Creg Stephenson: Tide must get the ball to Prothro
11-19-2004
The offensive weapons Alabama has lost to injury this season have been
well documented.
Brodie Croyle, Ray Hudson and Tim Castille had accounted for 1,574
yards and 17 touchdowns before balky right knees prematurely ended each
player's season. Post-injuries, particularly after Croyle's, Alabama's
offense has been slightly less predictable than the sun rising in the east.
The Tide offense has been mainly Kenneth Darby left, Kenneth Darby
right, Kenneth Darby up the middle in recent weeks. When Alabama has
ventured to pass, it has usually resulted in one of the two bad things Woody
Hayes spoke about so many years ago - an incompletion or an interception. Or
a sack and a fumble.
But another weapon has been languishing relatively unused for Alabama
this season. He's No. 4, wide receiver Tyrone Prothro.
Here are the facts:
Prothro has touched the ball 38 times running, receiving and returning
kicks. He's compiled 651 yards on those plays, an average of 17.1 yards
every time he touches the ball.
There's no one on the team that can match that production, with the
possible exception of Keith Brown, who's also averaged 17.1 yards, but on
only 14 touches. But much of Brown's yardage as a receiver came before
Croyle was lost for the season with a knee injury in the Tide's third game.
Quite simply, Prothro is far and away Alabama's biggest big-play
threat, yet he's getting the ball only three or four times per game.
Something's not connecting here.
Quarterback Spencer Pennington, who had his left (non-throwing)
shoulder driven into the ground against LSU last week, has vowed to play in
this game. So that probably renders moot any talk of using Prothro at
quarterback.
If not quarterback, then why not tailback? One of the constant themes
you hear this week is that the biggest difference between Auburn and Alabama
's running attack is that the Tigers have Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown,
while the Tide has only Darby.
It doesn't have to be that way, though. Prothro rushed for more than
7,000 yards in high school, so it stands to reason that he could at least
give Darby a breather to the tune of about 10 carries a game.
But wait, you might say, Prothro is only 5-foot-8 and 176 pounds. He
can't possibly take the pounding of SEC football. To that, I give you two
words: Shaud Williams.
Williams was officially listed at 5-foot-8 and 189 pounds, although
both measurements may have been generous. If he could run the ball 40 times
against Tennessee in 2003 and more than 300 times last season, couldn't
Prothro at least manage a quarter of that number without breaking down? I'd
like to think so.
If I had to guess right now, Pennington will start Saturday and the
Tide's game plan will be what it has been for the last several weeks. They'
ll give the ball to Kenneth Darby until he can't run anymore and then hope
for the best.
Darby has been phenomenal in recent weeks, especially when you
consider that opposing teams know he's getting the ball. But in Alabama's
last two games against good defenses - Tennessee on Oct. 23 and LSU last
week - he's been held just enough in check that the Tide was not able to
control the clock in the second half.
Certainly, the loss of Croyle, Hudson and Castille - along with the
recent nagging injuries suffered by key blockers - has limited the Tide's
options on offense. But if a team isn't willing to take chances with the
game plan when it's a two-score underdog to a national championship
contender, you've got to wonder when it would be.
========================
"You have to take it one day at a time. You know, like the drunks do" --
Hank Hill on marriage
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