FIU game creates more worries for Alabama fans

Alabama wins 38-3 just like I predicted, yet somehow the victory wasn’t as resounding as it should have been. In fact, it raises even more questions about Shula and the state of Alabama football.

In fairness to Shula, these types of games are always hard. Teams are distracted following tough losses to rivals like Tennessee. Of course, none of us can forget the debacle at Auburn last year when Alabama came out flat following the loss to LSU. In all of my years of watching, observing or commenting on football, I have never seen a worse job of getting a team focused after a loss than last year’s Auburn game. It was Auburn. How hard is it to get up for your biggest rival? Yet somehow, some way, Shula and Co. found a way to be flat.

Fortunately, while Alabama started slow against Florida International, it didn’t end that way. Alabama found ways to out-muscle a weaker team. The game played out in the second half the way it should, with the more talented team making plays and finally getting some points inside the red zone.

But before some jubilant fans cream their pants over scoring in the red zone, we must keep things in perspective. This was Florida International.

Still, Shula gets a much needed victory and that’s a good thing. It should assure a good push into the last stretch of the season.

What has Alabama fans concerned is the lack of fire the team displays. Why is it Alabama comes out flat in every game against lower-tier opponents?

This is a coaching issue. It is the responsibility of the coaching staff to keep players focused on this week’s opponent, not last week’s or the next week’s. Shula & Co. simply must do a better job of getting the team emotionally ready to play. It cost us in the Auburn game last year and it will cost us again if the coaches do not learn from their mistakes.

When will Alabama play a full 60-minutes of football? In every game this year, there have stretches where the team just isn’t putting together a complete game. This too is a coaching issue, which must be rectified. You can’t play 3-quarters of a ball game and expect to beat Florida, Tennessee, LSU’s or Auburn. The coaches simply must have the team perform for a full 60-minutes sometime this season. Let’s hope it’ll be enough to stop the appearance of the thumb.

Unfortunately, the slow-start for the Tide and the narrow margin, which lingered into the third quarter, both mean more questions for this team and coaching staff.

Just once this season I’d like to enjoy a win instead of worrying about what it means for the team.

Game: Alabama vs. Florida International University

Some fans are speculating about this game. There are some even concerned about a potential for poor performance. I don't expect that.

I think the team will come out and handle FIU 38-3.

AL.COM Censorship

Why is it AL.COM's forums moderators are taking down every single post critical of Shula?

The 7-5 Expectation

Apologists want to say Alabama is going to be 7-5 this year and that is just what the EXPERTS thought.

You know, the same experts the Apologists want to deride because they have the audacity to point out Alabama's ineffective play on offense this season.

Anyway, the Apologists argument goes something like this: Alabama was picked to go 7-5 or 8-4 and that is JUST what this team is going to do! Therefore, we should all cut Shula a break because this team is living up to expectations.

Interesting argument. But why should people be happy with living up to expectations? Shouldn't we push ourselves and others to exceed expectations? Isn't the mark of true excellence to exceed what all others think we can accomplish?

The realistic predictions for the season were pretty much having Alabama with 3 probable losses (Florida, LSU and Auburn) one tossup to possible loss(Tennessee) and one possible win (Arkansas) with the rest of the cupcake schedule down as definite wins. NOW, just because someone makes a preseason prediction doesn't change the fact that Alabama has UNDERPERFORMED in the fourth quarter of every big game this season. Period. There is no sugar-coating that fact.

Underperforming at crunch time isn't the players fault. These are the same guys on the field who played hard and did enough to win for three quarters. What happens in the fourth? What holds Alabama back?

There is a growing consensus that while other teams make adjustments at half-time and in the late game, Alabama doesn't change anything. That is a coaching issue.

Underperforming on gameday can be the product of poor player concentration, which leads to poor execution, or to poor coaching. I saw a quote by Pat Dye that said Blowouts are the players fault, but close losses are the coaches fault. That is an interesting analysis. But I'd go so far as to say in most situations all loses are the responsibility of the coaching staff. If players don't execute, that is a practice issue. And if teams can't score in the Red Zone, then that is the coaches fault. Call it a scheme problem, a personnel problem or whatever, you can't get past the fault resting with the head coach.

In any case, Alabama fans, or at least the vocal Apologists, are now ready to be satisfied with living Down to expectations.

The Curry Factor

Bill Curry was an awful coach. I think some people misunderstood my post earlier in the week when I compared Shula's record to Curry's. I was not leading a bring-back Bill campaign.

On the contrary, I was pointing out how bad the situation is.

But as horrible a football coach as Bill Curry was, he is worse as a person. He's dangerous for college football because everything he says is sprinkled with a little bit of truth.

Curry was and is a self-promoter. He flourished by talking nonsense while his position coaches did the X's and O's work. He kept his mouth shut while Homer Smith and others taught the players.

During his Alabama tenure, Curry was fond of saying a requirement for being an assistant on his staff was winning a national championship. Something conspicuously missing from Curry's own resume.

When Curry left the University for Kentucky, he played up to the media his story of being run out of Tuscaloosa after a 10-2 season. Curry tried to paint all Alabama fans as rednecks.
Curry once again tries to paint Alabama and other big football fans in a poor light in this article on espn.

Some of the negative items in it bring back visions of the infamous brick tossed through Curry's window at Alabama or the alleged death threats he and his family received.

Whatever.

Curry also throws in a few good points. Something of his trademark, he spreads some truth in with all the manure.

"Football is a game of leadership, ball security, field position and physical dominance. Positive team expectations are built by establishing deeply ingrained habits in each of those areas. Consistent winning is the product of positive expectation combined with those habits," Curry said.

Does anyone find it odd that Curry would talk about consistent winning? Did he ever consistently win at anything? The one thing Curry was consistently good at was and is running his mouth.

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The Great Coaching Hunt of 2006

With the North Carolina job open, the Great Coach Hunt of 2006 is on.Lots of interesting rumors coming out of Carolina Blue this week. One report from them early in the week was that Butch Davis was holding out waiting to see what would unfold at Alabama before beginning serious discussions with the Tar Heels.

That report was untrue, according to most later reports. Davis turned down the Alabama job before and it is unlikely the school would consider him now. At least that is the conventional wisdom at the moment.

The candidate list being mentioned at North Carolina is at once credible and at the same time laughable. Rich Rodriguez is one candidate being profiled by Carolina Blue.

One radio program said Rodriguez would prefer to move further south for a new job (like FSU). Louisville's Bob Petrino's name was tossed around as a possible replacement for FSU's Bobby Bowden.

Other names more likely to get the North Carolina job include: David Cutcliffe, Jim Donnan and Skip Hotlz. Cutcliffe and Donnan are the most likely candidates at this time. Cutcliffe's resume at Ole Miss, while not spectacular was better than most have faired in Oxford. Kevin Scarbinsky's column in today's Birmingham News provided a good look at Cutcliffe's credentials.

What may be the biggest job available this coaching hunt season is the University of Miami. Lots of rumors are floating around with names running from Georgia's Mark Richt to Auburn's Tommy Tuberville.

Tuberville's name was mentioned on WJOX talk radio show early this afternoon, attributed to an Internet report. Tuberville is well known as bitter over Auburn's treatment of him during and after the Petrino-gate debacle. Would Tuberville like to leave the Tigers for Miami?

My guess is no. But it does make for intriguing conversations.

When was the last time...

When was the last time Alabama fans sat around asking themselves: Could we lose to Florida International? Well not that specific question, but a question like that. Could we lose this week to (insert familiar lower-tier directional school here)?

There is something wrong with Alabama fans being forced to ask this question every week. It has become more frequent post-Franchione. Will it ever improve?

Class and blaming the players

In an effort to defend Mike Shula, some fans now claim the players aren't giving it their all or the players just aren't good enough to win big SEC games. That's sad for so many reasons.

One of the most disturbing trends in college football is how fans now blame the players. In the old days, coaches stood up and took the heat for losses. How many times did Bryant say on his Sunday show that a loss was the coaches fault because they didn't have the players ready or a particular thing didn't work and it was the coaches fault?

That was a recognition by Bryant and his fellow coaches of two important things.
1. The Buck always stops with the head coach.
2. These are college players.

The first lesson is self-evident. Just like the rest of us running a company or business. If we make mistakes we run the risk of being fired. Make enough mistakes and we are guaranteed to get tossed out.

But the second reason is something Alabama fans just don't get these days. It is the same fans who BOO their own players, BOO opposing teams and scream out the Rammer-Jammer cheer (I'll write an essay on that some other time) after beating the likes of Duke.

College football players are young. And because they are young they make mistakes. But guess what, so do other teams young players. On the football field, as in life, everyone makes mistakes. With reduced practice time and other modern distractions, it is even harder today to train student-athletes.

But whatever the case, mistakes are a failure of execution. An execution is ALWAYS a practice issue. If you practice enough, you eliminate mistakes. And don't be fooled. Practice is always a coaching issue.

Remember Mike Dubose. One of the biggest criticisms of him was the incompetent way he conducted practice sessions.

Is Shula another Dubose? We all hope not, but time is running out for him to prove he is a winner.

From the Soviet News Agency TASS

On Finebaum today the Kremlin's media face said the wholesale staff changes would NOT take place at the end of the 2006 season. In fact, according to Travis Reier of Bama Online, Shula only has to win about 9 games in 2007 for his superiors in the athletic department to be satisifed.

He went further and said only if Shula failed to perform at the nine or 10 win mark in 2007 would wholesale offensive staff changes take place.

According to the TASS reporter, Shula's job would not be in jeopardy until the 2008 or 2009 season.

Spin Control

In a Tuscaloosa News story by Dave Wasson available here, coaches on the staff and players do spin control defending some of the most questioned elements of the Tennessee game.

One big question remains in the use of Darby over Johns at running back. I won't go into the arguments, but literally hundreds of fans have been upset at John's lack of playing time. One fan compared it to the nonsense at Alabama when Shaun Alexander ran for 296-yards at LSU, but had to wait another two-years before starting.

According to Wasson's story, coaches believed Johns was injured and wanted to protect the tender ankle.

Rader said he expects Johns to be available for this week’s game against Florida International, and cited that as evidence that the decision to not play Johns more against Tennessee was sound.“We made the right decision," Rader said. “We’re not going to jeopardize the whole season so he can play five more plays, six more plays.

This is an interesting quote. The staff believes keeping people healthy for the FIU game was just as important as winning the Tennessee game. I'm not sure I agree with that logic. After all, don't most fans expect to have second and third-strings into the FIU game by halftime?

I can understand keeping people healthy. Injuries are always a bad thing. But Bryants and many other Alabama and Tennessee playeres have played seriously injured because winning that rivalry game was/is important.

As for Shula and the inept offense:
So what is Alabama’s problem? Is it execution, having the right personnel in the game or calling the right plays?“It really is all of the above," UA coach Mike Shula said.

Wow. That's a great admission. Let's hope Shula actually makes progress for once.

Danny Sheridan blasts Shula

Noted Alabama alum and football expert Danny Sheridan blasted Mike Shula during an interview on talk radio today.

Among many pointed comments directed at Shula was one of the most direct criticisms to date, when Sheridan said, Shula was "not qualified to be the Alabama head coach."

Tampa Bay redux

A couple of articles on Shula's inept offenses in Tampa Bay:
This one from sportsillustrated

and another one:
Damning article showing the consequences of Shula at Tampa Bay

Some important quotes from the article:
Statistics can lie, but in Shula's case the numbers were lethal. Fourth-worst offense in the league, coming up a touchdown shy of making Super Bowl XXXIV. Just one franchise had a worse passing game.
Too predictable.
Too stoppable.
For four seasons the Bucs were dragged down by offensive deficiencies....

The Curry comparison

Bill Curry's record at Alabama:
26-10 (.722 winning %)
big game record: 8-5 (.667 winning %) including:
0-1 Florida
0-3 Auburn
3-0 Penn State
3-0 Tennessee
2-1 LSU
Don't forget Curry won the 1989 SEC Championship. He was 1-2 in bowl games with losses to Michigan and national champion Miami.

And until Mike Dubose, Curry was considered the worst coach in Alabama history rivaling even the debacle of Ears Whitworth. Of course, Dubose incompetence eclipsed all others, but it is shocking to look at Curry in comparison to Shula's record.

Tuesday round of columns on the Alabama situation

Lost Cause Before Halloween: 3 of 4 Shula seasons Finebaum says

We come here today not to bury Mike Shula but to try to get him some much needed help. With these nearly weekly self-inflicted wounds, he's going to do some serious damage to himself -- and his career -- one of these wayward Saturdays. There may still be time to salvage his shaky tenure at Alabama, although the sand in the hour glass is starting to move a little more rapidly as the carnage of this season piles up.

From Finebaum's Tuesday morning column available here.


Finebaum does a great job of outlining the damning numbers in Shula's resume:
Overall record: 25-20
Record against Tennessee 1-3
Record against LSU: 0-3
Record against Auburn 0-3
Record against Arkansas 1-3

In Kevin Scarbinsky's Monday morning column in the Birmingham News, the columnist brings up a valid reason Alabama fans are frustrated with Shula, namely, "If you're going to hire a coach who's going to be learning on the job, you have to be willing to let him learn from his mistakes. Trouble is, that's the one thing Shula has yet to learn."


Trouble is, that's the one thing Shula has yet to learn.

Calls for censorship

This post from some apologists on a message board shows the problems in our camp. It was these same type of Alabama-family sycophants who forced the hiring of Dubose, and now since reason leaves them incapable of defending Mike Shula's staff, they demand bannings and censorship.

Dateline MOSCOW

More from TASS

Staff writer (propagandist) Matt Scalici says: Don't Hold Your Breath, Butch.

He says Shula is here to stay for a while. He also indicates the program has moved in the right direction since Shula took over.

Protest march?

An Alabama fan attempts to organize a protest march.

Let us know how it goes and send a few photographs if it does happen and we'll make sure it gets posted and the event gets coverage here.

Interesting comments on Finebaum...

Paul Finebaum hinted there are problems within the Alabama coaching staff on his radio show this afternoon. He said Shula had to hope he didn't lose the hearts of the team after he had "already lost some of the coaches."

In an earlier portion of his show, Finebaum said two coaches (Bob Connelly and Sparky Woods) were the source of tensions on the staff.

Are these the same coaches Finebaum mentioned here? How deep are the divisions on this staff and how will the tensions play out for the rest of the season?

In another bit of information let out by Finebaum, he said unequivocally the University would not make a change at the end of the season unless something drastic changed. He said the powers that be are "determined to support" Shula, and the powers that be were not seeing a level of discomfort high enough to warrant a change in the head coach.

That's all well and good now. What happens when if Alabama doesn't beat Auburn? What happens if Alabama also loses to LSU?

You can hear Finebaum online at www.al.com/finebaum or visit www.finebaum.com

Alabama job has national interest

According to a story and this discussion on rivals.com, Butch Davis is waiting to see what happens with the Alabama job before looking at another offer.

All the people who say Alabama can't get a quality coach should look at this. Alabama has hired several good names over the last couple of coaching searches. While Franchione and Mike Price had their faults, both were proven winners and good choices to lead the program (well other than Price's advanced years.) Truth be told, Moore has made good choices in coaching searches. When he hired Shula, there wasn't much else he could do at that time of year.

With Davis available and looking at the Alabama job could this mean a change comes in the off-season? That probably depends on how the rest of the season unfolds in Tuscaloosa.

From the Soviet News Agency TASS

Or maybe this one is from Pravda, but whatever the case, according to this article, Alabama fans should just sit down and stop second-guessing the master strategist Mike Shula!

"Of course, the second-guessers fail to point out that instead of three points, or seven points, there is another possibility. Zero points." No, shit Sherlock. I think most football fans know that.

Honestly, I don't believe Shula's conservative decision cost Alabama the game. Taking points was probably the right thing to do. But second-guessers have every right to demand solutions to Alabama's woeful offensive execution. I mean come on now, we didn't even move the ball past our 40-yard line in the fourth quarter. There is only one word for that--sucky!

But this Apologist story on Bama Mag is indicative of a larger problem. The systemic group-think around a large segment of the Alabama Athletic Dept. And its sycophants. This pseudo-media group keeps the leadership from realizing the real dangers of the present situation, by spewing the propaganda to the masses. These are the people who denied there was any problem with contract negotiations between the University and Franchione. These are the people who defended Mike Dubose's immoral conduct. These are the people who forced Dubose down the throat of a reluctant outside-the-family athletic director.

It is a shame that the pseudo-media behaves like old Soviet-era media outlets. There are tough questions for Alabama to answer. Let's hope Shula and the University are able to behave better than the Politburo of old.

From the doesn't get it file....

Shula promises NO season-altering adjustments
Excuse me, but I think we need some season-altering adjustments on offense. We WANT to alter the course of the season since we can't seem to score enough points to win big ballgames.

Bama keeps singing fourth-quarter blues and according to this article are searching for solutions, but from this quote, I'm not sure the search is focused in the right direction.
"That's just a really good defense," Tide offensive coordinator David Rader said. "We didn't take advantage of opportunities in the fourth quarter to be the kind of team we know we can be."

And now we must ask ourselves, how many MORE times must we: Try to get this one out of our systems? I'm sorry, but come on. In this story, Shula addresses the inconsistent offensive line play and player selection. His excuses always seem reasonable, but they are still excuses.

Shula was forced to defend his decision to kick a field goal instead of going for a touchdown in this story from the Montgomery Advertiser. Of course, you don't have to defend decisions when you win football games.

My take

In my opinion, it isn't the lack of aggressive play calling, which has doomed Alabama. Kicking a field goal instead of going for it on fourth-and-one isn't what wins and loses ballgames.

What has doomed Alabama is the inept nature of the offense. The play calling, blocking schemes and execution are all contributing causes.

Many Alabama fans I've talked with following the game are blaming the defense and defensive coordinator Joe Kines. Guess what, it wasn't Kines fault. Alabama's offense got the ball two times in the fourth quarter with the lead and couldn't excute plays to convert first downs and burn time off the clock. The defense can only be asked to do so much. And it did it. It held a potent Tennessee offense to just 16 points---substantially below it's 30+ppg average.

Alabama's offense simply MUST average more than 20 points per game to be a power in the conference. The only way to score less than 20ppg and still be a contender is to run the ball for over 200-yards per game. Alabama can't even cross the century mark against good teams.

And did I mention special teams?

The special teams play at Alabama over the last ten years has...sucked. (Excluding the Dennis Franchione time in Tuscaloosa has any Alabama team since Bryant had a somewhat competent special teams coach?)

Until Mike Shula and his offensive coaching staff get a clue, Alabama will be doomed.

What are your thoughts?

This says it all.....

Cecil Hurt's column from The Tuscaloosa News

A few important quotes:

"Alabama can’t blame bad luck. It can’t blame bad karma, or bad calls, or bad treatment at the hands of the NCAA. Not this time. Not when the same script was tried with the same heart-rending but utterly predictable results. This time, the answer for Mike Shula can be found in one place: The mirror."

and

"Alabama’s offense has been tried in these situations, and tried again. It doesn’t work. Whatever fine-tuning has been done isn’t making it work. It’s like having an old automobile. You try to start it and it doesn’t start. You try again. It almost turns over. One more pump of the gas pedal, you think, and it will roar to life. But it never does.Patience is wonderful, but there comes a team when there is an inescapable conclusion about a machine that doesn’t work.It’s broke.And when something is broke, it’s time to fix it."

This article is a critical read for Alabama fans. If Shula doesn't make changes then he should be let go at the end of the season.


ANOTHER Column on the Alabama loss

From the Birmingham News:
"Do what you've always done, they say, and you'll get what you've always gotten. Playing by the book keeps getting Alabama close.

Close is getting old."

Alabama fans of the world UNITE

You have nothing to lose, but a sucky coach.

This site should function as a clearinghouse for Alabama fans looking to share information on the woes afflicting the Crimson Tide.