Ben Cook article on from Lindy's

[TigerGlide 1]

Alabama's plunge into mediocrity continues

College Football Notebook

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Ben Cook

LindysSports.com

Now that Florida is the SEC East champion and Arkansas has taken another step toward winning the West, the most intriguing storyline still alive in the Southeastern Conference involves a team that is going nowhere fast. It is at Alabama where the Mike Shula Era continues its ever-increasing slide into mediocrity. Actually, Alabama's football program is there. The question is what is below mediocrity and will Alabama reverse the trend before it finds out. Saturday's 24-16 loss to Mississippi State, a game in which the Tide's offense never crossed the goal line, was further evidence that Alabama is now only an afterthought when it comes to contending for championships in the SEC. Thanks to perhaps the most embarrassing non-conference schedule in the league, Alabama is bowl eligible and will add another unimpressive bowl game to what is the Crimson Tide's glorious bowl past. It will give Shula supporters a legitimate point to boast in that it will be the third bowl game in Shula's four-year tenure. Unless Alabama pulls an upset of either LSU or Auburn, and there is no reason to believe it can, then the Tide will finish 6-6 on the regular season with a winning or losing season hanging on the outcome of a minor bowl game. The amazing thing about what is happening at Alabama is that Shula continues to escape blame for Alabama's downfall among a lot of fans despite the fact that Shula is the man in charge. His supporters still contend that Shula is laboring under the effects of Alabama's NCAA probation. It is a convenient excuse that apparently many are going to desperately cling to for years to come. It's just no longer the valid reason for Alabama's on-field performances. Lack of depth is the carryover from probation, but lack of depth is no excuse when a team falls behind 24-10 in the first half. It is not the reason Alabama continually gets into the red zone and has to trot out the place-kicker for field goal attempts instead of extra points. It doesn't explain having to come from behind to beat the dregs of college football like Duke and Florida International. It doesn't explain hard-fought narrow victories over lower level SEC teams like Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, that is unless you are a lower level team yourself, which at the moment defines Alabama. Just last week Alabama athletic director Mal Moore issued a statement that amounted to a vote of confidence in Shula as head coach. In three plus seasons as coach at Alabama, Shula is 26-21, which is not all that bad on the surface. Where the problem comes in is that Shula is 0-4 against Arkansas and 0-3 against both LSU and Auburn, which breaks down to 0-10 against the three best teams in the SEC West, the teams Alabama would have to beat in order to challenge for the SEC West. When you throw Shula's 1-3 mark against Tennessee and 1-1 against Florida, you realize that Shula is 2-14 against SEC teams of substance. That is a .125 winning percentage in quality games. That would get most coaches fired, even at schools with lousy football programs. Yet is doesn't seem to phase Shula with the Alabama power brokers who run the program, which includes Mal Moore and his bosses on the Board of Trustees. They are going to stick with Shula regardless of what depths the program might sink because they are not going to admit that entrusting the tradition-rich Alabama program to an unproven head coach was a mistake. While Alabama stumbles through another mediocre season, the Tide's cross-state rival, the Auburn Tigers, have left Alabama in its dust. Auburn has beaten Alabama four consecutive years, gone 13-0 one season, been a legitimate player in the BCS hunt for two years, and won an SEC championship. In the meantime, Alabama fans continue to refer to Auburn as a second-class program that will never win a national championship. Sometimes a selective view of life can be so much more comforting than facing reality. The reality of Alabama's situation is that the program has sunk to a level of accepted mediocrity that is stunning for a fan base that was raised on the demanded excellence of Paul "Bear" Bryant. It has been 23 years since Bryant passed away, which is apparently the length of time it took for Bryant's influence on the program to become a thing of the past. Link to Article

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

If many bama fans could accept this they would be on the road to recovery. Most do but they are not the vocal ones. Before they can solve the problem they have to recognize it exists.

[MrMoJo 0]

Typical Bamma fan = hip-no-tized

[WarTiger 3,924]

why is it that every reporter and every fan of every college football team out there can see how this program has been mired in mediocrity for YEARS, yet UAT fans can't get it?

If/when UAT drops the last two games of the season and finishes 6-6, the arrogance of UAT fans will remain unchanged. They will still consider themselves gods gift to football, they will still add to their fake NC totals, and they will still boast about the 70's. Oh, and let's not forget LAST years 10 win season...That will be mentioned with every passing breath by UAT fans as well. They will thump their chest about adding to their bowl appearances total(IF THEY ACTUALLY GO TO BOWL at 6-6), then if they are "lucky" enough to win that bowl game, they will thump their chests again about adign to their bowl win total..

My favorite part is their record against the UPPER CLASS teams in the SEC. Professing UAT is back when they hold winless records against Arkansas, LSU, and Auburn, and a losoing record vs. Tennessee is exactly what this program is about. Arrogance thy name is bammer. This is why they have clung to that 10 win thing from last year. It was still only good for 3rd place in the West. Seeing them lose to MSU yesterday was one of the most beautiful things i've seen in a while. UAT is now a lower tier SEC football school and will remain there for quite some time.

Now, we should all give UAT credit. They have 6 wins this year..and guess what folks... ONE, count them ONE of those wins came against a team with a winning record. ONE... This is bammer football.

[TigerOne 1,153]

I question if they will get invited to a bowl, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt are much more attractive.