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Alabama Weekly April 20, 1999 -- Issue 5 -- Volume 2
By Jess Nicholas BamaNation.com & Alabama Weekly Recruiting Editor This is an analysis of Alabama's A-day game, complete with grades. Your experience at the game may vary, and I'd welcome any input you might have as to how you think we did. Hope you enjoy. COACHING: Hard to tell when you've got the staff split up and the head coach in the press box, but for preparation's sake, we did very well. The biggest difference was that you could tell Charlie Stubbs has designed and is directing the offense. We ran most of our plays out of two sets: the standard power-I and the 4-WR three-stack. Even so, I couldn't guess which play was coming next all day. Have fun figuring out our offense, Bama-haters. Also, it was hard to tell a lot since the entire 4th quarter was a scout team revue. One big point: We tackle a WHOLE LOT better this year, which I chalk up to two things: (a) Lance Thompson, (b) Mike DuBose personally working with the front seven. Grade: A QUARTERBACKS: Zow started very hot, then cooled off. Watts started very cold, then heated up. Yes, Zow had an off day. Yes, Watts could have looked better. But DuBose decided to split the offensive lines up this week, so what we had were two sets of linemen who hadn't worked together as a unit. Also, no Locke or Alexander or Richard. Both Zow and Watts are masters of the fake, thanks to Stubbs. We haven't faked this well since Homer Smith was teaching slight-of-hand to Gary Hollingsworth. Luke Tucker had a bad day; Richey only played with scout-teamers, and that whole episode was messy. Overall, I'd call it almost dead even, with Watts having a slight edge, but not enough to cause a change in quarterback policy. Both have excellent field vision, though. We haven't had two these good at the same time since I've been following the Tide seriously (about 18 years). It's a nice problem to have. Grade: B+ RUNNING BACKS Shaun Bohannon distanced himself from Ahmaad Galloway. Shaun is very, very tough. He's big (6-2, 210+), has better speed than Ahmaad, and catches the ball about the same. He'll also knock the fire out of you on a backside block. Galloway has better field vision; really needed to see him behind the first team OL, because his blocking broke down a lot. Fifth-year senior walkon Waymond Douglass has good speed and is about Richard's size. He might dress out and could be a jetter on kickoffs. The really impressive part of the day was watching the fullbacks. Marvin Brown is an automatic three-to-six yards when he carries the ball; pity he can't catch very well. McClintock has obviously been feeling the push, and it's made both players better. McClintock's receiving skills have improved. Both players used the spring to their advantage. Grade: B+ RECEIVERS Jason McAddley had a terrific game, but Sam Collins was even better. I haven't seen a Tide receiver adjust to a ball in the air better than Collins E-V-E-R. Jay Stubbs is tough, but small. McAddley is lightning-quick and his hands are improving. Coach Swinney has really done a good job here. Terry Jones, Jr. is a good blocker, and so is Johnovan Morgan, who is HUGE. Theo Sanders had an off-day, but I got the feeling from watching how many times the TE's were thrown the football that this performance was an aberration. We'll use this position a lot this year. Locke didn't play--hurt. Rob Egan and Dennis Bonga are very big, but looked slow at times. Both would be in the rotation, though, if we played tomorrow. Joe Yount (TE) played with the scout team and may have fallen behind a walkon. Milons wasn't utilized much; neither wasBowens. Buchanan didn't play. Grade: B OFFENSIVE LINE Carlos Stennis was hurt on the first play and it didn't look good. Matthews was out due to family matters. The guys who surprised me were Paul Hogan and Michael Barfield. Hogan played well with good technique, and Barfield had his second consecutive good spring game. Raulston didn't look good, but you could tell it was injury-related. Baxley got beat a lot around the end, but he also had two pancake blocks including one on one of the ends that had to rattle some teeth. Kenric Lott looked better than I thought he would,and Marico Portis is a bull. Redmill, McDonald, and Cuthbert were amixed bag, but they're all better than last year. I guess my expectations are going up a bit. Ray Marshall played with the scout team, but he was the best player on the field during those times. We're far better than we were 95-97. Grade: C+ DEFENSIVE LINE Yeez! I'll save the suspense--it was an A+ effort. Griffin, Carter, and Draper are all better than last year, and were still overshadowed. Kenny Smith nearly broke Tyler "I'm wearing a non-contact jersey, you blind idiot" Watts in half. Kindal Moorehead was Kindal Moorehead. Shaun Williams played a bunch and looked improved. Todd Whitmore was hot-and-cold: Either he made a boo-boo or he made a stellar play. That's perfectly alright with me, considering he was an OL all last year. He's a very good option at D-line. Kelvis White is pushing 300 pounds now, and he can clog the middle completely in a goal line situation. Reggie Grimes had the best game of his career, practice or otherwise. Rob-E Staten played with the scout team, but put out the best effort of any player and darn near killed a walk-on RB on a sideline play. Grade: A+ ...and then some. LINEBACKERS I ran into a friend of mine and one of my best sources for player evaluation, recruiting, and general football knowledge. He told me what I'd been wanting to hear for half a year, since it backed up a gut feeling: Miguel Merritt plays downhill all game. It showed Saturday, because Merritt is very close to Ralph Staten status: A smaller LB with tremendous speed who hates you. He reminds me precisely of Sam Mills, who played around 15 seasons in the NFL at 5-9, 220. Merritt is about 5-11, 210. Canary Knight is better at MLB than SLB, but Marvin Constant outshone him. Darius Gilbert will be a first-round draft pick in two years. Thank goodness we got him instead of Florida getting him. Adam Cox had seven tackles in the first half, finished with eight, and will be a good one. I'm trying to compare him to someone, and I keep coming up with a shorter Andre Royal. He's much more athletic than Walters or Pickett were, and he's got more lateral movement than Trevis Smith. Chris Horne didn't play much, but delivered some nice hits. Grade: A DEFENSIVE BACKS Some freshmen will play here, probably at safety. Dixon looked okay, and Spencer delivered two crushing blows, but neither looked dramatically better than last year. Good news is we can win with either. Phillip Weeks needs snaps. Milo Lewis and Reggie Myles looked okay, but the two cornerbacks who had the most surprising days were Kecalf Bailey and especially Marcus Slay. Slay had a silly pass interference penalty early, but played very well considering he's a walkon and he's only 5-6 to 5-7. Reserve safeties Gary Barnes (the walkon of the year) and Jason Jones each played better than ever before, and will get looks early in the fall. Chris Reier played at times with the scout team, but looks bigger and no one caught a pass on him. Shontua Ray had a very good first effort as a corner. Cottrell told a friend of mine that he hadn't seen anyone with that type of closing speed from the corner since Deion Sanders. The only thing to do now is get him some experience. He's also jetting on punts, and he is going to make about 20 tackles doing that this year. Grade: B- KICKERS/PUNTERS No "special teams" grade--just one for the kickers--because our special teams plays were all run in "dead" mode (programmed fair catches, no kickoffs) Pflugner, who is either very good or very poor, was very good Saturday. Wisniewski had a FG and looked to be able to get his kicks up well. Diaz missed a PAT, hooking it, but hit one later. Kemp didn't kick. Morgan will be our punter, simply because of consistency and hang time. Bearden will be better one day, but he's three years younger. Morgan's best asset is that he can get the kick away post-haste. Bearden takes longer. Jason Kellen punted a couple of times and looked good. Brian Barlow is a left-footer who kicks the ball with sideways spin. He hit one 50 yards, but hit another 25. He's as big as a linebacker, and I'd hate to get him by him. We had a punter on the roster listed at 6-0, 270, that didn't kick. Chad Barron punted once, and it was quite short. We've got four punters we can live with (Morgan, Bearden, Barlow, Kellen), but no Daniel Pope. Hey, we've been spoiled. Grade: B SUMMARY We're better than last year, and you can tell it. The experienced depth isn't there yet, but will be in place for the 2000 season. The players looked like they had more fun, they were more confident with the schemes and plays, and the execution was crisper. The weight program has made a difference for our defensive line, which might be the best in the SEC. The "controversies" at quarterback, fullback, and middle linebacker will only make those players better. Now that we're over the first wave of NCAA sanctions (by that I mean sheer numbers) we have talented people pushing talented people in competition, which only makes you better. When you have good starters and no backups, you get complacency by default. The other wave of NCAA sanctions to overcome--talented depth in the top two classes--will be dictated by time only, and we can't rush that. We're only graduating 10 people this fall, and our junior class isn't exactly huge, either. We're still very, very young. But we're also getting better. I'm seeing 8-3 to 9-2 this year, and maybe 10-1 if EVERYTHING goes right. Grades (numeric): 88.875, or B+. This means we are exactly what I thought we'd be--a B+ football team, good for 8 or 9 regular season wins. Folks, it might be time to start getting excited, because Alabama is coming back in a hurry. Football Depth Chart By Jess Nicholas BamaNation.com & Alabama Weekly Recruiting Editor Depth chart (an interpretation of how our depth chart might look as of the first game this fall, barring any contributions from incoming freshmen) As usual, I've included 12 offensive starters because of our tendency to play three receivers often. OFFENSE SE 15 Freddie Milons 84 Shamari Buchanan 25 Dennis Bonga WR 80 Jason McAddley 8 Tim Bowens 81 Rob Egan FL 2 Eric Locke 7 Sam Collins 4 Jay Stubbs TE 82 Terry Jones,Jr. 89 Theo Sanders 87 Johnovan Morgan RT 77 Bart Raulston 68 Sam Matthews ## Chris Ray RG 56 Kenric Lott 70 Jason McDonald 79 Ray Marshall C 74 Paul Hogan 71 Marico Portis 62 Mal Waldrep LG 72 Will Cuthbert 75 Griff Redmill 78 Michael Barfield LT 60 Chris Samuels 76 Lannis Baxley ## David Voyles QB 5 Andrew Zow 14 Tyler Watts 18 Luke Tucker FB 30 D. McClintock 6 Marvin Brown ## Joey McSorley RB 37 Shaun Alexander 28 Shaun Bohanon 29 Ahmaad Galloway PK 42 Ryan Pflugner 32 Mark Wisniewski 11 A.J. Diaz --- DEFENSE RE 38 Shawn Draper 98 Reggie Grimes 91 Chauvon McFadden RT 97 C. Griffin 90 Jamie Carter 67 Kelvis White LT 88 Kenny Smith 61 Todd Whitmore 94 Derek Sanders LE 54 K. Moorehead 92 Shaun Williams ## Antonio White RLB 10 Miguel Merritt 9 Victor Ellis 1 Chris Horne MLB 44 Travis Carroll 45 Marvin Constant 57 Canary Knight LLB 99 Darius Gilbert 31 Adam Cox ## Corey Bryan RCB 23 Reggie Myles 16 Chris Reier 36 Marcus Slay FS 24 Tony Dixon 19 Jason Jones 46 John Fielding SS 41 Marcus Spencer ## Phillip Weeks 43 Gary Barnes LCB 21 Milo Lewis 13 Kecalf Bailey ## Steven Harris P ## Patrick Morgan 3 Lane Bearden ## Brian Barlow Good Week for Alabama Baseball By Grif Carden BamaNation.com & Alabama Weekly Baseball Editor Alabama got the week off to a roaring start with a 30-4 pounding of UAB in Birmingham Wednesday night, hitting 13 home runs to tie the NCAA single game record. Bama also had five doubles, and the 72 total bases amassed by the Tide was only two off the single game record. Andy Phillips hit three home runs, to join teammates Dan Chavers and G.W. Keller who had hit three each in earlier games this season, as co-holders (along with four others from previous years) of the team one-game home run record. Brent Boyd, Sam Bozanich, and Jeremy Cox hit two home runs each, while Chavers, Keller, Derek Wigginton, and Jayson Cox each had one. Phillips had eight RBI in the game, which gave him 194 for his career and passed Allan Stallings (who had 190 from 1982-85) as the all-time Bama RBI leader. He is now only one behind the school career home-run record of 50, set by Doug Duke in 1984-86. Keller is in third place with 47. Alabama continued its hot hitting in the week-end series with LSU, winning the first game 10-3, losing the second 9-8, and taking the finale 9-4. Manny Torres pitched a six-hitter against the hard-hitting Tigers in the opener, getting his third complete game of the season (he also went eight and two-third innings in another) to improve his record to 7-1. Hitting stars were Darren Wood (3 for 5, with 3 RBI) and Phillips (2 for 5, including a triple, and 2 RBI). Bama played errorless ball, and Brent Boyd made a couple of super plays at third base. Alabama led the second game 3-1 going into the fifth inning, but LSU sent 13 hitters to the plate and put 8 more runs on the board, helped by two three-run homers in the inning. B.J. Green replaced starting pitcher Jon Blankenship in the fifth with no outs and two runners on base, and gave up two hits and two walks without retiring a batter before Scott Murphy came in as the third pitcher of the inning. Murphy pitched the remainder of the game, with a fairly impressive four hit and two run five innings of work. Green took the loss, his first of the season against four wins. All three Tide pitchers were bothered by the tight (and ever-changing) strike zone the home plate umpire had, as they issued a combined 10 bases on balls. Bama fought back, scoring 5 runs in the seventh including a bases loaded triple by Phillips. Cox, Wood, and Kelley Gulledge had home runs for Bama, as the Tide had 13 hits but fell one run short. Jason Moates got the start for the Tide in the crucial third game, and started out a little shaky, giving up a walk to the lead-off hitter and two singles in the first inning. He used his excellent move to first to pick the lead-off man off, and got out of the inning with no runs. A one-out single by Bozanich, walk to Keller, and single by Phillips loaded the bases for Bama in the bottom of the first, but an infield pop up and a strike out left the bases loaded with nothing on the scoreboard. Blair Barbier led off the Tiger second with a home run (he hit a solo homer in each of the three games), then a hit batter and two bases on balls loaded the bases with two outs. Coach Jim Wells decided he could wait no longer, and brought in Lance Cormier who struck out LSU's best hitter Trey McClure to keep the score at 1-0. Bama answered with a five run bottom of the second, which featured a two-run home run by Gulledge. LSU seemed determined to make
a game of it, as its first two batters in the third inning hit solo home
runs, followed by a Barbier drive over the left field fence which was
foul by about five feet. Barbier then lined out to right field on the
next pitch, Cormier got two strike outs, and the Tigers were as close as
they'd get the remainder of the game. Bozanich and Keller had three hits
each in the game, while Cormier pitched the rest of the way, giving up
six hits and three runs in seven and a third innings, to go along with
nine strike outs and just two walks. He is now 6-2 on the season, and
has an SEC-leading 10 saves. Cormier is normally the closer, and almost
never is used before the seventh inning, but showed he can also go the
distance as he threw 124 pitches in this game. The other three pitchers on
the team, Kevin Marzion, Shane Henderson, and Jeremy Vaughn, have all
been used very sparingly, but somebody will probably have to step up
now. Alabama continues to lead the league in triples (after leading the
SEC in that category the past two years) with 25, and has now taken the
lead in home runs with 71. Hot hitters are Keller, who has a seven-game
hitting streak during which he is hitting .469; Bozanich, with an
eight-game hitting streak during which he has hit .531 (he is now up to
.278 after batting .081 in his first 31 at bats of the season); Boyd,
who has hit safely in 19 of his last 22 games; and Phillips, who has a
10-game hitting streak during which he is batting .435. | ||||
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