No. 1 Crimson Tide Now 2-0 In 2016
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Downs Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 38-10
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| QB Jalen Hurts Leads Tide Past WKU 38-10 Photo Credit: Marvin Gentry/ USA TODAY Sports |
Jalen Hurts is the first true freshman to start as quarterback for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide since 1984, and he did it in fine fashion last night as Bama defeated the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 38-10 in the Tide's home-opener at Bryant-Denny Stadium in front of 101,821 very hot fans in Tuscaloosa. Another tastey tidbit, Hurts set a school record for passing yards by a quarterback in his first career start, throwing for 287 yards and two touchdowns.
Yesterday's victory over Western Kentucky marked the 60th time the Crimson Tide has held an opponent to 10 points or less under head coach Nick Saban since the start of the 2007 season. Last season Alabama held six opponents to 10 points or less and also recorded two shutouts.
Hurts completed 23 of 36 attempts for two touchdowns while passing for 287 yards without an interception in his first start for the University of Alabama. Hurts not only broke the old starting debut passing yards set by Brodie Croyle (285) vs. Arkansas on September 28, 2002, he also surpassed the previous Bama freshman mark of 167 yards set by Vince Sutton. That one came in a contest at Tennessee on October 20, 1984. Hurts connected on three passes of 40 yards or longer on the day.
Alabama picked up the first points of the game on a 36-yard field goal by kicker Adam Griffith after having missed an earlier 49-yard field goal attempt. That kick and three points extended Alabama's first half scoring record to 120 games, the longest streak in the country. It also extended the Tide's
school record consecutive games scoring streak was to 200 games.
It didn't take long for WKU to put up a score of their own though. The Hilltoppers picked up 70 yards on a first-down flea flicker down to the Alabama nine yard line. The Tide defense held on three straight plays forcing Western to settle for a 25-yard field goal to tie it up 3-3 with 8:03 remaining in the first quarter.
The Tide defense pretty much held the Hilltoppers offense in check until a fumble late in the game that allowed them to put the first opposing touchdown on the board against the Tide for 2016, and the first of the season in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Alabama senior safety Eddie Jackson was not pleased with the Tide's performance, especially after giving up the late touchdown in his house. Jackson said, "We didn't play the game we needed to play [yesterday], so, we've got to improve next week."
Ryan Anderson was very disappointed in the defensive performance despite the domination of the Crimson Tide, saying, "I feel like we're a lot better than what we're playing right now. It seems like we just took a loss. A lot of people are disappointed, embarrassed how we performed as a team."
The Crimson Tide was 25-of-42 in passing for 351 yards, 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Jalen Hurts led in that department hitting 23-of-36 for 287 yards and both passing touchdowns. WKU was 19-of-38 for 216 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. Mike White led the Hilltoppers at 10-of-34 for 135 yards and one of the interceptions.
Rushing stats for Bama were 39 runs for 139 yards with eight different runners. Damien Harris led the way for the Crimson Tide with 11 carries for 45 yards, a 4.1 yard average. Close behind him was B.J. Emmons with six carries for 41 yards and one touchdown. He also had the longest run of the night for Bama at 14. Incidentally, quarterback Jalen Hurts rushed 11 times for 19 yards. WKU rushed for 23 yards on 22 carries.
Turning to the offense, Alabama receivers had 351 yards on 25 receptions on the day. Calvin Ridley led all receivers with 129 yards and one touchdown on on nine receptions averaging 14.3 yards per catch. His longest of the day was for 51 yards. ArDarius Stewart had 90 yards and one touchdown on five receptions, with his longest being a 52-yarder. WKU had 216 yards on 19 receptions with the longest for 59 yards by Taywan Taylor.
Eddie Jackson picked off one Western Kentucky pass and returned it 59 yards for a touchdown. Ronnie Harrison picked off one himself with a six yard return.
Kicker Adam Griffith was one-of-two on field goal attempts hitting a 36-yarder. He was a perfect five-for-five in extra points.
Punter JK Scott had another banner game. He booted the ball five times for 232 yards, a 46.4 yard average. His longest of the day was for 58 yards.
Usually the strength of the Crimson Tide is the running game. This game, however, rushing yardage was sorely lacking. In the first half, Alabama had only 13 total rushing yards. However, the Tide did pick up 216 passing yards for a total of 229 yards. WKU had 163 total yards, 37 by the run and 126 through the air.
Concerning those 13 first half rushing yards, Alabama center Bradley Bozeman had this to say, "For an offensive lineman, that's pretty embarrassing."
Concerning the Tide running game, Saban had this to say about the first two weeks, "We didn't really run it very well last week either. We just had a couple explosive plays. We had two long runs last week, which made it look like we ran the ball a lot better than what we did. We're going to have to do a better job on a more consistent basis of being able to run the ball. I thought we ran the ball a little better in the second half than the first (against Western Kentucky). But, again, they sort of played us to say you're not running the ball, where we're going to get enough guys up there that we're going to make it tough for you to run. We're still going to have to be able to run some in those situations, but we've got to do a better job."
There is more work to do, but two wins are now in the books. This coming Saturday is the one that the Tide has lost the past two consecutive seasons...the yearly meeting with the Ole Miss Rebels. More information on that as the week progresses.
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| Photo Credit: RollTide.com |
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| Photo Credit: RollTide.com |
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What Nick Said...
About The Crimson Tide's 38-10 Victory Over WKU
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Southeastern Conference College Football Scores
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Crimson Tide Football Again No. 1 AP, Coaches Polls
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What Nick Said...
About The Crimson Tide's 38-10 Victory Over WKU
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| Photo Credit: RollTide.com |
University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban is a process-driven man. He likes things the way he plans things. And he examines things in order to plan the right things in order for the Crimson Tide players to be able to execute those things. When those things aren't executed the way he plans them, he's not happy. Even with a big win. The Process.
Saban said after the game, "I don't know that I've ever been this disappointed after winning a
game, maybe ever. We have lots of work to do. We're going to play a lot
better teams. I didn't think we practiced very well this week. I didn't
think we prepared very well for this game. I don't think we respected
the team we played. Like I said before, when you're arrogant, it makes
you complacent. It creates a blatant disregard for doing things right.
If we don't start doing things right, we're not going to have the kind
of success that we're capable of."
He doesn't, however, place all the blame on the players. Saban commented, "It's all my responsibility. We need to get the job done better. I'm
almost embarrassed that I didn't do a better job for my team."
Saban wasn't pleased with the execution of the called plays on either side of the ball. He had a lot of "Okay" statements concerning team play, like concerning special teams and quarterback play. He said the defense played "fairly well."
He was very critical of all the mistakes, saying there were way too many. He called out mistakes, penalties, missed assignments, drops on offense and such. Saban called all the penalties season "lack-of-discipline" penalties. Bama had 16 penalties in the first two games, four against USC in the season-opener and 12 against WKU in the home-opener.
Concerning the starting quarterback position, Saban was not yet ready to say he was handing the reins of the team over to true freshman Jalen Hurts just yet. He said that he and the coaches needed to look at the game film to see if Hurts won the team and the job. He did comment, however, that players around him need "to play better."
When it came to the running game, Saban wasn't pleased with the performance in either of the first two games. Though he said Bama looked better in the second half against WKU, the Hilltoppers came into the contest wanting to force the Tide to throw the ball by stacking the box to make running more difficult. It did.
Concerning some of the sideline discussions with offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, Saban said, "Those are called ass chewings."
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Southeastern Conference College Football Scores
# 1 Alabama Crimson Tide 38 WKU 10
# 9 Georgia 26 Nicholls 24
#17 Tennessee 45 Virginia Tech 24
#19 Ole Miss 38 Wofford 7
#20 Texas A&M 67 PV A&M 0
#21 LSU 34 Jacksonville St 13
Florida 45 Kentucky 7
Miss St 27 South Carolina 14
Vanderbilt 47 MTSU 24
Arkansas 41 #15 TCU 38
Auburn 51 Ark State 14
Missouri 61 E Michigan 21
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Crimson Tide Football Again No. 1 AP, Coaches Polls
AP Poll
1 ALABAMA
2 Florida State
3 Ohio State
4 Michigan
5 Clemson
6 Houston
7 Stanford
8 Washington
9 Wisconsin
10 Louisville
11 Texas
12 Michigan State
13 Iowa
14 Oklahoma
15 Tennessee
16 Georgia
17 Texas A&M
18 Notre Dame
19 Ole Miss
20 LSU
21 Baylor
22 Oregon
23 Florida
24 Arkansas
25 Miami
Coaches Poll
1 ALABAMA
2 Florida State
3 Clemson
4 Ohio State
5 Michigan
6 Stanford
7 Houston
8 Michigan State
9 Washington
10 Louisville
11 Iowa
12 Wisconsin
13 Georgia
14 Oklahoma
15 Tennessee
16 Texas
17 Ole Miss
18 Notre Dame
19 Baylor
20 Texas A&M
21 Oregon
22 LSU
23 Florida
24 Arkansas
25 Miami
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Bama Men's Golf 6th After 2 Rounds
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| Photo Credit: RollTide.com |
Leading the Crimson Tide is junior Lee Hodges who finished Saturday's round in a tie for 16th overall shooting a 3-under par 141 (68-73). In a tie for 18th is junior Tyler Hitchner, giving Bama two players in the top 20. He is at 2-under par 142.
Shooting the low round for the Tide on Saturday was sophomore Davis Riley carding an even par 72. He has now advanced to 34th place in the tournament.
The 21st-ranked Virginia Cavaliers lead the field boasting a team total of 23-under par 553 (276-277), followed by No. 11 Auburn (556), 13th-ranked Clemson (565) is in third, followed by No. 7 LSU (567) and No. 6 Florida (569) to round out the top five.
Alabama tees off today in the final round from Hole No. 1 at 7:45 a.m. CT. The Tide will be paired with LSU and Florida.
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Alabama Volleyball Sweeps Lehigh 3-0
Alabama Volleyball Sweeps Lehigh 3-0
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| Photo Credit: RollTide.com |
The Bama ladies were really on the mark yesterday, with the Tide (8-2) posting a season best hitting percentage of .375. Kat Hutson had a season-high herself with .562 along with 10 kills and also contributing one block.
Krystal Rivers really came through for the Tide, posting 14 kills and two aces. For her efforts Rivers was the Most Valuable Player at the tournament.
Hutson and Natalie Murison were both honored in being named to the All-Tournament team.
Freshman setter Alexa Tomlak got in some extended playing time yesterday pacing the Bama offense with 26 assists.
Brittany Thomas contributed six kills, four aces and four blocks in yesterday's victory.
Leah Lawrence had a good performance for Bama, contributing four kills along with three blocks in yesterday's contest.
Alabama was strong up front, out-blocking the Lehigh Mountain Hawks 6-1 as well as forcing them into 15 hitting errors and a .176 hitting percentage.
The Crimson Tide returns to Foster Auditorium this next weekend for the Hampton Inn Crimson-White Tournament. Bama will open play on Friday, September 16th against East Tennessee State beginning at 7 p..m. CT, then play two matches on Saturday, September 17th against Presbyterian (11 a.m.) and Georgia Southern (7 p.m.).
| Game Stats | LEHIGH | UA |
|---|---|---|
| Kills | 31 | 40 |
| Errors | 15 | 7 |
| Hitting % | .176 | .375 |
| Points | 35.0 | 52.0 |
| Aces | 3 | 6 |
| Blocks | 1.0 | 6.0 |
| TA | 91 | 88 |
| Assists | 30 | 36 |
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| Photo Credit: RollTide.com |
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Nick Saban Dedicates New Saban Catholic Student Center
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| Alabama's Nick Saban Photo Credit: RollTide.com |
University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban helped to dedicate the newly-opened Saban Catholic Student Center this weekend at St. Francis University Parish in Tuscaloosa. Saban and his wife, Terry, helped raise funds to build the student center, to the tune of $1.9 billion. The center houses both a study and recreation area for students, and is located next to the church.
Saban offered praise to those directly involved in overseeing the project, saying, "(They) really did a really great job of organizing this, staying on it, so that we could create a place that would provide an atmosphere where our young students would be able to grow spiritually but also have a place to feel a family home, which I think is very, very important when you go far away from home. I remember the first day when my parents left me off when I went away to school, and to have a place like this where I could have developed relationships with some quality people, and my faith, would have been very, very important to me."
Bishop Robert J. Baker, head of the Catholic Diocese of Birmingham, said in his introduction of Saban, "Thanks for teaching us to endure the pain of discipline so we don't endure the pain of regret."
Saban further stated, "The way I usually say it is it's the pain of discipline or the pain of disappointment, because you're always sort of disappointed if you don't have discipline to do the things you need to do. But I also define discipline for our players, our team and the people in our organization, which I don't know that sometimes people really truly understand. Discipline is all about: Here's something that I know I'm supposed to do, that I really don't want to do. Can you make yourself do it? Then over here, there's something that you know you're not supposed to do, but you want to do it, can you keep yourself from it?"
Saban talked about the fact that if you will stay on that moral path then the good choices made as a result will help you be successful and give you the positive self-gratification that you need to have the confidence to do the type of things you're capable of doing. Hopefully this student center will offer everybody an opportunity to do that."
The Saban family are well known in Alabama, and across the country for that matter, for all the charitable work in which they are involved, offering not only their resources but their time as well.
