I just read a crazy stat that is crazy if true: Every player Saban has recruited since 1999 will have won a National Championship. Is that even possible?

Yes. However, remember he did leave the college ranks for two years in '05 and 06. Otherwise, all his recruited classes at both LSU and Bama have at least one national championship ring earned during the four year period. Many players and assistants have more than one ring, including your new head coach.

BG

What is scary is that the achilles heel is 28-2 as a starter. One stop by the defense last year away from two NC's. He was on pace to win 56+ games in his career. Just think if he was "good".  I can't imagine this team with a QB like D. Watson or Mayfield. Heck, their depth is so good, I bet their second team would be top 10. They have got to decline sometime. Hope Pruitt can put a start to it.

Kirby Smart has talked this week how so many SEC staffs now have ex-Saban coaches, and the SEC (Georgia, Auburn?) is narrowing the gap. He readily admits he learned from Nick Saban and does things the way he learned from him. While different personalities play into this, I would expect Pruitt would try to do a "me too" as much as possible. The paradigm has been established.

BG

I was talking about the qb. Thanks for pointing out all the others  

Haha.

One had to play at tackle due to injury, and I believe they put the freshman wideouts and running back in since they are about as good as the starters, and secondly those second team freshmen receivers are who works with Tua day-in and day-out and they seem to have their timing down well. Anyway, very good group of freshmen, and without them Bama loses that game.

BG

My opinion, which i have expressed before, is that the locker room has been behind Jalen the entire time. I think this is what led the three QBs to quit last year.

FWIW, my opinion was formed watching his team mates repeatedly gush over him after just about every game last year, when to me he looked very ineffective throwing the ball.  So it's just a hunch, but I've never seen players give so much credit where so little is due, so while it's just a hunch, I think it's a good one. 

Well, all three that left failed to win the starting position at their new school. They each knew the best they could hope for was back-up duty at Bama.

I do think Saban knew this day was going as the reports from our "insiders" on our boards have said Tua has been extremely impressive in the pre-playoff practices. Even Kiffin reported this week he was told the same by someone on staff.

BG

situation. The man can coach. 

Six were in on offense at one point in the second half, and these are all true freshman. Tonight they were the difference. Usually they are limited to mop-up duty. Very happy that so many folks got to see them.

BG

I say bama by 17

Geez, I wish! Did you see the the Tide against MSU and Auburn? If so, that's what I'm concerned with.

BTW, outside LB Jennings (had a dominant game against Clemson) is now officially out for the championship game due to injury, and offensive guard Cotten is doubtful.

Who would have ever thought that the one time Bama would play Georgia in the national championship game, the game would be played in freaking Atlanta? Are the planets lining up correctly for the Dawgs?

BG

And it's in Hotlanta.   You will be hugely outnumbered I suspect, which is a bit unusual. 

I think the dawgies might just pull this off.   

The Dawgs are very impressive. Highly impressed with their QB. He's the real deal.

BG

FWIW, Pruitt will be coaching for the "visiting" team Monday night. Since they haven't been in this situation for almost forty years, and Bama has been several times just in the past few years, the Dawgs are buying up the tickets and driving the prices up to near $2,000  for a single ticket. Yes, they will drop but geez by how much?

Phil's been there before.  Ole Miss hired Cutcliffe away a couple weeks before he was to lead our offense in the NC game, and he was demanded in Oxford right away.  At least it worked out, as we were still able to win with Sanders calling plays.

I'm not going to get all pissy about it, but I would've preferred that Pruitt stay in Knox fulltime.

The good news for you guys is the publicity he's getting. Young guys are watching these games and his name is being talked about favorably, well, at least until the next game. It will help UT, and I wonder how much that publicity would be worth in dollars.

When this was being reported I read where a Dawg fan said he wouldn't have wanted Kirby if he didn't feel strongly that he owed it to his players to stay until after the championship game. I agree.

BG

Oh.  When does that end?  Still, it would be better for him to be in Knoxville and at least finish building a staff, start reviewing personnel on hand, etc. 

If the reports were true, just as the rumors were flying that Pruitt was getting the UT job some Vol sites were saying there was a minor snag to worked out. This was due to Fulmer wanting Pruitt full time in Knoxville immediately, while Pruitt was telling Fulmer he had a duty to his defensive players to coach them to the end since the national title was on the line.

Well, Jeremy P. 1 and P. Fuller 0

BG

http://www.rockytopinsider.com/2017/12/30/vols-top-list-elite-2018-cornerback/

 

Note the mention of linebacker Peterson---ranked in the top 5O players by 247---who also lists UT as no. 1 on his list. As you may know, that is a direct result of the relationship that current Bama defense coordinator (as we speak) has built with him over the past. Yes, the Tide had previously led for his services.

I wonder if there is another player associated with Alabama that may end up in Knoxville in current Tide safety Keaton Anderson. Since the Vol football team resides in a building named for his family, and his current coordinator is also the new head coach at UT, gotta think there is at least a chance he could possibly end up in Knoxville.

BG

The reason I thought it was 2005  because one of my daughters married her &$#@ husband on THAT DAY!!! I about LOST IT when she told me she was getting married on the 3rd Sat in October. Her Mother and me were divorced and I figured her Mother did it just to pi$$ me off. I told my daughter.....you are marrying a guy that agreed to get married on that day....I didn't like him before and didn't like him after.

But like a good Dad I walked her down the isle.......But during the reception I kept going out to the car to check the score

 BG

O.J., I also remember Sandman.

I think you were also at this particular joint Bama-UT tailgate on The Quad in T-town.

I believe it was the 6-3 game, and Sandman brought tons of cigars for the winners. We gathered around him after the game,  and he generously passed them out to those of us wearing Crimson. I doubt he would remember me as I was just one of the many Crimson Tide fans there, but I was personally so impressed by him.

So sorry to hear this news.

BG

The story gets even worse for this boy. His progenitor (This man is the antithesis of a father) once threatened to kill him. He's an ignorant white-supremacist currently incarcerated, and thank God this boy has nothing to do with him.

Also note Keaton had a brain tumor at birth and has had numerous procedures since its original removal.

My prayers for this young man. May God bless him.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5179389/Keaton-Jones-racist-father-threatened-shoot-him.html

http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/tennessee/2017/12/14/keaton-jones-bullied/949360001/

BG
 

The best reaction: Stay focused on the issue of bullying.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lYEj9snU838


BG

Alabama elected a Democrat. The end is nigh.   

The other choice is both an idiot (have you seen the pistol, cowboy hat and vest garb!?!) and predator! Glad the state did the right thing.

BG

I read the TMZ story earlier and could feel my ears turning red. A credible news organization (it's hard to say that with a straight face) suggesting that support for this kid should be dropped because his mother drapes herself in the Confederate flag. 1) The kid has no control over his mother's world views, and 2) what does his mother's endorsement of the Confederate flag have to do with the price of tea in China to begin with?

I generally find that folks who proudly wave the Confederate flag aren't the type of people I want to hang out with. Not always; that's a broad brush to be painting with. But generally. That, however, should have absolutely no bearing on this kid's plight. Then there's the fact that finally a stand is being taken against bullying and there are those among us who want to kill the movement in its tracks. It's as disgusting as the national sports media's shaming of Tennessee fans for taking a stand against Schiano, a move that could be seen as a major university's fan base finally taking a stand against rape culture.

At the end of the day, though, this is the height of irony. The race-baiters hate the Confederate flag and, more than that, they hate those who stand behind the Confederate flag. Those people's world views don't line up with their own, so they believe those people should be silenced at any cost. Isn't this what drives bullying in the first place? Hatred and a refusal to accept those and things that are "different"? What this boy's mother is experiencing today is bullying. I mean, don't cry for her, Argentina; she's an adult and she chose to place those images on her Facebook page. But this is why are kids go to school and bully and are bullied...because they're replicating what they see at home. That isn't going to change until we change.

Excellent.

BG

Well, you are the smartest Bama fan I know (don't get the big head, it's a very low bar).  Good to see you back here on a more regular basis by the way.

Hahaha!

Thanks.

BG

Sounds like he has learned more than football from Nick Saban.  He is hiring assistants that know him, know his style, know his personality.
 All I have read is players love him.   We need hardnosed, and, it is indeed Babe Ruth or Mighty Casey, but I am parking my butt in right field.

You seem to get the point of why I posted the links. They were to show you just how hard-nosed he is, and not concerned with who this writer thinks should be coach, which is beside the point.

Personally, I like that intensity very much. That personality description is also the same one for Nick Saban.


BG



 
 

This story has gone national. Just now read it completely and it's just so sad and so wrong.

BG

I have no issue with anything I read, I'm actually kinda happy to read it

I personally like a hard-nosed coach who won't accept anything but your very best.

BG

just how stubborn and hard-nosed he can get. As I said earlier, at times when disagreeing with Saban, he wasn't shy about expressing his view. Fulmer can expect the same.

FWIW, a couple of years ago someone linked Pruitt's Twitter account to our board as he was blasting someone at Georgia for not taking their football seriously. I'm not sure what the issue was but this event probably coincided with some of the issues discussed in these articles.

A "homerun or a strike out" is the analogy by the writer, and a good one, IMO.

https://www.dawgnation.com/football/former-uga-d-coordinator-jeremy-pruitt-high-risk-hire-tennessee

https://www.seccountry.com/georgia/uga-legend-fran-tarkenton-bulldogs-had-a-disruptive-culture-under-ex-dc-jeremy-pruitt


BG

This doesn't deserve a new thread so I'll drop it here.

I wonder if BOT member Charles Anderson didn't mention a recommendation of Pruitt to Fulmer. Anderson is of course the uncle of Alabama defensive and special teams player Keaton Anderson.

BG

The current Alabama offensive analyst and former FSU QB will be a new edition to the UT offensive staff. Our site is reporting this and getting the word from their fellow UT Rivals site.


BG

http://www.tennessean.com/videos/sports/college/vols/2017/12/08/every-aight-new-ut-football-coach-pruitt-said-his-first-press-conference/108444064/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

Go tell them where he most likely picked that up. Thanks. This one is so good it goes to the national board!

BG