Leave it to the basketball team to kill the good momentum that we've been having for the past few months. Gottfried, rather than go outside the family to get something fresh and new, decides to promote from inside the staff.
Now, don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against Kobie Baker at all. He's done a good job as president of basketball operations at the Capstone, but promoting him to assistant coach and giving Philip Pearson and James Holland more responsibilities is just not going to cut it.
Kobie's too nice. We were looking for someone that can put that fire under the kids and make them WANT to play HARD. Instead, we promote Kobie to assistant coach, and bring in Jeff Dunlap, an assistant coach at Western Michigan, to head up basketball operations after Kobie's journey to the coaching ranks.
We didn't get into Finebaum's article the other day, but I do believe he is correct regarding the fact that the Iron Bowl is bigger for Alabama this year. It could really kill the momentum we've got going with Coach Saban, but again, it wouldn't be the end of the world if we lost a 6th straight. It is at their place, after all.
I was listening to Jimmy Sexton on George Lapides's radio show this morning. They discussed the "improper meetings" with players, and Sexton informed George that coaches are allowed one phone call with players per week, and that the kids that spoke out about talking with Coach Saban had actually gotten phone calls from him. He said a lot of this has to do with the "Good ol' Boy" network between a lot of the coaches from waaaaay back when. Sexton said that before Saban joined the SEC, only assistant coaches would go out to high school during the spring / summer session, and when Saban started doing it, everyone cried foul until they actually read the NCAA rules. Urban Meyer started doing the same thing. Right now, all head coaches are out visiting during this session, and most of them want it to go back to how it was - they'll sit around and play in charity golf events while the assistant coaches make the rounds to high schools. :-)
THE DENNIS FRANCHIONE ERA
#12: Alabama 30 Arkansas 12Sept. 28th, 2002 in Fayetteville, AR
I remember this game for two reasons: 1) It was Brodie's first start, and 2) Shaud Williams broke the opening play for an 80 yard touchdown right up the gut of the Hog defense.
Brodie did very well in his first outing. He went 12 of 24 for 285 yards with 2 touchdowns and no picks.
This was an absolute beating. Arkansas had no idea what they were doing in this game, and they got smacked in the mouth on the first play. It really drew in those safeties to stop the run, which allowed a lot of deep passes. After the deep passes Santonio Beard and Shaud Williams were each able to surpass 100 yards on the ground. It was a steam rolling in Arkansas.
¶ 8:59 AM
