Nothing wrong with a Nick Saban statue

There have been many bizarre reactions to Nick Saban and Alabama’s 13th national championship since last January. However, the most ridiculous has been the over-the-top and borderline insane reaction to Mal Moore’s very appropriate decision to honor the coach with a statue on the Wall of Champions outside Bryant-Denny Stadium. There are four other bronzed statues outside the stadium — Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Bear Bryant and Gene Stallings. And they all have one thing in common with Saban other than coaching at Alabama: They’ve won a national championship. So why not honor Alabama’s current coach while it can be enjoyed by fans, family and friends? Why not celebrate now when it can have the maximum impact? Makes a lot of sense. However, if you have been keeping up with media’s irrational reaction since it was first announced, one would have thought the school had taken Bryant and Denny’s name off the stadium sign and plastered Saban’s name up in bright lights. [More]

Tide’s starting defense isn’t as young as most think

The top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide will have nine new starters on defense when it opens the season at 6 p.m. Saturday at home against San Jose State, but this unit isn’t wearing diapers. Two seniors, six juniors and three sophomores will start. One of those sophomores is middle linebacker Dont’a Hightower, a third-year starter whose 2009 season was cut short by a serious knee injury. He received a medical redshirt. Alabama’s offense will start three seniors, four juniors and four sophomores, but eight of those players started last season. Other than place-kicker Cade Foster and punters Jay Williams and Cody Mandell, seven true freshmen appear on the three-deep depth chart that Saban released Monday. Four of those freshmen are defensive backs: cornerbacks DeMarcus Milliner, John Fulton, strong safety Nick Perry and free safety Jarrick Williams. The others are third-team quarterback Phillip Sims, weak inside linebacker C.J. Mosley and “Jack” linebacker Adrian Hubbard.[More]

Murphy finds redemption

Fill in the blank. Kerry Murphy will never … a) Make it to Alabama. b) Make it at Alabama. c) Play at Alabama. d) Play a key role at Alabama. e) All of the above. Raise your hand if you made any of the above statements at any point since Feb. 7, 2007, when Murphy signed with Alabama. Rush Propst would like you to admit your mistake. “There were a lot of doubters out there,” said Propst, who coached Murphy at Hoover High School. “I would like to hear those people now. Where are those people now? I don’t care if it was Hoover community people or Alabama fans or Auburn fans. “That kid has proven a lot to be where he is today.” If there’s an either-or at nose guard, it’s either him [Chapman] or Murphy. “He and Chapman have gone kind of back and forth,” Nick Saban said. “Right now, Chapman has a little more experience. … (Murphy) definitely has a role on the team and is competing to be a starter and will play as much in the rotation as the starters do.” [More]

Business as usual for No. 1 Tide

Sure seems as if No. 1 Alabama’s top ranking and elephant-sized expectations are becoming the status quo around here, judging by Monday’s rather tame first game-week news conference. The players dismissed the defending national champions’ top preseason billing going into Saturday night’s opener against San Jose State. Saban didn’t rail against the dangers of complacency. Instead, he praised the “great camps” of stars such as receiver Julio Jones, left tackle James Carpenter and running backs Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson. And the “very good” ones of linebacker Dont’a Hightower and safety Mark Barron. “A lot of the players that have been there show no signs of not paying attention to detail, not working to improve,” Saban said. “I think the bigger concern is the maturity of the guys who haven’t had the responsibility to this point, how they’re going to respond to it. I’m sure that there will be a maturing process that goes with their first game. How much they learn and grow from it is probably going to determine how quickly we can improve.” [More]

Roll Tide!

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