[Bamabeachlivin]

The Crimson Tide get a much needed off week.

[Stoney]

I bet Saban uses this time to really get in thier heads and beat some sense into them. I wouldn't be suprised to see them come out in a spread offense just to give some people a different look or go back to the wishbone.

[Bamabeachlivin]

Funny thing Stoney the more of your post I read the more sense it makes. Sometimes and this is one of those times I could see some new wrinkles even the spread that could happen, the bone I would like to see it just to see how well they could run it. That would be fun to see. Ingram, Coffee and upchurch all in at one time that could be interesting.

[Stoney]

Originally Posted by Bamabeachlivin

Funny thing Stoney the more of your post I read the more sense it makes. Sometimes and this is one of those times I could see some new wrinkles even the spread that could happen, the bone I would like to see it just to see how well they could run it. That would be fun to see. Ingram, Coffee and upchurch all in at one time that could be interesting.

If I'm not mistaken McElroy was originally a Wishbone QB. This is the phase two part of the Saban plan. If he were to install some flavor into the vanilla offense now is the time. It would blow some opponents away.

[Stoney]

As a fan I am glad for the bye week. It is tough on the old nerves especailly when the schedual is set to toughen up against bitter rivals. We got past the first hurdle in Georgia. Now we take it on a game by game basis.... but LSU is going to be the second half hurdle. Then we have some buisness to take care of in our own backyard Ironbowl style.

[Stoney]

Through Week 6, one thing is perfectly clear. Any team that finishes undefeated in either the Big 12 or SEC will play for the BCS Championship. Until one of those conferences has all its members with at least a 1 in the loss column, there isn't much meat on the "best one-loss team" discussion.

Of course, it won't be surprising if that happens before the end of this month. Just rearrange your sock drawer or whatever you can do to stay busy for another couple of weeks. This thing is bound to get interesting soon.

The first official BCS standings, by the way, will be released Oct. 19.

Several items of interest from this week's computer ratings:

• Alabama is still the nation's No. 1 team in cyberspace, being ranked first by four computers and second by the other.

• Vanderbilt is No. 1 -- yes, you actually read those words -- in the Massey Ratings. But even after you throw out that number, the Commodores are still tied with Missouri for the second-best computer average.

• Perhaps the least significant story line of this weekend's Red River Rivalry: The game will break a tie between the Sooners and Longhorns in the BCS computers. They are tied for fifth … slightly behind Utah.

• LSU is held back in the mock standings by being the 11th-best team in the computers. Only the Billingsley Report has the Tigers higher than 10th right now.

• Texas Tech's best computer ranking is 12th by Jeff Sagarin, although the version of his rankings that includes margin of victory (not used by the BCS) has the Red Raiders 10th.

• Thanks to a schedule-strength ranking in the 100s by most of the computers, BYU appears in the top 18 of only Billingsley's ratings and is outside the Top 25 of both Sagarin's and Massey's.

• Florida also is taking it on the chin in the electronic rankings. The Gators are higher than 25th in only one of the computers (16th by Billingsley).

• Boise State is ranked in the top 12 of four of the five computers, and is 14th in the other one.

Brad Edwards is a college football researcher at ESPN.

[Stoney]

TUSCALOOSA -- Alabama head coachNick Saban gave the players a day off on Monday but spent a few minutes with the media, describing the team's focus this week as one which ignores the 6-0 start and concentrates on the remaining six games of the regular season.

Alabama is idle this weekend and returns to action at home against Ole Miss on Oct. 18.
"Intensity has fueled our success. That is something we need to maintain in practice and preparation and improving over this bye week," Saban said. "We don't need to be looking into the rear view mirror here. We need to be looking ... forward to the challenge ahead. Part of that is getting some rest this week and part of it is improving in areas where we have not been consistent. That is something we will focus on in these three days of practice."
Alabama returns to practice today and continues work through Thursday. The players will have the weekend off.

Super seven: Saban recognized seven players Monday for their performances in the Crimson Tide's 17-14 win over Kentucky.
Tailback Glen Coffee earned his fourth offensive award of the season from the coaching staff after rushing for 218 yards. Center Antoine Caldwell also was honored after leading the push up front as the offensive line cleared the way for 282 yards on the ground. Receiver Julio Jones was recognized for catching three passes for 52 yards. All three catches resulted in first downs.
On defensel, linebacker Rolando McClain was honored for the third straight week after recording 10 tackles and returning a fumble four yards for a touchdown. Fellow linebacker Brandon Fanney was recognized after recording three tackles and a quarterback hurry and combining on a tackle behind the line of scrimmage.
Two players were recognized for their special teams play as well. Punter P.J. Fitzgerald consistently flipped the field for Alabama , averaging 43.2 yards on six punts, and Marquis Johnson, a coverage player on kicks and punts, had a tackle on punt coverage and another on kickoff coverage that prevented a big return.

[Stoney]

YouTube - roll tide

[Stoney]

Tide linebacker Cory Reamer answers 12 questions

By Christopher Walsh, Sports Writer
Published: Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 12:16 a.m.
TUSCALOOSA | Think back to just three or four months ago, and the state of the University of Alabama linebacker corps.

http://images.tuscaloosanews.com/app...W=250&border=0 Alabama linebacker Cory Reamer sacks Tulane quarterback Kevin Moore during second half action earlier this season. (Jason Harless/The Tuscaloosa News)



Darren Mustin and Keith Saunders had moved on. Ezekial Knight’s career had been cut short. Prince Hall suspended. Backup Jimmy Johns arrested. The lone returning starter, sophomore Rolando McClain, was recovering from a motorcycle accident.
To say the unit was in disarray would be a tremendous understatement, leaving many Crimson Tide fans to openly speculate on who would play during the season opener against No. 9 Clemson at the Georgia Dome, and how good could the defense possibly be.
No one could have foreseen that the Crimson Tide would hold the Tigers to zero rushing yards, setting the tone for the 6-0 start and climb up the national ranking to No. 2. It seemed about as unlikely as a former backup defensive back with injury problems and just two tackles last season stabilizing the strongside, or Sam, spot.
Junior Cory Reamer answered 12 questions this week as the Crimson Tide enjoys its midseason bye atop the SEC West standings.

What’s been the focus in practice this week?
We just have to get a lot of things that we messed up during the first half of the season corrected. Special teams, we’ve made a lot of mistakes that have almost cost us the game. That’s a big emphasis for us, and start preparing for teams during the second half of the season. Mainly, focus on our techniques, that we haven’t been able to do during the game weeks, like we did in camp, and being more assignment-sound.

The teams you’ll face during the second half seem to be less spread-oriented and run the ball more. Will that mean more standard 3-4 and playing time for you?
A: We’ll see. We had a lot of teams I was supposed to be playing a lot against, but we got up early on them and I didn’t get to play as much during the second halfs. Hopefully that will be the case, I’ll get a lot more playing time. Hopefully we’ll face a lot of teams that will try and run the ball. Ole Miss, we practiced a lot for their irregular formations, the Wildcat-Bobcat stuff they had at Arkansas last year. They’re going to run a lot of that. It’s tough to play against and you have to be ready to go. The last couple of teams on the road (Tennessee and LSU), they’re going to try smash-mouth football against us.

Q: What are you going to do this weekend?
A: Rest. Sleep. I have schoolwork to catch up on. I won’t be doing much of anything. I’m going to watch everyone else play.

Q: One game on is Oklahoma-Texas. If the Sooners lose Alabama could be No. 1.
A: If they lose, they lose. It sucks for them. … There’s a bunch of good games that will be on, a lot of SEC teams that we’re focused on right now. Five of the last six games are against SEC teams. I’m going to be watching those, and I like watching SEC games. I know a lot of those guys who are playing. If Oklahoma loses, they lose. We’ll see what happens at the end of the season.

Q: Do you watch games a lot differently being a starting linebacker?
A: You pay a lot more attention, (thinking) if you played these guys what would you be doing. For me personally, I watch their tight ends, how good they’re blocking, watch their end linebackers on defense, stuff like that. Auburn runs sort of the same base defense that we run, so I watch their Sam linebackers, their outside linebackers and stuff. It changes it up a little bit; you’re not sitting there watching it for fun. You kind of have that mentality like you’re in the film room, studying for an opponent.

Q: For those who never see the coaches’ film, how different is that from the television broadcast?
A: There’s no commentators, which is sometimes good (laughing). It’s nothing against them, you just see things differently than they do. The camera angle is wide so you can see everything on the field. You don’t get those close-up shots like CBS and ESPN with their off-field cameras.

Q: Were you a little surprised that you were used so much on special teams against Kentucky?
A: No, that’s kind of been my role up to this year, being a special-teams player. I guess it’s just getting back to that. It’s a way to get playing time, you take it any way you can especially the way teams spread it out. You have to accept it as a big role in the game, a big part that can get you beat if you don’t execute. I enjoy it.

Q: What happened on the delay-of-game penalty on the punt Saturday?
A: I didn’t know the game clock had gone out. I was on the bench getting coached up on what we had just seen on defense. I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on on the field. I didn’t know, but it was just as much my fault as anyone else’s. I didn’t see the back judge count down. That’s my mistake.

Q: In that situation, though, is it the responsibility of the punter to call for the snap?
A: That’s my call, definitely. He has enough pressure on him to get the ball off. I make the calls and need to see what’s going on, and know about those situations. That stuff happens … I think they called it early (smiling). No way that was 40 seconds.

Q: Have you seen Coach Nick Saban as mad as he was when Javier Arenas was called for a personal foul?
A: Yeah, you didn’t see it earlier, he dug into me pretty good. I made a mistake on defense. That’s part of it, if you make a mistake he’s going to let you know. In a situation like that you need to learn to keep your poise. You’re going to get called for it if you retaliate. They always see the second guy.

Q: How much of a role do you think the offseason “mental conditioning” and numerous speakers you had during fall camp has played in the 6-0 start?
A: I think everyone on the team really bought into the system long before they came. As soon as last season ended we realized that these coaches know what they’re doing, so anything they want to do that will help us out mentally and physically you have to buy into it. These guys have been around for a long time and they have the experience on how to coach players up and be ready for the season. It was actually a lot of fun for us. We enjoyed it. It wasn’t like a class for us, there was a lot of interaction, personal stuff you can ask questions about, a lot to learn from. I think a lot of guys got a lot out of it.

Q: Halfway through the season what are your impressions of the freshman class?
A: We’ve had some guys who have really stepped up, more on the offensive side, we’ve guys playing there more than the defensive side with Mark Ingram and Julio (Jones). On defense we have a lot of guys who are progressing. It’s a hard system to come in and learn your freshman year. Courtney Upshaw is doing a great job, he’s getting some playing time in, they really want to see how he does on the pass rush. He’s a physical guy, he can play run and he can get back there like Eryk Anders. He has the speed as an outside pass-rusher and they really want to get him experience because they know he’s going to be a good player. Dont’a (Hightower) is doing a great job for us, he’s learning week to week on what he’s supposed to be doing and how he’s supposed be playing. He’s showing up and making plays each week.

Tide-bits

CBS picked up next week’s Ole Miss at Alabama game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Kickoff will be at 2:30 p.m. CBS has allowed ESPN to use one of its three six-day selections for the ESPN game (7 p.m.), which will be either Vanderbilt at Georgia or LSU at South Carolina. The other game will be on Raycom at 11:30 a.m. ESPN’s decision will likely be made Sunday.
Saban was asked during the weekly SEC coaches’ conference call whether or not junior left tackle Andre Smith might head to the NFL after this season, after being hailed a potential top pick. “It’s not a surprise, but it’s nothing we’re concerned about right now,” he said. “Those kinds of things we evaluate at the end of the season.”
Smith (elbow, “sick”) attended Wednesday’s practice, but was wearing a black jersey signaling no contact. He also did not participate in individual drills during the brief time period reporters were allowed to observe. Similar to Tuesday, junior Drew Davis worked at left tackle with the first unit, with true freshman John Michael Boswell at right tackle. Sophomore wide receiver Earl Alexander returned to practice after missing Tuesday with an unknown injury.

Reach Christopher Walsh at christopher.walsh@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0196.

[rolltide94]

Q: One game on is Oklahoma-Texas. If the Sooners lose Alabama could be No. 1.
A: If they lose, they lose. It sucks for them. … There’s a bunch of good games that will be on, a lot of SEC teams that we’re focused on right now. Five of the last six games are against SEC teams. I’m going to be watching those, and I like watching SEC games. I know a lot of those guys who are playing. If Oklahoma loses, they lose. We’ll see what happens at the end of the season.
It appears that Saban has the team focused on the SEC and one game at a time. You couldn't find a better answer than that.

[Stoney]

Ya gotta love it...