The NFL draft remains part of the sports conversation in the state. The AP moved this story about Nick Saban, Gene Stallings and Lee Roy Jordan’s thoughts on Alabama’s talent level. First, the AP points out Alabama’s drought in the first round of the NFL draft: In fact, LSU has had a first-rounder in the [...]
Archive | April, 2008
SEC Notebook
The Papajohns.com Bowl will host an SEC school at the conclusion of this football season—that raises automatic SEC bowl bids to nine. The game pits the Big East against the SEC on Dec. 29, at 2 p.m. The game is owned by ESPN. Lady Vols draw increased ratings The Lady Vols-Stanford National Championship game drew [...]
Academic changes coming to football
Worried about academic issues and football players? You should be. The NCAA has formed a working group to “devise recommendations for improving the academic performance of football student-athletes.†Over the past year, the Football Issues Committee has reviewed specific data, particularly the comparisons between the academic performance of student-athletes who compete in the Football Bowl [...]
NEWSFLASH: Bama fans are irrational
Intrepid Birmingham News columnist Kevin Scarbinsky unravels the mystery of why Alabama players weren’t drafted. And guess what?!? The fault rests with the fans. This ranks right up there with dog bites man for revealing new information. Alabama fans are passionate about Alabama football. I didn’t know that when 92,000 showed up for A-Day last [...]
Spring game attendance breakdown
The BigRedNetwork.com provided its annual analysis of spring game attendance. According to stats from The Big Red Network, Nebraska topped spring game attendance this year with a 48-percent increase over last year. Alabama was second with a 19-percent decline in attendance since last year. Rounding out the top ten were Ohio State, Penn State, Florida, [...]
The good, bad, and ugly of football uniforms
By Hunter Ford With a blank white page burning my eyes, I decided to go to the Internet, as I often do, to help me write this week’s column. Last week, I wrote a piece about the tradition of Alabama football. That started my mind wandering about other school’s traditions (or lack thereof) and then [...]
UA Honors Academic and Community Outreach
(UA) TUSCALOOSA—The University of Alabama Athletics Department hosted its annual Student-Athlete Academic Achievement Awards Banquet Monday night in “The Zone” located in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Long-time Crimson Tide personality Tom Roberts served as the night’s master of ceremonies. The women’s tennis team and men’s golf team were honored as the teams with the highest grade point [...]
NFL Draft 2008
Will any Alabama players be taken? I’ll post details later today if anything develops. But while Alabama players waited to be taken, it was a very interesting and active NFL draft. I thought there were some brilliant moves made, but the dumb moves were the most numerous on day one. Kansas City had a very [...]
Auburn is Auburn’s own worst enemy
By Shane from Centerpoint Some things never change. In the case of Auburn University the song remains the same. For a record seventh time, the War Eagles are up to their necks in an NCAA inquiry. Isn’t it ironic that after spending the entire first quarter of 2008 accusing cross-state rival Alabama of cheating in [...]
Friday ponderings
It has been a long week. Here are a few sports and other ponderings as we head toward the weekend. Saban knows the rules Nick Saban used video teleconferencing to circumvent the ban on coaches visiting schools during the spring evaluation period. Kevin Scarbinsky’s column today explains why its legal, and how shrewd Saban is…he’s [...]
Witch-slapped
No respect. No respect at all…for Tommy Tuberville. Even women’s gymnastic coaches make fun of Tuberville’s failures. Take this comment from UGA’s eight-time national title winner Suzanne Yoculan: “You should have seen that list of the top 10 coaches in the SEC in that Alabama newspaper,” Yoculan says, referring to a list by a Mobile [...]
Goldberg on spin duty
If you’ve ever doubted Charles Goldberg was on Tuberville’s payroll, then you just have to read this from his latest blog post: Bessemer Academy’s Harris Gaston, considered by some the top prep linebacker in the state, said Tuesday he’ll sign with Auburn next February. Gaston and his family visited Auburn to tell the coaching staff [...]
Bama tradition didn’t start or end with Bryant
By Hunter Ford Last week, sports talk radio in Birmingham took up a topic close to my heart- the tradition of University of Alabama football. Well, sort of. What happened was that the “Bald Smirky One†went fishing for some controversy. Paul Finebaum, in one of his columns, pondered a question, “Is Nick Saban bigger [...]
Monday briefs
Scholarship controversy update Over the weekend, a friend pointed out that SMQ’s analysis of the scholarship situation at UA could be wrong. His analysis put UA at 64 on scholarship, and Ian Rapoport’s analysis was 66 on scholarship at the conclusion of spring drills. The discrepancy could have been created by Alabama’s two early enrollees: [...]
AP posts profile of Terry Saban
The AP filed a profile of Terry Saban Saturday. The profile told us the usual things, Nick is shy, and Terry is bubbly. It also let us know that Terry forced Nick to take Pilates classes following his neck surgery. Advertisement: Story continues below
What’s a week without controversy?
Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ. —William Shakespeare, Othello One big Internet controversy this week was Saban, Rapoport and the numbers on scholarship. I didn’t comment on it earlier this week because honestly I’m bored by the conversation—we’ve had it before, and seem doomed to have [...]
Tuberville ‘lazy’ rule now in effect
Since Tommy Tuberville prefers duck hunting to recruiting, he and a few other lazy coaches pushed for a recruiting rule change. The rule prohibits coaches from on-site evaluations during the spring evaluation period. It went into effect Tuesday, according to the Tuscaloosa News. Advertisement: Story continues below Saban visited over 100 high schools last spring. [...]
Shane: A-Day from A to Z
By Shane from Centerpoint As I sit down to write my take on the University of Alabama’s annual A-day football game I can’t help but smile. Barring the negative opinions of clueless windbags—like Montgomery Alabama’s sports-talk, radio-hack John Longshore, and others like him who are trying to put a damper on the Crimson Tide’s chances [...]
Alabama holds final spring practice
Saban press conference video 4/14/2008 ALABAMA FOOTBALL HOLDS FINAL SPRING PRACTICE (UA) TUSCALOOSA—The Alabama football team held its 15th and final practice of the spring on a cold April afternoon, working outside for approximately two hours in shells Monday. The coaching staff and players had a chance to evaluate the film from Saturday’s A-Day Game, [...]
Hunter: Saban looking for hunting dogs
Editor’s note: Hunter’s shared some photographs from A-Day. Click here to see them in our A-Day gallery. By Hunter Ford Alabama head football coach Nick Saban says he still has some players who are “Too worried about how their britches fit or how their hairdo looks.†“We don’t need anymore show dogs,†he said. “We [...]
A-Day photographs and reaction
Saturday was a beautiful day for football, and Iglass Photo shared some of his outstanding shots with us. You can view them by clicking here. Here’s a sample of his amazing work. We’ll also be posting some photographs later from Hunter Ford. He promised to send some along for everyone’s enjoyment. So check our photo [...]
A-Day press conference, etc.
Video from A-Day: Part 2 of Saban video: University of Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban A-Day Post Game Quotes From UA Opening Comments: “First off, I would like to thank the fans for coming out today. We had a really good turnout. I’ve been involved with a lot of things at a lot of places, [...]
A-Day notes
From UA: McCULLOUGH AND WILSON ARE A-DAY GAME AWARD WINNERS Two players were recognized today for their outings in the A-Day Game. Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Alfred McCullough was voted by the media the winner of the Dwight Stephenson Most Valuable Lineman of the A-Day Game Award. McCullough was credited with six tackles, including one [...]
A-Day photo contest (more info)
I posted about the A-Day photo contest yesterday. Here are the rest of the details. You can email your entries to info@capstonereport.com or post them directly to our photo gallery by going to this link. You can read more about the contest below. But the simple thing is this, we’ll give out three prizes. One [...]
Shane: Who’s in charge?
The Aura Of Suspicion By Shane from Centerpoint Let me take you back to last fall. It was a typical Monday on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network, with most of the discussion focused on the preceding week’s football games. Five o’clock rolled around and former Auburn head coach Pat Dye made his usual appearance for [...]
Saban likely called Estes
Gentry Estes disappearing blog has reappeared with comments from the Alabama beat writer, who attempts to explain why the post disappeared. Estes explanation raises more questions than it answers. …After feeling compelled to respond to numerous comments from readers, the blog was threatening to become a time-consuming distraction to my work as Alabama beat writer [...]
A-Day photo contest
To celebrate A-Day, readers can upload or email as many of their Alabama photographs to the Capstonereport.com website. Our readers can then vote and comment on the photographs in our new gallery. We’ll post the gallery link for uploads and viewing before A-Day. And what is a contest without prizes? Well, it wouldn’t be a [...]
A-Day Game information
Here are the details about A-Day: GOLDEN FLAKE A-DAY GAME INFORMATION ADMISSION TO THE STADIUM There is no charge for admission to the Golden Flake A-Day Football Game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Fans should plan to arrive early as a large crowd is expected. Gates will open at Noon. STADIUM ACCESS & SEATING Entry gates to [...]
How to get ahead—South Park style
Fans of South Park were treated to what could have been the most conservative, perhaps reactionary show ever to air on television. Last night’s show made Archie Bunker look like a liberal. And that is the charm of South Park, they’ll gore any ox. Screw political correctness, like Aristophanes these guys have a conservative streak. [...]
The amazing disappearing blog post
Today’s Paul Finebaum radio program broached several topics of interest to Alabama fans, and all of them related to the magical disappearing blog of Gentry Estes. Estes posted this blog entry Saturday evening, which was taken off the al.com website sometime Monday. The post bemoaned the fact that the media was excluded from Alabama’s scrimmage. [...]
Is Notre Dame the latest to be processed? The answer is in your Sunday Cup of Coffee
There’s a term that has come to be affectionately known amoung Tide faithful as the earmark of the effect Nick [...]