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"I Thought We Were Tight to Start the Game"

Posted on 10/21/22 at 12:23 pm
Posted by PowHound
The Peoples Moderator
Member since Jul 2014
7240 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 12:23 pm
"Especially to start the game. Coming out of the locker room our players always chant... they weren't chanting, I said why aren't yall chanting ? What's up with that ?"

You can't worry about the outcome you gotta have fun competing. You gotta play the play, and you gotta play the next play. Don't look at the scoreboard, and dont be fearful to lose, just go play- compete.

It's my job to get these guys to that point."

Coach Nick Saban Monday presser. Anybody want to take a stab at this ?
Posted by Tupelo
Member since Aug 2022
1735 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 12:48 pm to
In his call in show, he said much the same thing. Something to the effect that the players were tight, and as a result they let what had happened on the previous play affect the next play. Basically that some players let the tension affect their focus, and it caused them not to execute as they were taught. I don't know about specific examples of what he meant, he didn't elaborate. Busts in coverage, jumping offsides, etc ?
Posted by PowHound
The Peoples Moderator
Member since Jul 2014
7240 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 1:04 pm to
I'm more focused on the team walking down the tunnel silently, or "no chanting" as CNS put it.

Every big game we've ever played where they take a camera into the tunnel you can hear the players raising hell.

Hell, I'm fairly certain Notre Dame knew they were about to get beat down in '12 when our boys passed them in the tunnel so hype they sounded like berserkers.

Posted by elposter
Member since Dec 2010
26561 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 1:08 pm to
As Alabama has gone on this crazy run of success I know as a fan I've experienced the phenomenon of the fear of losing being greater than the joy of winning. Basically if Alabama wins nobody really talks about it or cares. If Alabama loses it's all of the sudden the best, biggest game of the college football season and it's talked about non-stop. I imagine if the players (and coaches) don't handle that particular phycological aspect correctly it can have an adverse impact on performance. You literally start to think about losing more you think about winning. I can imagine that can make you play and coach tight.

Need to break that mindset and shift back to playing for the joy of winning rather than the fear of losing. Hopefully it won't take a bunch of losing to make that shift.
This post was edited on 10/21/22 at 1:10 pm
Posted by cdur86
Member since Jan 2014
1613 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 1:48 pm to
quote:

As Alabama has gone on this crazy run of success I know as a fan I've experienced the phenomenon of the fear of losing being greater than the joy of winning. Basically if Alabama wins nobody really talks about it or cares. If Alabama loses it's all of the sudden the best, biggest game of the college football season and it's talked about non-stop.


Wow! This is me exactly. I hate the feeling too. I have to tell myself that this is the greatest run in the entire college football existence and that I just need to relax and enjoy it while it lasts. I think that the age of social media and sites like this with fan interactions with other fanbases certainly does not help. It's great when you win and you enjoy the misery of the other fans, but man it really sucks when we are on the losing end and the non-stop trolls come out in full force.

Growing up in the 90's we didn't have such lofty expectations so when we'd lose it wasn't such a huge deal and there weren't highlights of the loss for the rest of the week. Of course I would much rather be in the position now than we were in the 90s
Posted by 14&Counting
Dallas, TX
Member since Jul 2012
41477 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 1:55 pm to
I definitely think the home crowd played a factor here...caused a couple of critical false starts. Tennessee and their fans wanted this more than anything and it showed.
Posted by paperwasp
2x HRV 2025 Poster of the Year
Member since Sep 2014
29007 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 2:03 pm to
I don't know if it's this generation of kids, or NIL, or the transfer portal, or rat poison, or some other bullshite, but somewhere along the way we lost our willingness to be hard. Not play hard, BE hard.

The entire staff needs get back to the rhetoric in the first 20 seconds of this video. (And notice the physicality there, even from the offensive players who initiate contact.)

We need some dogs to enforce this mentality. I'm tired of hearing about this, especially from the team leaders.

When you bust your arse in the Spring and practice all week in the Fall, you don't do all that to come out and worry or be anxious.

You take all the work you've already done, all the effort you've put in, and you trust it to free you to attack, together as a team.

Somebody in that locker room needs to tell these kids to get their mind right before they walk out on that field, or get back on the fricking bus if they're scared.
Posted by Tupelo
Member since Aug 2022
1735 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 2:10 pm to
The longer a streak goes on, like the wins over Tennessee, the greater the potential for anxiety, too. Nobody wants to be the ones that causes a streak like that to end. It's really remarkable that we've had such prolonged success with everyone gunning for us every game. I have no doubt that Jimbo's fixation on Bama is why they haven't done as well in other games this year. Remember when practically the entire conference took their off week before us a few years ago?
Posted by Shocco
Member since Nov 2015
1993 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 2:13 pm to
We gotta have energy/leadership from the coaches or the players. And right now we do not much coming from anywhere. Saban needs to get some people that can do this. Scott Cochran was nut but at least he brought energy to the players.
Posted by PowHound
The Peoples Moderator
Member since Jul 2014
7240 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 2:22 pm to
quote:

Coming out of the locker room our players always chant... they weren't chanting, I said why aren't yall chanting ? What's up with that ?"


100k people screaming because they wanna see somebody in orange take your head off, and you come out the tunnel silent ?

I simply cant understand whats happening inside the program.

Somebody asked Jon Allen one time if he was scared to play LSU because of their night game environment and Jon Allen said, "Man I'll play them in the parking lot on concrete."

Jon Allen was THE MAN- We dont have a lineman on the DL or the OL that has any nasty

Posted by 251_Dreaux
Port-City, BAMA
Member since Jul 2013
717 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 2:28 pm to
Very few alphas on the team. A common theme of all great competitors in sports is the psychological disposition of wanting to dominate and prove to not only themselves/opponents, but also to the audience that they are/were more superior. I saw that in Bryce and Gibbs only.
Posted by SummerOfGeorge
Member since Jul 2013
105717 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 2:41 pm to
I'm tired of trying to figure it out.
Posted by RollTide1987
Augusta, GA
Member since Nov 2009
69810 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 3:15 pm to
quote:

I know as a fan I've experienced the phenomenon of the fear of losing being greater than the joy of winning.


This right here. Winning big games now comes with a sense of relief rather than a sense of joy. I think players experience this in much greater measures than we as fans could ever dream of. Imagine going into that environment with the pressure of maintaining a winning streak over a rival that hasn't been broken since many of those kids were in elementary school. That's bad enough. It's even worse when you are facing off against a team that is borderline Top 5 and coming off the momentum of a major road win.

I know it's up to the coaches to instill a fighter's mentality into the team but I think these kinds of games remind us that Saban and this Alabama football team are still human beings who make mistakes and fail.
Posted by CrimsonBoz
Member since Sep 2014
20165 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 7:19 pm to
As soon as this team finds its identity a lot of that will go away. They are second guessing themselves, listening to the media, watching social media religiously. As the saying goes in these moments, delete Facebook, hit the gym, and read a book.
Posted by LATIDER
Loxley , Al
Member since Apr 2013
1232 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 8:12 pm to
quote:

As soon as this team finds its identity a lot of that will go away.



They better be about finding their identity now. If not, Atlanta will not be in their future.
Posted by Kerrygold
Virginia
Member since Dec 2018
738 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 9:23 pm to
Ro killed that receiver
Posted by PowHound
The Peoples Moderator
Member since Jul 2014
7240 posts
Posted on 10/21/22 at 9:39 pm to
Yeah he did, dude didn't get up either if I remember correctly. He was on the turf for a minute. Would probably be a flag for who knows what in todays game ?

Meanwhile, Bryce gets two crown of helmet shots, one to the head, and two forearm shivers directly to the face and neck, and not a single flag. Not one.

The beating Bryce took in that game without a single flag pisses me off more than losing the game. Bryce is an incredible competitor and an amazing QB. I'm trying to imagine next years team without Bryce and Gibbs and it's a scary thought.
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