J and I were talking last night about what a very special forum this is, indeed. We don't have the numbers that some of the others do, but we are a closer bunch than any of the other forums, IMO. I am not putting down any of the other forums, but it's pretty obvious  that whether we've met each other or not, we seem to be kindred spirits.

Not to go all mushy here, but how many of us regular posters shed no tears at the loss of Taz, Coach Hank Crisp, Navy Chief or even crusty ole WV. My guess is that we've all been at least a little misty-eyed about our fallen brethren.

And when someone is in bad health, or going through a tough time, we are all concerned about their well being. Just look at how many times we've conducted our own all-out searches for members who have disappeared for more than a few days.

This isn't just a football forum to discuss Alabama football. This, to me at least, is a forum where friendships and great camaraderie have been developed, through a common interest.

Leroy is a friend to all of us. That is easy to see within CRS. J and I represented all of Crimson Red Sports during our visit last night. And we were both tickled to death to do so.

Everyone please keep our friend and Mrs. L in your prayers. They very much appreciate it.

SC, you've developed a very special pacle here. Kudos to you, sir! 

Bob,  you keep complaining about all the attention the SEC gets.  Maybe you should concentrate more on coaching your team. You talk about how mediocre the SEC teams are but you just got beat by a Texas team that lost big to a "mid-level"SEC team.  Let's look at some facts.  OM scored 44 on UT and you could only muster 20.  Your supposedly outstanding defense gave up 36, but UT could only score 23 on OM's mediocre defense.   I guess what I am pointing out here is maybe you should try taking care of your own teams business instead of worrying about other teams/conferences.  It seems like every year OU is mentioned as a contender for the NC, however you choke in a key game.  By the way thanks for saving Mack's job for him.

I wish all of you could have made the trip with us, what a pleasure it was to meet Mrs. L and Leroy and have the chance to share some good conversation. I now have a better understanding of why Mrs. L and Leroy enjoy catching those catfish, what a beautiful place thay have on the banks of the Flint River.

It's not everyday that you get treated to an airshow while visiting someone but 2 and I were yesterday. There is a training facility for crop dusters located close to Leroy's home and right at dusk yesterday one of the trainees gave us an exhibition and it was a good one.

We had a lovely time sitting and chatting, Leroy has some interesting and fond memories of his growing up years and there was one in particular. He got one of his school yearbooks down and guess who was in it, Lee Harvey Updyke. We got a good laugh out of discussing him and his 15 minutes of fame on the Paul Finebaum show.

Even though we were there for only for a short time, we packed in some good laughs as we shared some of our stories. Leroy and Mrs. L are so thankful to all of the members of CRS for the thoughts and prayers during his long illness and just wish they could meet all of you to thank you.

What a day it was and I'm looking forward to another chance to sit and talk with the two of them.

This is what we are....

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First: I want to congratulate the Bama coaches and players on the win.  I honestly think they would have gotten a better game with an intrasquad game.  There are a few good things that came out of this game.  First, it looks like there were no injuries.  Second, it allowed many players to get in the game and get significant reps.  Third, it allowed the coaches to take players out of the game after a play to coach them up as they say.  Then they were allowed to go back into the game.  Finally, it allowed the backup QB to get some reps with the first team players. 

Offense:  Basically, they did what they wanted to.  I have them for 18 plays of 10 yards plus.  Thirteen of these were pass plays while the other 5 were running plays.  I don’t think they had any 3 and outs.  They did have 2 negative plays, not counting penalties, which looked like they were caused by linemen issues.  First, the OL took too much of a step up field which allowed him to get beat.  The other looked like it may have been caused by a late shift of the DL, which may have changed the blocking scheme.  They turned a guy completely loose.  Bama got into the red zone 7 times.  They came up with 5 TD and one made and one missed field goal.  The other TD came from right outside the red zone.  This game also looks as if Bama was checking a lot of plays at the line. They did leave points on the field because of penalties and missed FG’s.

QB:   AJ was great against lesser competition.  This is important because many times when a team is outmanned the QB may have a tendency to take unnecessary risk.  Sims did a pretty good job.  However, it looks like he doesn’t trust his OL when the middle to deep routes are called.  It looks to me like he starts looking at the pass rush instead of the recs. It looked like Bama wanted to work on the offense with Sims in because you didn’t see a lot of the zone read game like usual.   

RB:  Again, playing against lesser competition.  They ran hard and did a good job pass protecting when needed.  I really like the effort of Drake on the TD reception.

REC:  I just want to say here I like the way the Bama recs catch the ball with their hands.   They don’t let the ball get in on their body.  DW made an outstanding catch which bailed AJ out of a bad throw.  Overall, with back and recs 15 different players caught a pass.  The sad part is Cooper was not one of them.  My question is what has happened to AC?  He was projected to be an All-American rec this year.

OL:   It looks like, and it is hard to judge with the competition, that they had a good game.  They seem to be in the right place most of the time taking the right steps. The big negative was the penalties which a lot were from the backups.  This happens when you have the excitement of the players who don’t get in the game that much. 

Defense:   The D played well.  If not for A& M the D would have only give up 19 points this year.  The only “real” offense they have played since A&M was Ole MIss.  I have them for 2 three and outs and 7 or 8 negative plays.  One was close.  They had 5/6 tackles for losses and 1 sack.  They also got a negative play from special teams that led to points.  I have them for 6 QB pressures one of which led to a grounding call.

DL:    Again, Bama was playing against a lesser opponent.  They played well here.  They did lose contain of the QB on a couple of pressures. I do think they need to rush on their pass rush techniques.

LB:  They all played well.  I just concentrated on CJ for a while and I think he was involved in all three of the first 3 plays of the game on D.  He directs and plays hard. 

DB:   They were in position most of the time.  The best example I can give, about coaching during the game in the beginning of this report, was when Bama pulled EJ out of the game to talk to him about what had happened the play before.  One thing I think needs to improve is when you have safety help on your side, a 2 deep look you don’t allow the rec to release outside.  Push him back inside and it makes the overlap by the safety easier.  The last thing I want to say here is this game showed what the target rule has done to the game.  If VS had gone thru the man instead of going low that may not have even been a completion. 

Penalties:   Bama cut down on penalties, but the ones with the second team help leave points on the field.  The most serious was the chop block which I honestly thought they could have been called earlier on. 

Special teams:  Not a lot to say here.  They did get a turnover on the kickoff that led to points.  I will say this it seems every time I watch a game I see Lee, Hart, and Collins around the football.  Also, if you look Drake is also in the picture. 

Finally:  This game should have been, and I think it was, to improve and perfect techniques and calls.  This is especially true in the position of OL.  I just hope they take it for what it is worth and continue to improve. 

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting

CFB season is nearing its halfway point. Who are the contenders, the pretenders, and "Wha?!?" teams so far?

Of the undefeated teams only we, Stanford, and OSU have played two ranked opponents. None of these three has looked terrific in their other games, especially OSU, who had to work to beat Buffalo. FSU has beaten Maryland (won't be ranked again this year) and looked good in their other games. Clemson has beaten UGA and looked good in their other games. Miami beat UF and looked good in their other games.

Needless to say only one team survives the FSU Clemson game and that team will have a case to make for a BCS birth if they remain undefeated.

OU has 4 ranked teams on their schedule, but no top 10 teams. Where do they fit into the mix if they run the table?

Oregon has looked great against every(no)body. Stanford Oregon is like FSU Clemson. The winner is a BCS contender and the loser is done.

Louisville has played nobody and will play nobody, so that's that for them. Michigan is undefeated but has looked about as bad as you could and not lose a game. UConn? Really? They will not beat OSU, but one of them will end the season with a loss.

In the "Wha?!?" category, I nominate WVU and Ole Miss as the most schizophrenic teams of the 2013 CFB campaign so far.

With UGA suffering sig injuries, the set up for a Bama LSU NCG is in place if the FSU Clemson Ducks or Stanford falter. Would an undefeated OhSU spoil that party?

Tonight as we sat at our table, someone said to look at our guest speaker at the next table and asked if he was out of high school yet. This guy looked way too young to match his career. He was introduced as the senior writer for Sports Illustrated and has been with them for 19 years. Again we all looked at each other and said no way.

Lars teaches Sports Journalism Ethics at Bama and had some interesting names that has attended his classes. His speech was pretty much about his career with SI and his love for doing what he does. The two things that he has done that seemed to be his favorites was his story on Carson Tinker and the friendship he has developed with Dale Earnhart Jr. One of the most interesting parts of his speech was him describing the SI swimsuit production. He said that everybody that works for SI wants to be assigned to handle that job, especially since they paint on some of the bikinis now.

Lars seems to be a better writer than he is a speaker, he had his speech written and pretty much read it. During the question and answer session he was asked his opinion on the possibility of the Super Conference and was very excited to talk about the playoff system and the possibility of the new conference. Lars also said that Nick Saban is the most intriguing person that he has ever interviewed. He really likes him a lot and what he has done at Bama and in Tuscaloosa. He was with CNS during the tornado recovery and was so impressed with the time and effort that CNS gave to the victims of the storm.

I'm glad I got to meet him and I admire his love for what he does, not everybody likes their job.

First: I want to congratulate the Bama coaches and players on the win.  Ole Miss came in and played well, but the defense led the way.  The offense needs to play with the sense of urgency that the defense showed.  Bama must improve on offense like they did this last week.  They also have to cut out the mental mistakes/penalties that hurt the team.  

Offense:  The offense quietly put 437 yard up.  There still mistakes that need to be corrected.  They had 11 negative plays.  This included 3 fumbles which Bama kept, but still hurt the drive. I fumble was in the red zone that put Bama behind the sticks.  Also, it included 1 int.  This leaves 7 plays that were tackles for losses and one those was a sack.  Bama had 2 three and outs all day with one 4 and out.  They only got in the red zone twice and got a field goal out of it.  The defensive teams seem to get of the ball well against Bama.  I don’t know if they need to change the snap count more or something in the stance is tipping them off.  They also didn’t take advantage of good field position at times.  Something that you don’t notice a lot and Bama uses it is the unbalanced look.

QB:  I think AJ had a very good game and here is why.  He was 25/32.  This is a good stat alone, but he was under pressure most of the night.  About 3 of his incompletions were on deep ball, one of which was underthrown that could have been a TD.  One incompletion, at least, was when he was scrambling and the recs did not come back well enough to help him out.   The biggest stat I have is he completed at least 5 passes when he was getting ready to be hit.  I think he was hit at least 6 times and one of those was late.  He did a good job directing the team before the half to get points.  

RB:  They ran hard and made positive yardage most of the time.   Both Drake and Yeldon hit the hole hard.  They also displayed good vision and toughness.  

REC:  Eight different players caught the ball which includes RB’s.  Jones again was the leading rec along with Norwood.  Norwood made a great catch when he was covered and AJ threw the ball in a tight window down low.   I would love to see these recs do a better job on the scramble drill.  I will put this here but I am not sure it was a problem.  It looked like a couple of times the recs may have busted a route.  I say this based on AJ reaction a couple of times.

OL:   I am putting the TE Vogler here.   He has got to do a better job.  He missed at least 3 blocks and at least 2 of those led to negative plays.  He missed a block that allowed immediate pressure on AJ and he fumbled.  The OL did make improvements, however they still need to get better.  They continue to put Bama in the hole early with false start penalties.  I know they haven’t, but it seems on every first possession for Bama they have a penalty to put themselves in a hole.  I thought Lindsay came in and played very well.  He may have even played better than Kelley.

Defense:   The defense played well.  They gave up only 205 total yards to a team that was averaging close to 500.  Sixty four of the yards came on 2 plays.  They had 5 negative plays which included a safety, an interception, and a fumble recovery.  I have them pressuring the OM QB at least 7 times, one of which caused the grounding call.  If my stats are correct, he only completed a couple of balls when he was scrambling.  They had 2 three and outs, 1 four and out and two one and outs.  Overall I thought the D did a good job tackling.  

DL:  They played well and were responsible for stopping the running game.  I say this because the safeties were involved with coverage most of the time.  The Ole Miss running back had run for 164 against UT, but Bama held him to 28 rushing and 12 rec.  
  
LB:  I know this sounds like a broken record, but CJ played well again.  It looked like he was the Spy for the OM QB.  TD also had a pretty good job at LB.

DB:   I thought they played well.  I also thought Jackson caused a fumble on the played that was ruled incomplete.  They did a good job coming up and making tackles and covered well enough for the DL to get pressure.  The D line getting pressure make covering guys a lot easier.  There were a couple of bust that allowed recs to be wide open a few times.  

Penalties: This is another game where the opponent had less penalties than Bama.

Special teams:  This was a difference maker in many games.  Bama doesn’t allow big returns very often.  Mandel has turned into a guy that can flip the field for the team. He made a great play on the first punt on the high snap.  Many punters would have panicked and shanked the punt.  Collins is always making plays on special teams.  Besides getting the punt off from a bad snap, the other big play was pinning OM back on the punt right before the safety.  CF hitting the 53 yarder has to be big for his confidence, and it was one of the best balls he has hit on FGs.


Finally:  Bama needs to continue to improve.  This is supposed to be one of the most potent offenses in the NCAA with all of the firepower Bama has on O.  They didn’t show him a lot, but I wonder if AC foot is still bothering him.  The mental mistakes and problems with the OL have to be corrected.  

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll  
15 and counting