Tide Tidbits – January 17, 2009

Most puzzling coaching hire
That would have to be the selection of Gene Chizik at Auburn. Chizik only won five games in two seasons at Iowa State, and Auburn feels he’s the guy to contend with Nick Saban for supremacy in Alabama? No question winning at Iowa State is difficult, but the Big 12 North pales in comparison to the strength of the SEC West.

Thompson departure a ‘business decision’
A day after leaving Alabama’s football staff for rival Tennessee, assistant coach and touted recruiter Lance Thompson cited career ambitions as his reason, not unhappiness or a pay increase. “I could have stayed at Alabama and been a recruiter, always been a recruiter, and five years from now I still would be the same guy,” Thompson said on Friday afternoon while in between meetings at UT. Thompson called it a “gut-wrenching” choice to leave the Crimson Tide after two seasons. Without elaborating, he also said it “was a little bit of a personal and a family decision with our situation.”

ALABAMA A-Day Game set for April 18
The University of Ala­bama will hold its annu­al A-Day Game to con­clude spring football practice on April 18 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Admis­sion is free and kickoff is tentatively set for 2 p.m. The Crimson Tide football team is tenta­tively scheduled to hold the first spring practice of 2009 on March 23. UA spring break is the week prior, March 16-20. Over the last two sea­sons, Alabama leads the country in spring game attendance with a combined total of 170,338.

“People who are saying my leaving had anything to do with Nick Saban are false.”
“I understand the tradition, the rivalry and the competitive spirit of the (UA-UT rivalry), but for me it’s a business decision,” Thompson told the site. “How many guys in America who coach on the defensive side of the ball are going to be able to say ‘I know coach Saban’s system and I know coach Monte Kiffin’s system. It happened in a matter over three days. I wasn’t looking to leave Alabama. I was happy there. … I had no reason to leave Alabama. It was coach Kiffin.”

Roll Tide!

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