Linkbacker U. is entertained by Trouble in Tuscaloosa and Tresseltown

"LINEbacker U"... "LINKbacker U"... Get it?
(Photo: AP/PennLive.com)

After a few months off, we're bringing back Linkbacker U, our version of your standard morning link dump post. Is throwing a bunch of interesting but not really important news links into a post unique to this blog? Surely not. But is the name just too good to not use it for a link dump post every few days? Absolutely.

You will probably get some kind of Penn State football news in these updates. But the main purpose is not to cover what's going on with the Nittany Lions. Since we're going to cover PSU spring practice as a stand-alone topic over the next few weeks, we can devote Linkbacker U to covering all the news that would be considered interesting in some way to Penn State fans, but not urgent enough to have its own individually dedicated post. Make sense?

So without wasting any more space on your screen, let's have at it. Welcome, to Linkbacker U: 2011.

Preview: Penn State at Alabama

THIS WEEK		#18 AP / 1-0, 0-0 Big Ten	@		#1 AP / 1-0, 0-0 SEC
9/11, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN		Wk 1 - W, 44-14 vs YSU			Wk 1 - W, 48-3 vs SJSU
Full Game Preview / Staff Predictions / Penn State Depth Chart / Live Blog

Welcome, Mr. Bolden... make yourself comfortable.

I'll ditch the formalities. Let's just start digging and see where it all ends up.

Optimistic as I am (to a fault, most of the time), the opportunities for the Nittany Lions to pull out a shocker in Tuscaloosa are so slight, even a team like Alabama would have trouble if faced with the same situation.

As the season goes on, I'll deal more with season stats and numbers. But with only one game in the books--most likely against a far inferior opponent--teams like Penn State and Alabama are still relatively shrouded in mystery. Alabama won't have two of its best four players (Marcell Dareus and Mark Ingram), while its entire defense is new. For Penn State, no one knows what Rob Bolden will do against a real defense, while the Nittany Lions defense will face a drastically different offense down in Tuscaloosa.

So, for all we don't know about these two teams, here are a few things we do know...

Joe Paterno Press Conference Recap: Alabama Week

Joe Paterno took questions from the media today,
as Penn State prepares to travel for its game
against the Alabama Crimson Tide, 2009 national champions.

Here's the long and short of what happened today at Joe Paterno's Alabama game week press conference. Let's just say, Joe is grounded going into this one...

Quick hits:

Linkbacker U thumbs through week 1 punditry

Ok, 1-0 is great, but 2-0 will take a bit more work...

It's Labor Day. So you're probably not even reading this right now. That's why I won't get into any kind of depth or analysis. Here are some tidbits from the weekend past, and for the week ahead, including tonight's big one in our nation's capital.

ESPN Gameday coming to Tuscaloosa - GoPSUSports.com :: We already kinda knew this.

Summer Opposing Blogger Q&A: Alabama Edition (Yes, It's a Working Title)

Fun Fact: Disney's "Dumbo" was inspired by Alabama's mascot. That's right friends, the media's SEC bias goes back much further than you think.

Miss me, yet? Well too bad, because I'm back with a brand new segment to help add some spice to LBU's summer opponent previews, which should give us enough writing material until they actually start playing the damn games, and what better way to do so than with a good ol' fashioned Q&A session?

I meant to start this segment last week before realizing there are no Youngstown State blogs. I tried to do the next best thing and schedule an interview with a Penguin (Youngstown State's mascot) but they were all busy being chased by psychos in golf carts. Hence, this series shall commence with Alabama week.

This week's brave interviewee is Elliott Roberts, who writes for the Bama Sports Report. It won't be the last time you'll read about him either on this blog, as he plans on getting us back with some questions of his own as the time gets closer to the PSU-Bama showdown. Without further ado, here's BSR's responses to our lengthy list of questions:





LBU: One thing us college sports bloggers share is that we're all long-time, passionate fans of our respective schools, and we like to remind the Internet of that several times a week. Give us a brief background behind your Bama fandom and how Bama Sports Report was conceived. Bonus points for any social faux-paus you may have committed in the name of your fandom.

BSR: Well, we've all been Bama fans longer than we could stand. There's no exciting origin story, other than being birthed into this world. There was never any other option. In fact, I was once told by my mother that I could choose to attend Auburn, but I shouldn't bother calling home.

Social faux-pas? Well, they're too numerous to mention. I was listening to an Ole Miss game via the internet at a weekend business meeting in Utah once - Alabama was in dire straits. When they scored a touchdown to take the lead in the closing moments, I actually screamed during the meeting...You might imagine how pleased my boss was.

The BSR began a couple of off-seasons ago, when I noticed my brother (nxojkt on the site) was posting longer and longer diatribes on the Rivals Alabama site and via e-mail to all our friends. I'm a web developer by trade, so I thought "Hey, why don't we put this up someplace and let everyone read it at their leisure?" So, yeah, it was mostly born by me wanting to get off my brother's e-mail distribution list.

LBU: Only two defensive starters return for the Crimson Tide. What is the level of panic over this amongst the fan base? Do you expect them to be able to re-load with the talent at hand or will the offense be forced to step it up this year as a result?

BSR: Well, the panic level is, in my opinion, way too low, replacing nine defensive starters is never any fun, especially the playcaller/on field coach all-everything middle linebacker (Rolando McClain), and the top two corners - both high draft picks (and every other corner with any experience).

The talent is there, for certain. Nick Saban has done an amazing job recruiting, and there are kids who will one day be quite good who will step in. The question is simple. Will they be good enough for the early season test against the guys from Happy Valley?

LBU: Speaking of offense: It's safe to say Bama has an embarassment of riches in their backfield with Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson on the depth chart. Is there a scenario other than having them split carries evenly that will keep them both satisfied?

BSR: The backfield is, in fact, stacked. Mark Ingram is the returning Heisman Trophy winner and probably isn't the back that most fans are most excited about. Trent Richardson is a very very hard runner with great speed too. In addition to that, redshirt freshman Eddie Lacy was a very highly regarded talent coming out of high school and the coaches love him too.

The upside is that these guys are all team players and exceptionally patient (by all accounts). There are going to be lots of runs (although maybe fewer than last year) and Saban likes to rotate backs to keep folks fresh and find the hot hand. I predict harmony and big yards for the Tide backfield.

LBU: As a Penn State basketball fan myself, I can relate to you as far as cheering for a school where basketball is an afterthought. Unlike PSU though, Bama has taken actual steps towards trying to improve their program. How satisfied are you thus far with the Anthony Grant era? Do you see him having an amount of success akin to his mentor at Florida?

BSR: If Anthony Grant is able to achieve even a scintilla of the success that Billy Donovan has had at Florida, Alabama fans will be out of their minds happy. The name of the game in college basketball (and football for that matter) is recruiting. Grant's offseason has been good but not quite great in that area. And, for better or worse, fans have seen two big men transfer out of the program.

If Grant is able to get Alabama back to a reliable member of the field of 64... err... 68... then the fans here will be happy (at least, for a while). I'm optimistic that Grant can do it. The team last year improved greatly from the beginning of the season to the end, and if he can keep that upward momentum, there's a good chance he can make Alabama a perennial contender in the SEC West.

LBU: It is widely speculated that Nick Saban never smiles. Can you refute this, or is he truly a real-life version of George Costanza's mother from Seinfeld who never laughs, not even a "tee-hee?"

BSR: Nick Saban is, contrary to his public face, a guy with a sense of humor about everything not related to football. There is no one more focused than Nick Saban: He is handsomely compensated to win football games, and he takes that very seriously. As a result, he's got a pretty decent track record.

But, when he's in the living room of a recruit or his springtime barnstorming tour of the south (the "Crimson Caravan"), he's as affable a guy as you can imagine, because being so advances his one goal: To win football games.


Follow LBU on Facebook and Twitter Subscribe to Linebacker-U.com by Email Be sure to visit our new LBU Forums

Alabama Averts BCS Championship Choke

Alabama's victory over the Florida Gators in the SEC Championship Game a month ago will go down as the Crimson Tide's most impressive victory of the 2009 football season. That's pretty unfortunate, you see, because Alabama just happened to defeat Texas in the BCS National Championship Game last night, a game most everyone outside the Confederacy will soon forget.

Marcell Dareus (57) rumbles into the end zone after intercepting a deflected pass against the Texas Longhorns. Bama went on to win the 2009 national championship, 37-21.

Texas jumped on the Tide early, courtesy of Nick Saban's atrocious calls early in the game. But then Colt McCoy went down with a shoulder injury. The senior signal caller, Heisman runner-up, heart and soul of the Longhorns program, would not return. Texas' 6-0 lead quickly evaporated; Alabama scored 24 unanswered points, including Marcell Dareus' pick six just before the half.

Like many viewers, I was ready to pack it in and just leave the game on as background noise while I do other, more interesting things (which there were many at that moment). But then something happened to Alabama - they stopped trying. Yes, as Texas punted on its first possession of the third quarter, you could see Saban and the Tide close the playbooks. For Alabama, it was time to run off the next 27:05 and start celebrating. If they added to their 24-6 lead, great, but any sense of urgency boarded the bus early.

And who could blame them? I thought the game was over. We all thought the game was over. No one gave it a second thought when Alabama started handing the ball off play after play. I mean, seriously, they had Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram in the backfield, who had already torn up the Longhorns defense a good deal.

But national title-winning coaches aren't supposed to think like "us." They are supposed to preach and practice "60 minutes of football" until their team is standing on the podium receiving its trophy. Saban and his staff didn't do that last night. They acted like we, the fans, thought they should. It nearly lost the game.

Texas and Alabama combined for six punts in the third quarter. But the Longhorns moved into better and better field position each time. On the final drive of the quarter, Jordan Shipley hauled in a Colt-esque pass from freshman backup Garrett Gilbert for a 44-yard score. The Longhorns had life, down only 24-13, and Alabama gave it to them.

Then the real fun started. Mack Brown called a brilliant onsides kick, promptly recovered by his Longhorns. Although another Texas punt soon followed, Alabama missed a long field goal on its next possession. It remained an 11-point game, and Texas was emotionally surging.

Gilbert would connect again with Shipley, this time for 28 yards into the end zone. For a minute, I thought I had fallen asleep. For the Longhorns to crawl back, the scoreboard reading 24-21 Bama, there was no way it was the same game I was watching before halftime. Alabama let off the gas with half the race to go; but fortunately for the Tide, Texas' luck would run out soon enough.

The Crimson Tide never again mounted a significant drive on its own. The Longhorns got the ball back with just over three minutes left, with a chance to either tie with a field goal, or win with a touchdown. Gilbert would be sacked by Eryk Anders on the drive's second play, forcing a fumble that would give the ball to the Tide on the Texas three yard line. Two plays later, it was 31-21 Bama. Game over.

Although the Alabama would tack on a cheap touchdown (after another Texas turnover) shortly after, making the final score a very misleading 37-21, no one will forget the thrill Texas provided in that final quarter. Losing its star quarterback on the first drive, facing a seemingly insurmountable deficit, Texas was able to catch an Alabama team on cruise control.

This game will be viewed many different ways, but not excluding one of the most lackluster coaching performances in recent bowl history. Saban and his crew nearly threw away the game from the start, with quirky plays and a terrible game plan. It only became worse; when Alabama did regain its composure (just as Texas lost its own) and a big lead, the coaches began to call plays like their team was up 24-6 with two minutes, rather than two quarters, left in the game.

Alabama won the game. The Crimson Tide are the 2009 BCS National Champions. But whether they, or anyone else, like it or not, this is a somewhat tainted title. The loss of McCoy was like Alabama losing its entire offensive line. And when Alabama actually played well, they weren't smart enough to follow through and put the game away. The Crimson Tide played down to a Texas team that was no more dangerous than a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team. That's not what national championship caliber teams do in the biggest game of the year.

But that's what the BCS gives us. Had this game been played 20 years ago, Boise State, which owned a TCU team that many had been calling for to play Alabama in the Rose Bowl, might have a shot at being voted No. 1. That's not the system we have, though. And no matter what anyone says to try to defend the BCS and its 2009 national champ, this year will be another that leaves all of us wondering "what if?"

Follow LBU on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to Linebacker-U.com by Email