I'm going to address multiple responses with one post since the discipline issue is causing such a stir:
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Shula Dyn-A-sty, you wrote this: "Your concerns about all the talk being on the discipline rather than the result of the game Saturday could have begun with you talking about the results of the game Saturday rather than the discipline of the team."
The first eight paragraphs were about the game. Discipline didn't get mentioned until graph nine.
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Alanbama27, you've never read any story I've written here that you didn't consider "flawed." I've just come to expect that. If I'm letting you down so badly there are other sites that offer their own take on the game and maybe you'll find one that's more to your liking. Analysis in college football is largely about something very basic, tracking trends. A team that demonstrates a problem in a specific area (in the Alabama defense's case, it's breakdowns in the linebacker corps and safeties in certain situations) in three games isn't likely to suddenly snap out of it when the meat of the schedule arrives. Right now, their primary failing is they aren't DeMeco Ryans, Roman Harper, Charlie Peprah, etc. That's not their fault, but whether it's their fault or not is irrelevant; it's a concern. And I'm not doing anyone a service by not saying anything about it, especially when I'm right.
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Now, to put a cap on the discipline issue: The two most Alabama-friendly writers in state media right now are probably me and Cecil Hurt. I read Cecil's game take this morning after I filed my own and guess what, Cecil's not happy about the discipline, either. I'd describe myself as a die-hard fan and Cecil the same, and when the reaction coming from the home folks is what it's been, you ought to know what you're going to get from the people who live to take potshots at the school.
I knew my take on the discipline issue wasn't going to be popular with a lot of people, but what made me speak up more than anything is that as a fan base, Alabama fans have become very hesitant to remove the plank from their own eye before they want to rip the sliver out of someone else's. We give Phil Fulmer a lot of grief -- and rightly so; Tennessee's transgressions in recent years dwarf the breadth and depth of anything that's happened at Alabama -- but tend to want to sweep away our own issues at the same time.
Tommy Tuberville at AU, who in the past has been very convenient in the way he's handled off-field issues, held LBs Trey Blackmon and Kevin Sears out of the first three games, including LSU. No, we don't know what they did, exactly. But he made his decision without regard to "what's fair to the rest of the team" and instead focused on the rule being broken. And I can't believe I just had to write that about an Auburn coach, given that school's track record.
Shula, in his post-game radio address, said he'd staggered the suspensions "in the order in which they occurred." Since Simpson's issue occurred back in the summer and not this week, the transgressions of all seven players occurred prior to the first game of the year -- so they all should have been suspended for game one. You don't suspend a guy at week three unless the transgression occurred between games two and three, period.
It was a mistake by Shula. I'm not going to continue to harp on it for the rest of the year as other media types are sure to do, unless the overall team discipline goes to hell in a handbasket from here out. But as I've said many times in the past, I'm not going to pump sunshine just because it would make people feel better.
Now, it's Arkansas week.
