By Jess Nicholas
TideFans.com Editor-In-Chief
Nov. 23, 2014
Let’s just be honest about it: Western Carolina was paid to lose.
No, Alabama didn’t have an under-the-table deal. No Division-IA school ever does when it hosts a Division-IAA school. Michigan certainly didn’t when then-D1AA Appalachian State upset the Wolverines in Ann Arbor and ultimately cost Lloyd Carr his job.
But if anyone thinks Alabama was looking for a challenge from the Western Carolina Catamounts, they simply don’t know how college football operates. Alabama was looking for a challenge from West Virginia in the opening game of the season; it was looking for an easy win over WCU.
Alabama’s problem is that FCS schools haven’t cooperated with this agreement, at least not consistently. The biggest challenge to the 2011 team – largely seen as Nick Saban’s best to date at Alabama – outside of the two games with LSU that year may very well have been Georgia Southern. Now a FBS member, Georgia Southern was still Division-IAA at the time, and ran for more yards against Alabama that year than anyone else, by a large margin. Alabama needed a late score to pull away from GSU, and until it happened, many observers were fretting that a close win could have damaged Alabama’s bid to get a rematch with LSU.
Western Carolina was the opponent in 2004 when Brodie Croyle tore an ACL, which probably cost Alabama at least three or four wins that season. Backups Marc Guillon and Spencer Pennington struggled the rest of the way in; in 2005, with Croyle back at the controls, Alabama won 10 games.
This past Saturday, it was Western Carolina again knocking key Alabama players out of the game. Amari Cooper bruised a knee, Brian Vogler and ArDarius Stewart were knocked out for the remainder of the regular season with knee ligament injuries, Cam Robinson twisted an ankle and Jalston Fowler suffered a mild shoulder injury.
Then there was the case of A’Shawn Robinson, whose ankle was injured as the result of an especially dirty, messy chop block. Western Carolina was flagged for a second chop block later in the game and the officials might have missed a third one in between those two; it was borderline.
And here’s where FCS opponents need to learn their place.
It’s one thing to beat a Division-IA school straight-up in one of these mismatches. It’s the archetypal David-vs.-Goliath story come to life on a football field, and whenever one of the smaller schools follows through with the upset, you can be sure to see it replayed on SportsCenter for a month, usually accompanied by 15 minutes of analysis over whether the larger school’s coach needs to be looking for other work at season’s end.
It’s another entirely to get to that point by chop-blocking and hurting players in the process.
There are only four explanations for a chop block, and none of them is very flattering to the offender: It’s either badly coached technique, the players are so bad that they can’t execute properly, the offending players are dirty, or their coach is.
By the very nature of the penalty – two players coordinating their efforts to high-low an opposing defensive linemen who is being held up in a vulnerable position – it’s the only live-ball foul that carries such a stigma. Holding, blocking in the back, clipping, etc., can all be explained away; even the hot-button targeting foul doesn’t always look intentional, even when the call stands up under replay. Only an intentional punch, kick or stomp is worse than the chop block.
And it happened twice.
The reason FCS teams sign up for these bloodbath games in the first place is that they need the money. Alabama paid Western Carolina just under half a million dollars to play Saturday, and with that check came the understanding that Alabama had found an opponent against which it could rest its starters. Too bad that rest came because the starters were heading to the nearest first aid station.
Western Carolina head coach Mark Speir spent a lot of time over the weekend criticizing ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit over comments Herbstreit made about the makeup of his Catamount team. Perhaps in the future, Speir should focus on ways of improving his team’s technique, rather than seeing his team’s play confirm Herbstreit’s analysis.
Here’s the Five-Point Breakdown for Western Carolina.
1. Injuries came at the worst possible time, and will linger. Alabama will likely be without TE Brian Vogler and WR ArDarius Stewart for the Auburn game and, presuming a win there, the SEC Championship Game a week afterward. Stewart’s absence won’t hurt quite as bad, although he had begun to be a key feature on some special teams as well as a source of depth at receiver. If DeAndrew White is healthy, Stewart’s snaps would have been limited anyway. But Vogler’s loss will be felt. Alabama will have to start either O.J. Howard or Brandon Greene at the position, and neither is a great matchup for Auburn. Auburn has some punch off the end, and Howard’s blocking is suspect. Greene should be able to handle the blocking elements without much trouble, but his value as a downfield receiver is limited. Alabama also needs to take extra caution with WR Amari Cooper and DL A’Shawn Robinson. Robinson is the best anti-spread defensive lineman Alabama has, and Cooper’s worth goes without saying.
2. WCU-as-Auburn-analog didn’t pay off as hoped. Western Carolina’s opening drive, extended by a referee’s inadvertent whistle on a fumble play, was problematic. While it was no doubt aided by Alabama coming out for this game flat, Alabama can’t feel good about letting the Catamounts be an actual pain for as long as they were one. The real problem, though, was that WCU QB Troy Mitchell didn’t run the ball enough. He carried the ball only 4 times in the game (his rushing total of 6 carries included 2 sacks) and the Catamounts basically used him as a distributive passer out of a spread formation. Auburn’s Nick Marshall won’t be anything like that in Saturday’s game. Alabama was, however, able to get a feel for high-tempo football, as Western Carolina pressured officials to speed up their mechanics more than any other Crimson Tide opponent in 2014. Alabama was also able to coordinate substitutions despite not having access to a pause in game action. Auburn will no doubt try to push the envelope Saturday and if Alabama responds the way it did against WCU, there shouldn’t be a problem.
3. Alabama’s second-line receivers get invaluable playing time. DeAndrew White was held out of the game and Amari Cooper left early, which meant players like ArDarius Stewart, Chris Black and Robert Foster were forced to play when the game was still on the line. All three responded with solid games, especially Foster considering it was his first real work against live opposition. With Stewart out for both Auburn and the SEC Championship Game at the very least, Black and Foster have a chance to join Cameron Sims in actually getting some playing time against top teams. Parker Barrineau and Raheem Falkins also got into this game, but Barrineau was never targeted and Falkins dropped the one pass thrown to him. Barrineau’s chances for future playing time are also negatively impacted by the fact he has become part of the signaling crew on the sideline, which calls for him to wear a black vest and have an active role in the playcalling. It might be difficult for him to be part of the playing rotation and also have that job. As for the tight end group, Malcolm Faciane caught two short passes, but Greene was shut out and Dakota Ball failed to come down with the catch on the one pass thrown his way. Ty Flournoy-Smith was held out of this game. Faciane is the closest thing, physically, to Brian Vogler; it will be interesting to see if his playing time increases despite having played only a very small role to this point in the season.
4. Jake Coker shows potential for 2015. Jake Coker’s work in relief of Blake Sims would seem to bode well for 2015. Coker was 12-of-18 (66.7%) for 115 yards and a touchdown, but it was the way he showed he could float in the pocket and be patient that was most encouraging. Most of his decisions were the correct ones, although a 2-yard pass to Malcolm Faciane on 3rd-and-long ultimately solved nothing. Alabama will be a different team in 2015, as Coker, while mobile, isn’t in Blake Sims’ league as a runner. But he continues to make strides in these blowout games and Alabama ought to feel comfortable about next season.
5. Tyren Jones, Altee Tenpenny finally break out. The caveat, of course, is that Western Carolina was already gassed by the time they did most of the their work, but Jones displayed vision and cutting ability that has been lacking in Alabama’s bigger backs, and Tenpenny was more aggressive than in past opportunities. Jones carried 11 times for 75 yards (6.8 avg.) and a touchdown, while Tenpenny carried 11 times for 64 yards (5.8 avg.). Both players have been in the doghouse at times in 2014, and at least one of them needs to turn up the maturity level for the remainder of the season. Alabama will need at least one of them.
Follow Jess Nicholas on Twitter at @TideFansJessN