Final Practice In The Books For Championship Contest
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| UA Photo |
TAMPA, Florida - And then there were none. The number one rated Alabama Crimson Tide football team put in their final full practice session for the upcoming national championship game as well as the last one of the season on Saturday. Bama worked for approximately two hours in shells on the campus of the University of South Florida campus.
Once again, no new injuries to report and those already nursing the bumps, bruises and worse are improving daily.
The Crimson Tide began Saturday at media day featuring Alabama head coach Nick Saban, the Bama coaching staff and the entire football team. The team assembled at Amalie Arena for an hour-long interview session, then headed to the hotel for lunch then headed over to South Florida for the practice session. Last night the team was treated to a comedy jam and then free time.
The Saturday session was the fifth of five practices the Crimson Tide coaches had planned prior to Monday's College Football Playoff National Championship Game at Raymond James Stadium. The Southeastern Conference Champion Alabama Crimson Tide will battle the winner of the ACC, Clemson, for the second consecutive year to determine the king of college football. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN at 7:17 p.m. CT with Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit in the booth while Tom Rinaldi and Samantha Ponder work the sidelines.
Alabama will head over to Raymond James Stadium this afternoon for the first time since arriving in Tampa, traveling to the game site for a team picture and a final walkthrough leading up to Monday's game. Later the guys will enjoy a move, followed by meetings tonight.
This will be the 17th meeting between Alabama and Clemson in the history of the two programs, with the Crimson Tide holding a 13-3 all-time advantage in the series. The Tigers won the first three meetings, but the Tide have won the last 13 contests, with the most recent meeting between the two teams occurring in last season's College Football Playoff National Championship Game which Alabama won 45-40.
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Bo Scarbrough To Return To Tide In 2017
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Many believe the 6'2", 228-pound Tuscaloosa native was under-utilized this season, and is expected to be able to play a larger role in the Alabama offense under new offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian. Scarbrough had a huge game last week in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl with 180 yards rushing on 19 carries averaging 9.5 yards per carry. He was named the bowl's Offensive Player of the Game for his performance.
The 6-foot-2, 228-pound back was the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl’s Offensive Player of the Game, following a performance in which he had 180 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 19 carries (9.5 average). He has 719 rushing yards this season on 109 carries including nine touchdowns.
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Alabama Football
Bama Defense Better, Offense More Than Adequate
To Handle Deshaun Watson & Clemson
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| UA Photo |
Expect this to be another high-scoring game, but one of the things being pointed out by sports pundits, and has seemed to sway many from now choosing the Crimson Tide as the probable winner, is the fact that there has been a change in offensive coordinators, thus keeping Bama from moving the ball as effectively, thus not scoring enough points. However, one of the things not taken into consideration by those same "experts" is the better quality play coming from the Crimson Tide defense this season.
So here we are again. The No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide playing the No.2 Clemson Tigers for the College Football Playoff National Championship. Two consecutive trips for both teams, but the third for Bama in this four-team format.
Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson is believed to be improved over last season, as well as being called the best player in all of college football. Alabama fields a true freshman quarterback in Jalen Hurts. Hurts is a great runner, and has shone an ability to lead the Tide above his years, but his passing is not that of A.J. McCarron or Jake Coker...again, according to the pundits. Most believe that Watson will be able to run if need-be easier than Hurts will find it to pass the ball with accuracy and velocity.
Watson put up a blazing 400 passing yards on Bama's vaunted defense last season. Four of those were for touchdowns. The ability of Jake Coker to make the necessary passes along with the outstanding ground game is all that kept the Tide that one needed step ahead to capture the national championship. Yes, great yardage in the rushing department, but without some of those passes the outcome would have been different.
Deshaun Watson has even better weaponry from which to choose. He's a year better, more accurate but fallible and can even put on a burst of speed from time to time when called to run. But its the others around him that make him even more dangerous than last season. This time he has Mike Williams and Deon Cain, very dangerous receiving threats. They were nowhere around last season when Bama pulled off the come-from-behind 45-40 win. 40 points put on Bama, and this offense is better.
Last season Watson was extremely accurate in his passing game. Can he do that again this year? The Alabama defense is better than a year ago, and can make things more difficult for the quarterback phenom in this year's contest. Better rushing, better sideline to sideline pursuit and better in the secondary, not to mention the big-play potential of picking off passes and causing and recovering the other team's fumbles.
Watson has thrown more interceptions this year than last, however, getting 17 snagged by the wrong team. Expect him to be hurried more in this game than last, and especially more than he has all this season. Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt will turn up the heat when needed. If the Bama front can't get it done as they have this season, you can bet there's a blitz package or three waiting in the wings. If the front can get it done, Bama will have more than enough in the backfield to help counter Clemson's excellent receiving corp. When receivers are covered and the pocket collapses, hopefully he will be in the clutches of the Tide defense instead of breaking loose for 73 yards as he did last season. If Watson throws two picks against Bama as he did last week against Ohio State, the Tide has the ability to make him pay for those mistakes.
Back to Jalen Hurts. Protect him. Keep him safe. Put him on the run when he's the most comfortable in the package in which he is most comfortable. He must hold onto the football, though. The fumbles in this game, even the ones Bama manages to keep, will hamper progress enough to let Clemson's confidence level remain high. Don't take sacks. Dump the ball or throw it out of bounds but don't lose big yardage to the Tiger defense and screw with field position. Hurts can hurt the Tigers with the short stuff, with smooth handoffs, and his own feet. If he can get the yardage that Watson got last year, then the Alabama offense can move if he's also accurate when called to pass.
Sure, another high score. Not so sure that the Crimson Tide will let them get another 40 points though, and not so sure Bama will get another 45. The score doesn't matter. Number 17 does.
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – It may not have looked good for awhile, but it sure looked great by game's end. The Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team overcame a 12-point deficit in its Southeastern Conference home opener in Coleman Coliseum Saturday night to defeat the Vanderbilt Commodores 59-56. Bama put on a scoring clinic to outpace the Commodores 23-8 over the final 12:18 of the game to turn that 12-point deficit into a three-point victory.
It was Alabama redshirt freshman Dazon Ingram finishing the night with his second career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Ar'Mond Davis provided came off the bench to lead the Tide in scoring, pumping in 12 points in the final 20 minutes of play. Freshman Braxton Key led Bama on the boards with a team-best 11 rebounds to go along with his seven points. Also scoring in double figures was senior Jimmie Taylor adding an additional 10 points as well as pulling down eight rebounds and three blocks.
Alabama men's basketball head coach Avery Johnson was pleased with the way his young men rose to the occasion to come rolling back in the second half. He commented, "This was a big time win for us tonight. I'm really proud of our guys – the way we withstood some adversity tonight. We struggled to score there for a big stretch, but we consistently played defense. Vanderbilt is a well-coached team in Coach (Bryce) Drew that has scored 80-plus points in some of their games. So for us to do the job we did defensively, I'm just proud of our guys. We're not satisfied, we still got work to do, but our bench tonight came up big – 36 points from our bench. Ar'Mond Davis, Jimmie Taylor, Corban (Collins), Shannon (Hale) came up huge. We also dominated on the boards – 50 rebounds. I'd rather take this win having one more point than our opponents than losing it and having to figure out how we can improve."
The Crimson Tide improves to 9-5, 2-0 SEC on the season. The Commodores fall to 8-7. 2-1 SEC.
Alabama will host the 24th-ranked Florida Gators at Coleman Coliseum on January 10th, with a tip off scheduled for 8 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
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Alabama Men's Basketball
Crimson Tide Wins Home Opener
Defeats Vanderbilt 59-56 With 2nd Half Surge
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| UA Photo |
It was Alabama redshirt freshman Dazon Ingram finishing the night with his second career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Ar'Mond Davis provided came off the bench to lead the Tide in scoring, pumping in 12 points in the final 20 minutes of play. Freshman Braxton Key led Bama on the boards with a team-best 11 rebounds to go along with his seven points. Also scoring in double figures was senior Jimmie Taylor adding an additional 10 points as well as pulling down eight rebounds and three blocks.
Alabama men's basketball head coach Avery Johnson was pleased with the way his young men rose to the occasion to come rolling back in the second half. He commented, "This was a big time win for us tonight. I'm really proud of our guys – the way we withstood some adversity tonight. We struggled to score there for a big stretch, but we consistently played defense. Vanderbilt is a well-coached team in Coach (Bryce) Drew that has scored 80-plus points in some of their games. So for us to do the job we did defensively, I'm just proud of our guys. We're not satisfied, we still got work to do, but our bench tonight came up big – 36 points from our bench. Ar'Mond Davis, Jimmie Taylor, Corban (Collins), Shannon (Hale) came up huge. We also dominated on the boards – 50 rebounds. I'd rather take this win having one more point than our opponents than losing it and having to figure out how we can improve."
The Crimson Tide improves to 9-5, 2-0 SEC on the season. The Commodores fall to 8-7. 2-1 SEC.
Alabama will host the 24th-ranked Florida Gators at Coleman Coliseum on January 10th, with a tip off scheduled for 8 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
| Game Stats | VU | UA |
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| FG% | .357 | .317 |
| 3FG% | .385 | .280 |
| FT% | .667 | .667 |
| RB | 35 | 50 |
| TO | 12 | 11 |
| STL | 5 | 6 |
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| UA Photo |
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Men's Basketball Press Conference
Following Big Win Over Vandy
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| Click HERE to watch entire press conference via Tide TV |
