It’s here. Can you believe it? The long summer has given way to football and now it is time.

An official depth chart should be ready for the press today. There has been speculation from newspapers and blogs about what the depth chart will look like. But we no longer have to speculate. You can almost feel the season is here.

We’ll also be able to put aside speculation about how good the freshmen will be. Of course, that bit of information won’t be revealed until Saturday. I guess we can wait that long—even if kickoff is in primetime.

Advertisement: Story continues below



Josh Moon insulting people again
As if Josh Moon wasn’t content lobbing inappropriate allegations against the Alabama program under the guise of a joke, he takes shots at Alabama and Auburn fans for not getting it.

Maybe the problem doesn’t rest with Alabama and Auburn fans. Maybe the problem is Josh Moon and his editors. It is the height of irresponsibility to accuse someone in print of cheating—and that is what he did. You can call it selective reading and we didn’t get the joke; however, when you spend your time pushing an agenda everyone including Alabama and Auburn fans read your work through that prism.

And Moon provides the prism in the next segment of his column taking a shot at Saban’s height. Seriously, does Moon spend his day reading Auburn message boards? Like we all haven’t heard Nick Saban is short about a million times from Auburn fans. It wasn’t funny the first time. And if you think Moon is finished, he takes another shot at Alabama toward the end of the column.

More quality from Gannett. The end of newsprint can’t come fast enough.

The good in newsprint
I have to admit, I loved the Birmingham News football preview section. It was a very nice section, although the It’s A Jungle Out There headline had the Monk theme running over and over again through my head Sunday. And the ads. Wow. Who said newspapers were suffering slowing ad revenue. It’s still nice to hold the actual stories in my hand—but in case you missed it, here’s what you shouldn’t miss.

Ian Rapoport details how Nick Saban goes about making the inexact science of recruiting less inexact. The story is full of gems like the staff’s preference for VHS over DVD. Worth reading.

15 thoughts on “Game Week”

  2. Everyone got the joke. Moon is not very clever, just a hack without much talent. Just ignore him.

  3. Cappy, you really do need to send Moon a bill. You give him more free publicity for his columns than he could ever hope to get. For God sakes, you’re even putting links to his columns on this blog. I’m starting to wonder if you and him have some kind of arrangement, because there’s no way a professional guy like yourself who actually has his own sports blog could be so sensitive about what some 2 bit columnist from Montgomery is writing.

    You’re offended because Moon made a short joke about Saban? Ever heard the term “wingnut”? I guess it’s deplorable to make jokes about Saban’s height, but jokes about Tubs ears are perfectly acceptable.

  4. How is the process coming along? Will we see the benefits of the process during the Clemson game?

  5. The only solution to dealing with Moon’s humorous nonsense is to ignore him. But what is he trying to accomplish by taking shots at Bama/Bama Tech fans?

    His reputation is slowly dying off.

  7. Just wondering about your process. Don’t get your panties in a wad. What happens when you only win 6 games this year? What happens with the process?

  8. Actually rolltide, Tubs’ first season was a pretty good improvement from the previous season. Auburn improved from 3-8 to 5-6. This was after losing the starting qb Ben Leard for nearly the entire season. (Read this bammers: losing the starting qb is no excuse. Auburn lost those 2 games, plain and simple.) The next year, Tubs won the SEC West and went to Atlanta. Saban had the exact same regular season record last year as Shula did in 06. You think Saban’s going to Atlanta in his second year?

  9. Errr, sorry. The 2 games I was referencing in my previous post were the Ole Miss and Miss State games which were very close, last minute losses.

  10. NO SABIN WILL GO TO ATLANTA IN HIS THIRD YEAR.IN DUE PROCESS.WE ARE FINE TUNING THE MONSTERS THIS YEAR. JUST SIT AND WATCH. ROLLTIDE BABY ROLL””””””’TIDE

  11. That’s a phenomenal improvement! Win one more game than your predecessor won the year before 3-8 to 4-7, even though it was only four games. Isn’t that what Saban did last year? 6-7 to 7-6. Looks a lot better than 4-7 I can tell you that much. So because Saban choked in one game he should have won IN A TRANSITIONAL YEAR he’s automatically deemed a failure? He beat Arkansas. He beat Tennessee. He beat Colorado and before you talk about the level of the competition keep in mind they defeated Oklahoma. So in the mind of an Aubarn fan, just because he didn’t go undefeated in his first year practically means he’s a failure??? You think just because he’s equaled what typically every historical Alabama coach done in their first year, progress will never be made??? And about the close losses Tub had in his amazing 4-7 year, what about the close loss Saban had against UGA in overtime, the last minute loss to LSU, the fourth quarter loss to Florida St., and what about none of the losses being by more than 7 points in his first year? If that logic can be applied to yall then it should us as well.

  12. Oh and what about Aubarn’s touchdown near the closing of the fourth because of a questionable call to win the game? Give the man a break. With time those close losses will transform into monstrous wins.

  13. ummmm, Adam….can you not read very well? I said Tubs improved his first AU team from 3-8 to 5-6. That’s a 2 win improvement. Where in the #%*@ did you get 4-7 from????? You must be thinking of Shula’s first year.

    You know what the “close losses” to UGA, LSU, and Fla. State you whined about are called? They’re called LOSSES. Period. Tubs lost a couple of close games to Ole Miss and Miss State his first year, too. Even lost his starting qb for those games. Who cares, they were still losses. Saban on the other hand had a 6-6 regular season record, the same as Shula did the year before. You can talk about Colorado in the mediocrity bowl all you want, but Bama was lucky that Spurrier fell apart at the end of the season or Bama wouldn’t have even gone to a bowl with that pathetic record.

    I love your second post. Oh look everyone, another bammer blaming an Iron Bowl loss on a call by the ref. UAT, the home of endless excuses and moral victories.

  14. Bama made obvious improvement last year: won 2 big games (more than Shula in 4 years), made comebacks in 4th qtr, etc. Saban did this with 3 unrecruited, essentially 3 walk on, players starting on D. Probably no other team, including Vanderbilt, started more than 1. And I should also state the fact that several of our upper classmen on last year’s squad fell behind Ole Miss when they recruited to Alabama in the final team rankings. The defense was wonderfully coached, the offense not so. Bama took UGA to OT and took LSU to a 4th and 4 away from winning the West, with only 1 player who could have definitely started for LSU (AS, maybe RJ) – 1 player. Bama dominated MSU (215 yds tot off), but for the play, but yes Bama should have beaten MSU. There is no excuse for the ULM game – all coaches are imperfect and his players couldn’t bail him out.

    The talent was so bad that not 1 Bama player was drafted for the first time in 39 years, and the 2nd time in 70 years (even Ears’ 3 teams had them). The ‘talent’ was vastly overrated – it was 7th or 8th in the SEC at best; furthermore it was light years behind the upper tier: LSU, UF, UGA and discernably less than the 2nd tier: UT, AU. Bama had become an upscale Ole Miss. Whether it was sanctions or any other reason is irrelevant, the talent was way down.

    The program was in the toilet as far as talent, S & C, attitude, organization, work ethic and more. If anyone cannot see that Nick Saban is not only the best hope, but at this point, the only hope for Bama to return to an elite status they are clueless. Yes, he has flaws, as Coach Bryant and every other coach has, but he is the best coach in college football, and an especially good fit for Bama, especially at this time.

    Your expectations seem reasonable, though some were met last year, but your attitude, IMO, is way off base. You don’t seem to understand what is really going on and that is that Bama has a great coach, the best there is, who cannot work any harder, whose program needs a little time (it took Coach Bryant 4 years to win an SECC that was tough but not as tough as today) and who needs as much support and understanding from its fanbase as possible.

  15. Touching post, tiderinsider. I think you must have cut and pasted the last paragraph of your post from one you made at the conclusion of the 2004 season on behalf of Mike Shula. Same old tune, over and over again, year after year after year…

    btw, what the #@*% do you base your assesment on that Saban is the “best coach in college football?”

Comments are closed.