Off week comes at a perfect time

By Chris Stewart
I took a lot of ribbing from my media brethren two weeks ago after Mike Shula's weekly press conference leading up to the Florida game.

After Mike had been asked all the obligatory questions from the Alabama media about how the Tide would handle Urban Meyer's spread offense and from the Florida media about Don Shula, I asked, what I thought at the time, was a pretty good question.

"How big is it to have an off week FOLLOWING a game of this magnitude?"

Coach Shula gave me zippo. "I didn't even know we had an off week after this one", was his reply. You could hear crickets chirping. "We don't worry too much about our off week schedule."

Thanks Coach.

Of course after the press conference, my friends couldn't WAIT to hound me about the question that had gone over like a lead balloon. In fairness to Coach Shula, I probably didn't phrase the question as well as I should have. In fairness to myself, everybody was so locked in on the match up with the Gators that no one could even comprehend looking past the showdown in Bryant-Denny.

Which was my point, exactly.

Had Alabama NOT dominated the Gators from start to finish, and actually lost the game, the season would NOT have come to an end with a 4-1 record. There still would have been six games remaining, with every goal except for one (a national championship) very much within reach. And a week off to regroup, refocus, and re-energize for the final six weeks of the regular season, would have been much needed.

But that didn't happen, and what occurred could be more difficult to deal with. The Tide rolled, the Gators were gutted, and a national television audience witnessed the carnage. Sports Illustrated put Brodie Croyle, as a symbol of the Tide, on its cover. Every other national periodical and publication that deals with college football,l echoed SI's opinion that "Bama is Back".

Alabama went from being among "others receiving votes" in the major polls prior to the trip to South Carolina, to a consensus top 10 three weeks later after the disputing the "Urban Legend".

The potential distractions don't end with high national rankings and magazine cover stories.

The only drop of cold water on an exhilarating victory over Florida came with nine minutes to play, when Tyrone Prothro suffered one of the most grotesque injuries I have ever witnessed. An extra week to absorb his loss to this football team (and additional time for others to understand their increased role in his absence) is certainly welcomed. Additional time was definitely needed to absorb both the loss of Prothro and the pats on the back.

Rest is also a nice benefit to the off week. Although lots of practice time took place last week, most of the veterans got a chance to take it easy for the first time since fall camp got underway in early August.

That time off will hopefully help as even tougher work lies ahead. A road trip to Oxford should not be a major stumbling block, although home games with Tennessee and LSU, and a road trip to Auburn certainly could be.

The bar has been raised - dramatically. The expectations among some have gone from "a good bowl trip" to "Pasadena or bust".

Maybe that stupid question about an off week being important wasn't quite so stupid, after all.

Chris Stewart is the pre and post game host for the Crimson Tide Sports Network's coverage of Alabama Football. In addition, he hosts a talk show each weekday morning from 7 until 9 on Tuscaloosa's Sports Radio 1420, The Tusk. Stewart is also the radio play-by-play announcer for University of Alabama men's basketball.   Bama Fever is a company devoted to providing University of Alabama Crimson Tide merchandise. We have stores in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa  and Huntsville and have now created an online catalog for Crimson Tide fans all over the world searching for that hard to find merchandise. We carry over 7,000 items in our stores and have posted many of these items right here in our online catalog.

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Read all of Chris's 2005 Game Recaps