The Back Alley Archives

The old ball coach doesn't have the horses to stay with us, does he? But I sure would have bet that in '05 and '06 too.

I am sure he has had an interesting week scheming against the Gators' defense. I think that Spurrier is essentially brilliant and lazy: he needs motivation to coach well. Playing Florida gives him motivation.

I am psyched to see my Chicago Bears vs. Coach Singletary tonight. Neither are stellar teams, but it might be a pretty entertaining game.

Oh, and there's a key game in the history of Western civilization Saturday at noon. Over at Warchant the consensus is that FSU has a win in hand vs Maryland on 11/21 and a loss vs the Gators on 11/28. This means for the 4-5 Noles that Saturday's game at Wake Forest is for all the Stay-Free Maxi Pads Bowl marbles: FSU may not even get a bowl at 6-6, but they have to win this weekend to have a shot.

If I were a Seminole, and thank the good Lord I'm not, I think I'd be rooting for a merciful finish. Take the loss, beat Maryland, run out the clock vs. Florida to keep it close like Lane Kiffin did, and park my 5-7 program in the garage for the winter. Life is not good in Tallahassee, and while it's spiritually correct to cheer against FSU, it helps UF when they are at least plausible rivals.

By the way, last week:

Georgia 38, Nobody 0.
Kentucky 37, Nobody 12.
Auburn 63, Nobody 31.
Tennessee 56, Memphis (meh) 28.
Mississippi 38, Nobody 14.

These clubbings help our conference's case. But mildly.

They are better, however, than Tennessee getting punked by Wyoming, or was it Montana, and etc. last year. The SEC schedules too many widows and orphans as nonconference foes. I mean, come on, at least let's play Southern Miss. Southern Miss is a real ball team.

When we're given a bunch of shit next week for scheduling FIU, what is the proper response?

Proper response? FIU might be better than FSU?

i'm going to say it now...norwood is going to be a factor.

negate norwood and we'll be successful...i say run the fuck at him and wear his ass out...he'll get the rush upfield so i suggest screens/dumpouts/crosses/ into his vacated zone...doesn't matter if he's on the short end of the field or the wide side...doesn't matter if he's lined up on the strong side or weak side...i say take it to him all game long.

i'm not concerned about the rest...he's a game changer and can single handedly affect the outcome.

Toothy - in response to your point, I think that the SECOND, from top to bottom, is the toughest conference in the BCS. Having said that, we don't need tough out of conference schedgies. Our conference schedgy is as tough as it gets. I don't care how our in-conference schedule opponents are ranked!

Agree that we're the toughest. Don't agree that we will always be perceived that way, nor that we always have been.

Agree that we don't need tough OOCs. I'm not quite sure what point I'm arguing here. Maybe I just want the sacrificial lamb to have a bit more meat on its bones. I mean, I make no effort to watch or even listen to these games. They're like whacking off: even if you can't foresee every last little detail, you know it's gonna work out fine.

that last sentence is f'n classic!

17-14. I haven't seen much of this so far, other than the Cooper TD.

But I like the white-on-whites.

10-0 and :crickets:?

drops by Cooper may have cost Tebow his 2nd heisman. He'd would of had over 300 yards passing if Coop catches the long ball.

Yeah, I didn't feel near as bad about the offense this week. Both of those passes were catchable, though on the outer edge. we score on either one of those and this game would have felt like a BIG win.

Oh and 10-0 feels pretty damn good to me. Just don't f'up against F$U and let's win the SEC and I'd be thrilled regardless of MNC.

Thinking Bama already:

1. I'm not that scared. Ingram is real. But we can give him 100, 120 yards and he won't kill us. Stick someone good (Joe Haden?) on Julio Jones, play a balanced defense, figure we give up 10-20 points, and aim to top that.

2. I have hated some of the offensive playcalling. But the option sweeps: assuming Tebow doesn't balk and do his you-can't-see-me routine when the safety or OLB covers the pitch man, I love this play. Solid gold. When the pitch isn't there, Tebow needs to be a little more comfortable just plowing into or diving under the linebackers for two yards. Two yards doesn't suck.

3. We have FSU the week beforehand -- always a dangerous game, make no mistake. I don't care how many games they've lost, they have the date circled, and they recruit plenty of guys who could bust 200 yards on us -- they just don't know how to coach or scheme for them, apparently.

That said, nota bene: Auburn has 13 days off before it plays Bama on Friday, 11/27. At home in Auburn. The War Eagles are gonna bring the MFin house. I would not bet too much on Bama in this game -- I ain't calling upset, but I'd be nervous as hell about it if the Tide were my team.

I'm with you on Bama. For some reason I'm marginally less worried about that game than I am F$U. Maybe because we're supposed to beat the Noles and would look worse to lose that one.

Not scared of the Noles at all. Bama was better last year IMO.

I have NO fear of F$U...their offense is NOTHING and now they won't even have Ponder! Our defense is stout and I never get nervous when they are on the field. They just don't quit.

Not sure about Bama, but I tend to agree with Todd in thinking they were better last year.

Not sure about Bama, but I tend to agree with Todd in thinking they were better last year.

As were we.

Our defense is better this year though.

sorry getting to this thread late...had so much on the weekend that i actually wasn't able to watch the game until sunday afternoon.

the thoughts i had:

- still am impressed with how well the o-line has performed even though sacks come aplenty...lots of these sacks are downfield coverage type sacks...for the most part, i believe the oline has performed given their scheme and individual responsibilities.

- i like how we played norwood on the edge...we had him at least 2 or 3 times caught between having to defend tebow on the sweep or one of our backs on the pitch option.

- the guy geathers on their team was a beast

- sturgis has no confidence

- tebow's throws take too long...and he throws sidearm on the quick screens to the wideouts...sidearms are less accurate and have less velocity.

- i CRINGE everytime i see tebow run and then do the spin move.