I watched the first episode of season 2 of frasier last night. I've completed all 24 episodes of the first season. I swear, I'm just a normal ass, blue collar, football lovin dude, but that show is absolutely hysterical. Oh well.
Days 'til Season Kickoff: 3
Yup, that's right. Tomorrow's the first games of the year. Tusla at La-Monroe at 6pm on ESPN2, LSU at Miss St at 7pm on ESPN, and Utah at Oregon St at 9pm on FSN. That's a full evening of football, my friends.
I've gone through the lines again, and man-oh-man, some of these lines are really moving. LSU is now an 18.5 point favorite over MSU. Didn't that line open at 16? East Carolina and Va Tech started at 24 points and is up to 27.5. I think Skip Holtz is a better coach than that, and he'll have is boys ready. I'd take East Carolina to cover that. Nevada is better than being a 21.5 point dog to Nebraska, and I'm wary of taking Houston +16 against Oregon. That line opened at 13.5. UAB is now a 21.5 point dog to Michigan State. I think Callaway will be able to keep that game close. And, of course, last year's darlings for me, BYU, are only a 4.5 point favorite over Arizona at home. I may take every one of these games. I'll let you know Friday what my final picks are.
Sooo, here goes the news....
Chris Walsh wrote an article yesterday about how the defense has some holes to fill. That was, of course, before we discovered that starting nose guard, Brian Motley, will be out for what looks to be a significant amount of time due to a serious leg or ankle injury. A family member confirmed that he broke a bone on the outside of his ankle. As if we didn't have depth problems on the line anyway, now we have this happen. We don't even know if Josh Chapman is eligible, so the only two players we've got at nose tackle at the moment are Lorenzo Washington and Alfred McCullough. Not good. Not good at all.
Bamamag.com breaks down the OL vs DL battle for Saturday's game against Western Carolina.
Well, since Rolando McClain is the starter this week at the Mike position, of course everybody's gonna have a big profile story on him. The Decatur Daily proves to knock it out first this week.
Coach Saban was asked if his defense is too complicated for the players. Coach Steele reminds us to not confuse the word "complex" with "complicated."
The Dothan Eagle explores the fact that this will be the first time since Shaud Williams was here that we've had a homerun threat at tailback (Terry Grant). Every time he touches the ball, it could be a touchdown...from anywhere on the field. Speed kills, my friends.
Mike McCoy is the biggest surprise, right now, on offense, because he jumped Keith Brown, who has been a starter basically since he was a freshman. Look for McCoy to help turn short passes into big gains, thanks to Western Carolina's tendencies to play off the line to nullify the deep pass.
If you're interested in previewing Western Carolina, check here for their teleconference yesterday and some notes about their matchups this weekend.
THE MIKE SHULA ERA
#3: Alabama 30 Southern Miss 21Sept. 10th, 2005 in Tuscaloosa, AL
Yeah, you knew it had to be up there in the list. Possibly the greatest catch anyone will ever see.
Southern Miss was pretty much whooping up on us. We took a quick 10-0 lead, which quickly evaporated into a 21-10 lead for Southern Miss after a pick-6 and two other touchdowns.
To close out the 1st half, we were 4th-and-12 from the Southern 43 yard line with :29 left in the half. Momentum was clearly in favor of Southern Miss.
Brodie threw a missile over the secondary and found Tyrone Prothro 1-on-1 with Jasper Faulk. Prothro stayed focused and caught the ball reaching around Faulk. He pinned the ball against Faulk's back and they fell into the endzone. It was ruled a catch, but we were placed at the one yard line. Le'Ron McClain scored one play later, and we finished out the scoring for the night, ending the game at 30-21.
Talk about a helluva play. Nobody will forget that pass anytime soon.
