Tide Fans -
Greetings from sunny Tuscaloosa! I know I am supposed to talk about The Tide, but first I must give a shout out to Auburn for sucking. I know I was not the only one on this list who enjoyed trying to stay awake and watch the South Florida Bulls beat Auburn in overtime. "Vaya Toros!!" (Go Bulls) It sucks doesn't it Auburn?? Now you know how we felt while losing to Northern Illinois under Shula. Ok - on to better things! I will start by saying that I hate playing Vandy up in Nashville. Every time it is usually a squeaker of a game, no matter how good we are , or how bad Vandy is - it is always close in Nashville. Although I did go up to vandy with a little more "swagger" this week, I still got nervous right before the game. That nervousness was made worse by trying to get to my seat in lovely Vanderbilt Stadium! For those of you who have never had the opportunity to visit this little gem...don't bother. This could possibly be the worst designed stadium in the country. Getting in one of the 4 gates, is not the problem (believe it or not). It is trying to get to your section through one of the 2 tunnels that leads you in. Imagine 20,000 people in a funnel, trying to get down to a single file line - that is the best way I can describe it. It is kind of like when they are doing construction on a 4 lane highway, and they try to move all the traffic to one lane. I know Vandy does not normally have fan traffic issues, but this was ridiculous! After switching to a less crowded tunnel and squirming over 2 sections through a barrage of Tide fans we were in our seats! It was very powerful once seated, to notice that Vanderbilt stadium was filled to capacity with 75% of the crowd being Tide faithful, and to top it off we were in Crimson jerseys!! Immediately following kickoff Vandy went to the air using both of their 2 weapons - and it worked. I cannot describe the feeling in my stomach watching that play develop. I bet I felt like a lot of the Auburn fans did watching the South Florida receiver zip into the end zone in overtime! (Haaaaaaa...sorry just had to get one more jab in!) Thank God there was a flag...Thank GOD!!! We dodged a big bullet there, and then countered with an incredible punt return! Javier Arenas is soo fast, he literally had to wait for his blockers to catch up with him on that punt return. I love going in there and easily punching it in form the goal line like it was nothing - that is a nice change! A big shout out to # 29 this week!! With our dismal passing game, Terry Grant (man crush) took the burden, and got it done. I don't know what is wrong with JP Wilson, but he better fix it of #17 will be our starting QB real soon! I am only hoping he had a bad game, or something was bothering him with his arm, because his passing was miserable. The best way to describe the majority of his passes is like when you try to throw the frisbee on the beach, and it gets caught in the wind and goes straight up and just hovers there. He has got to put more zip on that ball, or there will be a myriad of interceptions as we get into our SEC schedule. I just hope to God this is not some new technique that Major Applewhite has taught him. I am very glad we have a good running game to rely on when the pass is not working (and it definitely was not working). Come on JP...I know you can do better than that!! One thing that is really cool - Terry grant did not even play in the second quarter, and he still got 170+ yards!! It is good to see that even when a player is making big plays, Saban is not scared to chew him out and sit him on the bench because of a missed assignment. I must say - I was glad to see # 29 return in the second half! Speaking of the half - if anyone reading this was there, how bad is Vandy's band??? I mean show a little effort! You have a full house for probably the first time ever in your marching band career, and you play (and march) like you had been out drinking all night. Then again, if I were in the Vandy band I probably would be out drinking all night! Note to Vandy: Please warn us before you blast off a bunch of unexpected fireworks! The band performance certainly didn't get any ones attention, but the small explosion at the end of the half certainly did - good Lord! Everyone in my section ducked as a reaction, as it all scared the sh*t out of us!! I was not pumped about our overall effort in this game, but I was pumped to get out of there with a win! Anytime you can get out of that game with a somewhat comfortable lead it is nice! I was irritated about the last TD we gave Vandy, and Saban obviously was too. I don't know if they showed him on TV while Vandy was driving, but Saban looked as if he had been shocked by his head set. He was livid!!!! A much different reaction than the good ol Shula hand on his face looking into the distance stare. I love seeing a coach get fired up, and we could actually hear his clapping from our seats - he was mad! We have a big test this week with Arkansas! As many of you know - this game usually determines how our season will go. We must stop the double threat of McFadden and Jones, or they will beat us. We stop, or at least slow them down, then we should win the game. If I were coaching, I would design our game plan around # 29, #10, and #38, and run it down their throat! With the passing game this past week - we can't afford to turn the ball over in this game! Run, Run, Run!!!
Players I love from this week:
- Javier Arenas!!!!!
- Terry Grant (could possibly make my list every week)
- Andre Smith (couple of big pancake blocks!)
- Rolondo McClain (still can't believe he is a freshman!)
- Mike McCoy (This guy is unreal!)
Things we need to improve so I can sleep better:
- Passing game (Please JP - bring back the magic!)
- Secondary (I know they contained Earl Bennett well, but still several holes
- I am very nervous about this area)
- Passing game (did I already mention that??)
- Crowd participation (We need to get loud this week in Bryant-Denny)
I look forward to an exciting game this weekend, and I do feel that this game will show us what we really have this season. We must have solid play by our defense (especially linebackers) to help stop that running threat that Arkansas brings. Note to defense: Please watch for the half back pass - they love this play, and execute it well! I for one plan to be eating some pig this weekend...I hope the Tide does too! Until next week...Roll Tide! Jason
