The "Get a Real OC" Movement probably just hit critical mass....

[DKW 86 7,440]

http://tidesports.com/article/20061021/NEW...1067/SPORTS0106

CECIL HURT: No one left to blame

Alabama can’t blame bad luck. It can’t blame bad karma, or bad calls, or bad treatment at the hands of the NCAA. Not this time. Not when the same script was tried with the same heart-rending but utterly predictable results.

This time, the answer for Mike Shula can be found in one place: The mirror.

Alabama didn’t score enough points to win on the road against a quality opponent in Knoxville on Saturday. That happens to every team from time to time – but in the past four years, it has happened to Alabama every time. That’s Every Single Time. The Crimson Tide hasn’t gone away from home and beaten a team worth beating since Dennis Franchione’s 2002 team went to Baton Rouge and blew LSU out of Tiger Stadium.

Forget about the win at South Carolina last season. The reference here is to teams that matter in the SEC – Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Florida, even Arkansas if you want to make the tent big enough for the Hogs. Against every one of those teams, Alabama has played gutty, hard-nosed football – but failed to score enough points to win.

Since 2003, that has been 20 or less, every single time.

Thirteen, appropriately enough, appears to be the favorite unlucky number, as it was again Saturday. That’s almost never going to be enough in the other team’s stadium, and it made it perplexing when Shula came in and said the loss was "heartbreaking" because he thought his team "had done enough to win."

No, it hadn’t. Thirteen points is not enough.

Sure, there are reasons. Sure, Alabama missed Keith Brown on Saturday, probably to the same extent that Tennessee’s defense missed tackle Justin Harrell and safety Inky Johnson. Injuries aren’t an excuse. Sure, Alabama is coming off probation, but at some point, it does come down to 11-on-11. Sure, the players didn’t execute perfectly on every single play.

But that misses the point. If the insistence on doing the same thing over and over and over -- embracing the damnation of Sisyphus, who always pushed his rock in Hades to within inches of the top of a hill, only to see it roll back down every time – has been necessary in 10 SEC road losses, it is not necessary any more.

Alabama’s offense has been tried in these situations, and tried again. It doesn’t work. Whatever fine-tuning has been done isn’t making it work. It’s like having an old automobile. You try to start it and it doesn’t start. You try again. It almost turns over. One more pump of the gas pedal, you think, and it will roar to life. But it never does.

Patience is wonderful, but there comes a (time) when there is an inescapable conclusion about a machine that doesn’t work.

It’s broke.

And when something is broke, it’s time to fix it.

It isn’t just the point output in Alabama’s 16-13 loss to Tennessee, although that is a part of it. Alabama actually had a chance to make the 13 points stand up, and it might seem easy to blame the defense for giving up 10 fourth-quarter points. But even that failure was, in large part, offensive.

Twice in the fourth quarter, Alabama’s offense got the ball with the lead. The first time, Alabama – pushed back by a special teams penalty (another cause for another day’s tirade) couldn’t get a first down and push the ball past its 20. Tennessee took the punt, aided by yet another special teams penalty (that tirade is getting closer), kicked a field goal. The offense got the ball back, did hit on a pass to DJ Hall, but couldn’t get another first down, burned less than two minutes of the clock and, after a 29-yard punt (more fodder for the pending special-teams tirade), put the tired Tide defense back on the field again.

The game’s great debate is over Alabama’s first-half failings in the red zone, and especially Shula’s decision to kick a go-ahead field goal instead of trying for a touchdown on a fourth down at the Tennessee 1. Under certain circumstances, it’s a defensible, if conservative, decision.

Alabama’s circumstances, though, are just the opposite. It needs to make something good happen, not worry itself into inertia because something bad might happen. At some point, it’s less of a debate about whether to go on that particular fourth-and-1. It’s about taking every reasonable risk. Alabama needs to be going on just about every fourth down, not just that one. Sure, it will backfire sometimes, but is it any worse to lose because of a backfire than to expire under the steady torture that Alabama seems to suffer in every road game?

I thought a corner had been turned after the Arkansas loss. There were signs against Florida, and more signs against Ole Miss, of a play-to-win mentality. But in Knoxville, the shell into which Alabama seems to crawl on the road was back, as big as ever.

It was nothing new. For everyone that is familiar with Alabama’s recent history, the game played out with a numbing familiarity.

So there is no other conclusion: the philosophy itself is broken. Mike Shula deserves the chance to fix it or to hire a mechanic to fix it for him. But it’s now obvious – the fault at Alabama lies not in the stars, but in themselves.

[BamaGrad03 0]

Anyone watching our last few games knows it wasnt the playcalling that was the problem. We have problems with our oline and special teams coaching.

[keoson7 28]

It is playcalling, and lack of a good OC. Face it Rader should go back to sellin couches.

[aubrandon 5]

That was an outstanding article. It summed up UAT football.

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

Anyone watching our last few games knows it wasnt the playcalling that was the problem. We have problems with our oline and special teams coaching.

Going for the field goal at the one wasn't poor play calling? Guess you haven't read the comments of some of the bama players in today's papers (check out The Huntsville Times) or saw Castille show his disgust on TV when Shula wouldn't go for it. Isn't that the same OL that later provided the push for Castille to easily score bama's only TD.

[quietfan 233]

Would a real OC jump at the job in Tuscaloosa? Maybe, it's a good paying position at a major SEC school.

But at the same time, could any OC ever feel in control of the offense? No matter what promises Shula might give, can Shula really keep his nose out of the play calling and let the OC do his job. Or would the OC always feel Shula over his shoulder second guessing him? And would the new OC get to hire his own assistants, or would Shula force him to keep the other assistant coaches out of loyalty (I'm thinking offensive line in particular here--not sure a new OC can do much without reinventing the entire O-line philosophy.)

...just something I would have to give serious thought if I were an OC up for the position.

[eagle76 1]

If AU fans don't get off of this bandwagon, we may well regret it !!!!!

[weaglewagon 1]

If AU fans don't get off of this bandwagon, we may well regret it !!!!!

that's what i'm thinking. I LOVE MIKE SHULA!!!! keep him, keep him!