re: Bama Football Tidings

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You remember the T-shirt: “Tebow cried. Cam Lied. LSU tried.”

There were different variations of the T-shirt after Alabama’s national championship run in 2009, which would be the first of five national championships under coach Nick Saban.

“This is not the end,” the Alabama coach said. “This is the beginning.”

But, before you can truly appreciate that national championship win, you have to understand the mindset, the personnel changes, the opponents and the obstacles standing in the Crimson Tide’s way.

The year before, the Tide was a victim of Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators. Tim Tebow ripped open the heart of the Crimson Tide as the Gators secured a second national title in three years.

A stunning loss to Utah in the Sugar Bowl gave the Tide back-to-back losses in a season which started with a win over a ninth-ranked Clemson team “that announced Alabama on the national stage.”

Gone from the 2008 team were leaders Antoine Caldwell, Andre Smith, John Parker Wilson, Glen Coffee and Rashad Johnson. Those players replaced with names like Greg McElroy, Barrett Jones, Mark Ingram, Mike Johnson, Julio Jones, and Trent Richardson.

AL.com, on the 10th anniversary of the 2009 national title run, takes a three-part visual trip through what became the foundation for a modern-day college-football dynasty.

Watch the video above(Link in the article or I included the YouTube link)to see 2009: The Beginning, Part 1, and subscribe here to see parts 2 and 3 later this season. .

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Tosh Lupoi first spotted Shane Lee during a trip to the Gilman School weight room in Maryland in early 2015.

Not realizing Lee had yet to even reach high school, the former Alabama assistant went up to one of the team’s coaches and pointed at Lee, who was already about 6-feet tall and a solid 215 pounds.

“Tosh grabbed me and says, ‘Who the heck is that kid? Why didn’t you tell me about him?’” recalled Henry Russell, who coached Lee at Gilman before also coaching him at St. Frances Academy. “I was like, ‘Tosh, he’s still in the eighth grade.’”

Four years later, Lee is up to 245 pounds and now set to be an important figure in the middle of the Crimson Tide defense as a true freshman.

Lee, known as ‘The Hulk’ among his high school teammates, is being called on to step in and start at the inside linebacker position previously occupied by preseason first-team All-American Dylan Moses, who suffered a season-ending knee injury during the Tide’s practice on Tuesday.

Alabama was already going to be depending on a true freshman at the other inside linebacker position, Christian Harris. Now, the team will be depending on another true freshman, Lee, to not only step in for Moses but also to take over as the Tide’s defensive play-caller.

“Fortunately, Shane Lee and Christian Harris — whether they were starters or backups, either one — they were both bright guys,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said Wednesday. “They’ve been very engaged in what they have to do to be able to go play. I don’t think there’s any substitute for experience. So now they’re going to get an opportunity to get some of that where they have an opportunity to apply the knowledge that they have. We just have to do a really good job as coaches to try to get them in the best situations that we know they understand what to do and they can go out there and execute it.”

Lee, whose dad is a police officer and whose mom works in cyber security, was the defensive leader last year for a St. Frances team that finished the year ranked ninth nationally by MaxPreps.

The four-star recruit had an interception during the Tide’s spring game in April and had gotten some first-team reps during the preseason even before the Moses injury.

“The good thing with Shane is he comes from a defense where he made checks and it’s not new for him,” Russell said. “We make a lot of checks on the field with our linebackers. And Shane’s a very smart kid. He works extremely hard. Physically, he’s been ready since he was a freshman in high school. He’s a brick house. He runs well. He’s strong as an ox. So physically, I don’t really worry about him too much. I think it’s more getting all the mental stuff down and the speed of the college game, but I think he’s a lot more comfortable. ... If you had asked him to come in and start at the beginning of the spring, it would have been really tough. But now, he’s got the spring under his belt, camp under his belt and now the only thing he’s got to get is some game experience.”

Fortunately for Alabama, Lee has a track of record of stepping up as a freshman.

As a freshman at Gilman, Lee was called on at a critical moment of the team’s conference title game in a matchup against their biggest rival, McDonogh.

With Gilman up 35-28, McDonogh was facing a fourth-and-5 late in the fourth quarter. Sent on a blitz off the edge, Lee got to the quarterback and delivered a big hit as the ball was being thrown. Impacted by the hit, the quarterback’s pass flew out of bounds and Gilman won the championship.

“For a freshman in that situation to make that play, I’ll never forget it and was so proud of Shane for his effort and as a freshman to come in and do that,” Russell said.

It’s part of the reason Russell sent Lee the message he did on Wednesday upon learning of the Moses injury and his former player’s new role.

“I wished him luck,” Russell said, “but I let him know that he’s ready for this.”

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As kickoff approaches ever so quickly for Alabama this Saturday, the pregame excitement is in full swing. What’s also exciting is which former member of the crimson tide will make his return to the sidelines as an honorary team captain.

Well, it was announced on Thursday that Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley will be representing Alabama at midfield for the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.

Ridley played under Nick Saban from 2015-17 where he posted astonishing numbers and was one of the most accomplished players during his time in Tuscaloosa. In his three years with the team, Ridley ranks second in receptions (224) and receiving touchdowns (19) as well as third in receiving yards (2,781).

This led to Ridley getting selected by Atlanta in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft where he turned in an impressive rookie season with 64 receptions, 821 yards and 10 touchdowns which is a Falcons rookie record.

For Duke, New York Jets wide receiver Jamison Crowder will serve as its honorary captain for the game.

You will be able to see both receivers and their former schools square off this Saturday at 2:30 CT in Mercedes Benz Stadium and on ABC.

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Here we go again.

Phase 3 of OTAs has just begun — wherein practices with opposition (but no contact) are allowed — and already there have been two ACL tears.

Chargers tight end Hunter Henry and Eagles linebacker Paul Worrilow suffered just that fate on Tuesday.

Many felt there was an ACL epidemic in 2017 when Julian Edelman was the headliner among 23 ACL tears before a meaningful game was played. We wrote about why it was not truly an epidemic.

In fact, the last five years have seen an average of about 23 ACL tears before the start of the regular season.

Why do these happen? Didn’t we correct this problem with the most recent CBA by reducing practice time and, in particular, contact in practice?

The reality is that limiting contact practice may reduce some injuries but will not reduce ACL tears.

The vast majority (70-80%) of ACL tears happen without direct contact, as was reportedly the case with Henry and Worrilow on Tuesday.

As players get bigger/faster/stronger, the ACL stays the same size. Without contact, there is a premium on speed, precision and tempo in practice. When a sharp cut is made and the foot sticks in the ground — much like a ski binding not releasing — the injury happens.

Unfortunately, given all this, ACL injuries are unpreventable.

Any sort of ACL prevention program, which can be effective to some extent for the untrained athlete and females, have not been proven effective in the NFL. And in the course of their regular workouts, NFL athletes already perform much of the muscle training included in such prevention programs.

Offensive linemen and some defensive linemen are mandated to wear knee braces in in college. But for the most part, that is not the case in the NFL. Many athletes resist wearing braces in the NFL, as they feel it restricts them. Modern brace technology is excellent, and as an orthopedist, I recommend prophylactic knee brace usage. But players often value performance and technique over protection that feels restrictive to them. And the fact is, while use of knee braces can help, it does not prevent all ACL tears.

When the Eagles lost Worrilow, I tweeted that it inevitably happens to several teams every year. Unfortantely, that was followed quickly by the news about Henry.

It was not the first time that two players tore their ACL on the first day of team work during OTAs. The Cowboys’ Sean Lee and Bears’ Dominek Hixon did so in 2014.

History tells us there will be about 20 more ACL tears before kickoff in the season-opening game.

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I’m sure Saban has them going at each other at 100% today.

Drives me nuts that he does this on game week.

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“If you want to talk shite to the other team, join the god damn debate team,” Saban said on the radio.

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