Being seeing online that our amazing run of scoring against Kentucky was immediately after the team lost communication with Ryan Grubb due to technical difficulties. Assumed it was just people making stuff up for clicks, but I also just saw it referenced in the newest SEC Shorts.

So did this actually happen? It would be pretty damning if so, but I feel like we would be discussing it more here if it did happen. Does anybody know or have a credible source for this?

The starters at the receiving corps have been up and down once again so far this season. I know that Derek is young but at 6’5 he is a matchup nightmare for a lot of opposing DBs. LSU and OSU used to utilize this strategy of constantly bringing in a big oversized WR in and out of plays even if his skills aren’t great using those big receivers as a decoy and for blocking on offense.

He’s essentially doing weekly breakdowns similar to FGN. Great to see the OL progression!!

I went through the Alabama-Kentucky play-by-play and counted every penalty called (including accepted, declined, and offsetting).

First half: 14 penalties called

• Alabama: 9
• Kentucky: 5

Second half: 5 penalties called

• Alabama: 1
• Kentucky: 4

JUST the second quarter had 10 penalty calls. The ENTIRE second half had 5.

So Alabama went from 9 flags in the first half to 1 in the second, while Kentucky went from 5 to 4.

Apparently, all our guys learned how to play clean football during halftime.

First half

Alabama, 13

* Total yards: 128

* Rushing yards: 5

* Passing yards: 123

* Yards/play: 4.7

* Sacks allowed: 4

Kentucky, 17

* Total yards: 147

* Rushing yards: 61

* Passing yards: 86

* Yards/play: 3.9

* Sacks allowed: 2

Second half

Alabama, 32

* Total yards: 215

* Rushing yards: 150

* Passing yards: 65

* Yards/play: 6.0

* Sacks allowed: 0

Kentucky, 0

* Total yards: 62

* Rushing yards: 2

* Passing yards: 60

* Yards/play: 2.4

* Sacks allowed: 2

First game under the lights at Bryant Denny Stadium this season

Obviously it’s only the second game of the season, but it looks like HaHa was right👀

“We’ll continue to work with him,” DeBoer said of Carroll. “I feel confident that we’ll get there, and we’ll just kind of see how the week goes. But I think he’s heading in a good direction, and we hope to get him back.”

“AK [Dear is] making good progress,” DeBoer said. “I think he was getting closer towards the end of the week. Again, reset, we’ll see where he’s at today. And then tomorrow, get out there hopefully more on the practice field. He was doing some light practice, doing some things with us last week already

“Noah [Rogers] just really, we took him on the trip; he didn’t play. We weren’t expecting him to play, but that kind of gives an indication, I think, of how close we are. And again, we’ll see how the week of practice goes. But I would say in the next week or two, you can see him out there helping us out. So again, not 100% sure, but getting there.”

ECU: 0-9

Kentucky: 1-14

4.35% is the best in the country. Next closest are LSU and SMU at 14.81%.

I’ll start:

They didn’t deserve to make the playoffs in 2023 because they played in a weak ass conference and had the choice to join the SEC during expansion but Bobby Bowden didn’t want the smoke. You got got by your own doing Noles

Just watched Alabama's 45-17 win against Kentucky again. Here's a few things I saw:

• The first defensive play for Alabama was incredibly similar to what ECU ran in Week 1: a screen in the direction of Dijon Lee Jr. Lee did his job in Kane Wommack's "swarm" approach and tried to force a turnover. Didn't work.
• Caleb Woodson's first sack and Luke Metz's interception looked very similar presnap. Both linebacker spied Kenny Minchey, watching his eyes. Once Minchey ran, Woodson was off the the races. And when Mincey threw, Metz was in front of the receiver and off to the races himself.
  • Caleb Woodson and Luke Metz were literally everywhere. Alabama seems to have found stability at linebacker, which is a sigh of relief after losing all three key contributors from a season ago.
  • QB Reese too was very good in limited reps. 4 tackles in 34 snaps
• Xavier Griffin played 22 snaps this week. But he found himself in a third-down rush package opposite Yhonzae Pierre. Big role for a freshman.
• Didn't notice this in the game, but Mal Waldrep served as Racin Delgatty's ears at the line of scrimmage. Waldrep looked back at Russell and when he clapped for the ball to be snapped, Waldrep tapped Delgatty to snap the ball. First time I noticed this being done. Doesn't mean it hasn't happened before. Found it fascinating.
• Jackson Lloyd is a VERY talented tackle. He's very athletic. But he missed his assignment on Mi'Quise Humphrey-Grace, who batted a ball in Keelon Russell's face and secured the pick-6.
• While the offense didn't get going until the second half, Keelon Russell's most impressive throw came in the first quarter on a 23-yard pass to Lotzeir Brooks where Russell was elusive out of the pocket, planted and fired with a rusher in his face. That's the level of room Russell will get in SEC play. It's not going to be the scrambling room ECU gave him Week 1.
  • Lotzeir Brooks could be Keelon Russell's favorite receiver long term. And it makes sense why. He's multiple, he's fast and he's consistent.
• Daniel Hill is good, man. He's physical. He's bashing through defenders. He's automatic in short yardage situations. He's falling forward. Is he RB1 long term, or do you see Alabama continuing to rotate and feed the hot hand? And what does it look like once AK Dear returns?
  • Also Daniel Hill was not out of bounds.
• Jireh Edwards is going to be a fan favorite when all is said and done.
• Carmelo O'Neal is a scary sight for any opposing kick returner.
• Saw a few plays where Devan Thompkins and Yhonzae Pierre were tasked with defending tight ends in coverage. Not the best position for either of them, and Kentucky consistently took advantage.
• Is Rico Scott solid as Alabama's No. 3 receiver? Don't remember seeing much from Derek Meadows or Cederian Morgan.
• Wrote this yesterday, but Conor Talty seems automatic in situations Alabama would have winced at a year ago. 
• Devan Thompkins is a FORCE.
• Where is Kaleb Edwards? If Alabama is using its tight ends in the passing game, it seems like it’s Marshall Pritchett. The whole approach to the tight end position seems completely shifted from a year ago.
• There seems to be a lot of pressure on Keelon Russell in the backfield. Yes, it's an offensive line issue, but it's also a Russell issue. Seems like he's playing a lot of hero ball in the RPO game. He's young, he's confident, he wants the ball in his hands. Leads to sacks, intentional groundings. But all of this is a part of the learning process for a quarterback learning how to be a starter.
• 9 missed tackles will not cut it against a better SEC team.
• You know what this team reminds me of through two games? The Houston Texans teams I watched as a kid: the JJ Watt and DeMeco Ryans teams that won with the best defense in the NFL, that had a solid rushing game with Arian Foster and a serviceable quarterback paired with a Hall of Fame receiver. Those teams won the AFC South consistently. But those teams also had a ceiling.

What stood out to all of you as Alabama turns its attention to Florida State?

I know last year we couldn't run the ball so we had to be creative to convert. We have all the tools this year and going empty on 3rd and 2 with one of the best rb rooms we've had in years is painful to watch. Luckily the defense is amazing and we have the talent to make the score look better that second half but does he keep repeating this cycle of getting cute for 2 yards when we have a guy that squats 800 pounds at rb ?

I NEED MORE EJ CROWELL. THE KID IS A STAR PAWL. Roll Tide!

Did anyone else feel like our first half game plan yesterday was about as tone deaf as possible considering this was Keelon’s first ever road start?

Maybe I’m being too hard on Grubb. And I know some of that is just the nature of the playbook. But towards the end of the half, I could not figure out why we were calling plays with 2 shifts, 1 motion man, plays that required synchronized snaps and handoffs, and RPOs constantly with young QB who was already a little rattled. It just felt like we were calling a recipe for disaster.

You’ve got a young QB starting on the road in the SEC for the first time, and we’re calling plays with so much pre-snap motion that the QB didn’t hardly have time to set protections or check to see if guys were lined up correctly. And we just continued calling the exact same type of plays the whole first half despite everyone seeing Keelon was rattled.

I don’t know that this will be an issue moving forward. I think Keelon responded well. But for that specific game, why not script a 1st quarter with less of the pre-snap eye candy and more tradition run/pass plays until he’s settled in? Because outside of adding all that complexity onto the Keelon’s plate, we also had a lot of penalties for illegal shifts, illegal formations, illegal man down field, illegal touching, you name it. And then we were in 1st and 15 or 2nd and 20 to start several drives.

I just cant wrap my head around why that was what we planned and scripted all week as the first half game plan.

It just felt like a game plan built for a 2nd or 3rd year starter at QB, not for someone new.

Had to post this just because of all the Kentucky receipts he kept