I love being wrong sometimes. Remember when I said I was anticipating my beloved White Sox getting crushed by the Twins last night? John Danks and Jim Thome had other things to say about that. Now it really feels good to be wrong. With all of that said, I think Alabama is going to crush Kentucky this Saturday while I cross my fingers.
Watching the unfolding events involving the Oakland Raiders helped me figure something out. If the fans you sit next to at Commonwealth and Rupp ran the show, UK basketball and football would look like the current Oakland Raiders. Al Davis is a senile old coot who has just lost his mind, just like “that guy” who always magically winds up next to you at the ballgame. You know “that guy,” right? He’s the guy who didn’t understand why UK didn’t press for 40 minutes last season with a seven-man rotation. He’s the guy who thinks running the football is boring and unnecessary. He’s the guy who has no problem with CM Newton’s name being on the football field because he brought God’s gift to football, Hal Mumme, to Lexington for four years. “That guy” has no business running a professional sports organization, and neither does Al Davis.
Josh Smith is the #1 recruit in the 2010 class. It’s been reported that he is really favoring his hometown Washington Huskies, but only if Washington has a good year this year. I personally believe that Washington caught lightning in a bottle with the Brandon Roy/Bobby Jones/Nate Robinson group because Lorenzo Romar has no idea how to coach defense. If UW doesn’t have a good year, Smith will be leaving his home state, mainly because I think it’s a near impossibility that he’ll go to Washington State. Smith has lottery pick written all over him, and it’s very tough to become a lottery pick at Wazzu, as their style just doesn’t cater to dominant offensive players like Smith. So, if he leaves his home state, Kentucky has as goo a chance as any of the big guns on Smith’s list. There will be some serious recruiting wars for the class of 2010. The good guys will lose some, but they’ll also win some. Here’s hoping Josh Smith is an epic victory.
How does Kentucky stop Alabama nose tackle Terrence Cody? The 3-4 defense isn’t very popular anymore because you have to have four great linebackers and a mountain of a man in the middle. It’s just very hard to acquire that kind of talent, but Nick Saban has done it. Cody is large. I think he weighs 9,000 pounds, give or take a couple of pounds. I’m not even sure if a double team will neutralize him, so Coaches Brooks and Phillips will have to think outside the box. Here are a couple of ideas.
*Tie his shoelaces together.
*Have Jorge Gonzalez stuff his jersey with several full roasted chickens. That should distract him.
*Instead of white paint, cover the field with scrumptious vanilla frosting.
*Cover the arms of the UK linemen with garlic butter. Not only will Cody slip while trying to get around them, but he will also spend the next few possessions licking the butter off his hands and arms.
*Bake brownies in the Kentucky endzone and have the oven ding before the snap count – instant offside call.
You get the idea. He’s a large man. I’d imagine that the offense might run to the outside and move the pocket around as much as possible on pass plays instead, trying to wear out Cody by having him run side to side. But my ideas will work too.
Counting walk-ons, there are TWENTY (20) players on the UK basketball team. Do the arenas in the SEC have enough room to accommodate 20 players, or will some of the walk-ons have to sit behind the benches amongst the fans? How does that work in a place like Mississippi State or Alabama where the student section is right above the opposing bench? One thing’s for sure, with 20 guys, practices will be extremely intense. I’d watch out for loss of limb.
I don’t know what it is about Nick Saban, but in two of the three games his teams have played against Kentucky, they had to score a touchdown in the last minute of the game to win. Everybody remembers the Hail Mary in 2002, but lots of people forget the game from either 2000 or 2001 where LSU had to go on a long drive at the end of the game and Michael Clayton caught a touchdown pass in the final seconds. The one knock on this Alabama team so far is that they have sometimes let teams back into the game after getting a big lead. Georgia scored 30 points in the second half last week. In last year’s Independence Bowl, Bama once again jumped out to a 31-0 lead, but had to hang on for dear life to get a 31-28 win. Do they get tired or just lose focus? Either way, I’d love to see a similar situation to the LSU game where the good guys get off to the good start, weather the storm, chip away and have it close in the 4th quarter. That would be an ideal scenario.
Middle Tennessee is very good at the Hail Mary. I know they hit the wall after the Kentucky game. Seriously, MTSU? Consecutive blowout losses against Arkansas State and Troy are not good. How did you guys beat Maryland and fall one yard short of beating Kentucky? Sure, nobody watched MTSU vs. Florida Atlantic because it was Tuesday and White Sox vs. Twins was the main sporting event of the day, but what an amazing finish. I should note that this is the first Tuesday regular season game I can remember that didn’t feature the Louisville Cardinals.
Apparently Tennessee is opening things up for a little quarterback competition. Obviously Jonathan Crompton wasn’t getting the job done (I’m Seth “Captain Obvious” Stogsdill), but how much could Rick Stevens help? That offense would struggle getting into the endzone with Peyton Manning at quarterback. Oh, well, I’m sure Tennessee will just fire their offensive coordinator again while Fat Phil walks away unscathed yet again.
Enjoy the playoff baseball today. I’ll be back tomorrow with the weekly installment of “Make My Day,” so expect a lot more seriousness.
I’m Seth Stogsdill, and I hope the Bama folks don’t take too much offense to the Terrence Cody stuff. It’s all in good fun, guys.