Alabama vs. Florida: From Prothro to ProNOOO!!!

This was probably the most exciting blowout that I have ever been a part of. It wasn't one of those games where we pulled away from the opponent.. It wasn't one of those games where luck had the better part of the winning team... It definitely wasn't a fluke... ALABAMA just kick some ass.

My friend Ryan Brooks said it over and over and over again "WE KICKED THEIR ASS... FLORIDA SHOULD JUST FORFEIT THE REST OF THEIR SCHEDULE!" As funny as that would be to see, I would actually rather see Florida do well the rest of the year. Why do you say? Well very simply this might can help Bama into the BCS or who knows.. maybe even a national championship game. Am I saying Bama will go undefeated? Well, no probably not.. but the whole nation has just realized that Bama is back and a 7-4 or 6-5 season now looks like an 8-2 or 9-1 season.

For us Bama dreamers though that want an undefeated season, that possibility comes down to three games: Tennessee, LSU & Auburn. If Bama plays like they did on Saturday Oct. 1st, 2005 then that undefeated season comes down to only Auburn. Tennessee and LSU are at home. Tennessee's QB is inexperienced which matches up well with Bama's linebackers (look what they did to an experienced QB like Chris Leak). LSU's secondary is very very bad and guess how Bama scored half of its points.. on deep pass plays.

The future is bright, but there is a black hole in our radiant sunshine. Without that black hole our radiance would have been way to bright to stare at directly. That black hole I'm refering to is Tyrone Prothro.

At first I thought that him being in the game was a mistake. But after further consideration (and much less alcohol in my system) I realized that this was an error of judgment from the coaching staff. An otherwise perfect game was destroyed over a greedy call to run up the score. Some people say that Florida could have come back.. not with 8:00 left with Alabama having the ball and Florida down to two timeouts. Throwing the ball on 4th and 5 was so bad for the simple reason that if Bama is going to claim to have class, the last thing we want to do is run up the score. With that in mind, Prothro was OK to be in the game. Usually teams will rotate wide receivers anyways.

What should have been done was to run the ball up the gut for 3 or 4 downs with a backup QB and running back. This was not done either... until Prothro got hurt. Bama coaches were being greedy and reactive, not responsible and proactive. They weren't thinking through a situation before they called it. NO way was Florida going to score 4 touchdowns in 8 minutes while Bama runs the clock out running. In fact I'm willing to bet that if they were still playing today that Florida STILL wouldn't have a touchdown. That's how good the Bama defense was. If an Alabama player had gotten hurt while the game was on the line, then that would be devastating but understandable... what happened to Prothro was simply devastating and mind boggling. As awful of a comparison this is it felt like a U.S. soldier who had been killed by friendly fire... Prothro got hurt in vein.

Now, whether or not you think Prothro should have been in the game when it was clearly in hand, the point is that he IS gone for the season. He had a clean break and will have screws in until about 6-8 weeks where he can then start rehab. He should be available for next spring's practice. Although Prothro's injury was not caused by a Florida player, I did notice from the student section that there was some clapping and birds flipped at Prothro. This to me was disappointing knowing that in my opinion Florida fans had been pretty cool for the most part. These fans in the upper deck above the student section though went too far.. and thus 25 or so Bama students waited at the bottom of the ramp to add more people to the hospital. I don't think anything really vicious happened for real but it definitely wasn't smart to try and taught 10,000 fans in the student section. This leads to the lesson.

LESSON 10: A desperate person loses all morality

Another reason not to run up the score... Florida knew they lost.. they were desperate.. all that could happen was a cheap shot that sent good players from either side out for injury. AGAIN, Prothro was not injured because of a Florida player but I couldn't help but think that while he laid on the ground. The Florida fans though showed desperation in their verbal attacks. In their right mind, they should know that they are visitors and there would be lots of angry home fans wanting to whoop them after the game. When they saw their once golden team torn to shreds they lost that sense that comes similarly when drunk.

No Prothro.. it really sucks... His game breaking type performance is very reminiscent of one David Palmer in the early 1990's. That dominating defense is very reminiscent of a 1992 defense that won the national championship. After the game, players held up the cheerleader flags which was very very reminiscent of the celebration after the January 1, 1993 Sugar Bowl.

It COULD be Bama's year.. but surely Bama threw themselves a big monkey wrench. Coach Shula has gotten more experience from a win than he probably will ever get. Next time he WILL take out all his key players, he will run the ball when the game is over.. and furthermore, him and his staff will learn what greed does to those that take it for granted.