Saban never even revealed who was taking the first snap against USC until redshirt freshman Blake Barnett went out for the opening series Saturday night, becoming the youngest starter the coach has used at Alabama. “I was one of these outstanding high school baseball hitters”. I think the first quarter was a little shaky on both sides of the ball.
Advertisement
“Most people probably don’t even know that they were a Top 25 team, finished ranked 24th in the country previous year with a 12-2 record and actually won a bowl game and won their conference”, Saban said.
Saban indicated that Sarkisian will continue to seek help and the Crimson Tide would help him. Saban said guard Alphonse Taylor, arrested in July on a DUI charge (he was acquitted last week), was suspended for the opener but would be back for this week’s game against Western Kentucky. “And, again, you know, if you look at your internal scoreboard rather than the external scoreboard and you say, ‘What do we need to do to improve?” He is, however, not allowed to have a hands-on coaching role, interacting with players on the football field.
Hiring Sarkisian is also further proof that Saban’s greatest strength might be his ability to put his ego aside and bring in smart people to work around him. The Tide play at Ole Miss on September 17, and the Rebels are riding a two-game winning streak against Alabama in what figures to be a key Southeastern Conference West battle. The quarterback who at this point previous year was playing high school ball in Texas, and not in the Dallas Cowboys’ NFL stadium, added touchdown runs of 7 and 6 yards to make it 38-3 before he exited late in the third quarter. These guys play with a lot of toughness and a lot of energy. That might be helpful to us. “He’s got to beat somebody out now”.
Alabama also has four graduate assistants in Doug Belk, Rob Ezell, Alex Mortensen and Brian Niedermeyer, and three strength and conditioning assistants in ex-Tide players Josh Chapman, Wilson Love and Kindal Moorehead.
“We had two teams in our league that actually lost to teams that were nowhere near this good [as Western Kentucky]”.
Senior defensive end Jonathan Allen collected two sacks against the Trojans and has eight in his past seven games dating to last season.
“Cam has got a bruised shoulder”, Saban said.
“He’ll probably miss a few days and could be questionable for this game, just depending on how he responds throughout the week”, Saban told reporters. “But I think everybody else will be OK”.
Advertisement
Against the Trojans, Sims caught one pass for 12 yards.
