Greg McElroy went home and watched the Cowboys play.
Mark Ingram went home and “just chilled” with his family.
No matter how they spent last weekend, Alabama players were grateful for a respite from the intensity of a football game.
“I can’t say enough about those days off. They do wonders in the middle of a season,” left guard Mike Johnson said.
“I think we were more tired mentally than physically. ... We’ve done a good job these first few weeks and those three days off are going to help a lot for this last stretch of the season.”
Ingram went home to Flint, Mich. “Kind of cleared my head and got re-focused a little bit. Just chilled like that,” said Monday before the Tide returned to practice after a three-day weekend.
“I feel good,” Ingram said. “I think the bye week did a lot of us a lot of good just getting our bodies back healthy. Getting a little rest and getting a chance just to clear our heads a little, get away from everything, get refocused and make a strong push this second half of the year.”
Even laser-focused head coach Nick Saban said he got out of town — but managed to stay connected.
“Well, I got away, but I also took my computer and had lots of tape to watch,” Saban said. That’s what I did for most of the time. It rained for two days, so it was a good time.”
Saban said he actually did his share of channel-surfing, flipping between college games and the World Series on Saturday.
“(I) really sort of enjoyed seeing what everybody in the world goes through on Saturday, rather than what I go through,” the coach said. “My wife’s yelling at me the whole time because we’re not watching what she wants to watch. So, I understand. That’s the first time that’s happened all year or for many years, that I can remember.”
On the week of his first start against Tennessee, Greg McElroy showed what separates him from most other first-year starting quarterbacks in the SEC.
Not only does he know the difference from the traditional Cover 2 defense and the Tampa 2 generally credited to Tennessee defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, he offers explanations why it was so effective in the NFL.
“Tampa 2 is actually a form of Cover 3,” McElroy said. “You actually do it when you have a very good middle linebacker, somebody like coach Kiffin had at Tampa in Derrick Brooks. The safeties get extremely wide off the hash and the middle linebacker shoots straight to the back, so it actually develops a three-deep look.”
McElroy knows Monte Kiffin developed that defense.
“I never thought I’d be playing against him. That’s pretty neat,” McElroy said.
Tennessee hasn’t played a ton of Tampa 2, but Alabama and has seen it this season.
“We’ve seen that look on numerous occasions. It’s a very popular defense, especially at the college level,” McElroy said. “It’s just a good way to develop things and disguise. It’s something that we’ll be ready for and it’s something we’ll spend a lot of time on this week. It’s something that we’ve been around and had glimpses of.”
McElroy sees more of it from the Alabama defense.
“Our defense plays quite a bit of it. We’ve had some looks against it,” he said. “Especially when you have a middle linebacker like Rolando (McClain). He’s so rangy, he just gets back there so fast. It starts with a middle-open look and you think, ‘OK, we can get maybe a post down the middle or something like that.’ And the linebacker will just fly out right underneath it and catch you off-guard, and you have to do a double-take.”
McClain and Tennessee strong safety Eric Berry both affect offenses.
“The two best defensive players in college football are playing in this game,” CBS analyst Gary Danielson said. “The two defensive players that will be drafted the highest in this year’s draft are playing in this game: Eric Berry for Tennessee and Rolando McClain for Alabama.”
What’s more impressive is that McClain and Berry are both juniors. Neither has said what his NFL draft plans would be. However, it would be difficult to turn down the draft if, indeed, they would be the first two defensive players chosen.
Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin has gone out of his way to stay off the Alabama bulletin board this week.
But I bet they’ve taken notice of his comments in Gainesville.
Kiffin has said he loves Alabama’s downhill, in-your-face, physical style. My story in Friday’s Dothan Eagle quotes Kiffin saying that’s what he wants his team to be someday.
Asked if he was saying that because he’s playing Alabama this week, Kiffin discussed why he prefers Alabama’s style to Florida’s.
“I think there’s different ways to do things,“ Kiffin explained. “Florida is a great program, very successful, won a couple of national championships. They just do it a little different way. They play a different style. We want to play the way Alabama plays. Alabama comes more at you. They don’t try to trick you. They’re very physical on both sides of the ball. They play more like NFL teams do. Florida’s completely different.“
He added that Alabama deserves it’s No. 1 ranking in the AP poll.
“I think it’s real easy. I think if you watch film and you pay attention to football, Alabama’s the number one team in the country,“ the coach said. “Just look at the difference when they play Arkansas. It’s very obvious to me. When they’re both great teams, one team kind of beats you in all three phases: Alabama. The other team will beat you at times, but then a lot of times nobody’s open and the quarterback runs around, makes the play. These guys are much more balanced.“
A few thoughts on the jersey war, which is a great fan topic this week:
The entire debate perfectly fits both coaches.
Nick Saban doesn’t go for gimmicks. He could not care less what color jersey Tennessee wears on Saturday.
He’s referenced on several occasions the Notre Dame mystique and the green jerseys the Irish used to wear in big games — and noted that didn’t have any factor in the outcome.
If Saban thought the Vols wouldn’t play as well in orange jerseys, he would dye them himself. But the jersey color isn’t going to help Alabama win either way, so there is no reason to change. None.
On the other hand, does allowing Tennessee to wear orange jerseys help Alabama win? Nope. So, no, the Vols will wear white.
All of this also helps Lane Kiffin, too. It gives him another log to throw on the fire. “I wanted to acknowledge the great tradition of this series — but Alabama won’t go along,” he can say.
Poor guy.
So that’s a series of questions he doesn’t have to answer about solving Alabama’s defense, about protecting his quarterback, about stopping Mark Ingram, about why his team is a 17-point underdog, about how far away his program is from reviving this series into what it once was.
It’s a great fan debate — and it’s got absolutely nothing to do with who is going to win Saturday.
In other words, it’s a win-win for both head coaches.
