View From Bennett Avenue

I have been busy trying to find work the past few days and never did comment on the big game the other night. Sorry about that. Anyway, what an odd one? I do not remember a winning coach--and won who enjoyed an undefeated season--making so many boneheaded decisions in one game. The fake punt was so dumb it was unbelievable. Was he jealous of all the ink Boise State gets for trick plays? Texas should have opened with a 7-0 lead and would have added to it when the Alabama WR Julio Jones fails to fair-catch the ensuing short kick-off. That play proved that a team of 5-star players can lose to a weaker team if they commit brain locks like that one. Jones has never impressed one as a top student-athlete, so perhaps it was to be expected. Although it is hard to blame Saban directly for this one play, the coach is responsible for getting his team prepared and, well, Jones was not prepared. So they get bailed out with McCoy's injury and only trail by six. But this post is heading for War and Peace-like length, so let me knock Saban for his biggest blunder. How do you let the only dynamic, game-changing player left on the Texas offense almost beat you in the second half? Thanks to the gift TD received at the end of the 1st H, the Tide led 24-6 with a great run game and a tough defense that had already ended the amateur career of QB Colt McCoy. The odds in Alabama's favor looked to be a million-to-one. So then Alabama amazingly allows WR Jordan Shipley to run free in their secondary. The number one threat for Texas and the most reliable target for youngster Garret Gilbert was the star WR Shipley. He had to be neutralized, yet the Tide deep safeties were late coming over on both of his TDs. You cannot let the best player on the field beat you and yet there was Shipley catching pass after pass in the 2nd H.
But then the defense, which in all fairness Saban helped shape, bails him out with another brutal hit on an opposing QB. But that's football. and the best thing Saban has done with the Tide program is establish a team built on punishing line of scrimmage play.
Meanwhile--and yes I am back with some anti-Saban material, why was ESPN so amazed that Saban has turned around the Tide in only three years? It's Alabama for crying out loud. The program dipped because of questionable coaching and a loss of scholarships due to some recruiting malfeasance. Saban is now recruiting full tilt. And anyone can recruit top-notch kids from down-south to Tuscaloosa. Plus plenty of coaches have turned around big-time programs that momentarily slumped before this season including ESPN's own Lou Holtz, who was his only NCAA title three years after the Faust years. Don't the fools at ESPN read their own talent's bios?
Enough already. I have to post on Pete Carroll next.