Have a Good Feeling!!!

[BamaPride1979]

I have a good feeling about the 2008 SEC football season. I'v read and read and all I hear is that LSU, Florida, Awbarn, even MSU all will have a strong season. Don't get me wrong they are competitive but in my opinon everybody is overlooking the CRIMSON TIDE IN 2008.. Alabama is going to be the underdog in every game they play this year. You hear a few of the key players are off the team with what ever reason but in my opinon with recruit class we had this year I honestly believe that the shoes to fill will be filled with pride. I think these boys are ready and I believe they are going to be on a mission this year specially with the loss to LMU last year. would like to know the opinion of other BAMA fans....


ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!:BigA:

 

[bayoutider]

It's unfortunate that much of the media and many of our own fans have fallen into the mind set that other teams will keep getting better in spite of having problems and Alabama will not get better, even possibly get worse as we straighten our problems out. Have times gotten so bad that we are expected to lose every road game, every game we are the underdog and every close game? The time is coming when keeping the game close is what our opponent hopes for.

 

[sportsman1539]

i think we gonna have a pretty decent year. i think were gonna be alot better than last year. and if you think about it, we really could have had a decent year last year. we were 6-2 going into the lsu game. then we lose to miss st. and ulm. those two games are supposed to be gimmes. 6-6 was pretty much as bad as it could it have been. 8-4 is were should have been. i think were gonna have a more mature team and i see us going no worse than 8-4. im actually kinda excited about what we can do this year with it being a down year with lsu and aubarn.

 

[BigEasyTider]

It's unfortunate that much of the media and many of our own fans have fallen into the mind set that other teams will keep getting better in spite of having problems and Alabama will not get better, even possibly get worse as we straighten our problems out. Have times gotten so bad that we are expected to lose every road game, every game we are the underdog and every close game? The time is coming when keeping the game close is what our opponent hopes for.

You are 100% correct.

It's funny actually... outsiders are wondering when we're going to stone Saban to death for not winning 338 national championships in a row, and yet we Alabama people are sitting here so beaten down by the past ten years that we are expecting to lose all of the major games and that we'll be quite lucky just to win the ones we are supposed to win. Talk about a huge disparity between perception and reality.

Still, though, it's pretty hard to blame 'Bama fans for coming off a bit like the downtrodden in a Steinbeck novel. After all, since the clock hit 0:00 in the 1993 Sugar Bowl, pretty much everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. All the way from Langham / Jelks to Bockrath / Sorensen to Dubose to Means to Fran to escapades in Destin to the Shula regime... you name it, if it could have gone wrong, it did. The pessisism can be a bit annoying, admittedly, but it'd be wrong to say that it is unfounded.

Hopefully, though, things will start to turn around this year and we can start getting back to normal around here.

 

[bmcklv]

I have a good feeling about the 2008 SEC football season. I'v read and read and all I hear is that LSU, Florida, Awbarn, even MSU all will have a strong season. Don't get me wrong they are competitive but in my opinon everybody is overlooking the CRIMSON TIDE IN 2008.. Alabama is going to be the underdog in every game they play this year. You hear a few of the key players are off the team with what ever reason but in my opinon with recruit class we had this year I honestly believe that the shoes to fill will be filled with pride. I think these boys are ready and I believe they are going to be on a mission this year specially with the loss to LMU last year. would like to know the opinion of other BAMA fans....


ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!:BigA:

I'm with you! We may or may not make it there this year, but I haven't conceded any of the games yet, and think we have a dang good chance in all of them. I'm ready for the rest of the SEC West to get the mindset that the path to the SECCG has to run through a Crimson wave. Hopefully, this year will be the start of it.

Roll Tide Roll

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer;
Thrash em well Alabama!!!!

 

[wastedmason]

The 2005 season, Shula's bests season coaching or lucky, we got lucky several games or we wouldn't have won 10. How many last second field goals did it take? Finally things caught up with us in the end. But we did blow Florida out!!! Just like we did the SEC East champions Tennessee this past season. Whats that tell you? You better have the ball bounce your way big time if you even have a inkling of a chance to win a championship.

Last season we were rolling along happily until our devastating emotional last minute loss to LSU. We had smoked UT as I mentioned, the eventual East champ. Lost to Georgia in overtime and FSU in Jacksonville which was not such a big surprise. Then went to MSU and one bad play turned a sure win into a devastating loss. Completely sleep walked during the ULM game and lost to the barn in Auburn. Its not that we couldn't have won any game that we played last season. We just didn't have the guys who, either were talented enough or had the confidence that could handle what it takes to overcome adversity or both. That is where the coaching comes in! Don't count us out of any game this season. Thats why the games have to be played. Just ask Ohio State!!

 

[TommyMac]

I'm almost always optimistic about BAMA football and I'm optimistic about this season's team too. However, I think we should temper our optimism with a little reality too. The truth is that Coach Saban stepped into one helluva mess left by Shula.

When a new HC is hired to revive a struggling program, he has to decide what is broken and fix it, he also has to decide what's not broken and improve it. The problem Coach Saban has is that damn near everything was broken. The S&C program was a joke, recruiting had been pretty much on the CUSA level, discipline and accountability were just words in the dictionary and as soft as we were physically, we were even softer mentally.

Coach Saban has reversed the recruiting as we all know and made great strides in the S&C problem. BUT, as we saw last season after the textbook suspensions, the mental softness still lingered, starkly evidenced by the ULM debacle and our failures to show up in the 2nd half of games. I think Coach Saban will field a team with a much better mindset this season and it will only get better in the future. The mind is a fragile thing and we need to realize that and temper our expectations accordingly.

The Clemson game will be a great barometer for us. Not so much whether we win or lose, but how the team's attitude is from start to finish. If we compete from start to finish with the enthusiasm of BAMA teams of the past, I think we can look for a much improved team, maybe not so much in the W/L record, but a team that we can all be proud of nonetheless.

I think we can all be assured that by the end of the season, we'll be seeing a much improved team, even if it has a decidingly strong freshman flavor. We'll be seeing a glimpse of the future and I think we'll like what we see, but PATIENCE is still key. Even Coach Bryant didn't just flip a switch and instantly reverse things and Coach Saban isn't either.

But, it's coming. :BigA:

 

[FitToBeTide]

I'm almost always optimistic about BAMA football and I'm optimistic about this season's team too. However, I think we should temper our optimism with a little reality too. The truth is that Coach Saban stepped into one helluva mess left by Shula.

When a new HC is hired to revive a struggling program, he has to decide what is broken and fix it, he also has to decide what's not broken and improve it. The problem Coach Saban has is that damn near everything was broken. The S&C program was a joke, recruiting had been pretty much on the CUSA level, discipline and accountability were just words in the dictionary and as soft as we were physically, we were even softer mentally.

Coach Saban has reversed the recruiting as we all know and made great strides in the S&C problem. BUT, as we saw last season after the textbook suspensions, the mental softness still lingered, starkly evidenced by the ULM debacle and our failures to show up in the 2nd half of games. I think Coach Saban will field a team with a much better mindset this season and it will only get better in the future. The mind is a fragile thing and we need to realize that and temper our expectations accordingly.

The Clemson game will be a great barometer for us. Not so much whether we win or lose, but how the team's attitude is from start to finish. If we compete from start to finish with the enthusiasm of BAMA teams of the past, I think we can look for a much improved team, maybe not so much in the W/L record, but a team that we can all be proud of nonetheless.

I think we can all be assured that by the end of the season, we'll be seeing a much improved team, even if it has a decidingly strong freshman flavor. We'll be seeing a glimpse of the future and I think we'll like what we see, but PATIENCE is still key. Even Coach Bryant didn't just flip a switch and instantly reverse things and Coach Saban isn't either.

But, it's coming. :BigA:

Very true, Tommy. To see the lengths Coach Bryant went to to straighten the ship out after Ears, one needs to read the book, Turnaround, which chronicled in excruciating detail Coach's first year at the helm. It took him until his 4th team, 1961, to get the royal flush and win it all. I think our people (fanbase) now are of the same mindset as back then, in that we know the right man is on duty and it's coming, but we want it now. Ain't gonna happen. It didn't then and it's not now. I'm personally optimistic for the future and more-so this year than last. However mental habits are harder to change than physical ones and the recent teams in the past certainly worked with some thin fabric.

Even with a hard road schedule, I believe an 8-4 this year is not out of the realm of possibility, given the course corrections that have been laid in for the team.

 

[CrimsonEyeshade]

We will have turned the corner, I believe, when our teams simply improve week to week.

We came to consider that an automatic -- even as recently as Fran -- and then it just stopped. Same mistakes. Same problems. Same imprecision from coaches and players.

The last third of our season has always been tough -- even more so with the ascendance of LSU, the prolonged quality of UT and Auburn, and now the growing thorniness of MSU. A gauntlet of good teams has a way of exposing weaknesses. Injuries build up. Lack of depth bleeds you dry. Some players just quit trying.

Still . . .

Alabama is really back when, win or lose, it becomes clear to the world in October and November that something has been building in Tuscaloosa.

P.S. And it is.

 

[Crimson Cat]

All of these are very thoughtful posts and I agree.
I do think BAMA has a shot at a good year, but it will happen one game at a time. BAMA had lots of peaks and valleys last year, not just within the season, but even within actual games, in a lack of consistency. The Clemson game will be a good test as to the mental toughness and desire to win, as its a high profile game right out the gate. BAMA almost surprised the SEC last year and had a shot at playing for the SECCG but fell apart at crucial times against the best teams in the SEC ala GA and LSwho.

Many things are falling into place now, but I temper that with the realism that there are many, many, more things needed for the pieces that create a winning team to come together. I believe in Coach Saban and trust that he is doing all the right things to correct what has been wrong, but it will take time. The quality depth is being addressed thru excellent recruiting by Coach Saban and staff, but experience for the young ones has yet to happen and some will get thrown in the fire early.

Team trust and desire to be the best and making it show on the field as well as off, is the hardest of any of these things to develop, IMO, & that needs to still happen. The process began last year, but the team struggled at crucial times and lost their belief in each other and the staff. Players did stupid things and made bad decisions that hurt themselves and the team.

Luck absolutely plays apart and we will need some things to go our way, but it can very well happen. :BigA:

 

[bayoutider]

I am an optimist some people call it being a homer or a sunshine pumper but I am an optimist. As far as being a realist, an event has to happen for it to be real and none of the 2008 games have been played as of yet so I'm not conceding any of them to any opponent.

My outlook as an optimist is things are great right now. I may at sometime during the season meet some disappointment but as an optimist I will always believe we will bounce back. I feel like a winner 365 days each year as a Bama fan not just the 5-7 weekends during the season when a pessimist picks us to beat Tulane or Vandy.

There are other teams in the SEC with HC changes, coordinators changed, coaching staff changes, transfers, injured players, new quarterbacks, replacing secondaries, young offensive lines, new kickers all the things we wring our hands about. Why should we concede to those teams?

A lot is mentioned about Alabama Tradition, if Coach Saban can make his team believe they can achieve the greatness past Alabama teams has we will have turned the corner. I am most looking forward to the end of the season and turning the corner, Toomers Corner that is, turning it into crimson and white, yelling Roll Tide Roll and putting the Barners in their place, second place in the state of Alabama. We as fans also need to return to our tradition of being great fans not the sissy, beat down little girls I have seen moaning we will only win seven games this season if we are lucky.

Man up Bama fans. You want the team to have some swagger? I suggest each and every one of us to have a little more swagger ourselves. Pick those lips up that have been dragging the ground and become supporters again.

 

[Tide Rev]

Agree 100% with you Bayou and was getting ready to say the same things you mentioned. Not to live in the past or wish everything was like it was when Coach Bryant was coaching but he taught me a lot of things. One of them being to stand up for yourself and your team. When you walk by the mirror at the end of the day, only you and the Lord know if you gave it your best win or lose no matter if it was a game or in life. It is time we get back to that mentality as fans and join in as a team. The time has come again where it seems the players and coaches are doing their part and it is time for the fans to do theirs. The results will take care of themselves. And like has been mentioned...it is coming!

RTR

 

[bayoutider]

Agree 100% with you Bayou and was getting ready to say the same things you mentioned. Not to live in the past or wish everything was like it was when Coach Bryant was coaching but he taught me a lot of things. One of them being to stand up for yourself and your team. When you walk by the mirror at the end of the day, only you and the Lord know if you gave it your best win or lose no matter if it was a game or in life. It is time we get back to that mentality as fans and join in as a team. The time has come again where it seems the players and coaches are doing their part and it is time for the fans to do theirs. The results will take care of themselves. And like has been mentioned...it is coming!

RTR

Amen brother. With all the bad publicity our fans get for living in the past we need to start living in the now but not apologize to anyone for our glorious past. The last 15 years may not have been so glorious but it has had it's good moments. If anything it should have taught us we have to take the good with the bad and thank God I have seen more good than bad in my lifetime.

Bama fans can start today being part of the solution not part of the problem.

 

[Bamafan78]

I am an optimist some people call it being a homer or a sunshine pumper but I am an optimist. As far as being a realist, an event has to happen for it to be real and none of the 2008 games have been played as of yet so I'm not conceding any of them to any opponent.

My outlook as an optimist is things are great right now. I may at sometime during the season meet some disappointment but as an optimist I will always believe we will bounce back. I feel like a winner 365 days each year as a Bama fan not just the 5-7 weekends during the season when a pessimist picks us to beat Tulane or Vandy.

There are other teams in the SEC with HC changes, coordinators changed, coaching staff changes, transfers, injured players, new quarterbacks, replacing secondaries, young offensive lines, new kickers all the things we wring our hands about. Why should we concede to those teams?

A lot is mentioned about Alabama Tradition, if Coach Saban can make his team believe they can achieve the greatness past Alabama teams has we will have turned the corner. I am most looking forward to the end of the season and turning the corner, Toomers Corner that is, turning it into crimson and white, yelling Roll Tide Roll and putting the Barners in their place, second place in the state of Alabama. We as fans also need to return to our tradition of being great fans not the sissy, beat down little girls I have seen moaning we will only win seven games this season if we are lucky.

Man up Bama fans. You want the team to have some swagger? I suggest each and every one of us to have a little more swagger ourselves. Pick those lips up that have been dragging the ground and become supporters again.

Post of the year! Roll Tide!

 

[BamaScooter16]

Personally there are only two games I want to see Bama dominate this year, and those are against MSU and the Barn. Of course I want to see the team dominate the other games as well, but those two teams have grown WAY too big for their britches.

The barn will field a decent team this year, and every media hack is picking them to beat us in November. Like Bayou said, if we show the swagger it WILL rub off on the Bama team, especially if we win some big games before November.

As for MSU, I am sick of hearing Croom run his big fat mouth and I want his alma mater to hand him an old fashioned butt whippin in Bryant Denny. That and their fans are even more insufferable than those stupid barners. Those stupid cowbells really get my goat.

 

[CrimsonCable]

Well, we are undefeated so far. :biggrin:

But seriously, I'm as excited as anybody else about the upcoming season. You can't go undefeated every year, but like in life, it's the little victories that can make or break a season, particularly when you are rebuilding. I would love to win the West this season, but is that a particularly realistic expectation? Maybe, maybe not. That is one of those things that one should not be concerned with until later in the season when we will know if it's possible. Our biggest hurdles to something like this lie in 2 of the last 3 games, so I'm not even going to think about it (for now.) I'd be happy with seeing significant improvement and giving a little payback to a couple of teams like MSU, LSU and the barnies. Also, the annual toss with UT can't be downplayed; there is still a lot of lingering animosity for those guys as well. Personally, I detest Houston Nutt, so I can honestly say I'm looking forward to Ole Miss as well.

 

[mailman]

I have a good feeling about the 2008 SEC football season. I'v read and read and all I hear is that LSU, Florida, Awbarn, even MSU all will have a strong season. Don't get me wrong they are competitive but in my opinon everybody is overlooking the CRIMSON TIDE IN 2008.. Alabama is going to be the underdog in every game they play this year. You hear a few of the key players are off the team with what ever reason but in my opinon with recruit class we had this year I honestly believe that the shoes to fill will be filled with pride. I think these boys are ready and I believe they are going to be on a mission this year specially with the loss to LMU last year. would like to know the opinion of other BAMA fans....


ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!:BigA:[/ I hope you are right but the fact remains you are asking alot out of a freshman class to fill the voids. But then again with a little experience who knows? Such things as intangibles,will and guts could play a part, but I wouldn't bett the farm or inheritance on it.

 

[mailman]

You are 100% correct.

It's funny actually... outsiders are wondering when we're going to stone Saban to death for not winning 338 national championships in a row, and yet we Alabama people are sitting here so beaten down by the past ten years that we are expecting to lose all of the major games and that we'll be quite lucky just to win the ones we are supposed to win. Talk about a huge disparity between perception and reality.

Still, though, it's pretty hard to blame 'Bama fans for coming off a bit like the downtrodden in a Steinbeck novel. After all, since the clock hit 0:00 in the 1993 Sugar Bowl, pretty much everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. All the way from Langham / Jelks to Bockrath / Sorensen to Dubose to Means to Fran to escapades in Destin to the Shula regime... you name it, if it could have gone wrong, it did. The pessisism can be a bit annoying, admittedly, but it'd be wrong to say that it is unfounded.

Hopefully, though, things will start to turn around this year and we can start getting back to normal around here.

As usual your dead on Big Easy, possessing a terrific perception and insight. I'm not proud to admit it, but I could be classified in that particular class of BAMA fan asking when are we going to shoot ourselves in the foot again. Kind of like Pavlov's dog, a condition and response senerio. But I will state the obvious in that we are definitely headed in the right direction after years in the wilderness. R.T.R.

 

[CrimsonCT]

Man up Bama fans. You want the team to have some swagger? I suggest each and every one of us to have a little more swagger ourselves. Pick those lips up that have been dragging the ground and become supporters again.

Absolutely. I'm tired of seeing Bama fans who are too "realistically" timid to get excited about their team.

 

[rolltide1127]

I don't know why we have such low expectations. last year if we win the games against MSU and ULM we're 8-4 and we expect to be less than that this year? Everyone keeps saying we lost al our WR's i guess i'm the only one that was sick and tired of seeing DJ hall duck out of routes over the middle to avoid getting hit, loaf through routes when he didn't think he would get the ball, and his half-hearted stalk blocks that cost long runs for our backs. He had a lot of skill but that's the kind of attitude that killed us last year. The young guys may be young but they're going to be pushing these older guys for playing time. When that happens either they're going to be better and we'll see better players on the field or the upper classmen will catch on to the fact that if they don't bust it in practice and go 100% every play theres going to be a freshmen playing instead of them. The #1 thing i love about the '08 class is that every interview I've seen(especially Julio) they've been humble kids who know they have to come in and work hard and improve. that's the kind of attitude that will get us over that hump that cost us late in close games last year, and the kind of attitude that prevents a half-hearted team taking the field and getting beat by a ULM. The kind of team that takes things one game at a time. never overlooking an opponet. a team that comes out fired up and takes down a great Clemson team August 30. High tide is coming. ROLL TIDE ROLL....