* Bradley Sylve got to start the West Virginia game and he really had a bad game, no two ways about it.
He went from front of the line to the back of the line just like that.
Would have been easy for him to hang his head and give up with a case of the poor-me's.
Seems like instead he took an attitude of "What do I need to do to get better?" The coaches didn't give up on him. They worked with him to make him a better player.
When his number was called Saturday against Auburn, when Alabama simply could not match up with Auburn's big, fast, physical, NFL-bound receiver tandem, he showed how much he has improved. He didn't have a West Virginia flashback and question whether he belonged ... he went out there and played his fanny off and changed the game.
It's very possible that Alabama loses this game if he had checked out after one bad game, or if the coaches had given up on him after one bad game.
They didn't. You saw the results.
* Blake Sims has waited five years to play in this game. He stuck in there and never looked for greener pastures where he could transfer and play right away. He didn't want to just want to play football, he wanted to play football at Alabama. When he was asked to change positions, he did it and gave it his best and it didn't work out. He came back to quarterback and waited his turn and worked to get better. He wanted to be Alabama's starting quarterback, and he reached that goal.
But he wanted more. He wanted to be a winning quarterback, he wanted to lead this team to a championship.
He got the job but he didn't rest on his laurels. When things didn't go well against Ole Miss or at Arkansas, he kept working. He learned from those experiences.
When his back was to the wall at LSU with less than a minute to go and the odds stacked against him, he didn't dwell on what hadn't gone right earlier in that game. He made the next play, and the next one and the one after that. He got Alabama in position to tie, and in overtime he put seven on the scoreboard and won it.
In his one shot to play quarterback at Alabama against Auburn, he went through as bad a stretch as a QB can go through -- truly horrible interceptions.
Nick Saban told us after the game that he was too hyped up, he wasn't letting the game come to him. He was obviously out of sorts and flustered.
Saban didn't give up on him. Lane Kiffin didn't give up on him. When he didn't have confidence in himself, they had confidence in him ... and he fed off of it. His teammates told them they had his back.
He shook off all those bad plays and didn't worry about the scoreboard and concentrated on the next play. And he absolutely torched Auburn. When he got it rolling, Alabama's offense became an unstoppable machine.
Many years ago, I was in Kansas City. I took the opportunity to interview Derrick Thomas and do a story on him. But while I was there I thought, "Joe Montana, one of the greatest quarterbacks in history, is on this team -- why not do a story on him too?" So I was at a press conference and got to ask Marty Schottenheimer about him. I asked, What single attribute does Joe Montana have that makes him great?
Marty thought about it for a minute and said (long time ago, I'm paraphrasing): "His short-term memory. He has the ability to shut it off better than any quarterback I've ever been around. You can be down 7 points in the fourth quarter and on first down he gets sacked, on second down he gets sacked, on third down he throws a ball that should have been intercepted. And on fourth-and-18 he has forgotten all about those plays, it doesn't affect his confidence, it's like they never happened, and he 100 percent believes he's going to convert and take you down the field for a touchdown. And that makes everybody else believe."
Blake Sims is no Joe Montana, but he has that same ability to shake off the bad and not let it affect him.
* Alabama played what Nick Saban said was maybe the worst half of football since he's been here in the first half.
Did he go into the locker room and rant and scream and press the panic button? No. He said he told the team they letting their emotions get the best of them, that they were missing assignments because of it.
He told them that they needed to concentrate on doing what they are supposed to do, carry out their assignments and block out the rest.
And he told them he believed if they could do that, they would win. He told them he believed.
He didn't give up on the game, he didn't give up on the players.
There's a lot to be learned from these examples.
https://alabama.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=427&tid=207236414&mid=207236414&sid=885&style=2
He went from front of the line to the back of the line just like that.
Would have been easy for him to hang his head and give up with a case of the poor-me's.
Seems like instead he took an attitude of "What do I need to do to get better?" The coaches didn't give up on him. They worked with him to make him a better player.
When his number was called Saturday against Auburn, when Alabama simply could not match up with Auburn's big, fast, physical, NFL-bound receiver tandem, he showed how much he has improved. He didn't have a West Virginia flashback and question whether he belonged ... he went out there and played his fanny off and changed the game.
It's very possible that Alabama loses this game if he had checked out after one bad game, or if the coaches had given up on him after one bad game.
They didn't. You saw the results.
* Blake Sims has waited five years to play in this game. He stuck in there and never looked for greener pastures where he could transfer and play right away. He didn't want to just want to play football, he wanted to play football at Alabama. When he was asked to change positions, he did it and gave it his best and it didn't work out. He came back to quarterback and waited his turn and worked to get better. He wanted to be Alabama's starting quarterback, and he reached that goal.
But he wanted more. He wanted to be a winning quarterback, he wanted to lead this team to a championship.
He got the job but he didn't rest on his laurels. When things didn't go well against Ole Miss or at Arkansas, he kept working. He learned from those experiences.
When his back was to the wall at LSU with less than a minute to go and the odds stacked against him, he didn't dwell on what hadn't gone right earlier in that game. He made the next play, and the next one and the one after that. He got Alabama in position to tie, and in overtime he put seven on the scoreboard and won it.
In his one shot to play quarterback at Alabama against Auburn, he went through as bad a stretch as a QB can go through -- truly horrible interceptions.
Nick Saban told us after the game that he was too hyped up, he wasn't letting the game come to him. He was obviously out of sorts and flustered.
Saban didn't give up on him. Lane Kiffin didn't give up on him. When he didn't have confidence in himself, they had confidence in him ... and he fed off of it. His teammates told them they had his back.
He shook off all those bad plays and didn't worry about the scoreboard and concentrated on the next play. And he absolutely torched Auburn. When he got it rolling, Alabama's offense became an unstoppable machine.
Many years ago, I was in Kansas City. I took the opportunity to interview Derrick Thomas and do a story on him. But while I was there I thought, "Joe Montana, one of the greatest quarterbacks in history, is on this team -- why not do a story on him too?" So I was at a press conference and got to ask Marty Schottenheimer about him. I asked, What single attribute does Joe Montana have that makes him great?
Marty thought about it for a minute and said (long time ago, I'm paraphrasing): "His short-term memory. He has the ability to shut it off better than any quarterback I've ever been around. You can be down 7 points in the fourth quarter and on first down he gets sacked, on second down he gets sacked, on third down he throws a ball that should have been intercepted. And on fourth-and-18 he has forgotten all about those plays, it doesn't affect his confidence, it's like they never happened, and he 100 percent believes he's going to convert and take you down the field for a touchdown. And that makes everybody else believe."
Blake Sims is no Joe Montana, but he has that same ability to shake off the bad and not let it affect him.
* Alabama played what Nick Saban said was maybe the worst half of football since he's been here in the first half.
Did he go into the locker room and rant and scream and press the panic button? No. He said he told the team they letting their emotions get the best of them, that they were missing assignments because of it.
He told them that they needed to concentrate on doing what they are supposed to do, carry out their assignments and block out the rest.
And he told them he believed if they could do that, they would win. He told them he believed.
He didn't give up on the game, he didn't give up on the players.
There's a lot to be learned from these examples.
https://alabama.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=427&tid=207236414&mid=207236414&sid=885&style=2
