Noah.Dreams
10-29-2005, 07:04 PM
Tide looks to keep up its big-play ways
Saturday, October 29, 2005
STEVE KIRK
News staff writer
TUSCALOOSA - Pontiac has donated so much money to the University of Alabama's general scholarship fund this season, the auto maker should consider building a plant here and marching in today's 9 a.m. homecoming parade.
The total is up to $20,000 after the Crimson Tide football team won an unprecedented fourth Pontiac Game Changing Performance this week. During the season, sports cable giant ESPN nominates three plays, fans nominate one, then fans vote online for the one play that most changes the outcome of a game.
If it's big plays you like, you've come to the right team.
Even during an offensive drought when skeptical Tide fans thought the big plays were over due to two-time winner Tyrone Prothro's broken leg, their defense saved the day and won the award, to boot.
Last Saturday's 6-3 victory over rival Tennessee was provided courtesy of senior safety Roman Harper, who received 72 percent of the vote and earned his school its latest $5,000 from Pontiac after a head-first, forced fumble late in the fourth quarter. It knocked the ball out of the end zone for a touchback, preserving a tie score and setting up his offense's game-winning field-goal drive.
Whether the spiritual karma that Harper talked about - he didn't know he'd even hit the ball - carries over into today's 2 p.m. game against Utah State at Bryant-Denny Stadium remains to be seen.
The only thing that isn't a mystery is how Harper's head coach feels about his good fortune.
"If Roman doesn't come in there like he does and hit like he did, that ball's not going to come out," the Crimson Tide's Mike Shula said. "So, you can call that good fortune that the ball went out, but it's good fortune for us that we've got a guy like Roman Harper going in there hitting as hard as he did."
The dream-like season for Alabama (7-0) has not only produced more wins thus far than Shula enjoyed in either of his first two seasons, but it's produced three other plays that ESPN and Pontiac recognized as the nation's biggest:
Prothro's 42-yard acrobatic, backward catch around a defender's back during a 30-21 victory over Southern Miss on Sept. 10. It took place on the Southern Miss 1-yard line, setting up a touchdown that cut into an 11-point Southern Miss lead.
Keith Brown's catch and run after a quick inside pass from Brodie Croyle went for a 46-yard TD during a 37-14 victory over South Carolina on Sept. 17. Brown broke two tackles and outraced everyone to break a 7-7 tie.
Prothro caught an 87-yard TD pass from Croyle on Alabama's first offensive play during its 31-3 victory over favored Florida on Oct. 1. The rout was on.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
STEVE KIRK
News staff writer
TUSCALOOSA - Pontiac has donated so much money to the University of Alabama's general scholarship fund this season, the auto maker should consider building a plant here and marching in today's 9 a.m. homecoming parade.
The total is up to $20,000 after the Crimson Tide football team won an unprecedented fourth Pontiac Game Changing Performance this week. During the season, sports cable giant ESPN nominates three plays, fans nominate one, then fans vote online for the one play that most changes the outcome of a game.
If it's big plays you like, you've come to the right team.
Even during an offensive drought when skeptical Tide fans thought the big plays were over due to two-time winner Tyrone Prothro's broken leg, their defense saved the day and won the award, to boot.
Last Saturday's 6-3 victory over rival Tennessee was provided courtesy of senior safety Roman Harper, who received 72 percent of the vote and earned his school its latest $5,000 from Pontiac after a head-first, forced fumble late in the fourth quarter. It knocked the ball out of the end zone for a touchback, preserving a tie score and setting up his offense's game-winning field-goal drive.
Whether the spiritual karma that Harper talked about - he didn't know he'd even hit the ball - carries over into today's 2 p.m. game against Utah State at Bryant-Denny Stadium remains to be seen.
The only thing that isn't a mystery is how Harper's head coach feels about his good fortune.
"If Roman doesn't come in there like he does and hit like he did, that ball's not going to come out," the Crimson Tide's Mike Shula said. "So, you can call that good fortune that the ball went out, but it's good fortune for us that we've got a guy like Roman Harper going in there hitting as hard as he did."
The dream-like season for Alabama (7-0) has not only produced more wins thus far than Shula enjoyed in either of his first two seasons, but it's produced three other plays that ESPN and Pontiac recognized as the nation's biggest:
Prothro's 42-yard acrobatic, backward catch around a defender's back during a 30-21 victory over Southern Miss on Sept. 10. It took place on the Southern Miss 1-yard line, setting up a touchdown that cut into an 11-point Southern Miss lead.
Keith Brown's catch and run after a quick inside pass from Brodie Croyle went for a 46-yard TD during a 37-14 victory over South Carolina on Sept. 17. Brown broke two tackles and outraced everyone to break a 7-7 tie.
Prothro caught an 87-yard TD pass from Croyle on Alabama's first offensive play during its 31-3 victory over favored Florida on Oct. 1. The rout was on.