saban's website, plays a Crimson Tide-themed hip-hop song called "4th Quarter" from the Tuscaloosa group 63 Boyz that features the lyric, "Since we landed Saban in T-Town, it's hard to go unnoticed."

Even Saban's current players are foot soldiers in college football's recruiting war. Cooper Bateman, a top-ranked quarterback from Utah, took a tour of SEC schools in the spring before he committed to Alabama. What stood out to his family during his visit? All of Alabama's players made sure they took off their hats when meeting his mother.

The allure of Alabama, of course, isn't just Southern charm. "In no way for the players who may end up playing in the NFL do I want to limit their exposure or opportunity to do that," Saban said in response to emailed questions.

Since Saban's arrival in 2007, Alabama has produced 11 first-round NFL draft picks, by far the most in the country. Since 2003, only four colleges have churned out more first-rounders than Alabama has since 2009. Three of those programs—Miami, Ohio State and Southern California—have had NCAA rules-related scandals. The fourth school is LSU, which Saban coached from 2000 to 2004. He signed nine of the Tigers' 12 first-round draft picks.

While some programs limit access for NFL scouts, Saban rolls out the crimson carpet for them. "I've always said you could call Alabama and say, 'The only time I can come to Tuscaloosa is at 3 a.m.,' and they would let you in," said Phil Savage, an analyst for Alabama's radio network and the former general manager of the Cleveland Browns.

Saban is the rare college head coach who returned to the NCAA from the NFL of his own volition. Previously the coach at Michigan State and LSU, he worked as the Browns' defensive coordinator with New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick in the 1990s, and he was the Miami Dolphins' coach in 2005 and 2006. Alabama's playing style reflects Saban's experience: The Crimson Tide's pro-style offense and defense contrast with more gimmicky college schemes. "So once they get there, it's not like a shock," McElwain said.

The son of a service station and Dairy Queen franchise owner—the coach likes banana milkshakes—Saban, 60, once aspired to own a car dealership. "I can hear the jokes right now," he wrote in "How Good Do You Want to Be?", his 2004 book. But recruiting specialists and Saban's former stars say he is less of a used-car salesman in a recruit's living room than his peers.

"He's incredibly honest in the recruiting process," said former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy, the starter on the 2009 national-title team who now plays for the New York Jets. "He tells kids, 'Hey, you're going to come in and redshirt. Look, you're going to do this. You're going to do that.' He tells them exactly what he thinks. I think a lot of people respect that because so much of the recruiting process is an unknown."

Alabama is what Scott Kennedy, director of scouting for the recruiting site Scout.com, calls "a team of exceptions." As a high-school senior in 2007, for example, Mark Barron was a 6-foot-2, roughly 210-pound running back and linebacker. Not at Alabama. Baron played safety, where he became a first-team All-American and the No. 7 overall pick in April.

It all adds up to the most basic reason Alabama boasts two of the last three titles: Saban has the pick of the recruiting litter. In short, he gets freaks and makes them even scarier.

In recent years, college football's rule-makers have targeted recruiting strategies employed by Alabama. In 2008, the NCAA banned head coaches from making off-campus recruiting visits during the six-week-long spring evaluation period. The concept was to prevent coaches from "bumping into" recruits while observing them, and some dubbed it the Saban rule because of his frequent recruiting travel.

Last year, the SEC capped the number of players a program can sign at 25 per year. That curbed the practice known as "oversigning"—signing more than the annual NCAA maximum of 25 players that programs can admit, giving them a larger pool from which to build a team.

Nevertheless, Alabama keeps winning. Its momentum has turned it into college football's premier program, a title once held by Southern California under Pete Carroll, and then Florida under Urban Meyer. As long as Saban sticks around, he shows no signs of relinquishing it. He said after his two-year stint with the Dolphins that the field-leveling nature of the NFL made it difficult to gain a competitive advantage.

And with an annual compensation of $5.3 million, the highest in the sport, Saban shows no signs of leaving. "I am very happy with the position that I am in right now," he said.
—Mike Sielski contributed to this article.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444914904577617521477347562.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

[Spooky]

Wolverines!

[TinkTanker]

[TinkTanker]

Wolverines!

[TinkTanker]

Alabama defeats Michigan, 41-14: SEC, 'Bama still dominating college football landscape

ARLINGTON, Texas—Cover your eyes, everyone. This is going to be a little harder than we thought.

If this was the benchmark of what could be in the race to catch the big, bad SEC, the rest of the field was just lapped. And it's just Week 1.

That was defending national champion Alabama flexing its muscle Saturday night, the team with the brand new defense, and same old nasty, physically overwhelming Michigan in the first litmus test after an offseason of everyone clamoring for someone to break the SEC stranglehold on the game.

Michigan, please report to rehab. Who's next?

"We're not the complacent team people were expecting," said Alabama center Barrett Jones. "We're hungry, and we're looking for another national title."

Just how ridiculously easy was Alabama's 41-14 rout of the Big Ten favorite Wolverines? Suddenly, Nov. 3 can't get here soon enough.

That's when Alabama and LSU meet in Baton Rouge for Round 3 of Everyone Is Chasing Us. The bar has been set.

"I would think," said Michigan coach Brady Hoke, "we're on the short end of the measuring stick."

Actually, they were on the wrong end of a clubbing. But what did they expect? Teams can talk about knocking off the king of all pigskin, about finding a way to that elite level. Then they hit the field, and the carnage ensues.

If this was Alabama at its most vulnerable; if this was everyone's best shot at the Tide with the uncertainty of nine new starters on defense and life without star tailback Trent Richardson, well, the rest of college football is in a whole lot of trouble.

Maybe we can just allow the SEC to secede from college football, take its Waterford crystal ball and go home. Because if any of you think anyone is beating Alabama or LSU—other than possibly another SEC team—you're nuts.

Look, I know USC has a handful of potential NFL first round picks on offense, and the Trojans can make it look fun and exciting. But at some point, you've got to line up and trade blows.

At some point, you have play Big Boy football at the line of scrimmage and gut out third and short or protect on third and long. You have to, in no uncertain terms, stop the train that's headed your way.

This is what Michigan found out Saturday night in the most anticipated game for Big Blue since Michigan and Ohio State played that classic in 2006 for the right to lose by 27 to the SEC Champion in the BCS National Championship Game.
Alabama's A.J. McCarron looked impressive against Michigan. (AP Photo)

They all say they can compete with the SEC in big games, but no one knows what it's really like until they're in the barrel and it's 31-0 before you cross midfield—and well before the end of the first half.

"This team has the challenge of creating an identity of how they play," said Tide coach Nick Saban. "The expectation we have and the standard we want to play to is about who you are."

That's the thing with the SEC. We can act like the meatgrinder league is a fabrication of media hype, or easy non-conference scheduling or oversigning or any other nonsensical argument.

It's about players and preparation. And right now, no one does it better than Alabama.

It's more than the national championships—although two in three years (could be three in four but for Tim Tebow) is impressive enough—it's a killer instinct Saban has created with his "organization."

That's why 2010 was so frustrating— and why it became the blueprint for what not to do this fall. The Tide was clearly the most talented team in the nation in 2010, yet lost three games when selfish goals became more important than team goals.

No wonder Saban was obsessive this offseason when declaring 2012 would not be 2010; that this Tide team simply would not let it happen. After the Massacre of Michigan, is there any doubt?

I get the feeling Alabama plays so hard, remains so focused in big games, because they play in fear of You Know Who. How else can you explain it?

The Tide had a substitution infraction on the first defensive series of the game—a miniscule five-yard penalty—and Saban nearly lost his mind on the sideline. After that, it was merely 20-something minutes of near perfection.

They've got four tailbacks—freshman T.J. Yeldon is clearly the best of the group— who can play for anyone; five offensive linemen who will play in the NFL and a brand spanking new defense of elite recruits who waited their turn to play.

And they've got Saban's never-wavering, always-enveloping "process." The standard of who you are, and where you want to be.

"This is just a starting point," said Alabama safety Vinnie Sunseri. "It doesn't set the tone."

Heaven help us all when it does.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2012-09-01/alabama-defeats-michigan-aj-mccarron-denard-robinson-nick-saban#comments

[TinkTanker]

Fail Room a Win for Alabama Football

September 2, 2012 — When the Western Kentucky football team arrives at Bryant-Denny Stadium on September 8 to take on the University of Alabama, neither history nor psychology will be on their side. Like every other team that has visited Tuscaloosa over the course of the past three seasons, the Hilltoppers will be up against an imposing Nick Saban-led football team, as well as the psychological challenge of being labeled a failure. In December 2008, the visitors' locker room at Alabama's home field was christened "The Fail Room" (in honor of benefactor James M. Fail), and Crimson Tide opponents have experienced precious little success in the years since.

In fact, visiting teams lost 19 of 21 games between 2009 and 2011, the only victories authored by Auburn (in which soon-to-be NFL #1 draft pick Cam Newton brought the Tigers back from a 24-0 deficit), and a #1-ranked Louisiana State team (which escaped Tuscaloosa with a 9-6 win thanks to Alabama's four missed field goals).

In the nineteen losses, the visitors have been outscored by an average of 28.7 points a game, outcomes that were likely influenced by the Fail Room, says California native Dr. Rosanna E. Guadagno, a social psychologist who became a Crimson Tide fan after landing a job at the university and experiencing the excitement generated by the team. "There is some psychological theory that suggests we should see a difference in home games as a result of the Fail Room," she contends.

Guadagno is referring to labeling theory, which posits that if you label somebody — by calling them shy or geeky, for instance — it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. With the help of graduate students at Alabama, she is currently working on an archival study of the psychological impact of the Fail Room; in other words, an applied demonstration of labeling theory.

"We're going to examine whether we have better home games as a result of the Fail Room, which I think we do," she concludes, noting that she still roots for the Crimson Tide, despite having moved on to a job with the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia.

"We are calling our visitors failures and suggesting that they are going to fail. I think it is detrimental to the psychological mindset of those who come to play at Alabama," continues Guadagno, who argues this has more impact than, say, painting the visitors' locker room pink, as the University of Iowa has done at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.

A quick comparison of home and road results suggests Guadagno may be correct. From 2009-2011, Alabama won its road and neutral site games by an average margin of 23.2 points (5.5 points fewer than at home), and that figure discounts a pair of road losses, a 14-point defeat at South Carolina and a three-point loss at LSU.

No doubt Fail — who graduated from the university in the late 1940s and passed away in early 2010 after a long career in the financial industry — would have been delighted to learn of his contribution to Alabama's home field success. At the dedication of the Fail Room, Fail confessed that he didn't expect to live to see anything named in his honor. "After all," he said, "who would want anything with the name 'fail' on it?"

But when the Athletic Department asked if he was interested in purchasing the naming rights to the locker room, he didn't hesitate to make a "generous gift" to the Crimson Tide Foundation, a non-profit that serves as the charitable arm of the school's Athletic Department. He said: "I figured it was the most appropriate opportunity I would ever have to use my name."

Read more: http://failuremag.com/feature/article/fail-room-a-win-for-alabama-football/#ixzz25KmYEC1i

[AdmiralDigby]