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Bama Pitches Shutout on Senior Day

by John Mitchell

On Saturday in Tuscaloosa Alabama fans said goodbye to the seniors as they played for the final time at Bryant-Denny Stadium in front of a capacity crowd. The group of seniors include: (in numerical order) Roy Upchurch, Cory Reamer, Marquis Johnson, Justin Woodall, Javier Arenas, Eryk Anders, Terrence Cody, Mike Johnson, Drew Davis, Collin Peak, Brandon Deaderick, Lorenzo Washington, and Leigh Tiffin.

This group of seniors went through a lot. Many of them were around when Mike Shula was the Head Coach and the program was in a dark time. Then, Nick Saban came in and the Tide arose from those dark times back into National prominence. They were there for the undefeated regular season last year and breaking the six game losing streak against arch-rival Auburn . They went through the SEC Championship and Sugar Bowl losses last season.

Now they are apart of a team that moved to 11-0 following the 45-0 win over Chattanooga as they look toward their final regular season game against Auburn before they meet Florida in the Dome.

As for this game, it was never close. Alabama completely dominated the hapless Mocs. Alabama had 422 yards of offense to just 84 for Chattanooga .

Mark Ingram made the most of his short afternoon. He carried the ball 11 times for 102 yards and punched in two touchdowns. It was the third consecutive game with 100+ rushing yards and sixth of his last seven games with the lone exception being his 99 yard performance against Tennessee .

Ingram’s last carry of the afternoon was his 40 yard touchdown run coming with 9:53 left in the 2^nd quarter. 100+ more yards with two more touchdowns strengthens his case for Alabama ’s first Heisman trophy.

Trent Richardson opened up the scoring with a 2 yard touchdown run coming with 5 minutes left in the first quarter. That touchdown was followed by two more first quarter touchdowns for the Crimson Tide.

Two minutes later Mark Ingram ran it 25 yards into the endzone following a deep pass play to Julio Jones. With under a minute remaining in the first quarter Greg McElroy found Julio Jones in the endzone for a 19 yard touchdown to give Alabama a 21-0 lead that the end of the first.

Greg McElroy completed 6 of his 11 passes for 80 yards and a touchdown in a short afternoon for him as well.

Chattanooga was forced to punt early in the 2^nd quarter and Javier Arenas fielded the punt and took it 66 yards into the endzone. That punt return touchdown was historic as it gave him his seventh in his career and set a new SEC record.

Mark Ingram ran it 40 yards into the endzone to give Alabama a 35-0 lead going into the half. After that Nick Saban called off the dogs and gave the backups some valuable playing time.

Alabama would add 10 more points in the second half thanks to Leigh Tiffin’s NCAA leading 25^th made field goal and Roy Upchurch’s 21 yard touchdown run.

Alabama won the game 45-0 giving them their first shutout of the 2009 season and their first since their 36-0 win in last season’s Iron Bowl against Auburn .

This game was nothing more than a glorified scrimmage as Alabama shifts its focus toward the Iron Bowl on Friday against Auburn . Later this week, I will have an Iron Bowl preview for you.

After the Iron Bowl against the Tigers Alabama heads to Atlanta to face off with Florida in the SEC Championship game. Alabama must remain focused against Auburn this week to reach 12-0 before they face Florida .

I don’t really see Alabama losing focus at this point in the season. Nick Saban will have his team prepared to play Auburn on the short week. This team is focused on the task at hand and they are going to be pumped going for back to back victories against Auburn .

Submitted 11/23/09 

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