TitanTiger 22,257 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Meyer family tree becomes big thorn in Saban's sideby Kevin Scarbinsky Birmingham News They chanted it in the French Quarter during the week. They chanted it in the Superdome before the game. Utah fans took great delight in giving plenty of shout-outs to the man who's quickly turning into Nick Saban's personal nemesis. Ur-ban Mey-er. Saban may hear that name in his sleep. If he can sleep after Utah 31, Alabama 17. It was bad enough when Saban got beat by Meyer in the SEC Championship Game. It was so much worse to get embarrassed in the Sugar Bowl by Meyer Lite. Kyle Whittingham succeeded Meyer as the Utah head coach, but until this 13-0 dream season, had hardly matched him. Whittingham's first three Utah teams went 7-5, 8-5 and 9-4. But no matter. The Meyer family tree has become a thorn in Saban's side. If bad news does indeed come in threes, Florida will defeat Oklahoma in Thursday's BCS Championship Game and Meyer will take the lead over Saban in another way, in national titles, 2-1. A bookend crystal football will put Meyer one-up on almost everyone else in the game. He'll match Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno and Pete Carroll as the only major college coaches at work today who've planted a season-ending flag atop poll mountain more than once. Meyer is one victory and one year away from turning Saban into the runner-up for the mythical title of SEC coach of the decade. But even that would be preferable to runner-up as best head coach in the Superdome Friday night. The more you look back on the Sugar Bowl, the more disturbing Alabama's performance looks, from the top down, from game-planning to game-coaching. In terms of preparation, Utah faced distractions of its own. Both coordinators accepted new jobs in the last month, forcing them into double-duty, but it was Alabama whose performance waffled between distracted and disinterested. And wasn't the Alabama defense schooled by not one, not two, but three master professors in Saban, Kevin Steele and Kirby Smart? So how did the Alabama defense get schooled by the same kind of spread offense it faced in its previous game? Florida hung 31 points on Alabama, and so did Utah. Fool them twice, and the Tide's three wise men look awfully foolish. With Steele leaving for Clemson, there was going to be some spinning behind the scenes from the Alabama camp, claiming that Saban and Smart deserve the bulk of the credit for the inspired play of the 2008 Tide defense. Who wants to take responsibility for the Superdome smackdown? Meyer took his key offensive assistants with him from Utah to Florida - including coordinator Dan Mullen, the new Mississippi State head coach - but Whittingham kept the system the same. Yet the Alabama defense looked spectacularly unprepared for the Meyer family spread the second time around, especially when Utah went early and often to the no-huddle hurry-up. Wait. No-huddle, Hurry-up? Isn't that the title of a book written by Auburn's new offensive coordinator? Yes, it is. Somewhere, Gus Malzahn is smiling. All he has to do now is turn Kodi Burns into Brian Johnson. After the Sugar Bowl, someone asked Whittingham if, should Florida beat Oklahoma, he would dial up Meyer, his old boss, and arrange a private, winner-take-all showdown in a vacant lot. Wisely, no one asked Saban if he wanted a rematch with Meyer or his protege anytime soon. http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/ks....xml&coll=2 Link to comment https://www.aufamily.com/topic/55158-scarbinsky-meyer-family-tree-a-thorn-in-sabans-side/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
DKW 86 8,220 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 SSSHHHH! We dont want anyone else to see that bit of info... Link to comment https://www.aufamily.com/topic/55158-scarbinsky-meyer-family-tree-a-thorn-in-sabans-side/#findComment-569725 Share on other sites More sharing options...
PChamp119 96 Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 No Huddle offense spread... sounds familiar... I hope Gus actually makes it happen and makes it happen properly. Link to comment https://www.aufamily.com/topic/55158-scarbinsky-meyer-family-tree-a-thorn-in-sabans-side/#findComment-569812 Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody 11 Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 No Huddle offense spread... sounds familiar... I hope Gus actually makes it happen and makes it happen properly. Hell we won't have to worry about that. We have you to tell us whether it will work or not. After all your our resident know it all, I'm sure there won't be a mistake made that you won't point out. After all we can't be trusted to form our own opinion . But if we do! I'm confident one of you turd's will let us know. And tell us we were wrong. Dude is there anything about Auburn that you like? Link to comment https://www.aufamily.com/topic/55158-scarbinsky-meyer-family-tree-a-thorn-in-sabans-side/#findComment-569838 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.