Tide Tidbits - November 11, 2008

'Bama continues 'revenge tour'
The next two opponents are Auburn and Mississippi State, after all, two teams mired in disappointing seasons who are a combined 3-8 in Southeastern Conference games. Time to start gearing up for that matchup with No. 3 Florida in the league title game, right? Not for a team that has lost two straight to Mississippi State, Saturday's opponent, and an excruciating six in a row to chief rival Auburn. "We know that they've beat us the past two years, and it makes us mad, OK?" quarterback John Parker Wilson said. "We want to go out there and win the game to keep doing what we've done this season. We've just kind of had a bad taste in our mouth the last couple of years, them and Auburn."

Rashad Johnson is everywhere, grabbing five picks in four games for the Crimson Tide
The Rashad Johnson accolades tour took him to a studio across the University of Alabama campus Monday morning, where he filmed a segment on ESPN's morning show, "First Take." "They made me feel comfortable," Johnson said. "It was fun to talk to those guys." Late Saturday night, it took him on a 10-minute detour, live on ESPN's radio. A half-hour earlier, he was entertaining national writers. A few hours before that, the Crimson Tide senior safety was seemingly everywhere else.

Tide ‘D’ makes adjustments in second half
Alabama went into halftime of Saturday’s game against LSU feeling fortunate the game was tied 14-all. But Nick Saban didn’t think it would stay tied if his team couldn’t do a better job against LSU’s running game. “We didn’t fit the runs as well as we have,” the coach said. “We played their run much better in the second half. We fit the runs better, we played the runs better. The results were evident. LSU rushed 23 times in the first half and 23 times in the second half. The Tigers had 154 yards on the ground at halftime and just 47 after intermission.

UA's Upchurch 'questionable' for MSU game
The feared injury bug that Alabama has largely avoided on its rise to No. 1 is now starting to offer a few worrisome nibbles. One contributing Crimson Tide player - receiver Earl Alexander - was held out of Monday's practice because of a new injury, and another wasn't even there at all. Tailback Roy Upchurch was noticeably absent with a persistent and mysterious pain in his neck. As a result, he is in need of more medical evaluation. He is "questionable" for Saturday's 6:45 p.m. game against Mississippi State, according to Alabama coach Nick Saban.

Saban puts LSU fans in despair
On that November night in 2007, LSU survived a bloody brawl in Bryant-Denny Stadium and a small group of their fans were hooting and hollering about Nick Saban, decrying Alabama's current state while boasting of their own lofty ranking and likely shot at a national championship. A year later, the most repugnant and pathetic group of fans in college football was strikingly silent. There was little mouth from LSU Nation, but a few who could manage three or four words without a hiccup and a stumble filled the cool autumn air with incendiary insults for the victorious Tide. All of those fans who claimed not to care when Saban arrived at Alabama in January 2007 are now stuck in the mud with his successor — Lester Miles. Good luck. And one simple question: Who's your daddy, now?

Roll Tide!