You Can't Stop A Rising Tide
The bye week is over. The weekend soon will be as well.
Alabama football has come a long way this season, but the journey isn't over. 8-0 is a reason to celebrate for some teams. For Alabama, it's just a beginning. More games await, more teams to battle and vanquish. The prize is in sight but not yet obtained.
Nationally-ranked teams have fallen at the feet of the number one ranked
Crimson Tide. Others await. Two looming this coming month are the LSU Tigers this next Saturday, and at month's end it's the in-state nemesis Auburn Tigers. Both foes improving. Both foes believe they can win. Both foes trying to put together their best game of the season to stop the surging Tide.
Just when you think you have stopped the waves,
Lane Kiffin sends another that someone eats away at the castle walls, proving once again you are just sand. Think you have figured out how to move the pigskin at will?
Jeremy Pruitt sends another formidable pass rush and soon your quarterback is in the grass with
Tim Williams or
Jonathan Allen standing over him hot, sweaty and smiling.
Now comes the part of the season when all clubs have started showing improvement. With two-thirds of the season gone, teams have a lot in their arsenal and are well aware of the weapons of the Crimson Tide as well.
One thing has changed recently for Alabama. Earlier in the season there was very balanced offense, a pretty even mix to the run-pass ratio in the Bama attack. But recently, the Tide has resorted to more of a run game. Now that makes many Alabama fans very happy. Head coach
Nick Saban, however, sees it another way. Sure, for the season the ration is running 54 to 46 in favor of the pass which is close. But recently it's gone to 69 percent rushing versus 31 percent passing.
Concerning bye week practice, Saban had this to say, "I think that one of the things that we have as a goal this
week [was] to try to work hard on the passing game, to be a
little more efficient getting the ball to our explosive guys down the
field, which to me is not just about the quarterback. It's about the
protection. It's about the route runners. It's about quarterback reads.
It's about timing. It's about a lot of things that need to come
together."
Saban's thoughts, which he has vocalized, is that a one-dimensional team can be stopped or greatly slowed by a top-rated defense. Slow the one-dimensional team down enough to allow your offense to score points and the one-dimensional team can lose. Besides, with an effective passing game, it opens the ground game to eat up even more yardage as the opponent much take valuable resources that have been used to stop the run to now having to defend the pass that could come at any point in the game, regardless of the yardline or the amount of yards needed.
LSU is proficient at stopping the run. Especially in their own house. A loud, noisy house. A house that, at night, is spooky. A house with so much noise you can barely hear yourself thing, much less hear one another on the field of battle. The Tigers are ranked 13th in the nation in stopping the run. That is one tough rushing defense. LSU hasn't allowed a run of over 35 this entire season. Alabama has 13 rushes so far this season of 30 yards or better. Something has got to give.
Everyone knows that Alabama has an arsenal both in the backfield and on the ends. Running and passing are both options. Lately the Tide has been unloading on teams with the backfield, but Saban and company are seeing the necessity to load the gun and fire it down the field.
Put the ball down-field enough times and the running game is even better. But put the ball into the endzone on pass play and you give your running backs a little breather as well.
Saban doesn't just talk to hear himself talking. There are things he shares, and when he shares them, it would do us all well to pay attention. Nick Saban has been in this game a long time, and it's more than just a game to him. He holds a lot of his cards close to the vest, so when he shares it is something that is of great importance.
No, Alabama is in no way going to abandon the run, or even greatly cut back on the number of run plays. Saban just wants the run game to be the best it can be, to be as efficient as possible. Saban has said how he, Kiffin and the offensive coaches..."analyze every running play that we have, what's our
average, what's our efficiency. There's a difference
between average and efficiency, because if you have one 75-yard play and
then 10 zero plays, it's not very good efficiency but it's still a
pretty good average. We kind of break it down both ways, see if it's
something that we're coaching that we need to do better or how can we do
what we're doing in a better way."
Saban and the Alabama coaches are committed to making every player the best player he can be. Coach isn't just satisfied with a win, as we have seen so many times in this season alone. Saban wants to see young men playing to their potential, playing an entire game, focused and concentrating on the task at hand and pushing themselves to their limits.
That's Alabama football.
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Crimson Tide Volleyball Drops Match To Vols
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| Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
The University of Alabama volleyball team fell to the Tennessee Volunteers in three sets at Foster Auditorium on Friday. It was a tough match, with the Volunteers sweeping the
Crimson Tide by set
scores of 15-25, 22-25 and 23-25.
With the loss, Alabama falls to 15-8 overall, 4-6 SEC while Tennessee improves to 14-8. 4-5. The Tide's
Krystal Rivers provided 15 kills in the contest, now putting her 115 away from Alabama's career record.
Hayley McSparin wasn't far behind with 12 kills, hitting .450 with just three errors on 20 swings.
Leah Lawrence provided seven kills and three blocks in the match and
Quincey Gary contributed two kills.
Alabama will face the No. 22 Kentucky Wildcats (16-5, 9-1 SEC) tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. CT in Foster Auditorium.
Team Statistics
| Game Stats |
UT |
UA |
| Kills |
35 |
40 |
| Errors |
13 |
28 |
| Hitting % |
.222 |
.100 |
| Points |
51.5 |
44.0 |
| Aces |
3 |
1 |
| Blocks |
13.5 |
3.0 |
| TA |
99 |
120 |
| Assists |
35 |
38 |
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Tide Women's Golf 4th After 1st Day Of Landfall Tradition
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| Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
Crimson Tide women's golf has been outstanding, not only this season, but season's past. The Tide continues to roll this year. The Alabama women's golf team shot a five-over par 293 yesterday to find itself in a
tie for fourth place after the first day of competition at the Landfall
Tradition at the par-72, 6,166-yard Country Club of Landfall
in Wilmington, North Carolina. Oklahoma currently holds down the first place position at four-under par (284), Wake
Forest is second at even par (288), Purdue is third at three-over par
(291). Central Florida is tied for fourth place with Bama.
In the individual standings, Alabama sophomore
Cheyenne Knight is tied for second place at two-under par (70). Sophomore
Lauren Stephenson is tied for fifth at one-under par (71). Freshman
Kristen Gillman is in a tie for 13th at even par (72). Senior
Cammie Gray (eight-over par, 80) is tied for 85th and senior
Mia Landegren (nine-over par, 81) are tied for 85th and 90th, respectively.
Alabama will be grouped with Purdue and Texas Tech in today's second round starting. Bama will lead off with Landegrn at 7:30 a.m. CT, followed by
Gray (7:39),
Gillman (7:48),
Stephenson (7:57) and
Knight (8:06).
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2016 SEC Cross Country Championships
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| Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
The 2016 Southeastern Conference Cross Country Championships were held yesterday at Agri Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The University of Alabama men's cross country team placed fifth while the Bama ladies placed sixth in the contest.
"That was an incredibly gutsy run by our men [yesterday]," cross country head coach
Dan Waters
said. "We walked in with kids sick and nursing injuries. It was a
super-competitive race and I couldn't be prouder of the way they
finished. It was our worst day physically but our best day mentally.
That mental edge was why we were able to finish where we did so I'm very
pleased.
"On the women's side, we knew that was going to be a very tight race,
finishing tied for fifth place is a good run for us. I thought, again,
they ran their hearts out and had a great mental race. To have three
freshmen score was great and they all ran savvy races. It's great to
have them in the program for three more years."
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Alabama Men's Tennis Picks Up Three Wins
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| Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
The University of Alabama men's tennis team picked up three wins for their effort yesterday in the first round
of the singles qualifying bracket on day one of the USTA 10k
Futures event being held in Birmingham, Alabama at the Highland Park Tennis Center. A total of 119 athletes are registered in the tournament, with the
Crimson
Tide having five student-athletes compete yesterday.
Crimson Tide senior
Ritchie Kruunenberg
defeated Alexis Salazar of Ecuador in straight sets by identical scores, 6-1, 6-1.
Kruuenberg will face Jocelyn Devillers of France today on court two at 11:30 a.m. CT.
Alabama freshmen
Alexey Nesterov and
Thibault Cancel individually defeated both of their opponents in straight sets. Nesterov will play the Czech Republic's Miroslav
Herzan in the second round today at 11:30 a.m. on court
three. Cancel will take on Jibran Akhtar of the United States today at 11:30 a.m.
on court four.
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Tide Women's Tennis Gets Seven Wins Yesterday
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| Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
The Alabama women's tennis team came out swinging yesterday, picking up two doubles victories and
five singles wins on day one of the 29th Roberta Alison Fall
Classic at the Alabama Tennis Center on Friday. The two-day event concludes this afternoon. A total of 17 schools are participating in the even, five of which competed for the Crimson Tide.
Senior
Danielle Spielmann and junior
Smith Hinton put together a victory over Anki Wind and Hanna Sohn of Memphis in an 8-5 decision to pick
up the Tide's first doubles win of the day. Alabama freshman
Juliana Valero was paired with Clemson's Jennifer Moinard to defeat Caroline Hall and McKenzie Barco of UT-Chattanooga in an 8-4 contest.
It was Tide freshman
Maddie Pothoff picking up a pair of wins in straight sets in singles play, defeating Hanna Sohn of Memphis, 6-2, 6-3, before stopping Auburn's Alannah
Griffin in a 6-3, 6-0 decision. Valero's singles win came against
Mercer's Katie Sidor in a 6-4, 6-3 decision. Spielmann along with senior
Joanna Savva
picked up Bama's last two wins of the day. Savva defeated Georgia
Tech's Luca Fabian in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2, before Spielmann laid out Taylor Russo of Auburn in three sets 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
Two rounds of doubles and one round of singles play are planned for today.
