I have followed Tiger football since '58 when Dan Devine was hired. Mostly through radio broadcasts before 1986 which means I didn't actually see many games and certainly not enough to form opinions.
What hit me with this game is 1) Alabama is one of the top 5 best college programs in history and they are maintaining that reputation which means they might be the #1 of that group. They had one of the best all time coaches in Bryant and they now have a coach that is probably even better. They play as a team on both sides of the ball and year/in, year/out they usually do. 2) Missouri has not been even close to their history.
I believe a program's history plays into how easy or difficult it is for a program to play with the kind of mental approach and confidence that Bama plays with. Given that, last night's game was no surprise as to outcome, but while disappointed with the way we looked I wasn't surprised either. We have a new coach, a new system, with no spring practice and we lost a lot of our productive starters from last year especially in the three most important position groups, QB/OL/DL. So, in that since we probably looked about as good as any coach could have put on the field.
Our QB did not have a lot of time to throw, receivers had little time to get open. Against the team we played it should have been expected to a degree. Even what was to be our top 2 WRs, they were not only new to all the other stuff, but also a new school. We scored 19 points against the #2 team and who knows they might be #1. I haven't seen Clemson yet.
I hope you all noticed that Bama's starting OLine had five guys over 317 pounds according to announcers. One at 360 and they all could move. I don't know what their DLine size was but they looked just as big to me and could move. Fact is, I didn't see any guys in white that looked slow.
I'm not happy with the outcome, but it could have been a great deal worse. Robinson probably played with a frustrated mind he had so little time to adjust to the game. Receivers dropped a few should have been caught balls to go along with even his not so accurate throws.
It was game 1! We lost! We thought we were going too! Drink now has to find a way to deal with the players mental status this week and keep it from carrying over to much. Players will move on. I hope the fans can too.
What hit me with this game is 1) Alabama is one of the top 5 best college programs in history and they are maintaining that reputation which means they might be the #1 of that group. They had one of the best all time coaches in Bryant and they now have a coach that is probably even better. They play as a team on both sides of the ball and year/in, year/out they usually do. 2) Missouri has not been even close to their history.
I believe a program's history plays into how easy or difficult it is for a program to play with the kind of mental approach and confidence that Bama plays with. Given that, last night's game was no surprise as to outcome, but while disappointed with the way we looked I wasn't surprised either. We have a new coach, a new system, with no spring practice and we lost a lot of our productive starters from last year especially in the three most important position groups, QB/OL/DL. So, in that since we probably looked about as good as any coach could have put on the field.
Our QB did not have a lot of time to throw, receivers had little time to get open. Against the team we played it should have been expected to a degree. Even what was to be our top 2 WRs, they were not only new to all the other stuff, but also a new school. We scored 19 points against the #2 team and who knows they might be #1. I haven't seen Clemson yet.
I hope you all noticed that Bama's starting OLine had five guys over 317 pounds according to announcers. One at 360 and they all could move. I don't know what their DLine size was but they looked just as big to me and could move. Fact is, I didn't see any guys in white that looked slow.
I'm not happy with the outcome, but it could have been a great deal worse. Robinson probably played with a frustrated mind he had so little time to adjust to the game. Receivers dropped a few should have been caught balls to go along with even his not so accurate throws.
It was game 1! We lost! We thought we were going too! Drink now has to find a way to deal with the players mental status this week and keep it from carrying over to much. Players will move on. I hope the fans can too.
