If any of these things happen in the Alabama game on Saturday, it will make my day.
* Smack the crap out of John Parker Wilson. You want to know why Alabama has been so good all year? The offensive line hasn’t allowed anybody to get to John Parker Wilson, thus preserving the balanced Alabama offensive attack and opening things up for the endless conveyor belt of Crimson Tide running backs. Andre Smith might be the best tackle in the country and Antoine Caldwell might be the best center in the country – not bad for one offensive line. Drew Davis, Marlon Davis and Mike Johnson are no slouches at their respective positions either. At the same time, I’m not sure if they have faced a front seven with the talent of Kentucky, and I’m well aware of how much talent Georgia has at those positions. I think Wilson has had the kind of career renaissance under Nick Saban that Joe Crawford did under Billy Gillispie, but I can’t help but think about his first three years and how poor his decisions were when he was under some pressure. I’d love to see the line come out and use the quickness of Jarmon and Pryor to give John Parker Wilson a Dave Ragone beatdown.
* Ball control. I realize this is very hard to do when the offensive line is banged up (losing Justin Jeffries really hurts, as he might have been the most consistent lineman of the year), but it would help. If Alabama has a weakness, it’s defensive depth. The front seven is amazing, even better than Kentucky’s, but if Kentucky can keep that front seven on the field for a long time, fatigue will have to set in on those linemen and even some of the bigger linebackers. In order to do this, the blocking has to be ten times better than it’s been so far this year, especially on the outside from the receivers. Alabama will get theirs on offense. They’re too good on the ground not to get theirs. Kentucky has to be able to counter punch, and a lot will depend on the run.
* Dominate special teams. One thing Alabama has not done well all year is cover kickoffs. Georgia ran one back last week on them. Even though the stat is misleading, Kentucky leads the nation in kickoff yardage. I’d love to see Derrick Locke run one back. Heck, Dicky Lyons could take a punt back. He almost did last week against WKU. Ryan Tydlacka needs to be as accurate and true as he was last week. Tim Masthay just needs to do what he does best – annihilate the ball on kickoffs. The special teams also need to stop Javier Arenas from Bama. He hasn’t had the kind of season on returns like he did last year, but he can still take one back anytime.
* Another efficient game from Mike Hartline. The best thing Mike has done this year is keep mistakes to a minimum. When a team has lots of talent at running back and a great defense, it doesn’t need extraordinary performances from the quarterback night in and night out. As much as I hate to say it, a great example of this is Ohio State in 2002. They had a great running game and defense, and featured Craig Krenzel at QB. Krenzel just had to be a game manager and let the superstars take care of business, and with the exception of a huge 4th down touchdown against Purdue, that’s pretty much what Craig did that year. In no way am I comparing this year’s UK team to the national championship team from Ohio State, but the strengths are similar, even if the overall talent is not. If Mike continues to make good decisions, avoid sacks and throw it away under pressure, Alabama won’t be scoring any defensive touchdowns like they did against Casey Dick.
* Don’t be afraid of failure. It won’t take a flawless game to beat Alabama. Why? Consider this: Did Kentucky play a perfect game against LSU last season? Is this year’s Alabama team better than last year’s LSU team? If they focus on not making mistakes, they’ll eventually make mistakes. The best thing this team could do is have Alabama take the ball first, get a three and out on defense, then just go out there and play.
I don’t think that’s asking too much.
I’m Seth Stogsdill, go White Sox, destroy Tampa Bay.
