News Article: South Carolina wrap-up: Johnson, Ingram carry Tide to key win

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South Carolina wrap-up: Johnson, Ingram carry Tide to key win
By Jess Nicholas
TideFans.com Editor-In-Chief
Oct. 18, 2009

Players sometimes do the darndest things – like proving to certain message board jockeys that they have no idea what they’re talking about when they attempt to analyze football.

Some Alabama fans are never happy unless they have a player to pick on. Just ask Marcus Spencer or Anthony Madison or Kenneth Darby if that’s true. This year’s favorite scapegoat, so far, has undoubtedly been cornerback Marquis Johnson.

Johnson didn’t allow a touchdown during the regular season in 2008, but he was burned several times in the SEC Championship Game and later in the Sugar Bowl. By default, he became the guy that many self-described “experts” focused in on as they tossed one verbal arrow after another.

The only problem with such expert analysis is that Johnson was never as bad as anyone thought he was.

The fact of the matter about cornerbacks is that all of them get burned. All of them. It’s the nature of the position, and it’s especially true in Nick Saban’s defensive scheme, which frequently leaves cornerbacks to cover one-on-one while Saban is deciding which of 1,000 different angles he wants the safeties to blitz from. The fact that Alabama’s cornerbacks don’t get burned more often than they do is a testament to the coaching of Saban and secondary coach Kirby Smart.

But even the most strident anti-Johnson fan had little to complain about this year. Johnson, Javier Arenas and Kareem Jackson have combined to form one of the most formidable cornerback trios in the country.

On Saturday night, the threesome became two.

Arenas had been injured in practice this week, sustaining some kind of damage to his ribcage that, at this time, hasn’t been fully explained. Arenas’ injury forced Johnson into the starting lineup, and brought walk-on, Alabama legacy and former Grambling transfer Tyrone King Jr. into the playing rotation as the dimeback.

Johnson responded by breaking up 6 passes, and King played more snaps than he had probably played since his high school days.

So does this mean Johnson is destined for NFL stardom? Who knows, but the track record of former fan goats is pretty impressive: Spencer made it deep into a NFL camp, Madison played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Darby is a key player on the current-day St. Louis Rams.

As for running back Mark Ingram, all of a sudden, there is real Heisman Trophy talk circulating about him. Ingram rushed for the most yards ever in Bryant-Denny Stadium history (246), and gained every single yard on Alabama’s last drive that put the game away for good. Ingram has been getting better with every game, a testament to his abilities given that the competition gets harder each week now that the SEC schedule is in full swing.

Speaking of which, therein lies the explanation for Greg McElroy’s regression at quarterback over the last month. McElroy begin having issues when the meat of the SEC schedule arrived, but things really turned south after McElroy took a few hits from the Kentucky and Ole Miss front lines. Next up is Tennessee, which brings a solid defensive line to Bryant-Denny, so it would behoove McElroy and Alabama both for the Tide coaches to find a way to get their signal-caller untracked.

In the meantime, Alabama can pause to admire the abilities of Mark Ingram, the grit of Marquis Johnson and the contributions of Tyrone King Jr., and note that it is such performances that are hallmarks of championship teams. What other pleasant surprises await beyond the horizon?