Roll Tide Roll!! Rick
CECIL HURT: 'Outsiders’ see good things coming to Tide
There is something that takes root every year about this time around the University of Alabama football program, no matter what is done to eradicate it. Obviously, we’re not talking about grass. We’re talking about optimism.
It’s only natural, with football season less than eight weeks away, that Crimson Tide fans would be encouraged about the upcoming season. What’s different about this year, though, is that some of the brightest sunshine seems to be coming from outside Tuscaloosa.
For instance, take Phil Steele’s 2004 Football Preview, a magazine that won high marks for prescience a year ago when it predicted not only a fifth-place SEC West finish for Alabama, but also correctly tabbed LSU instead of 2003’s trendy pick, Auburn, to win the division.
This year, Steele has a seat near the front of the Alabama bandwagon, predicting that the Tide will be second “most improved" team in the country. (To the chagrin of some Tide fans, he thinks the most improved will be Texas A&M, and, in keeping with the “ex-Alabama coaches" theme, he tabs UTEP as the third most improved.) Steele picks Alabama second in the division and boldly states that Alabama could “swagger into Knoxville" with a 7-0 record in October.
On top of that, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported earlier this week that one of the most popular propositions this summer in Nevada, where one can legally wager, is “Alabama over-7." That means that people are risking green, folding money on a proposition that pays off only if the Crimson Tide wins more than seven games this season, and the assumption is that not all those people are Alabama fans.
So why is America, or at least some of America, bullish on Crimson Tide football for 2004? Is it simply a case where they look at the crimson jerseys and the history books, and don’t realize the modern-day reality that NCAA sanctions have created? Or are some people in Tuscaloosa, hardened by a four-year stretch in which misery has been relieved only by occasional treachery, simply refuse to expect anything good to happen, even if they should?
That’s the mystery of the upcoming season, and part of its intrigue. For my part, it’s too early to start throwing around predictions. There are still recruits in limbo, and academic issues to be resolved for some current players. There are players like A.C. Carter, who might be major contributors or might still have health issues to overcome.
Injury may be the No. 2 variable (behind coaching) in determining this team’s destiny. It will be easier to weigh those variables in late August, not mid-July
Every one of those issues is magnified because Alabama is not as deep as many of the teams it plays. The schedule, in which the most difficult games seems to be loaded onto the back end, could be a blessing, or a curse, depending on how things go in September.
When there are that many variables, Alabama-watchers can be excused if they expect at least a few to go sour. The last four years would do that, even to the most stout-hearted loyalist. It’s a direct reversal of the Alabama attitude in the 1960s and 1970s, when Crimson Tide fans assumed that even if things did go wrong at some point, “Coach Bryant will fix it."
It probably won’t take a lot of success to start Alabama fans thinking that way again, though. And it has to be encouraging that at least a few people who aren’t anywhere close to Alabama think that good things just might happen.
Reach Cecil Hurt at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or (205) 722-0225.
______________________________________________________ RollTideFan - The University of Alabama Athletics Discussion List
"Welcome to RollTideFan! Wear a cup!"
To join or leave the list or to make changes to your subscription visit http://listinfo.rolltidefan.net
