I remember last year having close ballgames, but knowing that we would lose. And this year, even when I knew we would lose (like last night), I still had hope.
It is incredibly obvious that we do not have the talent to compete for SEC Championships yet. Georgia did anything and everything they wanted to for most of the night, and we still found a way to take the game into overtime. That's absolutely incredible for a coaching staff that just came in here 9 months ago. This football team believes they are better than they really are, and that's half of the battle.
Now, after the overtime loss, we've crashed back down to reality, but just getting to overtime was a feat in-and-of itself. I didn't hear anybody that was mad about losing...just people that know that better things are on the way. We got smacked in the mouth last night, early and often, and still fought back, and I'm proud of our football team, as I'm sure most everyone is.
The Florida State game has been confirmed for CBS, with kickoff at 4pm CST on Saturday. This is another team that has more talent than we do, but they haven't shown anything as of yet. Should be another fun game, so get ready for another thriller. And the early line has Bama as at +3.5.
As for the Georgia fans that defaced Bryant-Denny - I have no proof of that happening, and until I see otherwise, I won't believe it. I met several Georgia fans yesterday, and they were very very nice.
And now, for the Greek section at Bryant-Denny throwing cubs, shakers, and liquor bottles on the Georgia players when they were celebrating the victory the other night, I have this to say - who cares? Yes, the Georgia players have the right to celebrate, but run down the field and get in front of your fans. Don't taunt our fans and jump around in front of the student section. That's just idiotic. I don't blame our fans for throwing shit, same as I'm not going to get irritated at Georgia for celebrating in the wrong spot. Everyone that's worried about "class" - don't be. Both of these teams had it, and both fanbases do, even if there was a minor incident at the end of the game.
Coach Saban made some interesting remarks about the passing game at the end of the night, saying that we've got too many good skill players to not be better at throwing the football. I agree with him. And for the people that are wondering how Georgia got more pressure on our quarterback than we got on theirs - look at the difference in the QBs.
John Parker is NOT the quarterback that will lead us to the promised land. He's not a good decision maker, and he's not an "under center" qb. But that doesn't bother Coach Saban - because he's not going to change his gameplan, or change what he's trying to accomplish to match his personel. It is very obvious that Coach Saban isn't worried about winning for the next couple of years. He's worried about getting a plan in place and doing things the right way. JP is the perfect shotgun quarterback. If he had gone to Texas Tech or to Hawaii, he'd be putting up ridiculous numbers, but in a power offense, he's just not that good.
Bottom line, see how many times JP held the ball longer than 2 or 3 seconds in the ball game. An offensive line should give a quarterback about that long to go through his progressions and make the throw. John Parker sat back there as long as humanly possible, got happy feet, and couldn't make the throws when he needed to. But you notice that as soon as we put him in shotgun in pressure situations, he knows where to put the football.
Of course, that's not what Coach Saban wants though. He has a plan. Eventually, he will get the football players to fit that plan, but we're not there yet. The process will take time.
...But it is definitely fun watching as it happens. Oh yeah, it hasn't quite been 24 hours, but I'm hearing that they've "voluntarily" gone over Florida State film today. The game should be interesting to see if Jimbo has some tricks he's saved for Coach Saban.
Oh yeah, and this is absolutely awesome - I am officially a Mike Gundy fan, even though they beat us last year. The article he's talking about is located here.
Comments:
"John Parker is NOT the quarterback that will lead us to the promised land." If you would have said this to me before the season started, I would've thought you were being harsh. As a matter of fact, when Paul Finebaum said as much on his show a few weeks back, I DID think that. But after 4 games, I believe his play has proven that to be a fact. Here's a question for you: how long do you think it takes before the masses start screaming for McElroy to lead this team? # posted by Unknown : 10:10 PM
I think that as long as JP keeps doing the 4th quarter comeback thing, the "masses" will be happy with him. Remember, JP played awful in the Arkansas game, but the national media made everyone believe he was a gamebreaker and was really improving as a qb.
The bottom line is that he's a shotgun quarterback. He was at Hoover, and he is here - but that's not the style that Coach Saban is going to run. Remember, McElroy is still a freshman. :-) # posted by Memphis Tider : 10:23 AM
NO MORE GAMEDAY!!!! # posted by WalkerTom : 10:24 AM
Mike Gundy - "WOW" # posted by Allen : 9:35 PM
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