My bracket is officially screwed. I picked too many upsets and knew it. Oh well.
Days 'til Spring Practice: 5 Days 'til the A-Day game: 33
This past weekend didn't matter to most Alabama fans. This coming weekend does. This Saturday marks the first practice for the University of Alabama football team under new head coach Nick Saban.
I don't remember an athletic year with both our football and basketball teams being so disappointing. I've seen over-matched teams do better than they should have in the past however many years, but I haven't seen a football team picked in the top 20 fall to 6-7 and a basketball team picked as a final four candidate that got knocked out in the first round of the SEC and NIT tournaments.
There hasn't been much to cheer about lately, but that's all about to change. Practices are closed to the public, but that's ok. We'll get our share of information from the few media sources that are allowed in. Don't expect everything to be all smiles from the coaches either - these are men that probably have already realized the mess that they inherited from Mike Shula.
Everyone knows about the discipline problems that have gone on at the Capstone in recent years. The only "team" was the players pulling together to try and win DESPITE the coaches. Again, that will change. There is new faith, and with faith comes trust in a new system and a new regime. For the first time in a decade, everybody knows who is "in charge" of Alabama football - and for the first time in a decade, it will be the head coach and not the boosters.
Saturday will mark the first day of four weeks of spring practice. Should be beautiful weather most of the time, and a lot of conditioning. Lots of running, lots of endurance drills. These are trademarks of Saban coached teams. No team on our schedule will be better prepared entering the 4th quarter of ballgames than we will. Which is a far cry from the teams that Shula led onto the field. The 4th quarter was normally where games were LOST, not won - that eventually led to his firing.
So a new era begins on Saturday, and we'll begin the preparations here at Memphis Tider with as much pre-season crap as we can fit into the end of March. For now, check out the other articles regarding Alabama football:
