Alabama Preview: Road Hogs Ready?
September 12, 2007 at 6:05am by Walking on Sunshine
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Football
During the summer, it’s hard for the radio talk shows to come up with enough football-related stuff to talk about. There’s virtually no news, so the discussion usually centers on fan predictions and speculation. This summer, when asked which games would be the most important of the season, the first one mentioned by most fans: Alabama.
After drawing a record 92,000 to watch their annual spring game, new Alabama Coach Nick Saban has the Tide off to a strong 2-0 start. After drubbing hapless Western Carolina 52-6, their methodical 24-10 win at Vanderbilt was a comfortable walk in the park. The outcome of the game was never in question.
Alabama’s offense, which returns nine starters, is led by junior quarterback John Parker Wilson and talented wide receivers D.J. Hall and Keith Brown.
But what surprised me when watching their game against Vanderbilt was their running game, led by freshman tailback Terry Grant. Grant (173 yards and 2 TDs against Vandy) is certainly the missing ingredient that the Tide has lacked recently: a running back who can keep teams honest.
Their defense looked light and fast with no starter listed at over 284 pounds. Saban’s base defense is a 3-4, but he opened the game and played a lot of 4-3 against Vandy. Led by sophomore linebacker Prince Hall and senior cornerback Simeon Castille, the Tide blitzed and pressured Vandy quarterback Chris Nickson into submission. Nickson, who threw off his back foot and scrambled most of the day, left the game early in the second half with a hamstring injury.
Demoted to the backup after the double-overtime debacle against the Hogs last season, Leigh Tiffin has emerged again as the starting place kicker. Tiffin is 4-for-8 on field goals so far in 2007 and 8-for-8 on extra points. Javier Arenas, a cousin to the Washington Wizards all-star guard Gilbert Arenas, is a dangerous return man.
If the Hogs are going to win, they’ve got to control the line of scrimmage and run the ball successfully. Grinding out yardage using the best running backs in the country should hopefully take the frenzied crowd out of the game.
Given the success Troy had at times in throwing the ball against the Hogs secondary, it’s likely that we will give up some yardage and points in this game. ‘Bama looked vulnerable to the run against Vandy, but the Commodores couldn’t take advantage, only netting 57 yards on 26 carries.
In the end, will the screaming Bryant-Denny faithful be too much to handle? Or will the ‘Road Hogs’ quiet the crowd with a little “Run D-M-C”? For now…hang on to your score predictions. We’ll be making those with you tomorrow.
It is hard to judge what Bama will bring to this game by watching the Vandy game. Vandy was weak on both the O-line, and D-line. This is where football games are won and lost. They will not be afraid to pass, so Herring will have his work cut out for him in preparing for the down field pass. I have confidence in our exsperienced safties, but question the inexsperience of Jerrell Norton, at the CB. Depth at that position, on both sides, is also a question mark. I have no doubt the Tide defense will have to play great to stop our running game, and cannot key solely on just stopping D-Mac. FJ and Peyton H. are too good not to play honest, and Bama will get thier fair share of “smash-mouth football” from these guys. It will all come down to turn-overs. If we don’t turn the ball over, and complete a couple of down field passes when needed, I don’t see the Hogs losing this game. It’s early in the season though, and this defense still has a ways to go. If we are at least good enough to keep the Tide from scoring no more than 1 out of every 3 series, then we won’t have to get into an offensive shootout. I’ll take my chances with the Hogs in the FG dept. After last year, Kiffin will have all kinds of pressure to redeem himself, while Tejada is a star in the making. GO HOGS GO!!! ROLL THE TIDE BABY!!!!!
Oh, bye the way people, Florida beat Troy Saturday 59-31. The final margin of that score is only 8 points better in favor of the Gators, compared to the Hogs score. I guess Troy turned out to be a pretty decent foe after all. I remember some folks complaining about our defense in that game, since we were only playing Troy, for heavans sake! I guess the Gator’s defense is really terrible, since they gave up more points than we did.
Florida’s defense is very young and inexperienced. You can see more on that this weekend against Tenn.
I have no feel for these hogs until I see the game Saturday. As I said the other day, I want to see their focus. If they come to play and have their head in the game so that they play smart then they are a team to deal with. They should win. Lee’s play calling ability such as that is allowed will be tested.
They have the league’s leading rusher and you know they have been challenged to rush for more yards that Arkansas. They have the more experienced passer and recievers. I hope we have been challenged to make a showing. I am not near as comfortable about this game as I was a couple of weeks ago. Saban has made a big improvement in this team.
Although I believe I did say a few weeks ago that I thought that this Alabama team may not be talented enough but I think they are a team ready to succeed. Like Arkansas in 98, they have been down too long. You don’t come to a place like Alabama without understanding what is expected of you or without high expectations of your own. Emotionally, they will have excellent senior leadership and Saban is just the guy to make the most of it.
On our side we have Darren. What is it like to come into the season as the best player in America? Can Darren put the team on his back?
It should be a great battle.
I would like to believe that the Hogs weren’t showing their full offensive stuff against Troy…hopefully they kept a few of their better pass plays under wraps in that game. One can hope, at least…
The loss of Monk and Cleveland – our two more reliable receivers – for this game worries me the most. With those two in, I think we could get enough of a passing game going to pull out the win. Without them, I’m worried.
Come on Gonzo,
Florida was up 49 to 7 at the half. We hadn’t even secured the victory yet.
Florida just worked their reserves more.
We will know a lot more in the next two weeks. September is always average with opponents, October slightly harder, and November always tells us if we are any good or not.
Hopefully, the Gators just watched enough of the Hogs 2nd half defense to know how to defense the Trojans. But really, if you think about it, we were pretty much playing with reserves ourselves without Monk, Harrison, and Cleveland. With Robinson playing 2nd string DE, while trying to escape Herring’s doghouse, that makes 4 major contributors that didn’t get to play, or played very little, in that first game. It is hard to say just exactly who we are right now. Leadership, not to mention the exsperience and talent we give up, will take you a long way.