by Ed Reinke - AP

Kentucky running back Moncell Allen is tackled by Senior Eryk Anders, bottom, Senior Javier Arenas (28) and Rolando McClain (25) during the first half of the Crimson Tide's victory at Kentucky.

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Saturday morning in Tuscaloosa will feature more than just the game against Tennessee-Chattanooga, for Saturday will also bring Senior Day, and for the senior class this will be their final game in Bryant-Denny Stadium. After spending years and years performing at 100 Bryant Drive, this will be the final time that this senior class will strap it up in front of the home crowd.

Given such an occasion, I think it's only fitting that we should pause for a moment and take a bit of reflection on this class and just how they got here. Things haven't always been easy for this group, and far from it in fact it has almost always been difficult. Most of them weren't very highly-touted recruits, and most of them signed with Alabama when our program was struggling. Adversity has really been a constant for them almost throughout their entire time at the Capstone, and what these men overcame to reach this level should not be forgotten.

Eryk Anders was a one-star recruit coming out of San Antonio that played nose guard in high school at a mere 195 pounds. He didn't get a single offer before Alabama swept in late, and was actually planning on being a walk-on at Ole Miss before Alabama came along in late June of 2005. Coach Saban himself didn't think he'd ever be a contributor when he arrived, and Anders actually told his father he was going to transfer in his hotel room the night of the 2007 Independence Bowl. His father encouraged him to stick with his commitment and get his degree, and he died later that night in his sleep with a heart attack. And Anders not only stuck around, but he came out of nowhere to thrive.

Cory Reamer was a two-star safety out of Hoover who drew little interest from most BCS conference schools. He actually grew up an Auburn fan, but the Tigers signed two more highly-touted safety prospects in the previous class -- Tony Bell and Lorenzo Ferguson, both of which eventually became busts -- and never really gave Reamer much of a look. He signed with Alabama, and then proceeded to blow out his left knee as a true freshman, and when Saban arrived he looked to be the epitome of a player that would get caught in the crunch of systems turnover. Yet Reamer turned into a starter at outside linebacker on an elite defense.

Mike Johnson was a two-star offensive lineman out of Pensacola. He participated on the camp circuits, but no one really ended up biting. Alabama offered and he was Tuscaloosa bound, which was just about the only major school recruiting him. He came out of nowhere in 2007, and will finish his career as a three-year starter and an All-SEC player. A lucrative career in the NFL awaits him when his tour of duty in Tuscaloosa comes to an end.

Javier Arenas was a late signee in the 2006 class. His only other offers were from Florida Atlantic and Florida International, and not only was he not a big deal on the national scene, he really wasn't even a big deal in his hometown of Tampa. Then UA special teams coach Dave Ungerer argued vehemently on his behalf for a scholarship as a returner, and after we missed on some other guys like in that class -- Peanut Whitehead, Tim Hawthorne, and others, most of which turned out to be busts -- we signed Arenas. We signed him thinking he'd be a returner, but since he has became arguably the greatest returner in Alabama history, and an All-SEC defensive back who will play on Sunday.

Drew Davis was a two-star recruit in the 2004 class. He played at a tiny private school, and drew really no interest whatsoever on the recruiting trails. Alabama, in fact, only gave him a greyshirt offer, despite a complete lack of depth along the offensive line, and more than a few 'Bama fans questioned his viability as a legitimate SEC caliber player. And in the first four years of his career, he was an afterthought. But in 2008 he burst onto the scene as a starter, and in 2009 he has been an All-SEC caliber player who has kept at least two five-star prospects sitting on the bench. So much for his viability as an SEC player, eh?

Others went through much of the same. Tyrone King was a walk-on transfer from Grambling... we never recruited him, but he decided to chase a dream anyway. Roy Upchurch has fought through no less than three major surgeries including two season-ending ankle injuries that threatened to end his career before it ever began. Mike McCoy turned down both of his home state schools to play at Alabama, had a redshirt year wasted by the previous coaching staff, and then watched arguably the biggest recruit we've ever had take away his role. Lorenzo Washington spurned his in-state Georgia Bulldogs for 'Bama, then endured a tour of duty at Hargrave, a redshirt year in Tuscaloosa, a major injury, played out of position at nose guard, and found himself relegated to the bench when Terrence Cody arrived. And speaking of Cody, he had to overcome poor academics and poor physical care of himself to be a star, but he conquered both obstacles. Marquis Johnson became the pin cushion for the entire fan base after he was forced into a situation that he never should have been in against Florida State in 2007, but he persevered and turned himself into a fine football player. Justin Woodall was put through pure hell when the hometown homers in Oxford realized he wasn't going to sign with the Rebels. Leigh Tiffin has endured more criticism than any kicker ever should. Ali Sharrief lost his role in the coaching turnover, but he remained a valuable contributor nevertheless. Colin Peek spurned 'Bama the first time around, but nevertheless still ended up in Tuscaloosa. Brandon Deaderick passed up on in-state Kentucky out of high school and turned into a starter at 'Bama. And then he got shot. Twice. And he kicked ass in the Georgia Dome four days later.

Obviously a lot of things have changed in Tuscaloosa the past several years. Most of these players actually signed with Mike Shula. When Lorenzo Washington and Drew Davis signed with the Tide, Alabama was coming off a 4-9 season, ineligible to participate in bowl games, and playing in a stadium that held all of 83,000 people. It had been a mere eight months since Mike Price was fired for his actions with Arety's Angels. Nick Saban, fresh off of a national championship, had signed what most LSU fans hoped would effectively be a lifetime contract to stay in Baton Rouge. Most 'Bama fans at the time were just hoping we could show enough improvement in 2004 to get somewhere like Shreveport or Nashville.

Now, though, Alabama finds itself at the opposite end of the spectrum. Nick Saban now resides in Tuscaloosa, and we look to play for a spot in the national championship game for the second year in a row. At the very least, we'll end up with back-to-back BCS game appearances, and we may very well find ourselves back in Pasadena for the first time an SEC team has made the trek since Frank Thomas' War Babies wrapped up an undefeated season by crushing USC in 1945. Recruiting is better than it has been since the glory days of the Bryant years, and shows no real signs of slowing down any time soon. We've got more top-end talent and quality depth in Tuscaloosa right now than we've had since the late 1970's. And Bryant-Denny Stadium? It will hold over 100,000 people this time next year.

Again, the times have changed in Tuscaloosa, and we should all acknowledge the role that all of these young men played in delivering us out of the dark ages. Our newfound recruiting juggernaut has helped tremendously, of course, but realistically recruiting has a very long lag time before it translates into on-field success -- rest assured, even for an elite recruiting class, players like Julio Jones and Dont'a Hightower are very much rarities -- and if you are going to have success in the interim, you are going to need some otherwise unknowns to turn into high-end players in their own right, and that is exactly what many of these young men have done. It has never been easy for them, but they have persevered in the face of adversity and played an immeasurable role in rebuilding our program.

Moving forward, I have no clue where we will go from here. We will thump Tennessee-Chattanooga and these men will walk out of Bryant-Denny for the final time as winners, that much I know, but after that I really haven't the slightest clue. We'll probably beat Auburn, but who knows? Maybe we fall at the hands of Florida in Atlanta again, maybe we pull off the upset. Maybe we beat Texas in Pasadena, maybe we lose to TCU in the Sugar Bowl. Who knows? Only time will tell for certain.

Regardless of how the season ultimately plays out, though, nothing should take away from what this group has done. They have literally played an instrumental role in rebuilding the Alabama football program back as a national powerhouse, and all those who bleed crimson and white ought to be forever indebted to them for that. If we have had a better senior class than this one in my lifetime, I'm not aware of it. And, moving forward, we can only hope that the senior classes to come can legitimately match what this group has done.

The title is a legitimate question, not a lame attempt to knock off our coach's book title, nor an inability on my part to come up with a decent title for this piece. In all seriousness, how good do you want to be?

For Alabama, based on what we have done to date, we're going to have a very positive end result to this season. We know that much already. Even if we don't play particularly well against Tennessee-Chattanooga or Auburn, we probably should nevertheless win both games and finish up 12-0 with back-to-back undefeated regular seasons. So, even if we get smoked by Florida in Atlanta, we still end up making another BCS game and with a win there we finish up #2 in the country. And even if we lose again, life is still pretty much all gravy... we'll easily stay in the top ten, and we'll still be 25-4 over the course of our last 29 games. And, oh yeah, we've got another top five recruiting class on the way in 2010, we'll be in very good shape to win a lot of games in 2010, and for several years after that too. Regardless of how this season finishes up, life is good for a 'Bama fan. 

But again, how good do you want to be? Are we going to just be a team that wins a lot of games, or are we legitimately going to take the step to the next level and bring the first national championship to Tuscaloosa in seventeen years? And if your answer to that question is that you want to win a national championship this year, then that changes what you have to do.

Not all national championships are created equal. Each year presents a different set of circumstances, and its immeasurably more difficult to win a national championship in some years than it is in others. And without doubt, it will be tougher to win a national championship this year than it is in most years, and there will clearly be no freebies. We will not be able to lose a couple of games in the regular season and get patsies in the championship games like LSU did in 2007. Nor will we be able to avoid a conference championship game altogether and get a declining Nebraska program -- that couldn't even win its own division -- like Miami did in 2001. No, we're going to have to earn it the hard way... by beating a 12-0 Florida team in Atlanta and then likely topping that by beating a 13-0 Texas team in Pasadena. Again, no freebies this year, we'll have to earn it the hard way.

So, how good do you want to be? And if you want to be that good, you are going to have to accept the reality that you must play at a level commensurate with such accomplishments.

Last weekend against Mississippi State, we won in a relative route, 31-3, in a game that was really never in doubt. But of course, we didn't exactly play perfect football, and far from it in fact we made a lot of mistakes in our own right and took advantage of many mistakes on the Bulldogs' part. Just to name a few of them, they included:

• Two long kick returns allowed by our kick coverage unit
  
• A busted assignment in pass coverage by MSU that directly led to a 'Bama touchdown
• A missed chip-shot field goal by Mississippi State
• An easy touchdown pass missed by Mississippi State when their receiver never looked for the ball
• An easy touchdown pass missed by Mississippi State on the opening play by a poorly underthrown ball
• A slow start by 'Bama, allowing Mississippi State to drive the football twice early, matched with a three and out by the Tide offense

Now, against Mississippi State, doing things of that nature is fine and dandy because a team like that will often times beat themselves for you and be incapable of taking advantage of the mistakes that you make. But what about an elite team like Florida or Texas? Well, that's simply not going to happen. With the slow start we had, they would have probably gone up 14-0 early. And they probably wouldn't have missed the easy touchdown passes, or the chip-shot field goals, nor would they likely have given up big plays via busted assignments. And you can rest assured that they would have generated at least some points off of the two long returns. Playing like that is just fine against the Mississippi States of the world, but that simply won't cut it against a team like Florida or Texas.

We talked earlier in the year about putting it all together and effectively playing the perfect game. I think the potential is clearly there to do such a thing, but to date we have not done it yet. Nevertheless, that is likely what you will have to do if you want to get to where want to go. And if we cannot do that when the time comes, well... we've been done that route before.

So again, how good do you want to be?

Another week goes by, and another round of meltdowns explode across the Internet. You would think at some point fan bases would just become immune, but it just doesn't seem to happen that way. When there's a loss, there's a meltdown. You can bank on it like the sun rising in the morning.

This week we've got some great material from Auburn, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Michigan, USC, and Miami. All six took it on the chin this past weekend and, well, let's just say that none of the six took it particularly well. As usual, we've got it all this week... abortions, dikes, snipers, toilet bowls, group boycotts, Fear the Thumb, Daniel Moore speculations, the Detroit Lions, bribing officials, Krusty the Clown, Wild Turkey, Hormel Spam... You name it, and we've got it. Of course, the language gets very rough, so once again consider yourself warned.

And without further adieu, it's meltdown time...

ALL the recruiting in the world won't fix this. We have the worst coached defense in the conference and it looks like we still love going into Tubershell when we get up by more than 10 points. I blame the coaches totally for this loss!

I am seriously starting to question the intelligence of Auburn fans.  

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With Mark Ingram having such a standout year, perhaps it should come as no real surprise that he is indeed closing in on Alabama's all-time single season rushing record. The following is a quick grab from the media guide showing the rushing record list as it stood coming into this season:

As of right now, Ingram currently has 1,297 yards, putting him a mere 174 yards away from the single season rushing record. With four games remaining in the season, and Ingram averaging right around 130 yards per game to date, it's really a question of when, not if, he will be break the record. As it currently stands, it seems only a major injury could keep him from re-writing the record books.

Again, the real question is when. I imagine that he could do it this weekend against Tennessee-Chattanooga, but that's probably a bit unlikely unless he has a couple of really big runs early. We ought to beat the Mocs with ease and we'll get Ingram out as soon as realistically possible. I imagine, then, that the smart money is on Ingram getting fairly close to the record after the Chattanooga game with him likely breaking it in the Iron Bowl.

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With under two minutes left in the half, Alabama downed a P.J. Fitzgerald punt at the Mississippi State 1-yard-line and then held the Bulldogs to a three-and-out, hoping to set themselves up for a quick score before half-time.

The Heath Hutchins punt didn't quite make it to return man Javier Arenas, who attempted to keep the return team away from it by waving them off. A fortunate bounce landed right in his arms and he took off -- only to have the flags fly in, the whistles blow, and the Tide be assessed a 5 yard penalty for attempting to return a ball after a fair catch signal.

'Bama fans, and even Eli Gold, were understandably confused, since even on the replay it did not appear that Arenas called for a fair catch. At halftime, Gold conferred with the officials who told him that a rule change for 2010 allows any motion by the return man to suffice for a fair catch signal.

This isn't entirely true -- it doesn't seem that this rule has changed at all from 2009 -- but it appears that the refs made an arguably correct call on the play.

NCAA football rules 2-7-2 and 2-7-3 define a valid and invalid fair-catch signal. They read as follows:

Valid Signal
ARTICLE 2. A valid signal is a signal given by a player of Team B who has obviously signaled his intention by extending one hand only clearly above his head and waving that hand from side to side of his body more than once.

Invalid Signal
ARTICLE 3. An invalid signal is any waving signal by a player of Team B that does not meet the requirements of a valid signal (Rule 6-5-3).

So, as we can see, one hand above the head waving back and forth signifies a fair catch. According to 2-7-3, however, any other waving signal is considered an "invalid signal."

Rule 6-5-2 defines the penalty for attempting to advance the ball after a fair catch signal (emphasis supplied):

No Advance
ARTICLE 2. No Team B player shall carry a caught or recovered ball more than two steps in any direction after a valid or invalid fair catch signal by any Team B player (A.R. 6-5-2-I-IV).
PENALTY—Dead-ball foul. Five yards from the succeeding spot [S7 and S21].

The key to this rule is that an invalid fair catch signal works exactly the same way as a valid one for the return man, the primary difference (for everyone else) being that making an invalid signal provides less protection from getting hit after the catch.

The first thing to understand about the construction of this rule is that it serves a very important purpose: to keep return teams from employing trickery (fake fair-catch signals) to gain an unfair advantage on the return. Expecting players on coverage teams to be able to distinguish from a barely correct and a barely incorrect fair catch signal is a recipe for disaster, so anything that even slightly resembles a fair catch signal is going to be treated like one (valid or invalid).

If you're suspicious that the scenario that played out against MSU might not be a situation that the rule authors had contemplated, consider approved interpretation 6-5-VI:

Team A’s scrimmage kick is rolling beyond the neutral zone when B17 alerts his teammates to stay away from the ball by a "get away" signal at his waist or below. RULING: Invalid signal. The ball is dead by rule when either team recovers.

So from the above, it's pretty clear that the officials were easily within the letter of the law on the Arenas call but, if you're anything like me, your first reaction is something like: "Baloney, return guys wave their teammates away from kicks all the time and they're not flagged." After spending some time this afternoon thinking about it, I came up with two possible explanations for this apparent discrepancy that might suffice for an answer:

For starters, we're definitely talking about a judgment call made by the official as to how close what Arenas did was to a valid fair catch signal. The official thought it was close enough to be confusing, and thus considered it an invalid fair catch signal.This is an issue, though, because it seems to conflict with everything we think we know about how fair catches work, and it could leave an awful lot of confusing standards for return teams to try to keep up with.

The other option I've come up with was that the primary deficiency with Arenas' signal was the fact that he made it with only one hand. In order to be valid, a fair catch signal must be a) above the head, b) one hand only , and c) waved more than once. You can bet that any waving motion above the head is going to be considered a fair catch signal. Arenas, as you can see from the image above, was waving his hand at chest level, waved only one hand, and did it multiple times. Which puts him about 45 degrees of inclination from a valid fair catch signal . . . which is pretty close.

My guess (and this is purely speculation on my part) is that if Arenas waved both hands -- maybe like an "incomplete pass" officiating signal or even waving them in a direction like a "wide left" signal -- he would have avoided the appearance that he was making an invalid fair catch signal and might have been allowed to return the ball.

So it appears that the officiating crew made the correct call on Saturday night, but it was still a frustrating situation and I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is something that the coaching staff covers in some detail with the special teams unit this week in practice.

A few thoughts from the initial aftermath of the Tide's 31-3 win over Mississippi State:

• From the outset, you really could not ask for anything more than we did against Mississippi State last night. Considering that we control our own destiny, all we really needed to do was find a way to win, stay healthy, and if we could win in a route then that was all lagniappe. And, sure enough, we found a way to do all three of those things against the Bullies. Again, you really couldn't ask for anything more.
  
• Credit Mississippi State for showing up ready to play with an intense crowd. It was the biggest crowd MSU has ever had in Starkvegas, and it was a very good atmosphere from the outset. Moreover, MSU came out firing on all cylinders and gave us some legitimate troubles early. We obviously took control as the game moved on, but it certainly wasn't from a lack of effort on their part. 
• Defensively, we had a really slow start to this game, and for whatever reason MSU gave us a lot of trouble. On their first two possessions, Mississippi State had 85 yards on only 11 total plays and had a few legitimate big plays to boot. I still don't know exactly what happened, but they gave us a lot of problems early and we were fortunate that they ultimately shot themselves in the foot on both occasions. Fortunately, though, after Mark Barron's interception, the defense simply became dominating. After that, MSU had four possessions the rest of the way in the first half, all of which resulted in three and outs (twelve plays combined for a net of four yards).
• Speaking of Mississippi State shooting themselves in the foot, that was something they consistently did all night and it was to our great benefit. They had a touchdown on the first play of the game with a decent throw, they stopped themselves on the fourth down try on the first possession, and the interception was a terrible throw by Lee. And that was just in the first six minutes of the game. From there, it really didn't get any better. Bumphis stepped out on a would-be kick return for a touchdown, they missed a chip shot field goal, and had a busted coverage that led to an easy touchdown for 'Bama. All in all, we played pretty well for the most part, but MSU did a lot to help our effort.
  
• Offensively it was really a boom-or-bust night. Overall things look very good -- 31 points, 440+ yards of total offense, and 7.7 yards per play -- but those numbers are inflated by a lot of big plays. We had five really big plays in this game that combined to generate at least 21 points and about 230 yards of total offense. Outside of those five big plays, we really had very little success offensively... around 53 snaps offensively for about 200 yards (fewer than four yards per snap). We were basically either hitting huge plays or getting shut down.

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As Bamagrad reminds us, ESPN put up a "who's that QB?" graphic during the game last night comparing McElroy and Tebow, so I thought I'd work one up here with the current game data from yesterday to see if the similarities still stand.

They were much more even in ESPN's graphic last night (which I'm assuming didn't take this weekend's games into account), but it's still an interesting comparison.  McElroy has more completions, attempts, yards, and TDs than Tebow, but Tebow is completing a higher percent of his throws and his completions are resulting in a better YPA average.  Tebow also has the edge in total yardage and TDs if you factor in his rushing (604 yards and 10 TDs to McElroy's 100 yards rushing and 1 TD), and considering the difference in the two offenses each runs it's not much of a surprise that McElroy has the bigger "quarterback" numbers.  To put it another way we're not necessarily comparing apples and oranges here, more like oranges and tangerines, but trying to compare the two's performances so far based on passing stats alone does a disservice to Tebow given the system he plays in.

And while I'm cranking out charts, check this one out:

Though he's had better games yardage and TD wise against BCS competition, last night was McElroy's best night as far as completion percentage goes and his second best game both relative to his QB rating and YPA average.  Has he finally turned the corner?  Time will tell, I suppose, but it's encouraging to the say the least.

More photos » by Rogelio V. Solis - AP

Alabama running back Mark Ingram (22) runs through Mississippi State defenders for second quarter yards during the Tide's 31-3 victory in Starkville. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

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What We Learned in the SEC: Week 11 | ESPN

1. High Tide offense: Suddenly, Alabama is hitting big plays and spreading the ball around again, which is good news for what’s coming down the road. For the second straight week, the Crimson Tide were more explosive on offense with several different players getting involved. Most encouraging to Alabama fans is that receiver Julio Jones has scored on long touchdown catches for two straight weeks now after scoring just one touchdown in a span of 16 games heading into the LSU game a week ago. When he’s scoring from long distance and involved in this offense, Alabama becomes an entirely different animal offensively. Quarterback Greg McElroy also connected with Darius Hanks on a 45-yard touchdown in the first half. Jones’ 48-yard touchdown came in the second half after Mississippi State had scored its only points of the game. And then on Alabama’s next possession, Mark Ingram burst through a huge hole up the middle and showed that he does indeed have breakaway speed on a 70-yard touchdown run. The Alabama players all talked about the need to generate more explosive plays coming out of that Tennessee game several weeks ago. Well, they’re coming in bunches now.

SEC Helmet Stickers: Week 11 | ESPN

Alabama safety Mark Barron: One of the unsung stories surrounding Alabama’s defense this season has been the job Barron has done stepping in for Rashad Johnson at safety. Barron had two more interceptions in the 31-3 whipping of Mississippi State on Saturday to raise his league-leading total to six. The Crimson Tide’s defense has now held five different teams to single digits this season and hasn’t allowed more than 15 points in its last five games.

Pick on Johnson at Your Own Peril | The Birmingham News

"Mar-quis John-son!" Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap."

Johnson never heard the chant after he single-hand­edly guarded the end zone with three pass breakups and an interception there in a 31-3 victory.

He was probably too busy talking trash to himself.

A scapegoat in the past and still picked on by op­posing quarterbacks, John­son continues to prove he can be a reliable cor­nerback. He's done it by playing more aggressively.

"I ain't gonna lie," John­son said. "Last year was my first year playing and I felt like I had to play conserva­tive. I didn't want to attack. Forget that. Do what got me to college and do what's going to keep me in college and get to the next level. At­tack the ball. Don't be hesi­tant."

Tide Favors Nickel vs MSU (and Florida) Spread | Mobile Press-Register

The Crimson Tide's defensive approach was typically to use nickel formations against the spread, removing linebacker Nico Johnson in favor of third cornerback Marquis Johnson. That moved outside linebacker Cory Reamer inside and put 'Jack' linebacker Eryk Anders as an edge rusher with his hand on the ground.

After the Bulldogs' offense had success the first two drives, the Crimson Tide started the third possession in its base defense. After a three-and-out for MSU, Alabama then switched back to nickel for much of the remainder of the game.

The Bulldogs ended with a season-low 213 yards, including 99 passing yards and 81 rushing yards for tailback Anthony Dixon, who entered Saturday with the season-best yard-per-game average in the SEC.

Alabama Beat Report: Tide Runs Over Mississippi State | Mobile Press-Register

So the beat keeps going for Alabama. Nick Saban's squad could have found trouble in an explosive road atmosphere at Mississippi State, but instead rolled right through the noisy crowd and motivational tactics. It's looking more and more like the only team that can slow Alabama this year is Alabama itself.

Or at the very least, the Florida game may just be something special again.

'Professional' Victory: No. 3 Alabama Takes Care of Business, Routs Mississippi State | Mobile Press-Register

"The word to describe it is 'professional,'" Crimson Tide cornerback Javier Arenas said. "We came out there and handled business."

Alabama's performance proved again that it will take more than atmosphere to cool what the Crimson Tide (10-0, 7-0 SEC) has cooking in year three under coach Nick Saban. Just ask the Bulldogs (4-6, 2-4), who tried pretty much everything, including that late jersey switch and standing room-only tickets for this game.

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