ROLL TIDE!

The atmosphere was certainly rejoiceful in the streets of Tuscaloosa tonight as the news of Alabama playing in the BCS national championship game was announced.  In one bar on the strip in Tuscaloosa, you see the excitement first hand as the announcement is made on TV!  Following is a chorus of songs like Yea Alabama & Sweet Home Alabama! 

Today, in retirement, Coach DeBerry a respected coach & authority on football, he is offering his opinion on who should play in college football's biggest game.

Coach DeBerry is adamant about the fact that it "should be who we feel are the two best TEAMS" (emphasis his), regardless of conference play. He said he looks at who "week in and week out" are the best teams.

"It is clear in my mind that LSU right now should be the #1 team because they beat Alabama", Fisher then said, "yet Alabama is that (motioning with his finger close together) close to being number one. It would be an exciting national championship game."

We agree with you on this one coach!

ROLL TIDE!

Watch his video below as he expounds on the subject.

Rashad Johnson picked off 3 interceptions, and Alabama's #1 ranked squad beat LSU in overtime. John Parker Wilson had the quarterback sneak in overtime that sealed the deal in Baton Rouge. Julio burned LSU on the goal line with a tightrope catch. Check out the AWESOME BAMA highlights below and see if it gets you pumped up... man it shooo did get my juices to flowing for Saturday night!

ROLL TIDE!

Post season nominations keep coming in for the Alabama football team, earlier last week it was announced that several Tide players were up for the Lombardi Award and today, Mark Barron and Dre Kirkpatrick were named two of the 15 semifinalists for the Jim Thorpe Award.

The Jim Thorpe Award is given annually to the top defensive back in college football; both Barron and Kirkpatrick have led the Tide’s secondary this season.

Barron so far this season has 40 tackles, with 27 solo stops; the safety also has added 3.5 tackles for a loss, one interception, broken up five passes, and recovered a fumble.

Kirkpatrick is becoming known as the Tide’s "assassin" on defense because of the hard licks he has delivered this season. Kirkpatrick has tallied 19 tackles (18 unassisted) and has added two tackles for a loss, eight broken up passes, and he has forced two fumbles.

Former Tide cornerback Antonio Langham won the award back in 1993.

http://www.alcrimsontide.com/lswho 

Click here to ORDER!

Alabama's 5 star basketball phenom, Trevor Lacey (#3), practiced in the first scrimmage of the 2011-12 season. This video has highlights of what happened. He did ok, but he looked much like most new freshmen that step up to the next level. He had some issues in shot selection & play, but there were also some bright spots with a nice alley oop to a teammate, a steal, & a nice lay-up. However, he did not look spectacular in his initial practice.

The hype level on this kid was out of this world, so anything short of Michael Jordan-esque play is a let-down. Cutting the kid a break however, he has talent. There is no doubt there. He will grow and improve as he learns what is expected of him from his demanding coach, Anthony Grant.

I remember watching a young Latrell Sprewell back when he was in one of his first practices for Alabama. The scrimmage was actually in Gadsden. He looked like nothing special at the time, but eventually ended up being a first round NBA pick & All-Star (and a "thug" if you ask ex-Warriors coach P. J. Carlesimo). So you never know. He may be a future star. Time will tell. Right now, he's a freshman. Plain to see.

Check out the video. Keep in mind Lacey (#3) is a work in progress, not a finished Picasso.

ROLL TIDE.

Alabama is in a bye week this week and Coach Saban spoke to the media this morning (Wednesday) about those preparations. Alabama will be going over fundamentals once again today, and then will begin installing the game plan tomorrow for the LSU game.

Coach Saban said one of the things that Alabama tries to do in a bye week used to do first rest and then improve individually. It is also important to get together and improve the team chemistry during this time. They especially want to get all the players working together. 

After playing eight weeks in a row it is good to have a break, players were pretty banged up hidden into this bye week.

In fact, Alabama is reporting more injuries this week than pretty much any other previous week. Linebacker Alex Watkins has a broke arm, and will be out for the LSU game but will be back within 2 to 3 weeks. Also, Alabama lost backup offensive tackle Cyrus Kouandjio for the season following the Tennessee game. In recent weeks, backup running back Eddie Lacy has been gimpy with a turf toe. However, hopefully the rest will help him recover from that.

The offensive line's depth could be the biggest issue with the star freshman Kouandjio being out of the rotation. Coach Saban said that the line's continuity should do the same with the starters intact, but it does "affect our depth."

The good thing is that Anthony Steen is coming back from his concussion and will get to play against LSU.

Also, Alfred McCullough is essentially the utility infielder of the offensive line and will be able to fill in for a number of offensive line positions of necessary.

“When you have guys like that, especially in the offensive line, it makes it so much easier to be able to get your best guys out there,” Saban noted. “He is really helpful because he can play so many places.”

Coach Saban also spoke some on the improvement of LSU's quarterbacks over their career. He said it seemed like a long time ago that Rashaad Johnson intercepted Jarrett Lee 3 times, but Lee and Jordan are much improved and do a great job this year for LSU at quarterback. With their styles been a little bit different, with one guy been more of a runner (Jordan Jefferson), it makes it difficult to defend.

The team is working on fundamentals today and will start installing the gameplan for LSU tomorrow.  Will keep you posted.

Coach Saban Audio Vids:
These are videos from earlier this week, we dont have today's video yet but Coach Saban talks about pretty much the same things..