Yeldon decides to Roll with Tide

Top running back in Alabama turns his back to Auburn...


What does this mean for the two programs?

     Let's suppose your name is Gene Chizik. Yesterday, the top running back in the State of Alabama, perhaps the nation, was an AU commitment.  That was big for a lot of reasons. First, he is a great player. Second, you beat your In State Rival to get him. Lastly, your First Team All-SEC running back has gone rogue and may never play another down for the Tigers. On top of all the above you literally gave up heaven and earth to try to convince Yeldon to stay. Reports from some suggest that the running back was informed about every offensive coordinator Auburn was going to interview. None of that mattered to T.J. Yeldon in the long run. The gifted running back wanted to play for Alabama and Nick Saban because he knew his future career in the NFL would be greatly enhanced by doing so. 


BITTER PILL FOR THE TIGERS TO SWALLOW...


     What a bitter pill to swallow for the Tigers. To Tide fans it only reinforced what they have believed forever - Auburn is a program not on the same level when compared to Alabama. I think it is only fair to say that most teams can't compare with Alabama. Think about this - The Auburn Tigers centered their entire recruiting class on getting Yeldon on board, only to find out that the young man made an informed decision about what was best for his career. It wasn't Auburn. It wasn't the Tigers even though Yeldon knew that Michael Dyer by many reports is finished at Auburn. The tough Tiger running back is suspended for the Chicken Sandwich Bowl game. Dyer is looking to transfer according to some people who claim to be in the know. Yeldon could have started on a team one year removed from winning a national championship. He could have been the center of the spread offense. He could have been the man. Instead, he decided that he needed the best coaching and the best program in the nation to hone his skills. 


AUBURN COULD OFFER A LOT TO YELDON BUT NOT THAT ON BIG THING...


     Most observers believe that Trent Richardson is leaving for the NFL.  But that is not cast in stone. Yeldon also knows that Eddie Lacey isn't chopped liver and he will be back at Alabama. Despite all those things the five star high school All-American said no to Auburn. It probably isn't a good day to talk with your friends who are Auburn fans. They are still stinging from the slap in the face that Yeldon delivered today.  The flip wasn't just the losing a great player. It was losing him to Alabama when you could promise the world to the player and it wasn't enough. When Bama lost Thomas to Georgia Tech he did so because he wanted to play quarterback. The Tide fans hated to see him go but wished him well and most understood why. Besides, at Alabama you can always find a comparable wide receiver or DB to take up for the loss.The Tigers can't do that. Tiger fans can shout "War Damn Eagle" til they are orange and blue in the face but Yeldon's commitment to Alabama just reinforced that gnawing feeling of inferiority that many on the Plains feel. 


DARK DAY ON THE PLAINS...


     Well, if you are an Auburn fan you better take a deep breathe because by all reports this season's recruiting class might be the best in Tide history. Auburn might also have their best recruiting class ever as well. The truth is that Bama's best and Auburn's best are vastly different. Despite Auburn closing the gap over the last 20 years or so it is a gap so wide the Tigers can never catch up. I'm not saying that AU doesn't have a good program or even a great program. Auburn's program compared to a lot of NCAA schools is great. Here's the truth - Alabama plays at a level that only a few program such as Texas, Southern California, Michigan, and Ohio State have attained. These programs have reached that rarefied air by decades of excellence. It isn't big news when those progams compete for national titles. It is big news when they don't. 


So if you live in Alabama that old saying "the more things change the more they stay the same" is obviously true. There are those who do and those who want to do. Most objective people in this State understand that. I understand that. More importantly, TJ Yeldon understood that. 






BACK TO TIDERINSIDER

Is Alabama better than LSU...

Despite Tide loyalty you have to wonder...

Hightower is one tough player...

     I read that in game one of the of the LSU game the Crimson Tide was able to move the ball inside of the LSU 30 yard line 9 times. That means that 'Bama scored 6 points when they might have scored 63 points. Hmm... that doesn't speak well for the offense.  I know it is fashionable to wear Crimson Colored Glasses along with your game day jersey, but does it seem to you that 'Bama has struggled on offense to some degree all season? It seems that way to this writer. Fluid has never been a term associated with any Nick Saban offense. The words workmanlike and efficient are used a lot to describe the Alabama pro-set offense. It also seems to me that anytime the Tide has the ball inside the 20 yard line (aka - the red zone) the word struggle comes to mind. When you have had a back like Trent Richardson running the ball you have to wonder exactly what gives?  I know the defense can key on Trent but  that means the passing lanes should be there for the picking. The loss of two players, Julio Jones, and Duron Carter, had a bigger impact on the Tide's offensive woes than most Tide fans want to believe.

Great Stats...
     The numbers are there to indicate a really dominating offense. Despite the numbers it seems the offense tends to sputter when you'd like them to run like a fine tuned engine. Part of that might be the Alabama belief that you want your quarterback to "not lose" the game instead of winning the game. The coaches don't telephone me asking my coaching advice but I've always wondered why you can't have both. I do know this - LSU has improved on offense since game one and I'm not sure we have. The game plan against Auburn gave me some hope that the Tide has more in the game plan than we've seen this season. The use of the tight ends will work against almost any defense, and certainly should work against a hard pursuing LSU team. The LSU defensive ends and corner backs are superior to Auburn's counterparts as much as day is different from night.
At any level it always appears that the tight ends are an afterthought on offense. I'm not sure how 'Bama's success against Auburn with the tight ends will effect LSU's run defense. The defensive ends and outside linebackers can't just ignore Brad Smelly and company. That will like give Richardson, Lacey, and Fowler a little more room to gains a few more yards. A few more yards may be all the Tide needs to beat LSU this time.


Home Field Advantage...

     I continually hear from LSU fans that the Super Dome will be Death Valley South. I don't buy into that primarily because Alabama fans are going to find a way to buy pretty half the tickets. I had four. They were on the forty yard line. I sold two so Alabama power can now rest easy about my power bill for a few months. Why anyone would pay that much money for a couple of football tickets amazes me. Besides most of the pre-game activities in New Orleans involves avoiding fights, having a fight, or breaking up a fight. I'd prefer to stay home and scream loud enough to scare all my Auburn neighbors to death. That plus, the closest hotel room you can find is somewhere around Hattisburg, Ms. In my younger days I'd have gone in a heart beat. I did make sure that the two tickets were going to 'Bama fans. I was offered almost 20% more from two LSU businessmen but that wasn't going to happen. No way that would ever happen. Instead, my cousin is coming down from Huntsville to watch on our HDTV. We normally would have gone to the game in New Orleans together but his pre-game activities involve not involving fights, actually fighting, and his firm belief that actually breaking up a fight in progress violates every know rule of Southern Men. I will not embarrass him with the story of the $600.00 bar bill after the last national championship game. Let me give the younger patrons of any bar on Bourbon Street some advice - never say next round is on you, drunk or sober.

National Championship - only
the SEC needs apply, as # 6 is in the
BAG...


Back to Tider Insider

     As always my stories tend to wander a bit and this one is no exception. So let me sum up what I wanted to say before - either Jordan Jefferson or A.J. McCarron is going to win or lose this game. This isn't going to be three yards and a cloud of burning astro-turf. I think both teams are going to wind it up and let it fly. It's the only way the Tide can win. I hope our kicking team and special teams prove me wrong. That's the part it seems shaky to me...

Early hunch... Alabama by one?

Shame, shame, shame...

      The Heisman Committee disclosed that Trent Richardson didn't win the Southern District of voters. Shame on you guys that didn't vote for Trent. Let's call it what it actually is - jealousy and anti-State of Alabama sentiment. Two straight national championships and two consective Heisman winners was just two much for the Southern sportswriters who can't stomach this  State. I you can also throw in a dash of "we hate 'Bama and a pinch of "god, we are so tired of the SEC winning everything."

     And then there is the growing fungus of sportswriters becoming the news as opposed to reporting the news. Kevin Scarbinsky comes to mind. I like Kevin a great deal. We have been acquaintices for 30 years. As the newsprint business started and now continues its decent into nothingness sportswriters have put themselves into the center of controversy. That would be okay if they didn't create the controversy themselves.


     Phillip Marshall late of the Huntsville Times is a perfect example. For years his inability to keep his love for Auburn hurt his credibility. Phillip wrote not only pro-Auburn stories but could barely disquise disgust for Alabama. Now I know something of the Marshall family, brother David and I were roomates in college, and because of that I got to know Benny Marshall, the father very well. Mr. Marshall was what sports writing was actually about. Tell the story good or bad, but tell it nonetheless. And tell as an impartial witness and don't inject yourself in the center of the story. I miss my friend David, who is no longer with us, and his father, Benny, whose observations about college sports are sorely missed.  We need more Benny Marshalls and Ben Cooks and fewer people like Jim Rome and Lou Holtz. 
   
    Today, everything must be controversial and it must fit within a news cycle. Last night ESPN went out of there way to show this years Heisman winner wasn't the first time a winner of the Trophy  teams suffered 3 losses in season. That led me to believe that ESPN, the spin doctor for RGIII, was trying to justify his winning. Griffin, who certainly isn't short on ego wearing Superman socks was a worthy winner. Just not the correct winner when Trent Richardson was on the ballot. The fact that Richardson didn't carry the Southern Region of Heisman Voters expresses the hatred toward the University of Alabama, the SEC, and the State of Alabama. 27 voters in the South didn't have Richardson on their ballots at all. 


     Three weeks before last night's award show the name RGIII was not even one of the top five players mentioned in the award. One game, more specifically one pass, won the Heisman vote for him. The Baylor quarterback may well wear superman socks but there was only one candidate who is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings at a single bound. His name is Trent Richardson.  He probably could do all those things as well as run over linebackers, carry half a defensive football team 10 yards on his back, and send defensive backs into counseling when they were forced to think about Richardson heading their way under a full head of steam. He was either going to embarrass you with a move so wonderful words would not describe it, or the would take your manhood and crush it like a bug.


     Let me offer this as an example.  I sincerely believe that Richardson could have put up some legendary numbers as a running back in the Big 12. How many of you think that RGIII could have done the same if he played in the SEC?  You can't blame RGIII for accepting the trophy anymore than you could blame Richardson for wanting to win it. Give Trent the choice of winning the Heisman or winning another National Championship and his genuine nature to share would have choosing the game. If Griffin's socks said Superman on them, I bet Trents said "just a man".  But what a man he is and the next time he visits New York it won't be to be cheated out of a Trophy. It will be to help his team win a trophy with his on the field play where only broken tackles and not broken ballots count. 




Back to Tider Insider

Richardson not winning the Heisman?

What a joke...

Heisman type stiffarm from America's
greatest football player regardless
of anti-Alabama sentiments

     I have to admit to not being much on conspiracy theories. I don't believe the earth is flat. I do think we landed men on the moon, and that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin of President Kennedy. However; if Trent Richardson doesn't win the Heisman Trophy I'm headed to the grassy knoll to to find a few sportswriters and voters who didn't select Trent.  When I find them they will be dividing up ill gotten gains from schools like Baylor and corportations like ABC and its puppy dog, ESPN. I knew that Trent probably couldn't win the Heisman Trophy the moment that all the crying and whining for Oklahoma State to play in the BCS Championship Game began.  Everyone was so upset at Alabama they decided to punish Trent. There is the one conspriracy I believe exists. That one, and the clown circus has run out of people to argue in the Republican debates. Only joking.

     I have seen RGIII play. I loved watching him deliever the knife to Oklahoma but to say he is better than Trent Richardson is patently ridiculous. Same thing for Andrew Luck. He couldn't beat Oregon and I have wife beaters for clients that could have beaten Oregon's defense. The Big 12 and PAC 10, as far as football is concerned, is like basketball with 12 on each side. 45-44 is a common score. Do you honestly think that Luck or RG could score on LSU or Alabama like they scored on league defenses out West?  My wife is on 5-2 and weighs in at a whopping 118 pounds, and she would start at middle linebacker in either of those leagues. Granted, she wouldn't be first team all-conference but would be a lock for honorable mention.

PAC 10 and Big 12 just don't cut the mustard...

     The defenses for the Big 12 and PAC 10 look like Auburn's defense but at least they don't take steroids. Alabama and LSU could play Oregon, Stanford, Baylor, and Oklahoma State and beat them 10 out 10 times. Playing against an SEC defense is like going to a bar where they give you a knife when you come in if you left yours back in the F 150.  Trent Richardson would have averaged 250 yards against any defense in those leagues. I seriously think that the PAC 10 models their defenses after the Guatemalan defense forces. The couldn't finish in the upper division of a good lingerie league.

     I heard one of those ESPN fools the other night saying Richardson shouldn't win because he only had 89 rushing against LSU. He also had the same amount on pass receptions for a total of 168. That's pretty good for a player going against the second best defense in the SEC that was only giving up 250 an outing. I have no doubt that either of those quarterbacks could play in the SEC. They would be great players. They would not, however; be stat laden Heisman Trophy types however.  I am certainly predjudiced. When you see someone who had dominated the most dominant league in the NCAA you get to be a little jaded about who is really good.

     Ask LSU who they would rather not play. End of the coversation.


In Memory of my late father:  "Hey, Dad, Navy made it four in a row today. Go Navy."




Back to tthe guys

Remember tie games?

SEC Opinions - Do you remember tie games?

Roll Tide Crimson Tide 

     I wonder what the mood of those anti-Alabama voters would have been if overtime was eliminated from college football? Both LSU and 'Bama would have 11-0-1 records. The entire football world would have been clamoring for a re-match. Well, that is exactly what happened earlier in the season except for some silly and I want to ad un-manly change of the rules. Back in the day teams fought each other for 60 minutes and if the game was a tie it was tie. You would walk off the field with your opponents, not unlike brothers in arms, who had fought a vicious battle and lived to talk about it.

     Now we have overtime if the two teams are tied at the end of regulation. You have another coin toss, a receive or defend option. Two teams who fought for 60 minutes mano y mano are relegated  to a lucky bounce or a penalty which might decide the outcome. What a silly rule overtime has become. Not only do you have an overtime but at times you have two, or three, or four, and on rare occasions five. Tired players are more easily hurt. Tired players don't always make for good football. The fans want resolution but overtime (IMO) is not the way to do. If you play 60 minutes Mano y Mano and play dead even the game should be over. Both teams can walk off with their heads held high or at least not hanging. 

     This season had Bama and LSU tied it would be the most monumental game in college football history. We would have none of this spinning that Oklahoma State should be in the BCS National Championship game. The only thing that would matter is that neither team had a loss and played to a tie. None of this whining and regional bias. None of this lets attitude of   punishing Trent Richardson because 'Bama backed into the national championship game.

I know this position is old school. That's okay. New isn't always better. Progress is an opinion of thought.  Alabama getting another shot at beating LSU is big. It could have so much more. Just to make my position clear - Oklahoma State is not in the same league as Alabama or LSU. I think they may be more like Georgia. Besides anyone who has a quarterback who is old enough to have grandchildren is as silly as overtime.

Let's go for two birds this week...

The most wonderful wife in the world

    First and foremost my family wishes your family a Happy Thanksgiving.  I have been blessed with a wonderful wife, two lovely daughters, plus Henry and Annie, our boxer chilldren. I know it is corny to say but I honestly feel that we are blessed in being a part of a larger family - the  Alabama Nation. I'm now in my middle sixties and even though the sports part of being a family member is becoming less important, the relationships I have developed over the years with other Alabama fans  have been gratifying. In my family we simply do not understand why anyone could be a Auburn fan when the greatest football program in the history of the world is here for them. I remain baffled by this obvious poor thinking. I suspect genetics is involved. 

    I think that throwing toilet paper in a tree is an odd and rather unique tradition of celebrating football wins. But toilet paper? Bonfires, a pep rally, dressing in school colors, and having a great mantra to shout are great traditions.Cheering on the Charmin doesn't cut it in my book. Whether it is 'War Eagle' or 'Roll Tide' you have to admit those are pretty school cheers. Today, I went to  'Bama Fever' for a few new items to give to my West Coast friends this weekend. There were were 18 people in store, and 4 of them were over in the Auburn section. Auburn apparel wasn't exactly flying off the shelf. On the other side of the store, the Bama section, it was wall to wall. 

Henry in his game day wear

One man bought 20 tee shirts. I have no idea of what you would do with 20 Bama tee shirts, but this guy was happy to find them at $8.99 a piece. Just standing by the cash register, I heard people ask the shopkeeper where are the Bama monopoly games, what about bag tags for air flights. Where are the basketball tee shirts, do you think my wife who is a 32DD would look good in this tee shirt. I had to interject that I thought she'd look good in  anything,() or for for that matter without anything.) Then I noticed he was holding an Auburn tee shirt. Somehow thinking of this man's wife in an Auburn tee shirt seemed silly given her other obvious qualifications. The man was a 'Bama fan. We all expressed our sorrow and concern. "What's a man to do, if you know what I mean,?  Was how he justified his current situation. We all assured him we did understand. As he walked off with his tee shirt another  man said, "damn shame". Oh yeah, its game week. One father was trying to explain to his young daughter she needed an Auburn sweat shirt because everyone else in the family was Aubie. Her witty reply was "no way, not today, that's all I have to say - Roll Tide, Daddy".  Trying to convince to turn Aubie was child abuse in my opinion. It is also a fruitless gesture as any Alabama fan could have explained to the father if he had asked anyone. 

Annie has her game face on...

Another lady wanted to know if they had a hounds tooth jacket to match her husband's hat. Of course, they had a jacket, a muffler, and probably a discount on a hounds tooth paint job for your F-150 truck. Everyone was saying "Roll Tide" to one another as a greeting and a acknowledgment of their recognition that they were members of the same family. Car Magnet A's were bought, a couple of Iron Bowl Tickets were sold, and children were trying on winter Bama wear to see if it fit. It was a grand old time for every 'Bama fan in the store. I'm sure a similar scene was being played out somewhere in Auburn as well. The 'protect the trees vigilante squad' was dressing out in orange and blue camouflage, deer stands were on the trees already. Oh yeah its game week. That means turkey on Friday and Eagle on Saturday. It doesn't get any better than that does it?


I am thankful for so many things in my life, but mainly I am thankful to have all of you in the family. Roll Tide...


By the Way... Alabama 28 - Auburn 7