I REALLY didn't want to get up this morning. We watched "Rock of Love" last night. I'm guessing my favorite, as of now, is Jes, even though it's a little creepy to see Bret Michaels, who has to be like 45 or something, dating a 23 year old. Just a little odd. And that streak in her hair, and that feather-head shit really annoys me.
Anyway, my best friend of the past 20 some-odd years, has moved off to California. He'll be back for Christmas, but we won't get to hang as much as we usually do. That sucks. I've still got the band, but it ain't the same. I've got nobody to sit and watch 12+ hours of football with me on Saturdays now. Haha. Oh well...I guess I'll have to teach my better half how to enjoy football from now on.
The Van Halen reunion tour will be announced officially today. The press conference is at 11am PDT, which is 1pm CST. So I'll be listening to the radio to see if anybody broadcasts it or not. Doubtful because, really, nobody cares anymore.
Days 'til Season Kickoff: 19
We are less than 3 weeks away from kickoff. There's only 10 days of practice left. Are you kidding me? That's awesome. The waiting is almost over. If you haven't gotten your tickets yet...you seriously should. Check out the Alabama section over at TickCo.com. You can also check out the venue schedule and go ahead and order tickets for other games as well. You don't want to miss being there...I promise.
Still nothing regarding the kickoff time for Sept. 1st. I'll find out more later.
The Commercial Appeal in Memphis has a feature story on how mysterious Coach Saban really is - they go so far as to say that even though he's been on the job for 7 months, his own players don't really know him. I find that difficult to believe...but maybe it's not.
For those Bama fans that seem to be obsessed with Coach Saban's discipline, etc, please check out this article. It tells about how other coaches in the SEC handle their discipline, and goes into detail about how Coach Saban does his.
Sunday was the Tide's first day off after 9 straight days of practice. Coach said that they really could use 2 days to recuperate, but it's camp, so they don't have that much time. They've got to get through it before they run out of time. Remember, last practice is August 23rd, and the first game is Sept. 1st.
Also, Alabama picked up their 16th commitment on Saturday evening. Damion Square, 6'3" 270 lbs DE from Houston, TX, was a Texas A&M commitment until he attended coach Saban's camp last month. He thought that Alabama would be winning championships before Texas A&M. Haha. The biggest thing about this kid is not just that he's the #14 overall prospect in Texas, or that he's huge with room to grow (just a senior in high school and he's 6'3" 270), but that he can absolutely fly. The kid runs a 4.7 40.
Wallace Gilberry and Bobby Greenwood know that there's not a lot of depth on the defensive line, and they're kinda taking that as an insult. Gilberry, in particular, wants to prove everyone wrong this season. I really hope he does.
Saturday's scrimmage showed a combination of how good the offense can be, rolling up 596 yards and 8 touchdowns in 92 plays (that's 6.5 yards per play), but it also showed how much the defense has to make up. Tackling was particularly bad, according to the coaches, and that needs to be fixed immediately. My guess is that the offense is going to score 90 points per game this year, and the defense will give up 75 or 80. Seriously. If the scrimmage stats hold up throughout the year, we should score a touchdown every 11 plays. I can handle that.
I honestly didn't realize this, and I have no idea why. Coach Saban's policy regarding practice is that they cannot take players to the ground. If you wrap up somebody, you grab hold, but don't finish the play. The whistles blow as soon as you hit them. They don't want anybody getting hurt in some injury prone pile-up.
Finally we're getting closer to an actual depth chart of sorts. After Friday's practice, the coaches are going to be giving more reps to the players that have a better chance to play on gamedays, and that's important to finally figure out who's ready and who's not.
Y'know...it's something that they players haven't had for the past 4 years: teaching. At least on defense. They're learning where their eyes are supposed to be and how to read a quarterback. The secondary has acted on instinct for the past few years, but that's all about to change. They're about to be REALLY good.
If you would like to read more about Saturday's scrimmage, check here.
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