Tide Tidbits – November 27, 2009

Alabama Iron Bowl preview
Alabama is looking for some success in the first quarter against the Tigers, having failed to score in the first 15 minutes against Auburn in every game since 1996. The Crimson Tide has scored most of its 354 points this season in the second and fourth quarters, scoring just 77 in the first quarter this season. The Tide scored 21 points in the first quarter against Chattanooga last week, but had just one field goal in its previous three games in the first quarter. There are few venues that are less friendly to Alabama and its head coach, Nick Saban, than Jordan-Hare Stadium. Alabama has won just twice in nine visits. Saban, on the short end of a 17-10 score in 2007, also lost on three visits as LSU’s coach and is 0-4 in his trips to Auburn. Where: Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn Line: Alabama by 10 1/2 Records: Alabama (11-0, 7-0 in SEC); Auburn (7-4, 3-4) On the air: TV — CBS; Radio [More]

Tide’s Offensive Line a Success Story
It just might be Alabama’s biggest success story this season. For an offensive line that lost All-Americans Andre Smith and Antoine Caldwell and opened the year with three first-time starters, the Tide’s unit has come together just fine this season, thank you. The O-line will get another opportunity to show off in Friday’s Iron Bowl against an Auburn defense that ranks last in the SEC in scoring defense (27 points per game) and ninth in total defense (359.2 ypg). “I don’t know if it was as much of a motivating factor as much as we just knew that we had to come to work,” senior left guard Mike Johnson said of preseason questions surrounding the line and if those concerns served as motivation. “It wasn’t anything motivational about it. In order for this football team to be successful we knew that we had to come to play and get better. We just put in that much effort in the offseason, and we came together.” Like one big, happy family. [More]

Both teams have trumped expectations entering state’s annual bragapalooza
One is the epitome of the new CEOathletic director, the other is a relic from the era when bright minds got kicked upstairs into administration after their coaching days ended. Jay Jacobs of Auburn and Mal Moore of Alabama, the respective ADs at those schools, are two men at the heart of this 74th Iron Bowl because of the risks they took, the decisions they made. A cynic would suggest there are rich, powerful puppeteers at both campuses, and we’ll never truly know whether it’s counsel or command the boosters offer Jacobs and Moore. Chizik has brought Auburn to the cusp of a return to its traditional excellence. Saban has brought Ala-bama to the cusp of its 13th national championship. Both are surprises. [More]

Alabama senior profile: Cory Reamer, linebacker
Cory Reamer saw it as a new challenge, but he admits there were some concerns among Alabama players when Nick Saban was named head coach in January 2007. “When he got here, I was excited, but there were some concerns among some players that he was going to run everybody off and bring in his recruits,” Reamer said. “Most of us took it as a challenge to work even harder to prove ourselves.” Little did Reamer know that by the end of 2009, he would epitomize everything Saban looked for in a player. Saban bragged on his 27 seniors in the week leading up to their last home game, “Cory Reamer is a guy who has improved enormously, changed positions, played inside ‘backer, outside ‘backer, was a defensive back, and is probably the biggest contributor on special teams,” Saban said. “He’s a good leader. He affects other people. He puts his heart and soul into it.” [More]

Alabama’s Mark Ingram on verge of Heisman history
There are times when Mark Ingram is on the football field, running with the ball in his hands, and the chaos around him seems to dissolve into slow motion. Through Ingram’s eyes, defenders galloping at full speed seem to be running through quicksand. Blockers appear to be moving like they’re under water. He sees the holes before they open. He spots the seams that will develop downfield before he’s even past the line of scrimmage. “I set it up and it kind of slows down for me,” the University of Alabama’s sophomore running back said. When Ingram is in that zone, he operates as if he has radar built into his helmet, detecting things outside his vision, as if where all 10 of his teammates and all 11 defenders are positioned on the field has been accounted for inside his head. [More]

Traveling Tide tries to keep usual routine
The University of Alabama football team rolled into the Capital City on Thursday afternoon, spending the night at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Spa at the Convention Center on the way to today’s Iron Bowl at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn. It’s a stay that was planned almost a year in advance and while it’s unusual for the second-ranked Crimson Tide to spend the night away from Tuscaloosa but still in their home state, the goal for both Alabama officials and Renaissance employees is to make the stay as routine as a night in Tuscaloosa. The routine never varies. Not for a bowl game, not for a road game on the West Coast and not for Thanksgiving dinner in Montgomery. “I know it’s Thanksgiving, but it’s Friday night dinner,” Vollmar said. “You’re trying to make things as routine as you possibly can so the guys feel like they’re at their own hotel (the Capstone Inn in Tuscaloosa). I even hand out Alabama shirts to the (hotel) staff. I have our (Capstone) chefs sometimes call their chefs to talk about the amount of food we go through. The menu’s going to stay the same. The guys are going to eat the same food no matter where we go.” [More]

Roll Tide!

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