Tide Tidbits – October 15, 2009

Tide Football Has Tough Preparation
What does a team that is 6-0 and ranked second in the nation do as it prepares for its seventh game of the season? Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide has a tough week or preparation. That should surprise no one who has been paying attention. “We ended a pretty tough work day out there,” Crimson Tide Coach Nick Saban said following a two-hour workout in full gear. “The players have worked hard this week. This is a difficult preparation for us. I think you reach a point in the season where it gets more and more difficult for the players to grind through what they have to do, but we’ve certainly worked hard at that.” Saban said the reason for the intensity is the importance of being able to “sustain consistency, especially in a league like ours where every team you play is a very good team.”

Alabama football notes for Saturday’s game against South Carolina
Alabama again faces a good defense when South Carolina visits for homecoming this weekend. Can the Crimson Tide’s offense take advantage of its opportunities and perform better in the red zone than it did against Ole Miss, which forced five chip-shot field goals? On the flip side, can the Gamecocks’ offense do enough to keep up against the Crimson Tide, which has the nation’s second-rated defense? The first team to 20 points would seem to be the winner. Alabama RB Mark Ingram leads the SEC with 10 TDs — seven rushing and three receiving — three more than any other player in the league. Ingram, Oregon State’s Jacquizz Rodgers and Stanford’s Toby Gerhart are the only players in the nation who have averaged at least 100 rushing yards per game and scored at least 10 TDs this season.

Heisman hype builds for Alabama’s Ingram
Alabama cornerback Javier Arenas empathizes with Crimson Tide opponents burdened with the challenge of tackling Tide tailback Mark Ingram. “I think it would be a huge challenge in a game just because everything is heightened in a game atmosphere,” Arenas said. “Going up against him in practice, you’ve got to bring your lunch. I just can’t imagine what it’s like for defenders.” The son of former NFL receiver Mark Ingram is a seasoned veteran already as a sophomore, emerging as the driving force behind Alabama’s national championship aspirations. That translates into national attention that the soft-spoken Ingram would rather avoid. On Saturday, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit called Ingram the strongest running back in college football. By Tuesday, he was on the network’s Web site as one of its leading Heisman Trophy candidates.

Saban: ‘At times we’ve lost our our focus’
Alabama football coach Nick Saban spent most of August preaching identity. “I think that at times, we’ve played physical,” Saban said, “but I also think at times we’ve lost our focus a little bit in games and not sustained that intensity like you would like. I think that is something we need to continue to work on. I felt that way in the Ole Miss game. We didn’t play as well in the second half on defense. We needed to put the game away and never really did it. “You’ve got to play for 60 minutes in the game. There is just a small difference in having the focus and the intensity and playing extremely well and losing that small edge and not playing quite as well.”

Leigh Tiffin climbs UA’s career field-goal list
If you think Leigh Tiffin has never made a pressure kick, it’s time you learned the rest of the story. A little over two years ago, the University of Alabama’s placekicker from Muscle Shoals drove his right foot into the ball with more than the game on the line. His entire athletic career, his entire legacy, hung in the balance as the ball sailed 42 yards and through the uprights at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The field goal came in the fourth quarter of the Crimson Tide’s 41-38 victory over Arkansas, the same team that was on the other side a year earlier when Tiffin suffered through a painful-to-watch meltdown as a freshman. In that game, Tiffin missed three field goals — including a would-be game-winner in overtime — and an extra point in a game Alabama lost 24-23.

Jerrell Harris back in the mix at linebacker
University of Alabama linebacker Jerrell Harris is eligible to play for the first time this season on Saturday when South Carolina visits Bryant-Denny Stadium. With freshman Nico Johnson stepping into the weakside linebacker position last week against Ole Miss, Harris is competing not only with Johnson but also with the effects of a half-season layoff, the result of an NCAA-related suspension. “Both guys are doing a good job, both guys are working hard. I think the fact that Nico’s been in that position for two or three weeks now, and Jerrell is getting back into it, he’s certainly doing a good job, but I think there’s a little bit of rust there in terms of assignments relative to not being with us for a few weeks,” said UA coach Nick Saban.

Two Tide Defenders Make Lombardi Cut
There’s a good reason Alabama can boast of having the nation’s number two overall defense. On Wednesday, Alabama linebacker Rolando McClain and nose tackle Terrence Cody were both announced as semifinalists for the 2009 Rotary Lombardi Award. The annual award goes to the nation’s top lineman (offense or defense). “I think it’s interesting that teams that have success seem to have more guys that have more opportunities for positive self-gratification through these kinds of awards,” said Alabama head football coach Nick Saban. “We’re always happy to see players, coaches and people in our organization get recognized for all the good work that they do for our team and our university, and representing it in a first-class way.”

Roll Tide!

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