As John Pennington points out, one of the dumber tactical moves we’ve seen this season is players calling out Alabama in one form or fashion.
Speaking of Alabama, here’s a tip for teams going up against the Tide — zip your lips. Earlier this season Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace said his team could “put points on them… I think we can put points on anybody.” Final score: Alabama 25, Ole Miss 0. Three weeks ago Tennessee referred to Alabama as “the red team” in practice. AJ McCarron said his team took that as an insult. Final score: Alabama 45, Tennessee 10. Last week LSU receiver Jarvis Landry said of Bama: “Nobody is invincible. Not team is invincible and no defense is invincible.” Final score: Alabama 38, LSU 21. The lesson is clear — shut up. People talk about teams having “swagger” — the most overused word of the 21st century — and showing that swagger with their tough talk. Well, other teams’ swagger hasn’t helped them much against Alabama this season. It’s better to talk after you’ve proved yourself than before.
I take it Ohio State’s Evan Spencer doesn’t read John’s blog.
Get The Picture 
Pretty easy to say for Spencer when Ohio State basically has no shot to meet Bama this year…
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Exactly. Reminds me of my wife’s little dog. He challenges all the bigger dogs only because he’s on one side of the backyard fence and they are on the other.
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Right on, I bet Corch will be wearing brown pants for the rest of the year because if FSU somehow loses he’ll be crapping them.
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Additional side effects of Nick on Corch will be dehydration and hanging around the house to spend more time with his family and/or watch the ducks shit buckeyes in his yard.
I hope Jimbo pulls a Jimbo so Nick can lay the wood to Irwin.
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For once Corch is right. Ohio State is number 2.
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If I interpret that correctly….+1
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I saw what you did there–hee hee.:)
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I know all my Oregon friends where loving those “We want Bama” shirts…let’s just say phil knight was rocking crimson on saturday night and they stung a little for those guys.
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Alabama beat LSU 38-17
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I can’t fathom what part of Landry’s statement is provocative. What’s he supposed to say? Bama is invincible and there’s no point in us showing up?
Also, the stupid premise of this article is that Bama plays better when another team calls them out. It seems to me that the Tide hand out beatings to opponents regardless of whether there is an outrageous talk of non-invincibility in the week leading up to the game.
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Teams loaded with talent can lose focus, which is how 22-point-underdog-with-a-3rd-string-QB-Stanford goes into USC and beats one of Carroll’s better USC squads – or App State beats Michigan.
Guarantee you that doesn’t happen if someone at Palo Alto was yapping about USC pre-game. Just smile and say, “Yeah, they’re great.” If you believe it, that should be enough. How does seeing it in print help the yapper at all?
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I think Stanford was actually a 41 point dog.
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You’re right, of course.
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In fairness to the Ohio State kid, he was asked the question how they would do and he even smiled when he said it. What is he supposed to say…we have no chance? Much a do about nothing.
And Bama beats Tennessee bad regardless of what Butch Jones said…he could have called them the greatest of all time and it would not have mattered one bit.
Me thinks Bama’s players are getting to be as sensitive as their obnoxious and entitled fan base.
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THAT’S RIGHT MICHAEL!! I agree! All this talk bout Bama being the big dog is old, and I intend to do something about it just as soon as my wife says I can.
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Maybe somebody should point out to Butch The Screamer that Bama is Crimson, not red…Georgia is red, Bama is Crimson.
And Awbun is …blue and orange, and the blue and orange team worries me.
They got the bit in their teeth…they are feeling special things in the offing.
That worries me.
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I wish someone from Auburn would smack talk the Dawgs this week.
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Be my guest BD, we need any help we can get. But I doubt anybody at Awbun will oblige, although it is early, and who knows? Maybe ole Pet will stumble off the banks of Saugahatchee Creek long enough to make some profound question of Georgia’s manhood.
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BD you are not really, like really, worried about Awbun are you?
Disciplined defense beats this offense when the talent is equal or better, just seems to me.
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What’s the general consensus among Bama fans, BD? Do y’all root for Auburn to lose every game no matter what? Or would y’all rather have Auburn come into your game riding high, so beating them will be even sweeter?
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There are some that want Auburn to be undefeated, etc. That’s crap.
Personally, I’d rather them never win another game.
Several of my best friends are Boogs. We’re just up front about it: we want each other to lose every game. But to remain friends, we don’t really ever talk about the rivalry per se.
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Boog, huh? Never heard that one before.
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It’s a term of affection. 🙂
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It’s picked because it’s mildly incognito.
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Someone just tell us what it means, please!
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They’re this guy’s beat!
http://www.davebarry.com/book-page.php?isbn13=9781400080762
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Thank you Darlin’!
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This is how I feel about the NATS and Florida. (Well, actually I’d love to see the nerds just give up football one day, after we have a 20-game win streak against them perhaps.)
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Auburn/UGA game doesn’t matter a bit to the Iron Bowl. If Auburn loses to UGA they would still own the tie breaker over Bama with a victory, and would hold the tie breaker over both Bama and A&M in a three way because their loss would be out of the division. For the delusional, they will not get to Pasadena under any circumstance, and losing to UGA will not impact their chance at the Sugar Bowl as they would still control their destiny by winning the SECCG. Beyond that, the other bowl implications are irrelevant as bowl money is split between all SEC schools and the SEC office. It would probably help the Tide if they beat us, but my suggestion is to rest all their starters for the Iron Bowl (that would please those who think CFB teams would actually do that once other goals are sewn up. Ain’t happening, never has at this level that I can recall.)
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They already have one loss.
If they lose to UGA and we beat State, we go to Atlanta.
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Boy, that was a fast catch. I realized just as I hit the “post comment” button and tried to cover it up. Listening to them you would think they haven’t lost since the Y2K, maybe that is why I forgot there one stumble this year. I hope we show up this weekend and rip that running game to shreds. Could happen if we stay disciplined.
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Oops sorry, cancel the above…forgot about their LSU loss and was thinking they would have equal number of conference losses. Brain dead with all this frigid air rolling in. Still recommend they rest their starters, beating Bama should trump all else for them!
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Only guy you have to worry about pissing off at bama is saban. Even bigmouth sos doesn’t talk smack when the subject is saban. You don’t spit into the wind, as Croce said.
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It’s so frigid here in these North Georgia Mountains…… my fingers are too cold to type. I do wish Awbun would do some trash talking, but believe they aren’t confident enough.
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As someone who has lived in Ohio for the last ten years and about twenty miles fro the OSU campus for the last three, I have grown to despise OSU and their fans more than just about any other school/fanbase in college football. It was bad enough when Tressel was the coach but now that Corch has taken over they’re even more arrogant and unbearable. Part of me hopes that they make it to the MNC game and get blown out again by another SEC team. Then another part of me hopes that they go undefeated, get shut out of the MNC game, and then get blown out by a lesser team than the one Evan Spencer just claimed they would blow out. God, I really can’t stand OSU.
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OK, but how do you really feel?
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I think what has been happening is that the leaders of the team (McCarron and Mosley especially) realize that the young guys are a little bored and overconfident after a string of blowouts and yawners. So they look for things they can use to fire them up. They may be silly and stupid things, but they focus attention and keep the team from looking too far ahead. If that is what’s going on, it’s pretty brilliant.
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Yup.
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It’ll be interesting to see, regardless of whether Bama plays for/wins another MNC this year how they play without those leaders (and a few linemen) next season.
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Considering that since Saban’s first year, they’ve lost at most 2 regular season games per season, I wouldn’t count on too much letdown.
The bastards.
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