LA ESQUINA

Welcome back to this championship edition of La Esquina. I hope you enjoy this Friday morning delight.

It’s here. Alabama. #1 vs. #2…this is the heavyweight fight we have all been waiting for. Scared? You should be. This is the toughest test of the year and a de facto national championship game if you ask me…the SEC champ is not losing to anyone in Pasadena. Before we get to the nitty gritty on BAMA lets recap last week’s glorious performance against the once mighty but now tiny Florida State Seminoles.

First, lets just say that it was a perfect send off for the seniors. From the early day ceremonies where Tebow came out of the tunnel teary eyed and Spikes epically kissed the field through the completion of the very last victory lap around Ben Hill Griffin stadium. Little baby Jesus Timmy Tebow had a Heisman-esque performance with 5 touchdowns. He is right back in Heisman contention nipping on the heels of Colt McCoy. On a side note, I think it’s a joke that McCoy is considered by most “experts” right now as the clear Heisman leader when you consider that his stats are coming against Big 12 defenses which are embarrassingly inferior to those that Timmy goes up against week in and week out in the SEC. Don’t believe me? Check the stats and look at the average defensive rankings of the schools Colt’s played vis-à-vis Timmy. But I digress.

Another big shout out to Chico Suave a.k.a. Aaron Hernandez. That was his “pay attention to the best Tight End in College Football” coming out game. After that performance he vaulted into Mel Kiper’s Big Board (he has him going in the 1^st round, 19^th overall and ahead of Spikes). He is really a superior athlete. Somebody that big and strong should not be able to move like he does in the open field. In that second touchdown he must have juked about 7 criminoles, including Greg Reid who whiffed on him so bad it looked like somebody ghetto tripped him. Hernandez is also extremely consistent…think about it…when is the last time that guy dropped a ball? The correct answer is NEVER. Go Chico…it’s your b-day…Puerto Rico…Oohhhhh!

As predicted, we basically retired Bobby Bowden. He was summarily fired after that game. FSU had a run in the 90s where they finished in the top 5 for 14 years in a row. That’s something I don’t think we’ll ever see again. They were that dominant. However, in his 34 years coaching as good as they were Bobby only has two (2) national championships to show for it…Urban already has two rings. Iconic? You betcha.

The score prediction was once again in the ballpark. LA ESQUINA said 34-17 and the final score was 37-10. Although to be honest, the game wasn’t that close. At one point we were up 30 to 0 and FSU on 4^th down near our goal line opted to kick the field goal to avoid a shutout as oppose to trying to stick it in for 7. That single moment right there shows how far that program has fallen…very emasculating for Free Shoes University. As an up and coming stud recruit from the state of Florida right now why on earth would you want to go to that clusterf*ck of a program…unless you want early playing time at the expense of winning, in which case, you’re not the type of guy we want to go to war with anyway. There were a ton of recruits at this game and the word is that we picked up a few huge silent commits. In sum, we couldn’t have scripted it any better.

ALABAMA:

So much to discuss here that I don’t know where to begin. Like when you first walk into a Vegas Casino…do you make a b-line for the craps table or get into some blackjack….and do you start playing 5-10 dollar hands at first or start heavy hitting with hundees right away? La Esquina will split the baby and kick things off with a 50-dollar drive by wager on black at the roulette.

Key Matchups:

(1) Our interior offensive line against Mount Cody and Rolando McClain: This will be the key to our offensive success in this game in my opinion. Alabama is first in the SEC against the run giving up a measly 77 yards a game while we are first in the SEC in rushing, averaging well over 200 yards on the ground per game. Something’s got to give…and it will depend on this match-up. Terrence Cody is a 6-5 370 pound force of nature (yes, that was not a typo, the dude looks like he snacks on little Mexican guys). Behind him at middle linebacker is a Spikes clone named Rolando McClain. Our line needs to control these two if we want to establish the run. I believe they can. We have Big Carl Johnson at LG (no slouch at 340 lbs, our biggest player) and the Pounceys next to him at C and RG (each coming in at 320) and both very athletic. I think we start running some jet sweeps wide to get Cody tired, make him run around a bit first and then try to pound it up inside with Tebow and preferably Moody (who will play in this game, although who knows how effective he’ll be with that bad ankle injury). Big Carl and the Pounceys are all first day picks in the NFL draft. They have to go out there and show it by out muscling Mount Cody and Ro Mac. It’s not very cerebral down in the middle of the trenches…go hit the guy across from you harder than he’s hitting you and try to drive him back. It’s man-to-man combat and we have to have it boys. Controlling the interior line of scrimmage will be crucial.

(2) Their Running Backs against our D-line and Linebackers: We have to stop the run. Above all else this is the most important item on the to do list on defense. They have Heisman candidate Mark Ingram and freshman sensation Trent Richardson…probably the best running back tandem in the country. We need Spikes to lay down the law early and handle these fools. Omar Hunter, Lawrence Marsch, Terron Sanders along with the rest of the Florida linebackers are on the spot. Alabama’s entire offensive philosophy is predicated on jamming the ball down your throat until they wear you down late in games. They want to control the clock with their running game and occasionally take a shot deep to Julio Jones or Colin Peek. Their passing game is a lot of bootleg rinky dink sh*t and none of what they do works if their running game is ineffective. We have to cut off the head of the snake first, and by that I mean plug up any running lanes and shut down their backs. I don’t care if Forrest Gump comes running through that whole, eat him alive Brandon! “Jennyyyyy…I am dizzyyy!!!”

(3) Julio Jones vs. our Secondary: We won’t just stick Haden on him…it depends on what side of the field Julio lines up at. This is due to our defensive scheme. So it will have to be a collective effort between Shake (#1) and Bake (#5) and our stud safeties. I am not that worried about this one, Julio has had a subpar year and we are first in the nation defensively against the pass. Julio might make a play here or there but he won’t make a big play, not this Saturday, not against our secondary, we are too good back there. I have a feeling Will Hill will finally make a huge play in this game…he’s been coming on in the last few games and I think he’s due.

(4) Special Teams: This in my opinion will be the key to the game. With these evenly matched defenses controlling the field position and supremacy in the kicking game just might make the difference. They have a better kicker but we have a better punter. They have Javier Arenas (one of the best return man in the game who can break one at any moment) and we have Brandon James (ditto). I give us the edge in kick/punt coverage and we are also more likely to block a kick (although Mount Cody had two huge blocks against Tennessee earlier in the year). I don’t know who wins this battle as both teams are extremely sound in the special teams area…but you can bet your gator culo that this aspect of the game will have a huge impact on who wins Saturday.

We now have to address the Carlos Dunlap incident this past week. Just a complete and abject failure in judgment by Big Los. Beyond stupid, he not only hurt the team and created a huge distraction on championship week but also hurt his draft status, which is predictably plummeting. The only upside to this whole thing is that he might come back now to play out his senior season. I also think, to be fair, that this isn’t the nuclear event some are making it out to be. This stuff happens to 20 year-old college kids, worse happened to La Esquina in his magical 3 year and then turn pro run in G-ville. Carlos is by all accounts a good kid who understands he made a stupid mistake and is completely shattered by it. He’ll bounce back and we should support him, he’s one of us and again, only a kid who drank a little too much. More important to me this week is the effect his absence will have on the game. Big Los will be missed but we have plenty of depth to throw at the Tide. A steady rotation of Trattou, Jay Howard, Willie Green and Duke Lemmens should do it. Keep these guys fresh for the 4^th quarter McCarney! It goes without saying that without Carlos there Cunningham’s play becomes that much more important. We need you Blur.

Let’s sprinkle in a mailbag here before we finalize our analysis on Alabama.

(1) “Is it true that Saban roofied Dunlap’s drink and planted him in the car?”

No. But Saban is a piece of sh*t though, only a notch above the anti-Christ from Tennessee. On a side note, did you see that Kiffin when asked who would win the game this week said it was tough to tell because Florida had the better players but Alabama had the better coaches? This guy loves to needle Urban. I hope he gets what’s coming to him and soon.

(2) “Is Carlos Dumbf*ck’s arrest the most significant arrest of a student athlete in Gator history?”

This is an interesting question. I am going to say no because the impact will be mitigated by our tremendous depth and other remaining stud defensive starters. But talk to me after the game. I think that in recent history the Marcus Thomas expulsion due to repeated marijuana use was more significant, he was the best defensive player on a much less talented defensive team. The other incident, although not technically an arrest but similar nonetheless that comes to mind is the Charlie Pell sanctions of the 80s, those set the program back close to a decade.

(3) “How bad is Janoris hip?”

He’s fine, he’s ready to roll. I expect him to be steady as always. He’ll be matched-up with Julio Jones often. Don’t be surprised if that savvy jackrabbit makes a big play or two against BAMA.

(4) “Aside from Carl Moore, who else has been given a redshirt?”

It’s hard to tell because final decisions on red shirts aren’t made until the end of the year. If I understand it correctly, and I may be a little bit off here as this is very convoluted, redshirts work as follows: You can ask for medical redshirts if a player gets hurt (like Carl Moore, Andre Debose, T.J. Lawrence and Matt Patchan this year) and also for lack of playing time. Specifically, if a player is held out of 75% of games (that means he can only see action in 3-4 games or else he loses his chance to redshirt). This is how most of the freshman get their redshirt, almost all of our incoming freshman class this year falls into the latter category except for Xavier Nixon, Mike Gilleslee, Dee Finley, and Jon Bostic I believe. I am not sure if Jelani Jenkins played too much and is ineligible for a redshirt; that will be interesting to follow. It’s a good policy because it allows some of these kids coming out of high school who may be undersized to put on some weight and sit and learn the college game for a year. I also believe that there is a cap on how many non-medical redshirts you can have per year and have heard that coaches sometimes fudge or make-up injuries in an attempt to get some guys medical redshirts.

Back to the game…these two teams are so evenly matched it’s eerie. They have Javier Arenas returning kicks and we have BJ. They have a 1^st round NFL linebacker in Ro Mac and we have Spikes. They have a great corner in Arenas and we have Haden. They have a dominant d-line and we have a dominant d-line. They have a great coach and we have a great coach. We have Chico Suave and they have the 6-7 stud tight end Colin Peek. The list goes on and on. Although, there is one place where we have a decided advantage. TIM TEBOW god bless his soul.

They have a very average quarterback and we have one of the best of all time, with a ton of big game experience to boot. Timmy and his ability to keep drives moving on 3^rd down will be the difference in this game in my opinion…and I am not in the minority here folks. I just don’t see McElroy outplaying Tebow or Tebow allowing this team to lose. He will do whatever it takes. I’ve always had this vision of a sluggish game where we are playing like poop and look like we are about to lose until Meyer decides to throw Timmy out there at linebacker to get everybody hyped. The crowed erupts as Timmy lays out a running back with a textbook tackle. Can you imagine how the Gator Nation would react? The point is, little baby Jesus will do whatever it takes.

There is another component to this match-up that scares me though that may allow BAMA to win. Coaching will play a big part here and if Urban gets outcoached by Saban (e.g. with those vaunted corner blitzes Saban loves or some other schematic wrinkle that we aren’t ready for) we will lose this game. The reason being that the talent level on the field is basically a wash. Allegedly Saban has been scheming to beat us all offseason. At the end of the day though, I have the utmost trust in Urban and Timmy. Gators win 27-17.

Go be champions,

Go extend the dynasty,

Go Gators!