| FTBL Monday, 9-22: Practice report and video (must see)

TerryP

Staff
After taking care of Arkansas in quick and easy fashion, the Tide went to work today on what should be a much more difficult opponent - the #3 ranked Georgia Bulldogs.

The best news continues to be on the injury front. All three Bama players who had minor injuries during Saturday’s game - Rolando McClain, Javier Arenas, and Josh Chapman - participated fully in practice today. Bama will have three more practices prior to heading to Athens on Friday, and if no injuries crop up between now and then, Alabama will kick off on Saturday with a full squad.

This week will present the biggest challenge for the Alabama defense this season, with the Bulldogs possessing NFL prospects at QB, WR, and RB. The linebackers will likely be called on to play as a full unit this week much more so than we’ve seen in each of the last two weeks, which means a heavier dose of reps for the guys at the sam.

One point of emphasis for the linebackers will covering Georgia’s screen game. The Bulldogs hit Bama hard with this last season, and given Bama’s struggles with short passes over the middle this season, it would be easy to expect that Georgia will attack Bama here again. Rolando McClain was picked on last year, and I would guess that we will see Georgia take an early look at Don’ta Hightower, hoping to use his freshman aggressiveness against him.

The Bama passing attack is once again getting a heavy look in practice. The Tide only attempted 15 passes Saturday because, quite frankly, they didn’t need to attempt any more. In a perfect world Bama will be able to run with that level of ease every week. But while I do think the Tide will be able to run successfully against most defenses, topping 300 yards on the ground won’t happen against the SEC’s better defenses.

With that in mind there was a greater emphasis put on pass protection and running crisp routes. After the Bama receivers saw very little action in the Tulane game we saw much larger numbers the next week against Western Kentucky. Certainly the Bulldog defense will be a tougher test than WKU, but don’t be surprised to see the Alabama receivers become involved again.

One interesting coincidence to pay attention to this weekend is that both teams have a highly touted freshman wide receiver - Alabama has Julio Jones while the Dogs have A.J. Green - that wear the #8. The fact that they wear the same number means very little, about the same as the fact that Georgia will be wearing black uniforms… it is however a unique coincidence given the way that the two guys were compared all throughout their high school seasons a year ago.

Another note for this weekend is that Georgia’s long time radio announcer Larry Munson announced today that he is retiring effective immidiately. This isn’t likely to have much of an impact on the game, if any. It is possible that the Georgia players could play with a higher level of emotion, and the Georgia fans could join them in that. But, as Coach Saban would say, execution will take care of emotion.

BSR
 
You guys know how often Porter and I have talked about S&C coach, Scott Cochran, in very high regard. He's made a tremendous impact on this program and the teams development so far.

In this video, he has a line that you need to listen closely to hear...he's as intense as he always is and has his own opinion of the "blackout."

Pay close attention just after the 1 minute mark when he leans down to say something to one of our player groups.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWt9M5fJ-cA[/youtube]
 
I noticed that last night regarding Cochran. :lol: The first encounter I had with Cochran was shortly after he was hired. As I walked up to a practice all I could hear was Cochran yelling "get your mind right!!". I remember thinking that was EXACTLY what our team needed when we hired Saban.
 
Gotta love it.

Head coach did something similar to us before a big game. He didn't use words. Tuesday we received a black wreath with all our names on it. It said it was from the other team. It got us fired up. We beat the snot out of a team that was favored over us by two touchdowns.
 
Thats a great attitude to have this week...any week.

Like the fact that Saban is walking right twords him at the time, never misses stride, like, "ehh, no problem with that."
 
Kc said:
Gotta love it.

Head coach did something similar to us before a big game. He didn't use words. Tuesday we received a black wreath with all our names on it. It said it was from the other team. It got us fired up. We beat the snot out of a team that was favored over us by two touchdowns.
My Freshman year (HS) an arch rival pulled a similar trick.

Their coaching staff send their own team a black wreath supposedly from our team in an effort to fire them up. Both teams were undefeated (9-0) at the time and why their coaches felt such motivation was needed was telling, but not important to this story.

They defeated us by two points in a late October rain when with less than two minutes in the game our center had the ball slip out of his hands on a snap and the resulting chase had them pick up the ball and run it in for a score.

Meaning, the message 'we sent' with the wreath was not really determinant in the outcome.

Well, after the game some on their team busted open our locker room door and threw the wreath 'we sent' them in and had some comments about what we could do with it.

(As an aside, we beat them up so badly they lost their next two games while we did not lose again until the state championship game.)

About the only thing we did with the wreath was keep it for the next three years and each game week with this team we would post it on our locker room door and take it to the sidelines during the game. We defeated this team the rest of my HS career - each of the next two years ruining their undefeated seasons (twice we were undefeated also).

I can understand a 16-, or 17-, or 18-year old HS kid coming up with such a juvenile motivation ploy, especially if his team was a marginal squad facing a big game. But for a Coach with a team annually full of talent to pull such a prank is not becoming.
 
Looks like the Dawgs have been spying!!!


BamaAsstCoachFuneral3-1.jpg




The enemy has sought us out!!! They are counter-attacking our counter-attack.

The Battle is on, now!!!
 
TerryP said:
You guys know how often Porter and I have talked about S&C coach, Scott Cochran, in very high regard. He's made a tremendous impact on this program and the teams development so far.

In this video, he has a line that you need to listen closely to hear...he's as intense as he always is and has his own opinion of the "blackout."

Pay close attention just after the 1 minute mark when he leans down to say something to one of our player groups.

Video from Monday's practice

It is a video for the 22nd practice or a different day?
 
BamaJay73 said:
Which video is it?

It's a direct link to it in Terry's second post. It should begin loading automatically. If it doesn't, make sure you have the latest version of Flash. also the thumbnail vid called "practice 9-22" is the video if you want to sort thru the others on there.
 
Back
Top Bottom