why?
(this will likely ruin alabama's season)
((welcome back to oz))


it was cute, sure. had i been in the stadium and witnessed firsthand the mountain of a man that is terrence cody boom, boom, booming onto the field for an offensive snap, i would have gone nuts with the rest of the crowd. there is no doubt in my mind. what makes this situation worse is that it worked. the novelty that is. the novelty of bringing in your potential first team all-sec (and american) nosetackle to plow the way for mark ingram resulted in a touchdown. roll tide. go bama. dear christ.

why the glum, son?

because i am a firm believer of karma on the football field and what went around saturday afternoon will eventually come around to this charmed and different tuscaloosa football team. it may already have.

alabama has two "difference makers". players that other teams have no answer for. julio will be one, but he is serving his role of stretching the field and decoy quite nicely this season. check back on him again as a sophomore and he's going to be unstoppable. this year, though? this year, alabama has two. on offense? andre smith. you know on big plays alabama is going to go left. i know it. opposing coaches know it. it doesn't matter. 90 percent of the time, if alabama needs one or two big yards, running behind their future first round left-tackle works. it's just a fact. on defense? it's cody. he's big and nimble and not just nimble for a big man. but a true athlete packaged in 365 pounds of fat on top of muscle that makes him the most dominant defensive lineman (sorry, glenn dorsey) that the sec has seen since richard seymour went to the pats.

he's the sun when on the field. two, sometimes three offensive lineman are forced to orbit around him in the hopes that they can distract him long enough for the other team's running back to find his way to the positive side of the line of scrimmage.

so, what does bama choose to do with this treasure? they tugged on superman's cape. they spit into the wind. they put him in on offense. and in the moment, it worked.

in god's time? well, terrence, meet field-cart. see you in the locker room. as of sunday afternoon, everyone is grinning with their teeth clenched. cody, himself, says he'll be fine. saban says that he might miss a game or two, but he won't need surgery. he better not, because if he does, saban, the architect of this beautiful season to this point, will have paid his due to the football gods with the blood of every bama fan that has spent the last two months telling themselves that their team is the second best in the country.

me? i am not sold yet. the second best team in the country doesn't not score a point in the second half against a middling to decent 3-3 (at the time) team. the second best team doesn't struggle with kentucky. the second best team does beat the crap out of then number one georgia at georgia, but we haven't seen that team in a few weeks. where did they go?

well, maybe they got too cute in practice and spent valuable prep. time putting in plays for a nosetackle to play fullback. maybe they think they are the second best team in the country when, really, they are only the second ranked team. HUGE difference.

second best teams don't need gimmicks. second best teams just play. here's hoping that alabama can learn this lesson with cody on the field in a couple of weeks and not with him in street clothes. if the latter finds it's way to be true, "we" only have ourselves to blame.

hey. where have i heard that before?