The Jumbo Package │09.23.13

Ole Miss/SEC

Is Ole Miss Ready to Challenge Alabama and LSU in the SEC West? | AthlonSports.com

I still think the SEC West is Alabama and LSU’s division to lose this year. But let’s not forget about Texas A&M or overlook Ole Miss. The Rebels are 3-0 for the first time since 1989, scoring solid road victories over Vanderbilt and Texas.

Ole Miss is last year's Texas A&M but they don't have a John Manziel at quarterback. What they do have in common is confidence and a lot of young talent. I expect the Rebels (yes I'm still calling them that) to waltz into BDS sky high after beating the mighty Longhorns. I also expect to see a highly motivated Alabama team who will be looking to establish an identity. Should be interesting to see which wins out.

HATE WEEK: ALABAMA - Red Cup Rebellion

[Disclaimer is here. Don't be the Andre of the Week, and don't ruin the fun for everybody.]

I only link this here cause RCR is the king of hate week. And as you notice by their disclaimer don't go over there and ruin the fun. It's hate week after all (for them)

The social media guide to prepare for Alabama-Ole Miss game week | al.com

The must-follows for the week leading up to Alabama's showdown with No. 21 Ole Miss on Saturday.

College football news: Jeff Driskel out for the year, LSU and Alabama stay undefeated - SBNation.com

Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel fractured his fibula while taking a hit on a play that resulted in a pick-six during Saturday's 31-17 win against the Tennessee Volunteers. The situation seemed pretty dire for the Gators, who, within the span of 10 seconds, both lost their starting quarterback for the season and found themselves down seven points against an SEC rival.

I don't care what UF fans are saying, losing Driskell is a big deal. Murphy did look serviceable but that was against perhaps the worst defense in the SEC. Can Murphy lead UF to victory against the likes of UGA, USCe and LSU?

ALABAMA

With Ole Miss looming, C.J. Mosley says Alabama's defense has 'just got to get better' | al.com

"We didn't really execute to our full abilities," Mosley said. "It's not an SEC opponent that we just played and the win really wasn't what it should have been. I felt like we kind of got away with a win. "We didn't really dominate that win."

I actually thought the defense was the lone bright spot against CSU. With all the young players we experimented with and the fact CSU didn't reach Alabama territory until the 3rd quarter, I'd say the defense as a whole played pretty well. I think if the offense had scored 40ish we wouldn't be worrying about how the defense played.

ANALYSIS: Patchwork secondary learns on fly | TuscaloosaNews.com

"We played about five guys at corner, just kind of rotated them in there with the idea that we're going to see if somebody can play the position with any kind of consistency and do their assignment and do their job," Saban said. "That's an area we need to do better in. It'd certainly be helpful IF we get Deion back."

Emphasis mine.

You always hate to say the success or failure of a unit revolves around one player but Belue is the absolute key to success for the defensive backs. If he's lost for an extended period of time the worst case scenario heading into the season may be coming true. Hope for the best.

What We're Seeing: First impressions from Week 4 - CBSSports.com

If the only thing you know about this game is the score, know this, too: at one point early in the fourth quarter, Alabama punted the ball back to Colorado State ahead only 17-6. But you should know this, too: it looked as if Alabama knew it could operate at about 60 percent effort, still hold the Rams out of the end zone with ease, and coast to the win. After that punt at 17-6, the Tide seemed to notice it had to try at least a little bit -- and promptly turned the Rams over, went on a one-play scoring "drive," and then forced CSU into 3rd-and-27 before a game-clinching punt.

Hey look, a non knee jerk reaction to the game this past Saturday. Yes, the team looked off but anyone with a decent pair of eyes could tell if Alabama wanted to win by 100, it certainly could have. The worry is that the team didn't look like they had the want. I feel a lot of that is due to the sheer amount of youth we have across the board but it's the upperclassmen's job to get the team emotionally ready. We need guys to step up in the worst way.

Alabama football — Low Tide: Alabama's offense underperforms again | The Montgomery Advertiser

"Most of the time when people have a real sense of urgency, then their willingness to prepare so they can play with consistency and bring it to the game is what we are looking for," Saban said. "And we have not done that with consistency this year. We didn’t do it (Saturday). We are going to keep working on it."

This piggy backs my statement above. We need our experienced players to step up and lead this team — with consistency.

Alabama wins, but that doesn't mean it's happy - ESPN

Its unquestioned leader showing poor body language while saying next to nothing about an obviously poor performance -- no talk of hope, no talk of working to get better, no nothing. Just the same line about communication. If communication really is the answer, then he didn't do a good job of communicating that fact. It was, after all, a conflicting statement when put into context. If McCarron was willing to shout at his own teammates during the game, then why couldn't bear to do the same afterward? And that, no matter how you slice it, isn't what you want to hear.

This post was linked in the Initial Impressions post yesterday and my initial Impression of this article is the writer is just upset because AJ didn't give the media anything to write about. Oh shucks, I'm gonna to have to write about something meaningful and not just regurgitate everything McCarron says. Come on ESPN, you're better than that or so I thought.

Linkage

I know Slice linked AJ's "interview" after the game in yesterday's JP but it's worth another look. I find it to be awesome but also telling. We forget AJ is still a young man and seems to be a perfectionist at heart. My only contention to him yelling at Drake is that AJ's mistake (the INT in the 3rd) was far more egregious than a guy going to the wrong side on a TD run. If you are going to scream at a guy for making a mistake, you'd better be prepared to take the same punishment. (Which I didn't see anyone go up to AJ and get in his face after the INT).

I've always been a believer that you lead by example and sometimes use words...