After Alabama's fluke loss to Mississippi there were some great bargains on the Tide for a month or so, particularly in road games. I bet them as small favorite at both Texas A&M and Mississippi State. During that Mississippi State telecast the commentators started talking about Manny Diaz, and showed him on the sideline. I was surprised. I didn't even know he had taken that job.
Almost immediately I relaxed. I was more confident in my wager. I always viewed Diaz as more interesting than effective. Like Dan Campbell the recent Dolphins interim coach he talked tough aggressive strategy but didn't dependably apply it. Most often he picked on weaklings like a bully but defaulted to safe against better foes once his defense started to show signs of frailty in those games.
Anyway, I remember Mississippi State threatened early and went for it on 4th down near the goal line in a scoreless game. Once that play didn't work I mostly turned the channel and had confidence Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin would have more than enough answers for Dan Mullen and Manny Diaz. Granted the talent level wasn't identical. The score mounted as I watched other games.
A friend of mine from Las Vegas touted BYU in that 2013 game hosting Texas. BYU was something like an 8 point home underdog, if I remember correctly. My friend who is nicknamed Digger said that BYU had changed offensive strategies radically from 2012 and he didn't think Texas would be prepared for it, in such an early season game. I should have wagered but did not. I remember congratulating Digger after the outcome, and then being disappointed that Diaz was fired so quickly. When there's a lopsided result like that you can almost guarantee the vulnerability will show up again, with room to pounce.
The strange aspect was that BYU punished Texas again the following season, this time on the road and against the Strong regime. If anything it was worse than the year before. I was driving home from a Canes home game when I heard that score in progress. Sometimes these home and home matchups end up lopsided, for no apparent reason. Texas was slaughtered in both the home and road matchups with UCLA in the mid to late '90s.
Notice that the SEC all but avoids those home and road encounters these days. Too much uncertainty and therefore risk. Alabama previously played home and home all the time, including 4 meetings against USC in the '70s. That was awesome. I assumed it would always be that way. Nope. Now Alabama plays one season opener on a carefully selected neutral site every year against a name brand opponent. That is designed to skirt any claim that they don't take out of conference risks, but really it's hardly bold. It's bold by SEC standards.
The two names I mentioned were Clancy Pendergast and DeWayne Walker. I was hoping we would pursue those guys. Undervalued, IMO, while currently stuck in low level NFL assistant jobs that they might be willing to depart. Both have directed effective attacking college defenses. I guess I think more along a West Coast point of view in some cases, since USC reportedly offered its defensive job to Pendergast and now is apparently considering Walker if Pendergast turns down the role, as rumored. If anybody became overlooked it was DeWayne Walker after spending a few seasons as head coach of New Mexico State.
With Diaz I would anticipate a defense that brutalizes and devours the outmanned foes early on the schedule, leading to the typical overboard pronouncements of how far we've improved and where we are going. That's familiar many times recently, including the 2007 opener, if I recall, and as recently as the win over Florida a couple of seasons ago even though we were quite fortunate in that game.
Per usual the posters on fan sites like this have absolutely no clue regarding the burden of "Top 5 in the country" and "Best in the country" claims. Those are the "kill," posters, the parodies. I guess they are necessary for entertainment value.
