Alabama Crimson Tide Sloppy In Win
Bama Mocked By The Mocs In Early Going
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| Tide QB Jalen Hurts becomes 1st QB ever over 800 rushing yards Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images |
If the Alabama Crimson Tide of Friday night had been your date, you would not have taken them home to meet your parents. Sloppy and unfocused was the rule of much of the night, and it was in Bama's own house that the embarrassment of being led by a lowly FCS school for what seemed like an eternity, even if only for a matter of minutes, was showcased for the nation. Sure, the Tide went on to win 31-3 over the Chattanooga Mocs last night, but had this been the team playing all season a .500 season would have been all the Tide faithful would be looking at right now.
In all fairness, Alabama has in-state rival Auburn coming up this week. Despite being a Nick Saban coached football team, minds do drift to other things deemed "more important," despite the old saying of "any given week..." The outcome of last night's game was never really seriously in doubt, but still, it wasn't the usual Alabama football that we're used to seeing.
Players were getting hurt. Freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts fumbled the football for the seventh time this season and the Crimson Tide was trailing for the first time in weeks. It was disheartening.
Saban? Oh don't think there wasn't a reaming that took place at halftime. And at the end of the game. And again all week long it will be brought up in some form. Sure, you put a game behind you after 24 hours is the Saban mantra, but you can bet practices will be different this week, and not just because the Tide will be facing the Tigers.
Even on the score that gave Alabama a 7-3 lead in the game, the play was just not vintage Alabama. From the 1-yard line the Tide was being stopped by the Moc defense. Hurts was stopped for no gain on second and one. Then running back Damien Harris was throttled by the Mocs. It took a toss to Gehrig Dieter as Hurts rolled to the right to get the Tide into the end zone. The ground game, at least at this point, was being stuffed by the Chattanooga defense.
Finally a bright spot. Jalen Hurts connected on a pretty 47-yard touchdown toss to Calvin Ridley gave the Crimson Tide 14-3 lead over the Mocs early in the second quarter. Perhaps the focus and execution that had been noticeably absent during the first quarter was slowing taking shape.
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| Dieter reception gives the Tide a 14-3 first half lead Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
Despite a few plays that showed the sleepy giant was trying to shake itself awake, the first half was an embarrassment. Even head coach Nick Saban used the word "embarrassed" in his short halftime interview. Clearly upset, Saban commented, "I don’t think we played very well on offense,” he said. “We are getting rid of the ball slow, we aren’t pass-protecting well, and we aren’t running the ball with any consistency. Defensively, we haven’t stopped them like we should. We have to play better. We just aren’t playing very well."
You could pretty much bet that most of the 101,821 fans at Bryant-Denny Stadium last night were embarrassed through much of the contest just as Saban was, not to mention millions more. Of course there were the usual Auburn, Tennessee, Ohio State and other haters happy for the way the Tide played most of the game. Nothing like having your nemesis have a bad game to make you feel better about yourself and team.
Despite the off night, Hurts was able to complete 15-of-21 passes for 136 yards as well as three touchdowns in the contest. His favorite target of the night was wide receiver Calvin Ridley who caught seven passes for 94 yards and a touchdown. Senior wide receiver Gehrig Dieter brought down three passes on the night, with two scoring touchdowns. The leading rusher on the night was Harris with 91 yards and one touchdown.
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| Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
Leading the Crimson Tide defensively was defensive back Ronnie Harrison with 11 tackles that included eight solo stops on the night. Senior defensive lineman Jonathan Allen and senior linebacker Reuben Foster both contributed two tackles for loss Saturday night.
Head coach Nick Saban is now tied with Ohio State's late legendary coach Woody Hayes in coaching the nation's top-ranked team at 46 games. One more win gives Saban sole possession in first, and what better team to set that mark than Bama's next opponent, Auburn. While at Alabama, Saban has won 41 of those 46 contests.
Alabama picked up 332 yards of total offense against the Mocs, 136 passing with 196 rushing yards to just 184 total yards (114 passing, 70 rushing) for Chattanooga. The Tide also led in the first down department, 14 to 10.
Following the game, Saban commented, "I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned. You can talk to the players as much as you want about whoever it was that beat Iowa, either South Dakota State or North Dakota State or somebody like that. Then Iowa beats Michigan, so you can go on and on about how this happens all the time in college football. If you're not really ready to play, and you don't prepare well to play, it's very difficult when you don't have high energy and intensity to compete in this kind of a game. The other team has a historical moment when they come to play you. They can make history by doing something special, and it's a very big game for them."
Concerning the overall performance of his team, Chattanooga head coach Russ Huesman said, "I thought our guys played hard with a lot of energy and excitement. It was really physical out there, and I am really proud of how our guys fought. I think that every one of our players played hard. Obviously you can't make mistakes against a really good football team. We got the muffed punt and the turnover there at the end, but I thought we played really good defense for the most part.
"Offensively, we got some first downs. I remember playing them here in 2013 and barely recording a first down. They have got a really good football team, and they probably slept walked coming into this game. I am not trying to think that they were all jacked up to play Chattanooga, but our guys were pretty excited to play, and I am awful proud of them."
Alabama defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson had this to say about the Mocs, "They were a pretty good team. They had a good game plan against us, and they were executing a lot more early on in the game, but we came out in the second half and executed a lot more than the first half, which helped us get a little more momentum in the first half."
The Crimson Tide will host the Auburn Tigers at Bryant-Denny Stadium this coming Saturday, November 26th for the annual Iron Bowl contest. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT. The final regular season game will be televised nationally by CBS.
| Game Stats | UTC | UA |
|---|---|---|
| Total Yards | 184 | 332 |
| Pass Yards | 114 | 136 |
| Rushing Yards | 70 | 196 |
| Penalty Yards | 2-10 | 1-10 |
| 1st Downs | 10 | 14 |
| 3rd Downs | 2-13 | 4-13 |
| 4th Downs | 0-0 | 1-1 |
| TOP | 34:06 | 25:54 |
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| Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
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| Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
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What Saban Said Following Alabama-Chattanooga Contest
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| Alabama football head coach Nick Saban Post-game press conference Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
It was not one of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team's best games, but a 31-3 win is still a good win. Sloppy perhaps, but a nice margin of victory.
University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban met with the press following the contest on Saturday night. Here is his opening statement:
"The defense obviously played pretty well in giving up just three points. We had a couple of miscues on a couple passes early in the game. Offensively, we didn't have a whole lot of consistency, and we definitely need to do better with that.
"I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned. You can talk to the players as much as you want about whoever it was that beat Iowa, either South Dakota State or North Dakota State or somebody like that. Then Iowa beats Michigan, so you can go on and on about how this happens all the time in college football. If you're not really ready to play, and you don't prepare well to play, it's very difficult when you don't have high energy and intensity to compete in this kind of a game. The other team has a historical moment when they come to play you. They can make history by doing something special, and it's a very big game for them.
"I think the good news is there are a lot of lessons that we can learn from this game, and we've just got to get ourselves ready to play a very good opponent next week. It's a very challenging game for us. We need to get our team refocused and re-centered, and I think everybody will be ready to do that."
When asked about whether or not there may have been some complacency on the part of Alabama players during the pre-game warmups, Saban said, "I didn't see it in pre-game warmups. I worried about it all week long. When you're playing conference games every week and other big games every week it's really hard to get guys not to have a let-down. When you use the word 'just' – 'just' racing against this guy; I'm 'just' playing this team – you set yourself up for thinking something is going to be easy, and you can be complacent. You don't have to have the same kind of energy level to go play the game. So I think that's deeply rooted. It didn't happen in pre-game warmup. I thought we started out fast on offense. They played hard, and we got frustrated a little bit. The defensive guys hung in there and only gave up three points, so that was a pretty good job by them, but we just have to do a little better."
When asked about injuries to Cam Robinson and Korren Kirven, Saban said, "Both of those guys had some little shoulder problems. We think they'll be okay, and the doctor is going to evaluate them. We'll make sure that they're going to be okay, and we expect them both to be able to play next week."
Alabama will square off this next Saturday for the final game of the regular season against in-state rival Auburn in the annual Iron Bowl game.
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Associated Press College Football Poll
Week 13
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Associated Press College Football Poll
Week 13
The Associated Press College Football rankings for Week 13 are out, and once again The Alabama Crimson Tide is the No. 1 college football team in the land. The Tide again received all 61 first place votes. Ohio State is again No. 2, followed by Michigan (3), Clemson (4) and Wisconsin rounds out the top five.
A total of six teams from the Southeastern Conference made the Top 25, but only Alabama was in the Top 10. Following the Crimson Tide from the SEC are Florida (13), Auburn (16), Texas A&M (22), Tennessee (24) and LSU (25). Among others receiving votes, Arkansas is ranked at No. 32 having received 10 votes.
Here is the Top 25 according to the Associated Press for Week 13:
1 Alabama Crimson Tide
2 Ohio State
3 Michigan
4 Clemson
5 Wisconsin
6 Washington
7 Oklahoma
8 Penn State
9 Colorado
10 Oklahoma State
11 Louisville
12 USC
13 Florida
14 Western Michigan
15 Florida State
16 Auburn
17 Nebraska
18 Houston
19 West Virginia
20 Boise State
21 Utah
22 Texas A&M
23 Washington State
24 Tennessee
25 LSU
Others receiving votes:
Stanford 81, Virginia Tech 77, Navy
62, North Carolina 55, Pittsburgh 24, South Florida 24, Arkansas 10,
Iowa 7, Troy 6, Minnesota 5, Temple 1, Wyoming 1
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Tide Men's Cross Country Closes 2016 Season
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| Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
Kosgei finished the men's 10,000-meter race in 43rd place with a time of 3029.4. This was his season-best time and his second-fasted 10K time during his two years at the Capstone. Coming in at 123rd was Farnham-Rose with a time of 31:04.3.
During his two years with the Crimson Tide, Kosgei made two trips to the NCAA Championships, as well as capturing the 2015 South Region individual title, was 2015 South Region Runner of the Year, was twice an All-South Region selection, took the 2015 SEC individual championship, was the 2015 SEC Men's Runner of the Year and was in two All-SEC selections.
Farnham-Rose was impressive himself, making three South Region appearances at Alabama, earning All-South Region honors in 2014 and 2016 along with his NCAA championships appearance this season.
Congratulations, gentlemen.
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| Photo Credit: Alabama Athletics |
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Amway Coaches Poll Week 13
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | POINTS | 1st Place Votes | Prev | CHANGE | Hi/Low |
| 1 | Alabama | 11-0 | 1575 | 63 | 1 | 0 | 1/1 |
| 2 | Ohio State | 10-1 | 1482 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2/8 |
| 3 | Clemson | 10-1 | 1420 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2/5 |
| 4 | Michigan | 10-1 | 1404 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2/8 |
| 5 | Washington | 10-1 | 1297 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 4/18 |
| 6 | Wisconsin | 9-2 | 1279 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6/NR |
| 7 | Oklahoma | 9-2 | 1215 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 3/NR |
| 8 | Penn State | 9-2 | 1077 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 10/NR |
| 9 | Colorado | 9-2 | 1052 | 0 | 12 | 3 | 12/NR |
| 10 | Oklahoma State | 9-2 | 947 | 0 | 13 | 3 | 13/NR |
| 11 | Louisville | 9-2 | 864 | 0 | 3 | -8 | 3/23 |
| 12 | Southern California | 8-3 | 774 | 0 | 19 | 7 | 17/NR |
| 13 | Florida | 8-2 | 744 | 0 | 18 | 5 | 9/25 |
| 14 | Florida State | 8-3 | 735 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 2/21 |
| 15 | Nebraska | 9-2 | 719 | 0 | 17 | 2 | 6/NR |
| 16 | Auburn | 8-3 | 663 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 8/NR |
| 17 | West Virginia | 8-2 | 489 | 0 | 9 | -8 | 9/NR |
| 18 | Western Michigan | 11-0 | 448 | 0 | 21 | 3 | 18/NR |
| 19 | Boise State | 10-1 | 414 | 0 | 23 | 4 | 13/NR |
| 20 | Utah | 8-3 | 374 | 0 | 11 | -9 | 11/NR |
| 21 | Houston | 9-2 | 349 | 0 | 26 | 5 | 5/NR |
| 22 | Texas A&M | 8-3 | 315 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 6/NR |
| 23 | Washington State | 8-3 | 132 | 0 | 20 | -3 | 20/NR |
| 24 | Tennessee | 8-3 | 129 | 0 | 31 | 7 | 9/NR |
| 25 | North Carolina | 8-3 | 118 | 0 | 24 | -1 | 13/NR |
