tide get ready to roll!!
the good luck charm rides again. hopefully the tide won't need luck tomorrow, but you never break routine when it comes to good luck charms.
Friday, October 31, 2008
happy birthday to the saban!!
57 years ago today nick saban was born in the backseat of a greyhound bus, rollin' down highway 41 near fairmont, west virginia. he got off at the very next stop, which just happened to be a high school football practice. he immediately began perfecting the art of the defensive back as well as recruiting a player or two. so if he's lookin' all hungover on the sidelines tomorrow you'll its b/c he was out celebrating the occasion tonight.
in addition to the saban's birthday, obviously its halloween. aahhh halloween...the one night all girls get to dress like a whore and not feel guilty about it...and boy do i support it. be safe out there kids and please come back and share any stories you may experience. i especially enjoy those that contain high levels of irony, a la an angel giving the devil a lap dance or some such.
arkansas state weekend forecast: plenty of sunshine and nary a cloud in the sky
i believe the only other time arkansas state has even been mentioned on this blog was to give them the vagina of the year award for changing their mascot from indians to red wolves in the offseason. if you haven't already, please check out the video above for the mascots unveiling. so gay. i've never seen a school so small with so many promotional videos. in watching their videos, i'm gonna have to call them out for stealing a few things though. they stole the hand sign from the nwo wolfpack from the old wcw days. and they seem to have jacked the phrase "lemme hear ya howl" from the dallas desperados (arena football) mascot kid coyote...but i digress. rather than talk matchups (since bama would seemingly have the advantage in every department), i'm just gonna give some info about the red wolves as i'm sure you don't know much about them. these boys can run the football. they're averaging 225 rushing yards per game and are led by dual threat qb corey leonard. he leads the red wolves' zone option attack which will obviously be something the tide has yet to face this season. on the other side of the ball they have a ball hawking defense that thrives on the turnover and sports a +10 turnover margin thus far. they got some national attention earlier in the year when they took down texas a&m at home (poor aggie) and followed it up a couple weeks later by hanging 83 points (via 441 rushing yards) on texas southern. despite all of this, their 3 losses are pretty damn bad, including memphis (shitty), louisiana lafayette (shittier), and southern miss (shittiest). games like this come down to focus. the tide just has to play fundamental football, know their roles, and avoid mistakes like turnovers and penalties...and i believe the tide will do just that.
bama 41
arky state 17
Thursday, October 30, 2008
quick hits: gettin' kinda smelley
-obsess much?? ahh much too much.
-congrats to the phils for winning an unorthodox world series last night. i was pulling for the rays, but at least its not the yankees or red sox.
-some good stuff about the amazing smelley brothers of the sec and the potential of true freshman tight end brad smelley. the saban has apparently been dragging his feet with smelley b/c he was considering red shirting him, but smelley played his way onto the field.
-the first round of preseason college hoops rankings came out yesterday. i always find it really tough to get into college hoops season before the conference slate kicks off, but its a little something to wet your whistle.
-given that i don't have a whole lot of material for bama's matchup with the arkansas state fightin' red wolves, i thought i'd take a second and make some picks in the two big games of the week. now some people will tell you to vote the opposite of my picks if you want to win, but i have documented evidence of my picking nearly every top 25 game so far this year and my record is right around .500. which basically means you could flip a coin and do the same as me. better than losin' though.
--florida -6 v. uga (jacksonville) 2:30pm cst (cbs)
florida has really come alive on offense of late, and i just can't see the 'dawgs keeping up with them. they'll keep it interesting, but 6 ain't enough.
--texas @ texas tech +4 7pm cst (abc)
this is the biggest thing in the history of lubbock. i've never been to lubbock, but i'm friends with quite a few red raiders (90% of which are heading to lubbock), and they are all giddy about this game. i get the feeling that nobody is giving the red raiders a chance, which makes me love them. plus the 'horns are due for an off week offensively. upset special.
love thine enemy: arkansas state
pickin's are always slim on the nonconference cupcakes, so all things considered, this ain't that bad. we even have some arky state athletes making an appearance.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
probably the most senseless football injury i've ever seen
they're really running a top notch facility over at joan c. edwards stadium. fast forward about 30 seconds in to get to the nitty gritty.
HT: friends of the program Read More......
crimson and white roundtable: eff you rocky top
this week's roundtable comes to you from the big, bad boys over at roll bama roll. next week will be hosted by yours truly, so look the hell out.
1) What are your feelings on Alabama's current position in the polls? Are we Overrated? Underrated? Just right?
all things considered bama is probably right where they deserve to be. at this point in the season you're very unlikely to see much of a shift at the top of the polls without an upset. so can someone please upset penn state?? thanks.
2) What aspect of the game did Alabama control that shocked you the most? What aspect of the game was Alabama dominated in that shocked you the most?
i was surprised that the ease with which bama was able to run the ball. i fully expected the vols to stack the box, take away bama's running game, and put the game on jpw. of course the fact that jpw was on his game helped loosen up that running defense quite a bit.
i was also surprised that alabama DIDN'T get dominated in a single damn aspect of this game. i would say the pass blocking was suspect, but considering jpw's numbers, it must not have been that bad.
3) Name your player of the game on Offense. Also name one on Defense.
on offense i have to go with jpw. upchurch had a good game, and julio obviously tore it up, but the offense takes on a whole new look when jpw is clicking, and he was clicking on saturday night.
on defense i'll say rashad johnson. i feel like it was a true team performance and that noone really stood out from the rest. however rashad was all over the field with 6 tackles, a sack, and a pass break up.
4) Arkansas State got a BCS scalp at Texas A&M to open their season, while we're still living down the humiliation of a loss to their fellow Sun Belt member La.-Monroe. We've worried about a letdown all season long and, considering a similarly dominating win over UT preceded the November death spiral last year, are we in danger here?
first of all, the aggies had to fight tooth and nail late in the 4th quarter to hold off army a couple weeks after the loss to arky state, so take it with a grain of salt. i really don't think this team is in any real danger here. they may be in danger of looking ahead to lsu, therefore making this game a lot closer than it should be, but i don't think they're in much danger of a loss. this is not a mike shula alabama team or even the nick saban alabama team of last year. this team has a different mindset and more character and will find a way to win even if this game is closer than it should be.
5) Looking around the SEC, which team is the most undervalued in the league? Who is the most overvalued?
i think ole miss is the most undervalued. obviously they've made their fair share of noise, but they're still sitting at 4-4 (2-3). they are very capable of winning 3 of their last 4 (auburn, la-monroe, @ lsu, state), and given what lsu has shown lately, they had better be on their game.
overvalued?? the sec is ripe with candidates for this award this year. auburn and vandy are both quality candidates, but given the last few weeks, i'm going to have to go with lsu. a team that had dreams of a repeat just a few weeks ago now has a fight on its hands to even get to atlanta.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
quick hits: guess who's back in tha mothertruckin' house
virus = cured...but not without a little round and round with my resident it department. i actually lost a lot of stuff i had set aside for future content...but oh well...dem's da breaks. on to the hits.
-as i mentioned last week, i was not very happy that the saints had to give up a home game to go play in a fucking soccer stadium especially when the game was do important in terms of where this season headed. well they went over there and won the damn thing. however, despite the importance of that game, it was overshadowed by 3 saints players getting wrapped up in the nfl's banned substance policy. all 3 players are appealing and are expected to play through the appeals process which will last for a couple weeks.
-my boys over at 3rd saturday in blogtober are getting all journalistic on that ass and breaking the story that phat phil is toasty like toast at the end of the year. only time will tell if this is true or not, but to their credit, they did break the orange pants story before the year.
-what's up with all this smiling and shit we've seen out of the saban lately?? i thought he was the dark overlord. i've been noticing this after the last few games and i'd be worried if not for the current success.
-uber agent jimmy sexton says that some coaches are skeered of coming to the sec right now b/c its too competitive. let me tell you something, if you're too skeered to come to the sec, you don't belong there anyway b/c it will probably eat you alive. i hear the washington huskies are looking for a new coach. be sure to read the entire article as it also mentions the fact that the saban damn near ended up the head coach at usc while he was at michigan state. try to imagine the effect on the time/space continuum that would have had.
-and as you may have heard, the bama/lsu game has been picked up by cbs, and therefore will be played at 2:30 pm. this of course matters a great deal to a fan base that cares more about kickoff times than any other fan base in america. if you notice, that little counter over there in the right margin sure is starting to get low. Read More......
Monday, October 27, 2008
too much porn
the laptop has contracted a virus. i had another post planned for today, but that ain't happenin' anymore. hopefully i'll back up and at 'em in the morning. i wonder which virus my laptop has???
monday you tube analysis: tennessee
where we post a youtube that has little to nothing to do with football, yet expresses our feelings regarding what happened in bama's game that week.
is this thing starting to snowball or what?? i knew going into the game that bama was the better team, but i felt the upset was a pretty good possibility. you had a tennessee team with really nothing to lose, at home against their hated rival, which hadn't put together a full 4 quarter performance in a long time. well we finally got 4 quarters out of bama, and it was good to see. bama's defense had a very good game, but the vol's offense is extremely inept. and then the few times they started to get a little something going, they killed themselves with penalties. their offense may suck, but their defense is n-a-s-t-y. robert ayers was in the bama backfield all day, and when the ball got past the line of scrimmage, you better have your head on a swivel or eric berry will knock that shit clean off. he was a fumble/nonfumble return for a td away from being the "uncle rico's time machine man crush" despite playing on an opposing team. he's that dominant. considering all that, 29 points is a pretty nice day at the office. while we're on the subject, props also to jpw. he made some nice throws and he didn't turn the ball over. this team only needs trent dilfer...not peyton manning. Read More......
week in pics: points, points everywhere (except the big 10)
Friday, October 24, 2008
tide get ready to roll!!!
the good luck charm continues. hell i may come back and repost this thing during halftime tomorrow night to see if i can't change bama's second half luck.
tennessee weekend forecast: mostly sunny with a slight chance of showers
i can't lie to you, i haven't watched a whole lot of tennessee football this year. the only game i've watched in its entirety was ucla, and other than that i've only seen highlights. i fully expect the vols to bring 8 into the box to help contain bama's running attack, thereby putting the game on the questionable shoulders of jpw. tennessee has shown that despite their troubles, they can still play some pass defense. so please dear sweet 6lb 8oz baby jeezus don't let jpw gift wrap a pick 6 for eric berry. however therein lies the problem for tennessee...eric berry may be their best scoring threat...and he isn't even on offense. there are rumors of berry getting snaps on offense this week and i fully expect him to. phat phil is feeling the heat and getting desperate and i expect the vols to pull damn near every trick they've got out of the bag tomorrow. reverses, onside kicks, laterals, everything. even with all of that i expect this to be a fairly low scoring game. both defenses are much better than the opposing offenses, so points will be at a premium. i think the tide wins, but in keeping with their trend for this year, it is still in doubt deep into the 4th quarter.
bama 24
vols 13
Thursday, October 23, 2008
the teflon snake
to quote the last dragon from this morning, "its good to be the snake...in alabama." the benefits of being a hero. you see it all the time. so look out ladies, the snake is back on the prowl. i think the lesson to be learned here is never submit to a breathalyzer.
administrative note: it was brought to my attention that rico's rss feed at the top of the page is not working properly, however the one over in the right margin should work fine. so if you've already added us, you da man...and if you haven't added us...what the fuck???
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
crimson and white (and orange??) roundtable: kenny chesney is gay
this week's roundtable is rightfully being hosted by the boys over at 3rd saturday in blogtober.
1) Both teams at some point or another have been described as an Evil Empire. If your team is the Death Star, what is it's planet-destroying weapon?
star wars huh?? i'm pretty star wars illiterate, but even i understand this question. planet destroying weapon 1a is glen coffee. he's already shown the ability to break the big play on numerous occasions, and hopefully he will do so again on saturday. planet destroying weapon 1b is julio. he hasn't really made the spectacular play yet (though he is leading the team in receiving), but i just feel like he could go off at any second.
2) What is it's two meter wide exhaust port?
again, star wars ignorant, however very pop culture savvy. isn't the "two meter exhaust port" the weakness/achilles heel of the death star?? assuming i'm correct i'm going to say halftime. is there any way the good people of the university of tennessee and espn would allow us to skip halftime?? we can still stop down and kickoff and all that jazz...just no locker rooms or bands and maybe most importantly no 20 minute layoffs.
3) Everyone is looking forward to Eric Berry vs. Julio Jones. What is the next matchup you'll be keying on in this game?
how about eric berry vs. anyone and everyone. seriously, i'm kind of excited about watching this guy as i'm pretty sure even vol fans will agree that berry is about the only bright spot in knoxville this year. will he bring the wood and lay someone out?? will mark ingram lower the boom on him?? will julio beat him on a jump ball?? will he make jpw look silly while taking an int to the house?? wait, what??
4) The Tide and Vols will scrap it out under the lights at Neyland. Do you like this arrangement and does the later kickoff time provide an advantage to either team?
i don't think the game time matters nearly as much as the location. up to this point bama has played much better football away from bryant denny for some reason. not to mention there are whispers of vol fans not showing up as a form of protest, or even worse, selling their tickets to bama fans (gasp). maybe this will end up being neutral site game number 2.
5) Since the Tide had a bye week and the Vols didn't bother to play that weekend either (zing!) we're going to say this is the Third Saturday in October just to justify the name of one of the greatest rivalries in college football. In three thousand words or less, turn over the kettles of white-hot liquid hate upon thine enemy.
those of you who read with regularity know i don't particularly hate the vols. i don't particularly like them either, but my hate is reserved for the tigahs. besides, here at rico we prefer to "love thine enemy." instead, i'm going to flip this question and see if we can find some common hate ground. can we all agree this guy is an assclown??
quick hits: i'm nick saban and i approve this message
-well much of the talk surrounding bama football this week is in regards to terrence cody's giant knee and how to replace him. all signs point to increased josh chapman, as well as lorenzo washington spending much more time at his old position. the optimists in bama nation seem to think cody will be back for lsu...i hope they're right.
-the weekly forde yard dash comes up with political ads for a few of the bcs contenders. an excerpt from bama's: "vote for someone from the pansy big 12, and the terrorists win. americans deserve more snot-flying hitting than they're getting in some other leagues that only pretend to have your best interests at heart."
-how big is the bama game for phat phil?? well on top of his job potentially being on the line, phil just pretty much hates the tide. "alabama and florida are the two biggest games. but with alabama, there's some hate blood around that." i don't even know what "hate blood" is...but it sounds scary. how big is the bama game for tennessee dc john chavis?? "if I ever get afraid, i'm going to stay at home and probably start cross-dressing." oh my.
-a look at not only the significance of the lsu/uga game, but the similarities between the two. one place they are not similar is the qb position, which i think could be the difference. either way i will damn sure be in front of my tv for this one.
-i'm sure most of you don't care, but i do, so with the world series starting tonight, here is my pick...rays in 7.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
jose canseco: last shot (updated)
so i randomly happened across a pretty interesting little documentary on a&e last night, jose canseco: last shot. i actually missed the first 10 or 15 minutes of the hour long show, but i'm pretty sure all i missed is stuff i already knew involving his playing career and his speaking out about steroids post baseball. when i started watching they were just getting into his live today and what a clusterfuck it is, from being blackballed by baseball, to his marital/love life insanity, to his financial struggles. see jose is dead broke. between having no real income since his retirement in 2002, being drained by 2 multimillion dollar divorces, and trying desperately to hold on to an extravagant lifestyle, jose's house went into foreclosure earlier this year. he is still unemployed, and from what i can tell has no real skills to offer anyone. he really does seem to love baseball but is not welcome or allowed anywhere near it. in the show he finally gets up the guts to go watch a minor league game. he is happily surprised when everyone is very friendly to him and even asking for autographs, only to be served with a court document by the very team he was watching for not fulfilling his contract with them. all of these stories are wrapped around the bigger story of jose's 20+ year battle with steroids and his now wanting to get off of them. he has a woman in his life (heidi northcott, who is also a professional poker player) who actually seems to be a good influence on him, but he is reluctant to accept her help. when he decides to take the step of ridding his body of steroids is when it gets interesting. there has been no medically documented case of someone quitting steroids after using them for so long, and the doctors have different opinions about what jose will go through physically and mentally. for those of you that don't know, when you do steroids, you body no longer naturally produces testosterone as it is getting such a large amount from an outside source. however, once the outside source is discontinued, the body doesn't always go back to producing adequate testosterone levels, especially in the case of someone like jose who has been using for so long. this leads to jose requiring serious medical attention and even hormone replacements as he is going through this. the final footnote on the story was the jose was just busted on october 10th trying to come back in to the u.s. from mexico with a substance that is illegal without a prescription. i've read varying reports as to what the substance was, but jose claims it was for his jacked up hormone levels. the whole thing is pretty damn interesting and i recommend watching it. click here to see when it airs.
UPDATE:
Monday, October 20, 2008
quick hits: that's gotta be one big mcl
-first a couple of notes for the tennessee game. the game will be on espn at 6:45 cst. also, the vols will be without 2 key players on saturday in leading wr gerald jones and stud guard anthony parker. not good for an already struggling offense.
-the news from big t cody's mri are about as good as one could hope for. the diagnosis is a sprained mcl and is expected to miss "at least" 2 weeks. the big questin now is can he return for lsu, and if so is he effective??
-how 'bout dem fucking saints?? that was an ass kicking yesterday and of course after the game saints fan get a little salt in the wound. reggie bush tore his meniscus and in fact as of this today has already had surgery on it. HOPEFULLY he'll only be out a few weeks. someone's season could be on the line on sunday in london as either the saints or chargers will leave 3-5, while the winner will still be in the mix at 4-4. i'm a little upset that a game so important is going to be happening in such a bs atmosphere.
-cowboys meltdown is in full swing. see here, here, and here.
-pretty funny stuff
HT: tide druid
monday you tube analysis: ole miss
where we post a youtube that has little to nothing to do with football, yet expresses our feelings regarding what happened in bama's game that week.
living on the edge indeed. look i don't believe in giving any apologies for winning a game, but this is a disturbing pattern...kick enough ass in the first half that you can sleep walk through the second half and hang on for dear life for the win late in the 4th. again, don't get me wrong, i'll take the win, it just makes me uncomfortable about the future. for the first time pretty much all year, i had some questions about the play calling. but i won't put too much emphasis on that, as this is still some of the best play calling i've seen by a bama team in years. for all the things i didn't like, i thought jpw played pretty damn good. he made some great throws, and his one int was simply a miscommunication between he and his receiver. the defense was also pretty damn good. take away a 62 yard run and a gimmicky ass houston nutt fake field goal, and things look a lot different. i also find it interesting that bama continues to play better football away from bryant denny than in it. maybe going to b.r. will be a welcome sight for these guys. to reiterate, i take wins (especially conference wins) any way i can get 'em. ask florida and usc (among others) if they'd rather have an ugly win in place of their one loss. Read More......
week in pics: a surprisingly unsurprising week
Friday, October 17, 2008
tide get ready to roll!!!
i know you missed it last week during the bye, but don't worry...its back. enjoy your weekend. me?? i'm thinking about sucking down a few corny dogs at the state fair this weekend.
wicked hahd comeback from da sawx!!
obviously you don't get much baseball coverage in the heart of football season, but this deserves some props. i'm pulling for rays, and still think they'll win the series, but what a freakin' comeback. before you let any red sox bandwagon douche talk shit today, ask them if they actually stayed up to watch it. i can guarantee you that even some of the most hardcore went to bed down 7-0 in the 7th.
ole miss weekend forecast: mostly sunny with slight chance of isolated showers
so this week its johnny reb coming to tuscaloosa. more importantly its the return of houston nutt...and houston nutt is one dangerous sonuvabitch. that being said, nutt has ole miss at a level that makes them dangerous, but not really all that great. jevan snead has brought some of the best qb'ing seen in oxford since that dude eli, but he still has 9 int's. speaking of turnovers, i think that stat alone could tell the tale of tomorrow's game. the rebs are +2 in turnover margin in their 3 wins...and -8 in their 3 losses. now obviously most teams have less turnovers in wins, but that's a pretty drastic difference. i also believe the turnovers will continue as i don't expect the rebs to be able to sustain any kind of running game against the tide (no matter what silly ass formations they might use), which means j. snead will have to sling it around much of the day. that does not bode well for j. snead. on the other side of the ball, i do expect the tide to be able to run the ball despite the ole miss front seven coming in with a reputation of being pretty damn good. i haven't seen anyone shut down the tide running game yet, so i'm not expecting ole miss to either. as would be my game plan for every game, i'd like them to run as much as possible to keep the pressure off of jpw, and thus increase the chances of winning the aforementioned turnover battle. ole miss is dangerous, so i think they keep it interesting, but i just can see colonel reb (not to be confused with colonel angus) taking down 2 top 5 teams, on the road, in the span of 3 games.
bama 34
ole miss 17
Read More......
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