I just watched the replay on CSS, and I noticed that Jamar Taylor seemed exceptionally conscientious about placing the ball in the ref's hands after every carry, to the point that he would scurry back to the ball if he left it laying on the ground in order to pick it up before the ref could get there. Anyone else pick up on this?
Jamar Taylor = Courteous
Anyway, I'll be on a podcast with al.com tomorrow discussing A-day and spring practice (and did a quick soundbite for Orson that should go up tomorrow as well), but until then, here's a few A-Day roundup links to hold you over:
Saban is mending some fences with the media, inviting reporters to to be "media coaches" for the game.
The spring practice awards recipients:
Antoine Caldwell also became the second player in UA history to receive two Dwight Stephenson Awards, which goes to the most valuable lineman in the A-Day game.
The Lee Roy Jordan Headhunter Award – Zeke Knight
The Jerry Duncan "I Like to Practice" Award – Jimmy Johns
The Billy Neighbors Defensive Lineman Award – Keith Saunders
The Bobby Johns Defensive Back Award – Rashad Johnson
The Paul Crane Offensive Lineman Award – Andre Smith
The Ray Perkins Receiver Award – DJ Hall
The Johnny Musso Offensive Back Award – John Parker Wilson
The Woodrow Lowe Linebacker Award – Prince Hall
The Ozzie Newsome Most Improved Freshman Award – Terry Grant and Kareem Jackson
The Paul "Bear" Bryant Outstanding Non-Scholarship Player Award – Darren Mustin
The Derrick Thomas Community Service Award – Baron Huber and Byron Walton
The Mal Moore Leadership Award - Antoine Caldwell and Simeon Castille
The Bart Starr Most Improved Player Award - Brian Motley and Mike Johnson
The Sylvester Croom Commitment to Excellence Award - Bobby Greenwood and Travis McCall
Fellow Monster of Blog Eight in the Box joined us before the game, and had this amusing description of the defense's performance:
According to the Tuscaloosa News, Saban is still looking for improvement:
"We dropped some balls," he said. "The tackling was pretty good for the most part. I don’t think we had a lot of mental errors. We made the game pretty simple, relative to the things that we did on the running plays, passing plays and defensive pressure that we had. It made the players focused, play with discipline, have fun and compete."
He was, however, pleased with the turnout:
Hack runs the YouTube down, so I don't have to.