TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nick Saban will admittedly tell you that he still doesn’t have a definitive read on what is his fifth Alabama football team. He likes this team’s effort, the way it’s competed and the way it’s played as one. He would still like to see it play smarter and with more precision. Chances are the No. 3-ranked Crimson Tide will have to on Saturday when they dive into SEC play against No. 14-ranked Arkansas. Through three games, Alabama has been tested only once and pulled away from Penn State for a 27-11 victory the second week of the season at Beaver Stadium. The Crimson Tide overwhelmed outmanned foes Kent State and North Texas in their other two contests. Saban, whose Alabama teams have won 22 of their last 23 games at Bryant-Denny Stadium, sat down with ESPN.com earlier this week for a wide-ranging interview: How much do you know about your team at this point? Nick Saban: Not a lot … yet. The only time they’ve really had to play like you want to see them play was up at Penn State, and they competed well. We didn’t always execute. We’ve got a lot of things we can improve on, just paying attention to detail and the execution. But the effort, the toughness, how hard they play, how hard they compete … they’re good about that. But it’s the attention to detail and execution that we have to improve on. When you do the little things right, it usually works pretty well. And when you don’t, it doesn’t work so well, especially on defense. Your defense leads the country in limiting teams to 2.52 yards per play, but the structure of this defense is different than your last couple of defenses, isn’t it? NS: We’re not as good up front. We don’t have the dominant pass-rusher, but we have more play-making kind of guys, guys that can make plays, but not a dominant up-front guy. We’ve tried to use some different guys, mostly in pass-rush situations. Those guys (up front) play the run all right. But in pass-rush situations, we don’t have the guy inside that can make the difference. How has AJ McCarron ’s progression at quarterback gone in your mind? NS: He’s done a lot of good things for us, but he still sometimes plays like a young quarterback. He’ll make a good pass, and you’ll say, ‘Hey, this guy is really good,’ and then all of a sudden, he’ll do something dumb and you’ll say, ‘He’s still a young quarterback.’ Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino is one of the best offensive minds in the game, and his offenses are about as multiple as it gets. How much do you think the Hogs have shown on offense this season? NS: They kind of do what they do. They don’t hold back. I think his theory is more, ‘I’m going to throw all these multiples out there and make you have to prepare for this myriad of things,’ half of which you’re not going to see in the game. But it’s going to keep you from practicing what you are going to see very much, because he has so much stuff. They don’t do it in every game. He picks what he’s going to do against you. Just like last year, we practiced our [butt] off against an empty backfield, and they didn’t go empty against us one time in the game, I don’t think. But up until that time, they’d been empty all over the lot. So, you take all that time we practiced against empty, and we should have been practicing against something else. You’ve said several times that there are no other horizons for you in coaching. Five years in, how content are you here at Alabama? NS: We’re really happy here. You always have tons of challenges. College football has tons of challenges, especially from year to year because of the number of players you lose, guys go out for the draft and you’re not ready to replace them. The fun of it is building and getting to that point that it’s so challenging. But then it gets to be a little bit of a grind when everybody’s expectation is that you’ve got to win every game. It’s like nothing is ever good enough. You just have to keep trying to set the bar a little bit higher and higher, as well as the standard, and it gets to be a little bit of a grind because you feel like expectations will never get met. Alabama is one of those places that as soon as you win a national championship, everybody wants to know when you’re going to win your next one. How do you deal with such dizzying expectations? NS: The way I manage it is that my expectations for what we want to accomplish are higher than anybody else’s.
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Alabama’s Nick Saban unplugged
Filed under Football by on Sep 23rd, 2011. Comment. 
Oh yes, I’m proud to announce this season we’re pulling off a big debut. I’ll be in Waco, Texas for Baylor’s Friday-night tangle with TCU. Then, I’ll be making the trek Sunday to College Station for Texas A&M’s game against SMU. Lots of Texas football in Week 1. Last year, I was pretty happy with with my predictions. I had a couple rough weeks in conference play, but I rode a strong start and finished second (I think) among our bloggers. On to the first set of predictions for the year… Last year : 77-19 (.802) Overall: 0-0 (.000) FRIDAY TCU 24, Baylor 21: This is my pick of the week. Come back later today for a video where I explain the pick. SATURDAY No. 21 Missouri 31, Miami (OH) 17: The RedHawks are underrated, and don’t command a lot of respect … until they take the field. The Tigers’ offense will have a few kinks to work out, but will go home with a 1-0 record. Iowa State 24, Northern Iowa 10: A rocky start for the new quarterback in Ames, too, but the Cyclones get the job done and Shontrelle Johnson loudly makes his presence known. Kansas 27, McNeese State 17: Not sold on Kansas’ ability to put up big points just yet, but there won’t be an FCS embarassment this time around. Right? Right?? Kansas State 41, Eastern Kentucky 10: The Colonels will have nightmares of Collin Klein running the zone read all the way back to Kentucky. No. 9 Oklahoma State 62, Louisiana-Lafayette 24: Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon will be rocking ballcaps on the sideline for a front-row seat to the fourth quarter. Texas Tech 55, Texas State 17: This game? Well, it’s … it’s not going to be good. Seth Doege will make sure the entire Bobcats defense is 100 percent sure how to dougie by game’s end. No. 1 Oklahoma 41, Tulsa 27: This one’s close for a half, and it’s not pretty, but G.J. Kinne forces the issue late and the Sooners get away clean. Damaris Johnson is badly missed. Texas 34, Rice 13: Texas shows a lot of promise in this one, but on the back of its running game
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Big 12 predictions: Week 1
Filed under Football by on Sep 1st, 2011. Comment.
If anything, OK State could surpass our expectations. Judgment day: Oct. 15 at Texas . Signs point to an improved Texas Longhorns team and after handing UT a sound, 33-16, embarrassment last season, Texas will get its chance at redemption. This will… Source: Sporting News
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No. 8 Oklahoma State Cowboys at a glance
Filed under Football, News by on Aug 23rd, 2011. Comment.
Rick Barnes has a unique challenge. Before he arrived in Austin, Tex., the Longhorns were a solid program but hardly a national one. Thirteen years later, Barnes has consistently recruited top talent and consistently competed for Big 12 titles. Texas is a national program with a large following. If the expectations for Texas fans used to be “give me something decent to watch until football comes back,” it is now “win the Big 12, go the Final Four, win a national title and give me something to decent to watch until football comes back.” Indeed, the bar has been raised. Barnes keeps recruiting top talent. But that talent hasn’t translated into sustained on-court success in recent seasons. The disappointments are well documented. In 2010, Texas went from the nation’s No. 1 ranking to an uninspiring first-round exit in the NCAA tournament. In 2011, Texas’s defense spent much of the Big 12 season flirting with historical greatness; by March, the Longhorns had bowed out in a brutal loss to Arizona in the tournament’s second round. Barnes’s last Elite Eight appearance came in 2008. His last Final Four appearance came in 2003. Since then, Barnes has recruited, developed, and sent a bevy of talented players to the NBA, including the likes of Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, D.J. Augustin, T.J. Ford, Royal Ivey and Daniel Gibson. These facts give the impression that Barnes is a talented recruiter but a so-so coach. Or that he’s more concerned with getting players to the NBA — hardly an ignoble goal — than winning national championships. In 2010, Barnes made a comment to that effect to a reporter from ESPN The Magazine, saying he would “love to win a national championship” but that he wasn’t “obsessed with it,” because “we’re obsessed with these guys trying to live their NBA dream.” You could see why this might make Texas fans just a little bit uncomfortable .
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On evaluating Texas’ Rick Barnes
Filed under Basketball, Football by on Jun 27th, 2011. Comment.
For those who missed it, I did a spring rewind last week on Army and a video look at the chances that all three service academies will be bowl eligible in 2011. Here is a part of the conversation I had with Army coach Rich Ellerson on the increased expectations for his team, which made a bowl game in 2010 for the first time since 1996. How do you now deal with the higher expectations on your program? Rich Ellerson: We understand the arrow’s up and nobody has higher expectations for these guys than these guys. We know we’re going to be green, but we know we’re going to be athletic. We may go through some growing pains. As we get to the season, we’ll expect to win. Having said that, we know we’re going to be coming out of the gate against some tough opponents to get this thing started. We’ll find out very quickly where we are, especially with some of those green guys on defense. Expectations remain very high offensively with the emergence of some of those guys on the line. Defensively, we’ll have to see how quickly those guys will grow into that role. How has the culture changed now that you are in Year 3 of your program? RE: We expect to win, we expect to be successful. That’s the culture the last two graduating classes have articulated and made part of their legacy. That’s easier now because the rising seniors are guys that were plebs when this voice was evolving, so they can’t remember it was any other way, ever. There isn’t that element on the team that had to make an intellectual choice. This is now a cultural reality. It’s not something where guys had to suspend their other beliefs. They’ve now made that a permanent part of the culture. I don’t think this group will blink
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Q&A: Army coach Rich Ellerson
Filed under Football, News by on May 3rd, 2011. Comment.
CLEVELAND — Ohio State did what No. 1 seeds are supposed to do in their first NCAA tournament game: Squeeze the life out of a No. 16 seed and eliminate any possible drama. We didn’t learn a lot new about the Buckeyes, except that they weren’t nervous or tight under the expectations that come with being the tournament favorite. What Texas San Antonio learned is that when Ohio State is nailing outside shots, it’s almost unbeatable. The Buckeyes shot over 60 percent well into the second half and hit nine of its first 17 three-pointers. A 16-point halftime grew to as many as 38 in the second half. The only disappointment for the heavily pro-Ohio State crowd was that little-used reserve Eddie Days missed a shot near the end of the 75-46 victory after fans chanted his name. Turning point: Not that the game was ever really in doubt from the moment the pairings came out, but Ohio State went on a 13-1 run early in the second half to break things wide open. From there, Thad Matta could empty his bench, and the Buckeyes could have some fun. Key stat: Ohio State shot 62.5 percent in the first half and likely would have finished over 60 percent if Matta didn’t play his reserves most of the final eight minutes. The Buckeyes also made half their 24 three-point attempts. Star player: Guard William Buford had 15 of his team-high 18 points at halftime, sinking three of four three-pointers in the first 20 minutes. Miscellany: UTSA’s Melvin Johnson III , who had 29 points in the team’s win over Alabama State in the First Four, was held to just five points and 1-of-9 shooting. … For those keeping score, Ohio State won by fewer points than fellow No. 1 seed Duke (which beat Hampton by 38) but by more than No. 1 Pitt (which beat UNC-Asheville by 23). What’s next: The Buckeyes will take on No. 8 seed George Mason in Sunday’s third round. The Patriots will have to execute a whole lot better than they did against Villanova to have a chance, and they’ll be playing a virtual road game at Quicken Loans Arena.
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Rapid Reaction: Ohio State 75, UTSA 46
Filed under Basketball by on Mar 18th, 2011. Comment.
There is no denying coach June Jones has already done wonders at SMU. In three short seasons, he has turned around a program left for dead, taking it to two straight bowl appearances and a first-ever Conference USA championship game appearance. But Jones, known as a master rebuilder, realizes there is plenty of room left to grow. This comment from national signing day really stuck out: With adding these kids, and when we add another class next year, I’ll be disappointed if we don’t make a run like we did in Hawaii or like TCU has done. We’ve built a really good foundation, and we’re in pretty good shape to do some neat things. The big question is whether SMU can become the next TCU. If so, then how long could that take? Jones has the experience of leading a BCS program. In his first season at Hawaii in 1999, he took a winless team to a 9-4 record and a bowl appearance. In the five years before his arrival, Hawaii combined for 12 wins, no players drafted and no bowl game appearances. That 1999 season started an upward trend that culminated with an appearance in the Sugar Bowl in 2007, his final season with the Warriors before leaving for SMU. It took nine seasons for Hawaii to get to a BCS game. I am betting Jones has a much shorter time frame with the Mustangs. For starters, he is in one of the most fertile recruiting areas in the nation. It is much easier to recruit to Dallas than to Honolulu. Indeed, he has pulled in back-to-back recruiting class with talent in spades, featuring players from Texas, California and Louisiana. Both featured 11 three-star recruits as rated by ESPN. This class has been touted as his best yet, because Jones was able to get some players away from automatic qualifying conference schools. Defensive end Davon Moreland chose SMU over what seems to be the entire Pac-12: USC, Oregon, California, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon State, Washington and Texas. This class only helps add depth, something Jones has been eager to build and the one area he consistently has said is still missing from making this team a BCS contender. It was heavy on the offensive and defensive lines, at skill positions and in the defensive backfield, all areas of need. The skill players and defensive backs have the best chances at playing early, but there already is a solid group returning. Conference USA has never had a team make a BCS game. If any school has the potential to become that BCS buster, it is SMU, especially since Boise State will be the only year-in, year-out non-AQ contender left standing following 2011. Jones can coach. He can recruit. Conference USA is winnable. The nonconference schedule should do enough to get SMU notice, with games in the future against AQ teams TCU, Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Baylor. With the expectations Jones has laid out, it is clear anything less than a BCS appearance would be a disappointment. Going 7-6 last season may have felt like a letdown, but remember Jones is very early in the rebuilding process. Making it to the C-USA title game was definite progress. Jones has his timetable. Now we have to wait and see if he gets to where he wants to go.
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SMU the next TCU?
Filed under Football by on Feb 8th, 2011. Comment.
Texas A&M and Baylor have already racked up enough losses to lose control of the Big 12 South. But on Saturday, when the next chapter of the Battle of the Brazos is written, there’s still plenty on the line. Both teams have secured a spot on the postseason with a sixth win, but neither is going to be satisfied without more as the season draws to a close. Respect comes easier with nine wins — still a possibility for both teams — than with six or seven, which is where the Aggies and Bears sit heading into the weekend. And with both teams never having finished in the top half of the division under their current coaches (neither has finished higher than fifth in the South, actually), a win Saturday would go a long way to earning that respect. Texas A&M is coming off one of its best wins under coach Mike Sherman, an upset of then-No. 8 Oklahoma. The biggest reason looks like a switch to quarterback Ryan Tannehill , who has been behind center for a pair of wins in his two starts. Sherman says it goes a lot deeper than just Tannehill. “Overall, our team is better at this point. We keep getting better. We’re still a very, very young football team. I just think we’re growing up a little bit,” Sherman said. “We had two freshman tackles that kind of found their way and are playing better football than earlier. The offensive line as a group is jelling.
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Respect on the line in Battle of the Brazos
Filed under Football by on Nov 10th, 2010. Comment.
It was the second-most overused question at Big 12 media day , ranking just behind the constant queries of Kansas State coach Frank Martin on how his team would “handle the expectations” of being the Big 12 preseason favorite. No. 2 was for Rick Barnes, and reporters asked — over and over again, to the point where you almost felt bad for the Texas coach (even as you were asking some version of the question yourself) — how Texas would “rebound” from last year’s loss of “leadership” and “chemistry.” Barnes gave plenty of answers about accountability and clear expectations, but it’s pretty tough to describe how your team is going to build chemistry and leadership. Those things are unquantifiable for a reason. And sometimes, you need players to do it for you. Cue Texas forward Gary Johnson , who as of Monday was still talking about the Longhorns’ need for leadership in pretty direct terms : “There wasn’t any leadership,” Johnson said of a season in which the Longhorns were ranked No. 1 for the first time in school history before losing 10 of their last 17 games. “I don’t think guys held each other accountable as a team. Ultimately, it affected us in a terrible way.” Sophomore guard J’Covan Brown shed a little light on the situation, too: “Last year, I couldn’t tell you who was leading,” guard J’Covan Brown said. “One day it was one person, one day it was another. I don’t think anybody’s going to take (Johnson’s) job.” Monday night was a good start for the Longhorns; led by Jordan Hamilton ’s 26-point, 10-rebound performance, Texas easily handled Navy in its season opener. But it’s a long season, and the real test of all this leadership talk will come next week in a game against a talented Illinois team with plenty of senior leadership of its own. (Not to mention during the rest of Texas’ rather difficult nonconference schedule.) All this mushy intangibles talk is hard to see on the floor, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. It will be interesting to see whether the Longhorns have taken it to heart.
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Texas still talking about leadership
Filed under Basketball by on Nov 9th, 2010. Comment.
Preseason camps are about half gone. Opening weekend is less than two weeks away, and it’s just over a week away for teams like Iowa State. But plenty has been resolved in camps so far. Here’s the best of what we know: 1. Three quarterback battles have been won. Two (Kansas State and Nebraska) have yet to be decided, but Tyler Hansen won the job over Cody Hawkins at Colorado. Kale Pick beat out Jordan Webb at Kansas. Taylor Potts beat out Steven Sheffield in an epic duel at Texas Tech between two seniors who could start for about anyone in the conference. 2. Nebraska and Kansas have been hit hardest by injury. Nebraska lost linebacker Sean Fisher and utility lineman Mike Smith for the season, each with a broken leg. Backup cornerback Anthony Blue will also miss the season with a torn ACL. Tight end Dreu Young also required back surgery and may miss up to the entire season. None figured to be game-changers, but without them, the Huskers depth suffers, leaving them more reliant on less experienced players. That’s not the case in Lawrence, where Turner Gill will coach his first season without Huldon Tharp, one of the conference’s best linebackers and one of his most exciting young talents. Backup running back Rell Lewis will miss the season with a knee injury, as will offensive lineman Jeff Spikes, who had a chance to start. 3. Gill: What have you done for me lately? Turner Gill cares not about your recruiting stars, Jayhawks. Toben Opurum was the Jayhawks leading rusher as a freshman, with 554 yards. As one of the nation’s best fullbacks, he came to Kansas because Mark Mangino planned to let the 6-foot-1, 240-pounder play running back. He was injured in the spring, but returned to full strength by preseason camp. Unable to crack the depth chart at running back, he’s been moved to linebacker to help solve the Jayhawks’ depth problems at the position. Meanwhile, two-year starter at center Jeremiah Hatch was sent to the bench in favor of senior captain Sal Capra, who played both guard positions last year. 4. Iowa State is even more huggable. The team rallied behind rookie head coach Paul Rhoads in 2009 and raced to a seven-win season after just five wins in the previous two seasons combined. This fall, one of the teams practices was canceled so the players could sandbag the athletic facility to prevent damage from a major flood in Central Iowa. To do the team’s laundry, team managers had to travel nearly 20 miles to the nearest source of fresh water. 5. Robert Griffin’s arm isn’t rusty. The Bears sophomore quarterback has strung together two masterful scrimmages through the air, completing 33 of his 44 passes for three touchdowns and one interception. He has yet to prove he can run with the same explosiveness he showed as a freshman, but coach Art Briles isn’t going to be getting Griffin hit many more times than is necessary. 6. Texas is talking up its defense. Coach Mack Brown isn’t keeping quiet about his expectations for his defense in 2010. “”I do think this could be our best defense,” Brown told the Dallas Morning News last week , noting health and depth as variables. “We should be really, really good on defense.” The Longhorns already ranked No. 3 nationally in total defense last year, but bring back one of the nation’s best secondaries and perhaps the best and deepest group of defensive ends anywhere.
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Big 12: What we know with two weeks to go
Filed under Football, News by on Aug 23rd, 2010. Comment.
