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Saban Not Pleased With Dropped Passes
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
During the time Bama "Twitter" fans were busily complaining about quarterback Jake Cocker, Alabama head coach Nick Saban was fuming over all the dropped passes. Sure, Coker threw 14 incomplete passes. Sure he had an interception. But Tide receivers were regularly dropping passes last Saturday afternoon in Bryant-Denny Stadium that should have been caught. Enough passes, in fact, were dropped to have even changed the 34-0 score with which Alabama handily defeated ULM.
Following the game Saban said, "I thought offensively, we stopped ourselves way too many times. "We had five dropped balls and several of those were on third downs."
Coker threw for 158 yards, three touchdowns and one interception Saturday afternoon. He completed 17 of 31 passes, and five of those incompletions were very catchable balls. At least one of those, coming in the fourth quarter, would have been for a touchdown.
Concerning the receivers Saban said, "Obviously, we’ve got some young receivers out there playing who have not played much that need to develop more confidence. I think Calvin Ridley is playing well and I think ArDarius Stewart can be a really good player for us. We’ve just got to get a little more consistent with what we’re doing and we’ve got to bring some of the young guys along.”
So, yes, more work is needed. Young receivers need some time to mature. Hopefully with a team like Georgia this week, the kids grew up some during last Saturday's game and will continue to improve during this week's practices. Yes, Coker needs to do better on picking out his receivers, but he is showing improvement. The offensive line will continue to improve too.
Alabama travels to face Georgia this Saturday. This was the game everyone was calling one of the biggest challenges of the year before the season began. This was the team that had the chance of knocking Bama from the unbeatens. That part is over. Now we can just play the game.
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Alabama Football 2015 Individual Stats
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Here is a look at the individual statistics for several key players on the Alabama Crimson Tide football team through the first four games of the season:
Jake Coker 68 of 123 passing for 786 yards (55.3%), 15 carries for 45 yards, 9 TDs, 4 INTs
Cooper Bateman 30 of 40 passing for 244 yards (75.0%), 4 carries for 10 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs
Derrick Henry 67 carries for 422 yards (6.3 avg), 7 receptions for 51 yards, 8 TDs
Kenyan Drake 37 carries for 215 yards (5.8 avg), 7 receptions for 139 yards, 2 TDs
Damien Harris 21 carries for 101 yards (4.8 avg), 0 TDs
O.J. Howard 13 receptions for 138 yards (14.1 avg) 0 TDs
ArDarius Stewart 21 receptions for 177 yards (8.4 avg) 2 TD
Calvin Ridley 17 receptions for 125 yards (7.4 avg) 1 TD
Richard Mullaney 12 receptions for 116 yards (9.7 avg) 2 TDs
Robert Foster 10 receptions for 116 yards (11.6 avg) 2 TDs
Michael Nysewander 1 reception for 19 yards (19.0 avg) 1 TD
Richard Mullaney 12 receptions for 116 yards (9.7 avg) 2 TDs
Robert Foster 10 receptions for 116 yards (11.6 avg) 2 TDs
Michael Nysewander 1 reception for 19 yards (19.0 avg) 1 TD
Tide Not Favored Heading Into Georgia Week
The 72-game streak may be at an end. For each of the last 72 games the Alabama Crimson Tide has been favored to win, but as the week opens Bama is a 1.5 to 2-point underdog against the Georgia Bulldogs for this Saturday's game, according to Odds Shark. While opening as a pick'em, by Sunday night the odds had swung in favor of the 'Dogs.
Contributing factors in the line-swing is not covering in the ULM game (37.5 points), national ranking (Alabama 13th, Georgia 8th AP), the loss to Ole Miss the previous week as a 9-point favorite, and the fact that it's a home game for Georgia.
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Men's Tennis Collects 8 Wins Sunday
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
It was a big Sunday, as well as weekend, for the Alabama Crimson Tide men's tennis team. Bama had a combined eight wins between singles and doubles on the final day of the Crimson Tide Four-In-The Fall meet yesterday afternoon at the Alabama Tennis Stadium.
Posting big wins in the singles matches were senior Becker O'Shaughnessey, junior Nikko Madregallejo, sophomore Korey Lovett and freshman Mazen Osama. All had perfect 3-0 singles records over this past weekend. Teaming up in the doubles for a 3-0 themselves were Hayes Brewer and Langford Hills.
Alabama men's tennis team head coach George Husack said, "This was a tremendous weekend of tennis. I’m very happy and impressed with the way all the teams competed and fought. This is exactly what we, as coaches, want to get out of a tournament. Our guys were pushed physically and mentally each day and finished strong. We must take this momentum into our next event and keep improving."
Concerning the overall weekend, Husack added, "It was great to have not only the visiting teams enjoy an Alabama weekend which included tennis and football but to also have parents of so many of our players in town too. We have two Parent Weekends a year (one in fall and one in spring) and they are such fun events. When you add tennis and football to the mix it's tough to make a better weekend."
For more information on the weekend's event with stats, go to RollTide.com.
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Crimson Tide Soccer Falls To Gamecocks 3-0
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Bama soccer head coach Wes Hart commented, "Like any season, I knew this season would be filled with highs and lows and tonight is certainly one of those lows. We were outplayed and out-coached by a superior team tonight. We are looking forward to getting back to Tuscaloosa and preparing for a very good Auburn team."
The Gamecocks were the Tide's first top-25 foe of the young 2015 season. Bama managed only two shots all night against Carolina as their offense was muffled by a strong defense. The Gamecocks were able to get off 17 shots on the evening.
Alabama's next match will be at home when the Crimson Tide hosts the Auburn Tigers on Thursday, October 1st. This will be the Tide's first nationally-televised contest and can be seen live on the SEC Network.
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Tide Falls To 13th In Latest Polls
The University of Alabama football team slid one position this week in both the Amway College Football Poll and the Associated Press poll. Last week the Crimson Tide came in at number 12 (11 in a couple of polls and 10 in another) to slide to number 13 in both polls. Ole Miss slid from a tie for 3rd with TCU to 5th in the Amway poll while taking sole possession of 3rd in the AP poll.
Other SEC schools in the Top 25 are Georgia (5/8), LSU (8/9), Texas A&M (15/14), Mississippi State (22/21) and Florida (23/25). Auburn, Missouri and Tennessee fell from the Top 25 of one or both polls this week.
Amway College Football Poll
Week 5
1 Ohio State
2 Michigan State
3 TCU
4 Baylor
5 Ole Miss
6 Georgia
7 Notre Dame
8 LSU
9 Florida State
10 UCLA
11 Clemson
12 Utah
13 ALABAMA
14 Oklahoma
15 Texas A&M
16 USC
17 Northwestern
18 Wisconsin
19 Oklahoma State
20 Stanford
21 West Virginia
22 Mississippi State
23 Florida
24 California
25 Oregon
| Associated Press Top 25 Week 5 1 Ohio State 2 Michigan State 3 Ole Miss 4 TCU 5 Baylor 6 Notre Dame 7 UCLA 8 Georgia 9 LSU 10 Utah 11 Florida State 12 Clemson 13 ALABAMA 14 Texas A&M 15 Oklahoma 16 Northwestern 17 USC 18 Stanford 19 Wisconsin 20 Oklahoma State 21 Mississippi State 22 Michigan 23 West Virginia 24 California 25 Florida | ||
