A Few Things . . .

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November 27, 2005

About This Football Season

This season definitely had its ups and downs for Alabama, but any way you look at it, the ups far outnumbered the downs. I kept my mouth shut (at least on my website) for the most part, but I can't help it anymore... I'd like to point out a few things:

• The injury to Prothro was a freak and tragic accident that could have happened at any time in any game. I refuse to criticize Shula or anyone else for the fact that he was still in the game at the point he got hurt. We all know he and probably the rest of the starters were going to be pulled on the next drive, and when that particular drive started, there was just too much time left to go ahead and put in the backups. Of course, even those who are okay with his still being in there question calling a pass in that situation. Let's just say that if Tyrone had caught the pass and not been injured, no one would even think twice about the play call. I do have to wonder what the rest of the season would have been like had he not been hurt. The offense would no doubt have been better, but would it have made enough of a difference to beat LSU and Auburn? I don't think so. Which leads me to my next point...
• Prothro is not an offensive lineman. The entire preseason, nearly every single article about Alabama said that the defense would be great, Brodie and Darby were healthy and would have good years, and the receivers would step up...but the offensive line was the weakness. Everyone seemed to forget about this fact as they were whipping up on the likes of Middle Tennessee and Southern Miss. They had a great game against South Carolina, an OK game against Arkansas, and then, like the rest of the team, played well above their own abilities during the Florida game. And then reality set in. They became the offensive line that was expected in the preseason, and the loss of their leader in the Mississippi State game when Closner went down was devastating.
• The defense...well...I don't really have to say anything here. Some of the numbers were just ridiculous. In the five game stretch from Florida to Mississippi State, which were all SEC games except one, they gave up a TOTAL of 19 points. Before the Auburn game, the most points scored against Alabama was 21 by Southern Miss, and 7 of those were from an interception return for a TD. And the defense was actually pretty good in the Auburn game, all things considered. Since we had to keep punting out of our own endzone, they were starting off with ridiculously good field position. After that first 10 minutes or so, they clamped down and only allowed one more score after that. Considering they still weren't getting any help from the offense, that was pretty good.
• I said back in August that we would hopefully win the 7 games we were supposed to, and pick off one of the 4 big games (Florida, Tennessee, LSU, and Auburn). I'm not claiming to be the only one to say this...a lot of people had this same general feeling. Well, we one-upped that to finish the regular season at 9-2. Simply amazing, all things considered. It really frustrates me that everyone got so caught up in the national championship talk, which was complete crap, to the point that the fans were all severely disappointed by ending the season with two losses. Of course I wish we had won them both and caused the folks at ABC and ESPN to have heart attacks about whether or not their dream USC/Texas matchup would happen. But in August, any fan would have taken 9-2. 9-2 was an overachievement for this team. We're still feeling the effects of probation and are not up to full power yet. Our starters are all great, but we had little depth, and two big injuries helped to point that out (much like the even more injuries pointed out last year). If one (or both) of those losses had come earlier in the season (which would have kept everyone from getting carried away dreaming of a national championship when we hadn't played our two best opponents yet), everyone would still be overjoyed at 9-2. But because of all the hype, they're disappointed now. I refuse to be disappionted. I hate losing to Auburn and LSU as much as the next guy, but they SHOULD beat us. They both have a full complement of scholarships. We don't. Probation caused its desired effect. 9-2 is better than I or most people expected, so we should be happy.
• It makes me really ill when I hear talk about how Shula has to beat Auburn next year or he's going to be fired. What happened to the praise about turning the program around from 6-6 in 2004 and 4-9 in 2003? He's still not playing with all his own players yet, and even next year we won't be fully over the effects of the probation. Yes, losing to your second biggest rival four times in a row would be a very bad thing, but I'd like to think that things have changed since the Bill Curry days. I honestly don't think that he has to beat Auburn next year to keep his job. The crazy and irrational alumni don't run the school (at least not completely), and I think a decent number of people understand the handicaps that have been put on him. I think the success of this year might actually hurt him, though, because everyone always wants to see improvement. It is going to be extraordinarily difficult to improve the record next year, since we'll play Florida, Tennessee, and LSU all on the road and we lose a lot of players on defense. As long as we don't start losing games that we should win, I think he still has a pass for another 2-3 years at least.
• I'm also tired of criticism of Brodie. Sure, he did not become the Hesiman candidate everyone thought he would be when he signed, but that has as much to do with the players around him, the revolving door of coaches, and the spat of injuries as it does to anything he did or didn't do. The fact remains that he now owns practically every passing record in the Alabama record book despite missing most of last year and part of another year with injury. Joe Montana wouldn't have had a good game against Auburn with as little time as Brodie had to throw.
• I hope we win our bowl game, and I think a lot of people will look to what happens in the bowl game to form their opinion of Shula's performance this season. He'll have plenty of time to try and figure out how to fix the offensive line with the same players, and hopefully the motivation of a possible 10 win season will get things going. But even if we lose, even if we lose badly and look terrible doing it, I will be temporarily mad, but in the long run, I just can't be disappointed about this season. I can't emphasize it enough...we should not have gone 9-2 this season. I'm happy that we did.