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Tide Prepares For Iron Bowl
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
So much depends on the game this week. As any Alabama football fan knows, life is so much easier in the state of Alabama for a Crimson Tide fan when Bama is victorious in this game each year. It's the Iron Bowl. The yearly "Super Bowl" of rivalry games. And the Tide is busily preparing for the 2015 edition.
The Crimson Tide spent about 90 minutes on the Thomas-Drew Practice Fields Monday afternoon working in shells. Bama worked on ball handling, offensive and defensive schemes and worked on focus.
Running back/receiver Kenyan Drake is still recovery from the broken arm he suffereed a couple of weeks ago and subsequent surgery. He is only going to be doing some individual drills this week. Saban said he wants to see how Drake "how he progresses and how he regains the functional use of his hand and arm." Dominick Jackson, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Keith Holcombe are able to practice. (See accompanying Nick Saban press conference story for more injury information concerning the four.)
The Iron Bowl is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT this Saturday afternoon in Auburn, Alabama in Jordan-Hare Stadium on the campus of Auburn University. The game will b broadcast live on CBS with Verne Lundquist on play-by-play, Gary Danielson providing color commentary and Allie LaForce reporting from the sidelines.
UA is currently ranked second nationally in the Associated Press, Amway Coaches, and College Football Playoff polls. (The latest edition of the CFP poll will be released tonight.) Alabama is 10-1; 6-1 SEC on the season with it's latest victory coming over Charleston Southern 56-6 this past Saturday. Auburn enters the contest at 6-5, 2-5 SEC with its most recent win being a 56-34 victory over Idaho on Saturday.
Alabama leads the series 43-35-1 as the two teams prepare for their 80th meeting this Saturday. Alabama won last season's contest in a 55-44 shootout in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
A win this Saturday will put the Crimson Tide in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game to be played in Atlanta, Georgia. The Florida Gators have clinched the SEC Eastern Division and will be the opponent to the SEC West champions.
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Dari Nowkhah Interviews Cyrus Jones
Cyrus Jones
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Dari Nowkhah of SEC Now of the ESPN Network interviewed Alabama senior cornerback Cyrus Jones. The two chatted during a satellite hookup.
Nowkhah opened talking about the two punt returns for touchdowns made by Jones this past Saturday in the Tide's 56-6 win over Charleston Southern. Nowhkah stressed the fact it was something that had never been done before...two punts run back for touchdowns in the same game by an Alabama player. He asked Jones, "What's the significance of that to you?"
Jones responded, "It's great to go down in the record books. Anytime I can get back there on punt return I just try to make a play. Fortunately enough I was able to make two of those big plays on Saturday."
Nowkhah asked if the first one was easy. He asked, "Do you describe anything you do as easy?"
"Yeah, that felt, I mean...once I picked up the ball it was pretty much daylight after that," Jones said. "I picked up a couple of blocks and just tried to get down the sideline, and I had to make one cut to get into the endzone. It was a team effort, great play and just trying to be heads-up by locating the ball."
They then moved on to the intercepted pitch that Jones made. He asked Jones how he saw that play "play out."
Jones said, "Well they had been doing the option the whole game, so I was saying to myself that I had the pitch man responsibility, and I knew that if he came out there and did it again I was going to time it up and jump it. Luckily I times it up pretty well and got a chance to make a big play."
Nowkhah then asked if Jones could only package of one of his big plays from Saturday, which one was he keeping.
"Uhhh...(pause)...I'd probably take the last punt return...just because that was probably one of my most memorable plays in Bryant-Denny. Topped it off with a little dance at the end, so that's something I'll never forget. It was a great memory."
The talk then moved to Auburn. He asked Jones, "What does Auburn week mean?"
"I think it goes without saying," Jones said. "This game, this rivalry means a lot to a lot of people.
Anybody that has anything to do with Alabama football or Auburn football knows what it means. It's going to be a great atmosphere...and regardless of what each team's record is coming into this game you know it's going to be a battle, and it's going all the way down to the end. So I'm looking forward to a great game on Saturday."
Of course Nowkhah brought up the pick six of two season's ago at Jordan-Hare. He asked Jones what the chances were that it would pop into his head when he again steps on the field there.
"Well of course we all remember what happened, but I mean I don't think that's going to be in our heads. We're just going to come in and focus on doing what we gotta do to get out of there with a W and not have something like that happen again."
Nowkhah spoke of this Tiger's team being down. He asked how Bama perceived them.
"Well just like I said, regardless of what each team's record is coming in you know they gonna get up for us," Jones said. "I mean, they gonna give us everything they've got. Just like any rivalry game it doesn't matter what the record is. There's going to be a lot of passion on the field. Everybody's gonna be ready to play, but, I mean, the game's won in practice and I think whoever has the best preparation during this week of practice that's who's gonna come out on top."
Saban Press Monday Conference
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Saban opened with comments about last Saturday's game, commenting, "Not much to say about the last game that wasn't already said. I was pleased with the way the players responded and competed in the game...kind of overcame human nature a little bit and went out and played a lot better than we had against some of the non-conference teams that we played earlier. That was all a good thing."
Concerning individual players, Saban offered, "I'm happy for Cyrus Jones being the Co-SEC Special Teams Player of the Week. Our players of the week are Ryan Kelly and Jake Coker on offense; Shaun Dion Hamilton, Dalvin Tomlinson and Cyrus on defense; and Cyrus, Adam Griffith and Michael Nysewander on special teams. Injury wise, Kenyan Drake is going to start doing individual drills this week - its day-to-day to see how he progresses and how he regains the functional use of his hand and arm. Dominick Jackson will be back practicing today and so will Minkah Fitzpatrick. Keith Holcombe, who sprained his knee, will probably be limited, but we're hopeful that he'll be back to full speed tomorrow (Tuesday)."
Turning to the big game this coming Saturday, The Iron Bowl, Saban said, "I don't think I have to tell anybody anything that they don't already know about this game. The Iron Bowl is one of the great rivalries in college football - it means a lot to a lot of people in this state, as well as around the country. It's certainly an opportunity that you appreciate as a competitor. Our team has created an opportunity for themselves. I think it's all about staying focused on what you need to do to play your best football on the road and not letting outside noise affect your ability to focus on what you need to do to play well against a very, very good team.
"Auburn is probably playing the best they've played all year. They've gotten better and better, which I think is a tribute to Gus (Malzahn) and his staff for the job that they do with the players that they have. They're running the ball effectively on offense now; the quarterbacks are playing a little bit better; they've got two running backs that have been very effective for them; and they have shown big-play ability with their receivers, mostly Ricardo Louis, who is their leading receiver and has definitely made some big plays this year. Defensively, I think they've gotten better and better. Their front is playing better, they've created a lot of turnovers and negative plays for people, and they have some good players that play on the line of scrimmage up front. This is going to be a challenge for us - they do a really good job in the red zone because they can run the football effectively, which is usually the case. All the way around they're a very good team and have played their best football the last few weeks of the season."
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Reggie Ragland Is Butkus Award Finalist
Reggie Ragland
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
The Butkus Foundation has announced that Alabama senior linebacker Reggie Ragland has been named as one of the five finalists for the 2015 Butkus Award, named after famed NFL linebacker Dick Butkus, and is presented annually to the nation's best linebacker. The announcement came on Monday morning.
In addition to Ragland, Leonard Floyd of Georgia, Deion Jones of LSU, Raekwon McMillan of Ohio State and Jaylon Smith of Notre Dame have been name as the five finalists for the 2015 Butkus Award.
Ragland leads the team in tackles for 2015 with 85, including 6.5 for a loss as well as recording 2.5 sacks. In addition he has five pass breakups, four quarterback hurries and two forced fumbles. He is the leader of the Crimson Tide defense, as well as its captains, and is responsible for calling the plays and seeing the players are lined up properly on each defensive play.
Ragland returned to UA for his senior season as a promise to his mother to do so. He is scheduled to graduate this December.
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Cyrus Jones SEC Co-Special Teams Player Of The Week
Cyrus Jones
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
The Southeastern Conference announced on Monday that Alabama senior cornerback Cyrus Jones has been named as Southeastern Conference Co-Special Teams Player of the Week for his outstanding performance this past Saturday in the game against Charleston Southern.
Jones returned two punts for touchdowns this past weekend, one of 43 yards and another for a career-high 72 yards. He is the first player in UA history to return two punts for touchdowns in a single games. He is also the first to have punt returns for scores in back-to-back games. Jones averaged 57.5 yards per return on Saturday, the highest single-game average by an Alabama players. In all this past Saturday, Jones returned punts for 115 yards, which ranks at number five on Alabama's all-time list. Jones leads the country in punt returns for touchdown with three total, and ranks second overall in punt return yards at 403.
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