Joined by a Army veteran from Enterprise, Ala., Alabama head football coach Nick Saban threw out the first pitch for the Alabama baseball team’s series opener against No. 9 Arkansas.
Video of the pitch, which bounced in the batter’s box, is below. You can click here to read the preview for the series and stay tuned to The Daily Bama Blog for coverage of the game. TOnight’s game is being televised by ESPNU.
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, baseball, Nick Saban
Tagged Alabama baseball, Alabama Crimson Tide, Alabama football, Arkansas, ESPNU, Nick Saban, Nick Saban first pitch
New Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema. (AP Photo)
But sometimes, what coaches say to these boosters for their money is not meant for public knowledge, but gets out anyway.
That has just happened to new Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema, who said the following to the Saline County Razorback Club.
The reason the SEC is talked about all the time is one team, because of their dominance. But I didn’t come here to play Alabama. I came here to beat Alabama.
Bielema continued on to compare his résumé favorably to Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s.
You can take Saban’s record when he was at Michigan State and when he was a coach in the Big Ten and put it against mine, and he can’t compare.
Bielema later took to Twitter to downplay his remarks.
Things to chill out about today:1- I’m only driving my car today2- Alabama quotes were a joke to a question from a fan at pep rally. #wow
— Bret Bielema (@BretBielema) April 1, 2013
Saban did the same in his Monday press conference, not paying the situation any attention.
“I really don’t have any reaction to it,” Saban said. “I’m really concerned about what we do here with our players and how we try to get the people in our organization to play at a high standard. I really don’t defend anything that I ever did any place that we’ve ever been. Everybody has different situations that they’re in, everybody inherits different situations that they’re in.
“You do the best you can to try to build a new program in those situations, and that’s certainly what we’ve always tried to do and will continue to do and focus on the process of doing what we need to do to continue to be successful here. We obviously have a lot of work to do with our team and that’s certainly what we’re focused on right now. That’s the only thing I’m really concerned about.”
Some of Saban’s players took the disregard for the challenge further and labeled it as the expectation, nothing out of the ordinary.
“That’s everybody’s goal. Everybody’s goal is to win,” offensive lineman Anthony Steen said. “But every time we go out and play, I expect that from everybody. Being the competitor I am and the guys on the team are, we’re expecting to win every game, too.”
Linebacker C.J. Mosley added, “That’s the first I’ve heard of it. He’s a grown man. I can’t listen to that. I just have to do what I can to help this team win.”
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, football, practice, spring practice
Tagged Alabama Crimson Tide, Alabama football, Anthony Steen, beat Alabama, Bret Bielema, C.J. Mosley, Nick Saban, Spring Practice Day Five
Arkansas lost only two games last year on its way to finishing fifth in the country — to SEC West rivals Alabama and LSU.
New Razorbacks coach John L. Smith is aiming to change that, especially against Alabama, which Arkansas faces Sept. 15. Arkansasnews.com quotes him as saying, “It’s not the season, but it is crucial. It’s vital that we go to the field and it’s vital that we win that football game.”
arkansasnews.com/2012/07/25/football-smith-says-beating-alabama-vital-for-hogs/
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas
The preseason estimation of the coaches in the USA Today poll is out and there were not many surprises at the top Alabama got 55 of the 59 first-place votes but only 77 more total points than No. 2 Ohio State.
Just a reminder: Nick Saban is a voter in the poll and he previously said he didn’t think Alabama should be voted the preseason No. 1. So, we might have an idea where one of the four Ohio State votes originated.
Overall, there are six SEC schools in the top 25 and five of Alabama’s opponents on the list.
Rank; Team (first-place votes); 2009 record; Points; Final 2009 rank
1. Alabama (55); 14-0; 1,469; 1
2. Ohio State (4); 11-2; 1,392; 5
3. Florida; 13-1; 1,245; 3
4. Texas; 13-1; 1,240; 2
5. Boise State; 14-0; 1,215; 4
6. Virginia Tech; 10-3; 1,052; 10
7. TCU; 12-1; 1,051; 6
8. Oklahoma; 8-5; 1,035; NR
9. Nebraska; 10-4; 1,001; 14
10. Iowa; 11-2; 952; 7
11. Oregon; 10-3; 940; 11
12. Wisconsin; 10-3; 778; 16
13. Miami (Fla.); 9-4; 728; 19
14. Penn State; 11-2; 508; 8
15. Pittsburgh; 10-3; 492; 15
16. LSU; 9-4; 476; 17
17. Georgia Tech; 11-3; 455; 13
18. North Carolina; 8-5; 445; NR
19. Arkansas; 8-5; 438; NR
20. Florida State; 7-6; 374; NR
21. Georgia; 8-5; 312; NR
22. Oregon State; 8-5; 263; NR
23. Auburn; 8-5; 260; NR
24t. Utah; 10-3; 169; 18
24t. West Virginia; 9-4; 169; 22
–
Others receiving votes
Cincinnati (12-1) 135; Houston (10-4) 76; Brigham Young (11-2) 66; Arizona (8-5) 65; Ole Miss(9-4) 48; Clemson (9-5) 44; Stanford (8-5) 41; Connecticut (8-5) 40; Notre Dame (6-6) 38; South Carolina (7-6) 38; Washington (5-7) 26; Missouri (8-5) 23; Navy (10-4) 12; Oklahoma State (9-4) 11; Boston College (8-5) 10; Michigan State (6-7) 10; Arizona State (4-8) 6; California (8-5) 6; Texas Tech (9-4) 5; South Florida (8-5) 4; Texas A&M (6-7) 3; Northwestern (8-5) 2; Temple (9-4) 2; Central Michigan (12-2) 1; Mississippi State (5-7) 1; Nevada (8-5) 1; Northern Illinois (7-6) 1; Southern Methodist (8-5) 1.
Remember yesterday when the lobby at the Wynfrey Hotel was complete chaos? Not so on Thursday. Without Alabama or Auburn (coming Friday) only a few stray Arkansas and Georgia fans are milling about so far.
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, football, Georgia, SEC Media Days
It’s way too early for sports writers to have consciousness, but Bobby Petrino has stepped to the microphone to get this party started.
SEC director of officials Rogers Redding just spoke about rules changes. There aren’t many. The most notable difference concerns banning the 3-man wedge on kickoff returns.
Keep an eye on the Twitter feed for updates throughout the day.
new TWTR.Widget({ version: 2, type: ‘profile’, rpp: 4, interval: 6000, width: 250, height: 300, theme: { shell: { background: ‘#333333′, color: ‘#ffffff’ }, tweets: { background: ‘#000000′, color: ‘#ffffff’, links: ‘#eb0707′ } }, features: { scrollbar: false, loop: false, live: false, hashtags: true, timestamp: true, avatars: false, behavior: ‘all’ }}).render().setUser(‘DailyBamaBlog’).start();
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, Bobby Petrino, SEC Media Days
Lower seeds have certainly ruled the opening day of the SEC baseball tournament.
Of the three games already in the books, no favorites have succeeded. Seventh-seeded Alabama’s 7-1 beating of Auburn was followed by sixth-seeded Ole Miss’ win over No. 3 South Carolina.
The defending national champs, but No. 8 seed LSU just knocked off regular-season champion Florida in a spirited Game 3. Those LSU fans love them some LSU.
It’s now up to Arkansas, the four-seed, to keep it from being a white wash in the night cap against No. 5 Vanderbilt.
On a side note, let me say I’m not happy with the speed with which today’s action has been played. I didn’t leave Regions Park before 2:45 a.m. after covering Alabama in the last game of Day 1 last year. Mad maybe isn’t the word. More like bitter.
UPDATE: Vanderbilt completes the underdog sweep, 2-0 in the nightcap.
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, Auburn, baseball, Florida, LSU, Ole Miss, SEC Tournament, Vanderbilt
Park 1 of 2 of the final moments.
object width=”425″ height=”344″>
And part 2, complete with a Rammer Jammer at the end.
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, basketball, video, YouTube
Alabama erased a 13-points second-half deficit with a 24-5 run that powered a 73-68 win over Arkansas in Coleman Coliseum.
JaMychal Green scored a game-high 22 with 12-for-13 shooting from the free-throw line and Mikhail Torrance was a spark off the bench with 12 points.
Read more tomorrow.
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, basketball
Coleman Coliseum is nearly out of tickets for Saturday’s 3 p.m. basketball game with Arkansas. Alabama media relations sent a release Thursday stating only 500 tickets remained for the SEC West match up.
A quick check of the ticket site Friday morning revealed seats were still available, though. Maybe all this talk of snow disasters have scared buyers away.
If you can’t make it, stick with the blog for all the updates.
UPDATE: Ticket supply down to 400 as of early Friday afternoon.
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, basketball
It’s been an interesting morning/afternoon at the football complex for the weekly news conference and player interviews. Of course Dont’a Hightower’s injury was the hottest topic, but another linebacker made news. He tops today’s rundown.
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, Dont'a Hightower, football, injury, Nick Saban, Trent Richardson
Check out this picture by Daily photographer Gary Cosby Jr. It looks like Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett is about to pay the ultimate price with all 354 pounds of Terrence Cody looming above. It turns out the big guy was just jumping to avoid Mallett, but it makes for an amazing photo.
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, football, Ryan Mallett, Terrence Cody
To catch a commercial-free replay of the Tide’s fourth win of the season, check out the SEC Digital Network. Click this link.
Just curious, what were you guys thinking today when you saw Dont’a Hightower go down with that injury? How much will it hurt the Tide the rest of the way?
Now felt like a good time to take a break from the normal Thursday marathon of story writing. Keep an eye out for Friday’s story that takes a behind the scenes look at how the Bryant-Denny Stadium field stays so dry in spite of heavy rain showers.
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, Bryant-Denny Stadium, football, Ole Miss, Ryan Mallett, South Carolina
Here are some of the highlights from the late morning teleconference:
Razorback coach Bobby Petrino followed Saban on the teleconference.
Comments Off
Posted in Arkansas, Around the SEC, Bobby Petrino, football, Nick Saban
Blog RSS
