Nobody, probably not even ULM's coaches and players, expected this, but make no mistake: beating Tennessee and beating LSU for the first 55 minutes of the game were not signs that Alabama was "back". Anyone who looked at the wins and "moral victories" (which is just a euphemism for "losses") and disposed of the notion that this was a full-on rebuilding year should have come back around.
There are probably a dozen reasons for the loss, ranging from poor preparation, to looking ahead to Auburn, to having players who just don't have the mental toughness to compete at this level, to the stars aligning in this really bizarre football season, and so on.
Tide fans hope that this will be the wake-up call that this team needs to stop playing up or down to the level of their opponents.
To this end, Head Coach Nick Saban tried to explain, in his post-game news conference, that major events bring can about major changes. Unfortunately, he over-estimated the intelligence of his audience, and used some ill-advised examples to try to drive the point home. Here's the exact quote:
Team spirit is the willingness to sacrifice personal considerations for the welfare of all. I think that goes with any teamwork; I think that's what defines a team player in business, in football, any team sport. People have to care, it's gotta be important to them, and that's what makes it happen -- because it's important to ya.
Changes in history usually occur after some kind of catastrophic event. It may be 9/11, which sorta changed the spirit of America relative to a catastrophic event. Pearl Harbor got us ready for World War II, or whatever, and that was a catastrophic event.
I don't think anyone in this room would've bet that we would lose back-to-back games against Mississippi State and ULM (no disrespect to either one of those teams) and there's really a reason for that.
Changes in history usually occur after some kind of catastrophic event. It may be 9/11, which sorta changed the spirit of America relative to a catastrophic event. Pearl Harbor got us ready for World War II, or whatever, and that was a catastrophic event.
I don't think anyone in this room would've bet that we would lose back-to-back games against Mississippi State and ULM (no disrespect to either one of those teams) and there's really a reason for that.
There were no more mentions of catastrophe, no further references to 9/11 or Pearl Harbor, that was the extent of it. Someone with a firm command of the English language and no axe to grind would see the references for what they were: examples. It wasn't a comparison, direct or otherwise. He didn't "liken" the Alabama loss to Pearl Harbor.
That didn't stop folks from making a mountain out of a molehill, though. The AP story started it: "Citing the 9-11 terrorist attacks and Pearl Harbor, Alabama coach Nick Saban said Monday his team must rebound like America did from a 'catastrophic event.'" Of course, he never said anything like that.
Fellow FanHouser Brian Cook ran with the story, and sensationalized it a little more, titling his post "Saban Compares ULM Loss To 9-11, Pearl Harbor".
Former FanHouser Jay Coulter, an Auburn blogger, spun it basically the same way: "How out of touch with reality is Saban? He compared the loss to Louisiana-Monroe with September 11th and Pearl Harbor." There were no such comparisons. (Odds are that neither Cook nor Coulter took the time to actually listen to the press conference and were basing their analysis off of the AP's interpretation)
In that post, Coulter also asked if the Auburn game was a must-win this Saturday. It's obviously not now and never was -- it would certainly go a long way toward salving the sting of the ULM loss, but virtually all Alabama fans have realized, from the beginning, that the Auburn game would be an upset win... losing to ULM doesn't make that any less true. Then again, any analysis that starts with "Listening to talk radio across the state," is pretty much doomed to failure from the beginning.
Almost as troubling as the loss, at least to me, was putting DJ Hall in in the second half. He was supposedly serving a one-game suspension for a team rules violation. Most likely, whatever it was that he did called for a half-game suspension to begin with and Saban didn't think it would hurt the team for him to be gone for the full game, so he announced that as the punishment. Even if that's the case, though, once that punishment is announced, he needs to stick with it. Barring some odd new information that's not currently out in the open, letting Hall play was a mistake, and it shouldn't have happened. Frankly, I think Saban ought to acknowledge the mistake, and bench Hall for the first half of the Auburn game, to finish out the suspension that he announced.
It was a rough Saturday and a humiliating loss for Alabama. One thing is starting to become clear: Alabama has quite a few players on the roster who aren't willing to work hard every week. Until that changes, we're going to continue to see a hot-and-cold team like we've seen this season.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-20-2007 @ 12:20PM
Senator Blutarsky said...
I'm sorry, but as another blogger said, losing to ULM is an embarrassment, not a catastrophe. Saban's comments reminded me of Winslow's "soldier" remark - they were just as stupid.
As for the retraction of the Hall suspension, what "new information" would excuse what happened? He played because his coach needed his skills. For 'Bama, that's winning "the right way", I guess.
This sure comes off as a lot of rationalizing on your part. Would someone like Tuberville get the same benefit of the doubt from you?
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 12:37PM
JefFlyingV said...
It is hard for me to believe that the players aren't committed to winning. Saban may not be the football genius that you might think he is. He didn't do a very good job of turning around the Dolphin program.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 1:01PM
Pete Holiday said...
I'm not sure where the "rationalizing" is... he didn't say (or imply) what media outlets and bloggers are claiming. I also said, in no uncertain terms, that Hall should sit for the first half of the Auburn game to finish out the suspension he was supposed to serve.
What more do you want?
That all to say nothing of the fact that the loss, in the context of a football season, was absolutely a catastrophe. Was it the same kind of catastrophe as 9/11 was? Absolutely not. Was it as bad as Pearl Harbor? No. But it most certainly was a "a complete failure", to use the dictionary definition of the word.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 1:35PM
Gamecock Man said...
Pete, you're the king of spin and a major homer.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 1:38PM
Gamecock Man said...
Whatever Saban meant, he should've never mentioned these two events in conjunction with a football game. They had nothing to do with what he was talking about. Bama fans, quit defending everything this clown does. He may win lots of games for you one day soon, but he's an epic bastard; no other way around it. I love my team and our coach, but I certainly wouldn't clap for such absurdity.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 1:58PM
OPRockr said...
If you were from this state you'd realize that football is life, that's all he was talking about, he wasn't actually saying that this is worse than 9/11, or Pearl Harbor, he was just saying that ULM came into Bama's home stadium and defeated them, it was a huge moral blow to them. You people read too much into stuff like this. at the beginning of the season Alabama had the #1 Spot in the SEC West, and was a BCS ranked team, near the end of the season it just went down from there, so I could see the liking to other catastrophes in the history, and for the record I AM a Bama fan and I think this may have made Bear Bryant roll over in his grave.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 3:04PM
Senator Blutarsky said...
"Pearl Harbor got us ready for World War II, or whatever..."
But it's Saban that's "over-estimated the intelligence of his audience".
Right.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 3:14PM
Senator Blutarsky said...
By the way, Pete, on this half a game here, half a game there suspension proposal of yours, I've got a better idea.
Let's say there's an average of 70 offensive plays a game. If Saban just leaves DJ on the sidelines six times each game during a 12 game season - voila! One game suspension!
No doubt Nick can assure us that he picked really important plays to bench his guy. Like third and inches. On the goal line. That'll teach him.
Sorry for the sarcasm, but this whole thing with Hall is an embarrassment. You're the only guy I've read trying to spin it with this "most likely it was only worthy of a half game suspension" stuff.
Does 'Bama even have a half game suspension policy?
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 3:40PM
Pete Holiday said...
You can try to make this look like a homer call all you want, I said it was wrong to put Hall in the game, and I proposed a solution which I think is incredibly fair.
I think it would've been BETTER (as I pointed out in the post) if Hall hadn't played at all. Unfortunately, he did, and all that can really be done NOW is try to atone for that mistake.
Do you have a better idea?
But hey... don't bother trying to actually make a valid point, just toss around insinuations and innuendo -- that's a whole lot easier than actually saying something substantive, isn't it?
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 3:44PM
nickstoli said...
Saban...is this Croation for "Complete Ass"?
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 4:17PM
Senator Blutarsky said...
Do I have a better idea? Good grief, man, do you think Saban consults with me on team discipline?
Pete, he announced a suspension, then took it back because he needed his guy in a game that 'Bama was losing. What kind of valid point do you want? The man put winning ahead of discipline. How do you take his solemn declarations seriously going forward?
As for insinuations and innuendo, unless you've got proof that "...whatever it was that he did called for a half-game suspension to begin with and Saban didn't think it would hurt the team for him to be gone for the full game, so he announced that as the punishment..." is factual, it seems to me that you're speculating a heck of a lot more than anyone else is about this whole thing.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 5:21PM
Charlie said...
A better idea is for Saban to honor his word and suspend Hall for the entire game like he said. But did anyone actually expect him to tell the truth.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 5:37PM
Dee said...
For a country that champions freedom of speech, we get up in arms when people say something that we don't agree with.
The lack of intelligence amongst the Saban bashers is appalling. Seriously, do you guys have any education.
You can find any study on linguistics or semantics that will tell you that PEOPLE SPEAK IN METAPHORS! More to the point, people use metaphors to express FEELINGS.
You guys erroneously assume that Nick Saban was sharing a thought. He did never said that he thought the loss to ULM was the same as 911.
He used a metaphor to convey the feelings of the players, coaches, and Bama Nation. To them, it FEELS like a catastrophe. He went on to use the analogy of how Americans have rebounded from catastrophes throughout history.
You people obviously don't seem to understand what he was saying and what he was trying to convey.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 5:40PM
Pete Holiday said...
I'm just trying to find out if you have a point you're going to eventually get to, that's all.
You're absolutely right, that my plausible explanation is just a guess. But it's no less of a guess than this is: "The man put winning ahead of discipline."
Neither of us have any idea what Hall did, what punishment that usually gets, or anything else. All we know is that Saban announced one thing and then did another.
For all we know, Hall was 10 minutes late for a position meeting and Saban's typical punishment was giving up his starting spot for a game... or running some extra wind sprints.
But, and this is still my point, if he's not going to give more information, enough to justify shrinking the suspension, he needs to stick with his announced punishment. Since he didn't, he needs to make things right next week.
I'm not sure what's so "homer" about that position or why you're calling it "spin"... the fact is that we really have no idea what happened or what the details were. You want to assume that Saban is the anti-christ and everything he does is ruthless and evil. That's fine, you're entitled to your opinion, but don't act like you're in here preaching the facts... all you're really doing is coming up with another opinion.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 6:26PM
James said...
Pete,,,,you cannot "unshoot" a gun. Once the trigger has been pulled, it is too late.
Saban showed where his priorities are and that is win at all cost. "Doing it the right way" really means if he needs his best player then he will lift a suspension during the middle of a game.
WAR EAGLE
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 6:46PM
rick said...
saban just had a knee-jerk reaction to the realization that his team isn't that good. he believed all the hype that sec fans spew every week. they are just like s. carolina, remember their #7 ranking? lmao. what about kentucks #7 ranking. the media keeps buying the hype but their records tell the true story. auburn with 4 losses but still ranked?m lol.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 7:26PM
Senator Blutarsky said...
"He was supposedly serving a one-game suspension for a team rules violation."
There was no "supposedly" about that, at least according to the Alabama SID:
http://blog.al.com/chatter/2007/11/dj_hall_suspended_for_game.html
That's what I would call spin.
By the way, I don't consider Saban the anti-Christ. I just don't believe he belongs on that rather high pedestal much of the 'Bama fan base has put him on.
Reply
11-20-2007 @ 10:52PM
Randal Palm said...
Aubbies need to shut their pie holes given the academic activities of your best running back....he spent less time on suspension than Bama players caught selling books (a sign they actually knew what a book is)......and how easy it is to get a degree in Sociology at the Barn these days if you are a football player.......and what about those players who took classes from strange places.....we ALL know about your linebacker.....a real winner on and off the field............PLEASE.........take care of your own rotting, stinking house...tell your "owner" (we ALL know who owns the school, dont we) it might not be a good idea to run off Tubby........
Reply
11-21-2007 @ 1:07AM
Charlie said...
Actuall, Randal, Brad Lester spent 6 games suspended. get your fact straight first, buddy.
Reply
11-21-2007 @ 7:08AM
James said...
Charlie,,,,why wold Randall get his facts straight first? It isn't in bammers best interest to do that.
WAR EAGLE
Reply