Monthly Archives: August 2012

Eddie Lacy will get his first collegiate start against Michigan. (AP photo by Keith Srakocic)

Alabama’s Nick Saban is 5-0 in season openers with the Crimson Tide. (AP photo by Dave Martin)

Kickoff isn’t until 7 p.m., but here are six points to consider as 14-point favorite Alabama faces Michigan at Cowboys Stadium.

1. Young defense: We all know the Crimson Tide lost six guys to the NFL draft, and although Alabama has plugged in talented guys, there’s plenty of inexperience. Michigan probably isn’t the best opponent for Alabama’s young defense to play in the opener. Wolverines quarterback Denard Robinson is a bit unpredictable, and it’s up to the Tide to remain disciplined — even if Robinson produces the occasional big play.

2. If McCarron goes out: Alabama doesn’t have the same depth at quarterback as it does at other positions. Junior AJ McCarron is the unquestioned leader of the offense, and if he goes down, Alabama will turn to redshirt freshman Phillip Ely. He redshirted last year after leading Plant High in Tampa, Fla., to a state championship in 2010. Although Ely seems talented, he might be a little out of his element if he were put in the action this quickly.

3. Missing running back: Michigan head coach Brady Hoke has suspended starting tailback Fitz Toussaint and backup defensive end Frank Clark after their summer arrests. ESPN’s Todd McShay said Toussaint is good at making defenders miss in small spaces and will be missed today.

However, he struggled last year against good defensive teams such as Virginia Tech (13 rushes, 30 yards), Michigan State (2-7) and Iowa (16-58). Thomas Rawls (5-10, 218 pounds) is bigger than Toussaint (5-10, 202), although he carried the ball only 13 times for 79 yards last year.

And, by the way, I’m sick and tired of hearing how impressive and wonderful Hoke is for suspending an OK running back for this game. Just nominate him for sainthood already and stop talking about it. Geesh.

4. The kicking game: We haven’t talked about it much at all in the preseason, but Alabama still doesn’t seem settled on who should kick semi-long field goals. In the past two seasons, that’s been Cade Foster, and he did well with it in 2010, making 7 of 9 field goals. Last year, he made 2 of 9. Nick Saban’s depth chart shows both Jeremy Shelley and Foster scheduled to kick, but how will Foster handle his chances?

5. Freshman additions: Two freshmen have a chance to make a big difference for Alabama’s offense — running back T.J. Yeldon and receiver Amari Cooper. Both shined in preseason practice, and for their first college game, they’re getting a huge stage. How much of a difference will they make?

6. Eddie Lacy’s chance: He is considered one of the offense’s leaders and enters the season with plenty of experience. But he hasn’t started a collegiate game, and the most carries he has had in one contest is 13 against Arkansas last year. How will he handle getting, say 25 rushing attempts?

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WBA welterweight boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. has put down about $3 million with nine different sportsbooks that Michigan will beat the spread when it faces Alabama on Saturday.

According to published reports, Mayweather got 14 points, which means if Michigan wins or if Alabama wins by fewer than 14 points, Mayweather wins his bet.

Mayweather, 35, is from Grand Rapids, Mich., and according to a report from The Detroit Free Press, he has not confirmed that he has bet that much, although he sometimes will tweet winning betting slips. He is unbeaten as a professional boxer (43-0) but tends to be less fortunate in betting.

However, he won $1.9 million when he bet on the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA playoffs, and they rallied from a 24-point deficit to beat the Memphis Grizzlies. He also won $1 million when Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL playoffs.

He earned $32 million from a fight against Miguel Cotto in May, just before he served a two-month jail sentence for domestic battery.

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The Detroit Free Press sent reporter Shawn Windsor to Alabama this week to get a story on the football culture in the state.

I usually hate these types of stories, because they’re done so often they’ve become a cliche. They’re like the goofy neighbor that every sitcom on television seems to have.

Some newspaper or news organization from outside the Southeast sends someone to Alabama to uncover what football means to us in the Heart of Dixie. The first time I recall one of these stories was in 1985 when a Boston newspaper sent someone to Tuscaloosa before Boston College visited Birmingham to play Alabama. Later that season, a newspaper in State College, Pa., called the student newspaper at Alabama, looking for people to talk about what essentially was the same story. And these stories have seemed to pop up every so often ever since then.

Yes, football matters to us. Yes, we have a rivalry in Alabama/Auburn that takes our attention year-round. Yes, Bear Bryant is an important figure in the state history. Got any other questions on your way to a Pulitzer Prize?

Heck, the Free Press piece isn’t even the only one this week by a major newspaper. There was a New York Times piece about how college football rules in the South. Half of that story is about how the reporter took a picture at Alabama’s football practice and got admonished for it.

Usually, these stories start with the worst our state has to offer: Paul Finebaum’s radio show. It’s unfortunate, because we’re being judged now on the basis of Finebaum’s callers the same way New Jersey is being judged on the basis of “Jersey Shore.”

And guess how Windsor started his story?

Still, his story is better than most of these Alabamians-love-football pieces.

At least Windsor knew or found out that former New York Times reporter and author Gay Talese attended Alabama in 1949-53. Windsor contacted Telese and included the Bama grad’s observations:

He went on to tell me that he’d continued to follow Alabama football because he’d inherited the passion and couldn’t rid himself of it.

“Passion for football is unsurpassed in any other state, I do sincerely believe, in a negative way of explaining it, maybe we care so much about Alabama’s football program because it is the only program that seems to work in Alabama,” he continued. “Except for its excellence in football, what else does Alabama have?

“It has lots of poverty. It has abundant deficiencies in its public school systems. It has lots of narrow-mindedness within its legal system (latest example: its scrutiny of immigrants), it has lots of second-rate opportunists in its political circles, lots of hypocrites among its clergy and moral posturers. But all these people, plus all the first-rate Alabama citizens as well — the best writers, best teachers, best doctors, leading lawyers and entrepreneurs — all seem to come together (sharing the passion) for Alabama’s football. It keeps people in Alabama sane.”

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