🏈 Bama notebook: Kiffin, Sims go back a long way to TN & "Saban can relate to Kiffin's return to UT"

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin and quarterback Blake Sims are connected from long ago.

And this week’s game at Tennessee brings their relationship to the spotlight.

Kiffin was the head coach for the Volunteers in 2009 and recruited Sims hard. Sims’ last two schools were Alabama and Tennessee.

“I was pretty close (to going to Tennessee),” Sims said. “If he didn’t go to USC, that’s where I would have went. But God brought me here because He has a plan for my life.”

Sims was impressed with Kiffin during the recruiting process and was happy when he found out that he was coming to Alabama to coach him for his senior season.

“This is a crazy guy,” Sims said. “He’s funny and he was a good guy. The way his attitude was, you could tell he was a guy who wanted to win. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me that (Alabama) coach (Nick) Saban went and got him for this program because he fits it all the way around.”

Sims came to Alabama as a running back for a year, and then converted to quarterback. He spent three years learning the system and is a first-year starter this season.

Kiffin joined the Crimson Tide this year and is tutoring Sims like he would have if he had stayed at Tennessee and Sims had joined him.

“I know it’s kinda crazy for him, too, and we’re probably going to talk about it later in meetings,” Sims said. “It’s going to be a good conversation. We have a great relationship right now. We’re happy to be around each other again.”

Continue momentum
Saban harped on the energy his team needs to practice, play and win. The Crimson Tide showed it in last Saturday’s 59-0 victory over Texas A&M.

The goal now is to sustain that effort, and not be inconsistent week to week. Saban, however, leaves bringing up the effort to the players.

“That’s everybody’s choice,” Saban said. “Everybody chooses their energy. Hopefully, our team will choose that kind of positive energy, that kind of positive attitude in terms of what they want to build on, what they want to accomplish.”

Saban pushed for good energy early in the week, so there’s quality preparation for the game. That way players are confident come game time, which helps lead to the needed energy.

“After what we did this past week, I’m ready to see what we can do on the road,” Sims said. “Show everybody we can bring it from home and take it on the road and keep the same intensity.”

Inexperienced team
Alabama began the season as one of the most inexperienced teams in the nation, according to Phil Steele. The Crimson Tide ranked 107th out of 128 teams in total experience.

There are only 12 seniors on the two-deep, and the roster returns 68.6 percent of lettermen. Only 57.8 percent of the offensive yards returned, and 59.1 percent of the tackles returned from last year.

No. 1-ranked Mississippi State ranked fifth in returning experience, No. 3 Ole Miss ranked 26th and No. 5 Auburn ranked sixth.

There have been 15 freshmen who played for Alabama, including 10 true freshmen.

Big year
Outside linebacker Xzavier Dickson is quietly have a strong

season. He leads the team with 5.5 quarterback sacks, with two against West Virginia and two against Ole Miss.

Dickson ranks 22nd nationally and fourth in the SEC in sacks with 0.79 per game. He also has three quarterback hurries, 21 tackles and eight for a loss of yardage.


Decatur Daily—Continue reading...

 

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Likely cautioned not to provide too many quotable nuggets aboutLane Kiffin's impending return to Tennessee, Alabama's players have talked more this week about the rivalry in general and less about how this particular installment will affect their offensive coordinator.

Junior linebacker Reggie Ragland, though, made a face that said it all.

"Whoooo," Ragland said. "It's going to be loud up there."

Loud, sure, but that probably won't be the half of it, and the person that knows that most is Kiffin's boss.

Nick Saban's gone back twice to places he left on his own terms to the dismay of fans who were shocked and displeased with his departure.

The first came in 2008, when Saban made his long-anticipated return to LSU, where he coached from 2000-2004. He was pleasantly greeted by many of his former players and others in the LSU family, but he was promptly greeted with F-bombs and other colorful expletives -- "You name it, I heard it," Saban said after the game -- from the student section and thousands of others throughout the Crimson Tide's overtime victory.

"It was very negative," Saban said Monday. "Getting hung in effigy and burned at the stake and just about everything that could happen happened."

The second was far less hostile, as Saban's return to Miami for the 2013 BCS National Championship was all smoke, no fire. Saban did a slew of interviews with local Miami reporters about the anticipation of returning to the place he left after just two seasons with the Miami Dolphins, but there was little hostility at the actual game.

The first example Saban used when discussing Kiffin's return to Neyland Stadium went back to his days at Michigan State.

"We always had all these things that were going to happen when we went to play at Notre Dame. The Gipper was coming back to speak to the team, and all these things were going to happen," Saban said. "What I always used to tell the team is that doesn't really mean anything unless it means something to you. So if it doesn't mean anything to us and we can stay focused on what we need to do to do what's best for our team, then that's the way you manage it, that's the way you handle it, that's the way we need to look at it.

"It doesn't really mean anything to us. The game, our players, their players. That's what means something to us and that's what should mean something to every coach on our staff."

Alabama's players were quick to illustrate that point.

Senior fullback Jalston Fowler said he might poke some fun at Kiffin throughout the week but didn't provide many details. Safety Nick Perry took a question about Kiffin and spun it into an answer about the importance of the rivalry, which Alabama has dominated since Saban was hired in 2007.

"Tennessee is a rival game," Perry said. "You ask, a lot of old people around here know that's the biggest game of the year. Five, 10 years from now people are going to ask what's my record against Tennessee. Hopefully I can say 4-0 or 5-0."

As much as Saban and Alabama players prefer to discuss other topics, they're not completely ignoring the obvious. In his past experiences, Saban said he would address the team at some point in the week and lay out everything they'll likely experience on their way into the stadium and during the moments leading up to kickoff.

Once the game starts, it will be just another SEC road trip

"We've just got to communicate and stay with each other," Ragland said. "I think everything will be all right."

Continue reading...

 

[TerryP]

I doubt Kiffin gets the same treatment Saban received from the LSU fan base in 2008.

 

[jdpas29]

that's a shame...

 

[bamaledge]

Up here, there are still a few that don't like Coach Saban, but even they wouldn't go that far.