Reason #5 - PRESSURE

Post by Mike
Pressure is the key to this game. Click, listen and read below:
There are three prime pressure points- over come them and you're one win away.
1 – How will each offensive line hold up against a very athletic defensive front 7?
2 – How will the Bama secondary hold up against the UGA receivers and Murray? And most importantly
3- how will A. J. McCarron react to the pressure? We have seen Murray have trouble in big games. We have also seen McCarron cry after pulling it out against LSU, only to turn around and make a bad pass at the end of the Texas A&M game.

But for me there was a more telling moment in the loss to Johnny Football. In an interview replayed during the game McCarron spoke candidly about the pressure of being quarterback at Alabama. He was referring to his crying at the end of the LSU game and how the pressure was huge. He almost cried in the interview about him crying. Weight of the World pushing down?

I’m sure it is, which leads to this argument – Nick Saban is not Mr. Warm and Fuzzy. He is all business all the time and not exactly Human centric as reported by Dave Hyde, Columnist for The Sun Sentinel:

“But logic never was Saban's strong suit. Or truth. Or humanity, as all the old Dolphins stories say. We saw that side of him. Like the time he ordered a personal lieutenant, whose internal nickname was Dr. Doom, to tell Dolphins office workers to quit greeting Saban in the morning.

“Or the one where he walked right over a convulsing Jeno James in the locker room. James, a massive guard, was passed out, vomiting, suffering from heat stroke and being attended by panicked teammates. Saban stepped right over James on the way to his office.”

Who really wants to run out and bust a gut for that guy?

So far Saban has been able to treat his Alabama teams like the machine that he is and they have responded. He reportedly requires a minimum of 70 hours a week out of his assistants, does not allow family at practices or at the offices, and is no joy to be around.

When, if ever, will this approach grow old to a bunch of kids? If they make a mistake will he lose it? If McCarron throws a pick, what does the machine say? Can his pro mentality hold up forever at the college ranks? Or do kids this age occasionally need a coach that does a flip off the high dive?

Don’t say it. I know I mocked CMR for that, but maybe there is a method in his madness. We shall see soon. If the Dawgs rise to this occasion he’ll look like a genius who managed to massage a talented, though sometimes troubled roster, into a force mighty enough to take down Bama. His team certainly believes.

The smack talk coming out of Athens is in one instant, infuriating. Then when you reflect, it sends a message of “we are loose”, and loose can be good in a game like this. Of course I made the same argument for LSU last January, and they never crossed the 50.

So while my science is week, my intuition is still pointing to a big day for one team and a fold by another. My intution is also telling me that Gurshall, Murray, Malcolm, Ogletree, Rambo, Big John, and Jarvis would run through a freaking wall for the guy below.