FREAK PIC!!!

Boy where do I start with this one?  I guess I may as well start at the beginning.

Under the previous regime, the players walked all over previous coach Mike Shula.  Shula had totally lost control of the team, and the inmates were running the asylum.  Under Shula, Bama was 0 & 22 in games in which they trailed entering the 4^th quarter.

Enter Nick Saban.  One of the first things Saban did was institute the “4^th quarter conditioning program.”  I won’t get into the specifics of the program, but take my word for it, it’s absolutely brutal.  Those of you who think we are torturing Iraqi prisoners, you haven’t seen anything yet.

As you can imagine, this didn’t go over very well with guys who weren’t recruited by Saban, and who had been coasting under the Shula regime for 3, 4 & 5 years.  Guys like wide receiver D.J Hall just wanted to go through the season on cruise control, and then sign a million dollar contract in the NFL.  Well, it didn’t quite work out like they planned.  Guys like Hall, Simeon Castille, Keith Brown & Wallace Gilberry who were sure the NFL would come knocking got a rude awakening.  As I’m sure most of you know, for the first time since 1970, not a single Alabama player was drafted by the NFL.

 Appalachian State, Bentley, Coastal Carolina, Delaware, Eastern Kentucky, Furman, Gardner-Webb, Grand Valley State, Hampton, Idaho, Jackson State, McNeese State, Middle Tennessee State, Montana, Mount Union, North Dakota State, Northwest Missouri State, San Diego, Washburn, Weber State, and Winston Salem State all had at least one player drafted, but not a single player from Bama!

The upshot of all this is that Bama was a divided team last year.  There was the group that who wanted to win and bought what Saban was selling, and those who didn’t give a shit about Saban or the team.  Some of this trouble manifested itself through numerous arrests culminating with the arrest of Jimmy Johns for slinging coke on campus.

Year two of the Saban era is completely different.  Gone is the pugnacious senior class and others who permeated the roster.  Think Bear Bryant and the Junction Boys.  Despite drastic over-signing by Saban in last year’s #1 recruiting class, and the media hounding Saban about how he would make the numbers work, Bama only ended up with 81 scholarship players on the roster (4 short of the maximum allowable 85).  They are now at 84 because Saban has since awarded 3 scholarships to non-scholarship players.

I lay this foundation for you because it is critical to understanding this Bama team, and because you won’t hear it from the media.  This year’s team is extremely tight and singularly focused.  They are young (only 9 scholarship seniors on the roster), strong, fast, mean, hungry, pissed and probably the fittest group in the country.

I believe Bama will not only cover the point spread in this game, but will win fairly decisively.  What you will see against Clemson is an extremely physical football team.  They will hit Clemson in the mouth and out physical them the entire game.  Yes, they will make some youthful mistakes, but I think they will win the battle of the line-of-scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

Clemson will start 4 guys on the offensive line that played behind a group that gave up 35 sacks last year.  That’s not good news for a team that will have to deal with 365lbs Mt. Cody.  Terrance Cody is the only JUCO transfer in Alabama’s signing class, and he is probably the best kept secret in college football.  Last year I told everyone on this board about West Virginia’s Noel Devine before he ever touched the ball the first time.  Devine was last year’s secret weapon.  Terrance Cody has that distinction for the 2008 season.

Not only is Cody huge, he is extremely athletic and quick for his size.  Quite simply, he has wowed everyone who has seen him.  His teammates constantly marvel how athletic he is for his size.  Ironically, he has impressed many on the basketball court as well with his amazing 360 dunks.  This guy is an absolute monster, and will collapse the Clemson offensive line all day.  Clemson may not even be able to handle this guy with a double team.

 In one of his recent press conferences Tommy Bowden said that he is concerned that Saban has had the whole off-season to formulate a plan on attacking Clemson’s offensive line”. As Bill Belichick once said “Nobody is better on the defensive side of the ball than Nick Saban.”  When asked about his confidence level of his O-Line, Bowden responded with a “6”.  Now I’ll admit that James Davis and C.J. Spiller are good running backs, but they are only as good as their offensive line.

On the other side of the ball, Bama’s veteran offensive line will face a Clemson defense that returns only 2 of their front 7 players.  The X factor for Bama on offense is all-world phenom freshman Julio Jones.  Jones will have an immediate “Randy Moss” effect on the offense.  What I mean by that is when Randy Moss played for the Minnesota Vikings, the Vikings lead the league in rushing almost every year he was there.  Why?  Because defenses simply could not afford to stack the box lest they leave Moss in single coverage, and we all knon what happens when Moss gets single coverage.

After torching Tampa Bay’s defense for over 100 yards receiving and two touchdowns in his first NFL game, when asked about Moss in a post-game interview, Bucs safety John Lynch said “He’s not the best receiver we’ve ever seen, but he’s going to be!”  Julio Jones will have a similar impact on defenses.

Clemson will have to pick their poison in this game.  Double up on Jones and open up Bama’s running game, or take your chances with a 5’9” cornerback against the tall, super athletic receiver with a 42” vertical leap.  Clemson will lose either way.

Bama will also have decisive advantage in special teams.  They return one of the best return men in the country in Javier Arenas, and have an accurate kicker who can put it through the sticks from 60 yards away.  Julio Jones will also join Arenas as the second return man on kickoffs.  Clemson does have the better punter however.

Clemson’s history works against them as well.  Their signature wins last year were against Florida State, Wake Forest and South Carolina.  Two of those teams did not go to a bowl game, and they fialed to cover the spraed in the South Carolina game.  Clemson lost to every other tough, physical team they faced.  They lost to Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Boston College and Auburn.  They also failed to cover the spread in any of those games.

Clemson’s defensive coordinator Vic Koenning also was kind enough to provided Bama with some bulletin board material when he said the following the other day:

"I actually ran into Julio in the spring recruiting. I said hello to him. I said, 'Well, I guess I'll be seeing you at the end of August.' And then he got out and got in his (Cadillac) Escalade and drove off. That's serious. And then I went over and watched Burton Scott at Vigor High School at the track over there, and Burton Scott was running around. He went and got in his Escalade out at track practice and drove off. So I'm familiar with those two guys."

After he said this he followed it up with “I’m serious.”

Unfortunately for Koenning, none of it was true.  Koenning and Bowden spent the next several days trying to pawn the whole thing off as a big joke, but it’s pretty obvious that wasn’t the case.

B.J. Scott’s high school coach from Vigor High School responded to the joke with a little joke of his own.  He said “Koenning better not ever step foot on his campus again.”  Good luck recruiting the state of Alabama now numb nuts!  Needless to say, this incident has added just a little more fuel to the fire for Bama especially for Julio & B.J.

I think this game will be close for 3 quarters before Bama physically imposes it’s will on Clemson in the 4^th quarter (there’s that 4^th quarter program again).  When the final seconds tick off the 4^th quarter clock there will be no doubt who the better team is, and it won’t be Clemson.

Predicted Score:  Bama 27 Clemson 17.

BOL TO ALL!!!

FREAK OUT!!!