Saban Comments On Out-Of-State Practice
Alabama Head Football Coach Nick Saban
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Alabama head coach NICK SABAN had a few things to say concerning Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh's decision to move a week of spring football practice to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. While Saban didn't rip on Harbaugh and his plan, Saban has no interest in doing the same type thing with the Crimson Tide.
According to 247Sports:
"I don't really know a lot
about Michigan and their program," Saban said. "I think everybody's
gotta make decisions that they feel are best for what they need to do in
their program. I don't think when people designed the rules they didn't
design the rules to take your team someplace else and have spring
practice during spring break.
"But there's a lot of good people and a lot of good places and the NCAA will decide whether that's
something that we should or shouldn't do. And whenever they decide,
we'll kind of roll on. We love having spring practice right here at
Alabama. There's a lot of people that have a lot of interest here. Our
players, it doesn't disrupt their schedule, their class time, and we get
a lot out of them and have lots of fun."
Of course many will say that it's within the limits of current NCCAA regulations so it's okay to do. But for the good of the school and the fan base is it really right?
Concerning the "value" of the decision and trip that Harbaugh and Michigan made, well, it has been widely reported so the kids looking to make a decision as to where to play their college football certainly notice. Some might even notice the "desperation" aspect of it. While Michigan was once "THE" powerhouse, along with Ohio State, of their conference, they haven't been what they once were in the so-called "glory days." With the Southeastern Conference having risen up as the dominant force in college football, especially the University of Alabama, Harbaugh felt he needed to shake things up a bit to attract athletes to where the sun and warmth of the south help keep them.
Is there any real value in this move by Harbaugh? Will it "pay off" with recruits committing to Michigan? Or will it help in the training process, or perhaps be a detriment to the spring practice progam? Sabn has his own ideas.
"Yeah, I get it," Saban said. "But I'm not sure that anybody really knows the value of doing some of
these things, whether it's having off-campus camps all over the place.
If everybody has one, then how do the kids really decide where they go
and where they don't go?
"And how much of a benefit
really is it? And the same thing with this: nobody really knows how big a
benefit it is. I mean what's the value for what they do? But that's for
everybody to decide on their own. I basically like focusing on the way
we do it and I'm not too worried about what someone else is trying to
do."
Of course Harbaugh has been big into shaking things up, even making controversial decisions concerning his program. Some wonder is it more to help his Michigan Wolverines pick up recruits or is it just to be a burr in the seat of the SEC. Most Southeastern Conference Coaches, including the SEC offices, have expressed displeasure with Harbrough and his "scheme" to taking his recruiting camps to the deep south. In fact, he even held a camp in the state of Alabama last year. Of course in most circles it was still the University of Alabama coming up with the Number 1 recruiting class for the sixth year in a row.
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Bama Baseball Splits Doubleheader With Vols
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Claims Weekend Series Victory
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
The Alabama Crimson Tide baseball team split the Saturday doubleheader with the Tennessee Volunteers, but still won the weekend's three-game series. Yesterday the Tide took game one 11-2 before being defeated by the Vols 6-3 in the series finale. This is Bama's first SEC series victory in the new "Joe", and the second SEC series win in as many weekends.
"It's about winning series in conference play," Alabama head coach MITCH GASPARD stated. "The biggest takeaway for me is that our pitching continues to really
pound the strike zone. That was a really good offense in Tennessee.
They're up top in the league in a lot of offensive categories, and I
thought we matched up well on the mound."
The Bama boys allowed nine runs total yesterday, six of which were earned runs, while the pitching staff picked up 14 strikeouts.
Junior catcher WILL HAYNIE really did shine for the Crimson Tide, belting out three hits, a home run, three RBIs, two runs scored and he even picked up a walk. HUNTER WALKER did a bang-up job himself going four for eight with a double, three runs scored and picking up two walks. CONNER SHORT banged out three hits himself, including a double. He had two RBIs , one run scored and picked up a walk.
Next up for the Crimson Tide is a trip to Montgomery for a non-conference game with Auburn in the annual MAX Capital City Classic at Riverwalk Stadium this coming Tuesday, March 29th. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network at 7 p.m. CT. The Tide will next head to Athens, Georgia for a three-game series with the Dogs slated for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
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Tide Swimming & Diving 6th At NCAA Championships
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
For the second consecutive year the Alabama swimming and diving team has finished in the top 10 of the NCAA Championships. The Crimson Tide finished really strong last night, taking sixth place in the 2016 NCAA Championships at the McAuley Aquatic Center on the campus of Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia.
Tide head coach DENNIS PURSLEY said, "I couldn't be more proud of the team. It’s been a big culture change for them over the last three or
four years and these guys have bought into it and they’ve taken big step
forward in each of those years and this was another one tonight."
Through the four-day championship Bama picked up 225 points, the most in program history. It is also the Tide's best NCAA finish since 1983 when Bama finish fifth. Texas took first this year, followed by California, Florida, N.C. State and Georgia rounded out the top five. Alabama, as mentioned, was sixth, Tennessee took seventh while Missouri, Indiana and Auburn
rounded out the top 10.
"We had a strong finish on the last day where that’s been our
Achilles’ heel in the past," Pursley commented.
"We had three school records tonight and ended up sixth in the nation in the final standings. So we’re real pleased with how they performed throughout the meet."
"We had three school records tonight and ended up sixth in the nation in the final standings. So we’re real pleased with how they performed throughout the meet."
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Bama Softball Splits Doubleheader With Mizzou
The Crimson Tide softball team split a doubleheader yesterday with the Missouri Tigers. Bamas ladies dropped the first contest 7-3, but came back with a five-inning 9-1 victory.
Mizzou (24-5; 3-2 SEC) took the early lead and held on for the game one victory. In game two, it was Alabama (28-6; 2-3 SEC) opening with five unanswered runs and hanging tough for the run-rule win.
Alabama baseball head coach PATRICK MURPHY said, "Credit Missouri, they did everything right and had a great game one. We had some defensive errors in game one that cost us three
unearned runs. We needed to come back better and stronger for the second
game. In game two, we scored early and took the lead instead of letting
them take it. The hitters did well throughout the whole lineup. Eight
out of our nine starters got on base. That's a good thing for us."
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Men's Golf Third At FarmLinks Collegiate
The seventh-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide men's golf team split a pair of matches at The FarmLinks Collegiate Match Play event yesterday to finish third at the one day, 36-hole event.
Alabama men's golf head coach JAY SEAWELL said, "This was a new event and was something that (Vanderbilt head coach)
Scott Limbaugh and I put together in the winter. We had some competition days available and Scott found the
FarmLinks course. You can't practice what we were able to do today in
terms of playing a match play competition. It's totally different than
stroke play."
The Crimson Tide will close out the regular season April 2-3 at the Mason Rudolph
Championship in Nashville, Tennessee, before heading to the Southeastern Conference Championships April 15-17 at the Sea Island Golf Course in Sea Island,
Georgia. Live-scoring for the tournaments can be found on www.Golfstat.com.
