toronto / texas homecoming

alabama won their opener over Minnesota 49-7. San Antonio native Terrence Graves passed for 240 yards and 2 TDs while he rushed in 3 TDs for 24 yards. 5 TDs in 2 and a half quarters. Marcus Minor was shaky in his debut in scrub time throwing 2 INTs however he did throw 1 TD. SO WR Chris Richard had 4 catches for 101 yards, However most impressive was Anthony Thomas who played both ways and returned Kickoffs and Punts. This sets up the game of the week against #8 Houston. This marks the homecoming for several members of the Crimson Tide. 6 Lonestar natives are starters:

SR QB Terrence Graves, San Antonio
SO HB Seth Sanchez, Socorro
SR TE Erick Goolsby, Richland Hills
JR DE Chris Battle, Weatherford
SR DE Dion Banks, Mission
JR MLB Bryan Jenkins, Clover Leaf

This will also be the first SBD game played outside the province of British Columbia, as the game will be played in Toronto. So tons of pressure. Okay my flight leaves in 2 hours and I haven’t packed

see ya

defensive unity?

okay I don’t want to look like a complete loner, but my flight home doesn’t leave until Christmas Day ($300 cheaper) thus the reason I am providing a defensive preview while packing and watching the Hawaii ASU bowl game on christmas eve

p.s. yes I do realize the bad gramma’ in the previous post, it was late

2013 Defense

Only 3 starters return, but all of them are 5 star players. 2nd Team All American Chris Battle and Dion Banks at DE, and nutcase LB #36 Darrell Johnson. The entire secondary comprises of 1st time starters and all are JRs from the same recruiting class in 2010. Only SS Chris Christian was a big time H.S. recruit, however this unit is fairly cocky as Brian Heath was talking smack all day to WR David Wayne during the Tide’s first practice. Now the biggest lost is at ROLB, however Aaron Mikulec’s replacement is not too shabby. Alex Branch is said to be the most talented athlete ever from the state of Alabama. He was the top ranked recruit in the class of 2011. Lining opposite him at LOLB is Darrell Johnson who attacked Branch with a crowbar in high school. However DJ36 (there are 3 D.Johnson’s on Defense) is warming up to the prodigy as he gave Branch a look approval in practice when he knocked out 4th string QB Jeremy Hood. Wannabe rapper / QB J-Hood had been spittin thrash all practice with his flashy moves, but a big hit by Branch put an end to that. Hood is now out for the year and will have to redshirt.

Hopefully this injury to Hood will bring all the egos on Defense together.

2013 schedule
Minnesota
at Houston #8 (needed a game in Texas for Graves)
Kentucky
at Arizona (SVSW)
Arkansas #10
at Georgia
Virginia Tech #15
at Ole Miss
Tennessee #25
at Mississippi St
LSU #13
Auburn

wow Colt Brennan 559 yards 5 TDs, might have to try Hawaii’s playbook

merry xmas see yall in the Tdot in two days

2013 offensive preview

okay so its 3amish on saturday and I think my friend whose visiting from Tucson is a bit mad a meet for not going to these table of stoned girls and starting some chit chat. Yes they were all cute and somewhat classy (we were at a low key hipster hours) but the last month of working 15 hours 7 days a week has gotten to me and I am pretty much always tired when I go out and devoid of any signs of enjoyment or life. So instead a siting with some decent half breed chick, I sit at home bring you the preview of my upcoming season. Yeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Back to back loses to Oklahoma in the national title game makes this a critcal year for Coach Joe Namath. Its bad enough that last year’s Bednarik award winner, Aaron Mikulec now suits up for the Baltimore Ravens, but for the first time in Stolenbike history, there is no one at HB or WR with an overall rating higher than 90. But still Bama has preseason ranking of 3, while Notre Dame is #2 and suprise suprise guess which team with a 31 game winning streak is sitting at #1. So here’s the preview.

Offense

Although SR QBTerrence Graves has been a key player since his Sophmore year, this is the first year he will have the QB position all to himself. And he will have to play the role of Vince Young and D.J. Shockley as there are no standouts at HB or WR. Depth is good at WR, but there doesn’t appear to be a breakout WR, so this year’s team will be using a lot of 4 and 5 WR sets. SR TE Eric Goolsby is actually the top receiver. SO HB Seth Sanchez, is a superstar in the making but he is not a true HB. Most likely the playbook of West Virgina, Texas Tech or Utah’s will be used. They will be utilize Graves’s running abilty. I ran some sets with Nevada’s “pistol offense” with incoming freshman Marcus Minor, and thing look good for 2014, but for 2013 the season is all in Graves’s hands and he might be doing more running than usual as only 2 starters return from last year’s O-Line

g’nite, defensive preview in the morning

nfl draft year II

1st-3 Steve Ferguson HB Green Bay
1st-12 Alphonso Cole FS New York Jets
1st-13 Travis Spicer QB Jacksonville
2nd-47 Kenny Thornton WR Washington
3rd-73 Aaron Mikulec OLB Baltimore
3rd-80 Gregg Lee MLB New Orleans
5th-146 John Ross C Jacksonville
6th-168 Eddie Mills CB Detroit
6th-179 Stephen Schilcher SS Cincinnati
7th-206 Brandon Crewes DT Cleveland

Ferguson the next Green Bay legend?

Spicer grew a goatee, he was immediately named starter

Are you kidding me? 3rd Round. Teams going to regret, plus he has Ray Lewis showing him the ropes. Mikulec took hazing well (thanks to Joanna Newsom) and Ray Lewis has taken him under his wing

nfl tide report year 1

while the Seniors from 2011 will never get over the overtime loss in the National Title game, life goes on. In my first year in Madden 13 members of the 2011 Crimson Tide squad were taken in the NFL Draft, 6 of whom were 1st round picks (including 1 overall Josh Reese).

And Josh Reese lived up to the hype. The Browns improved to 6-9 and Reese won Offensive Rookie of the Year with 1693 yards and 7Tds. Chad Arnold (SF 1st-2) struggled as a rookie starter as the 49ers went 2-14 but he did throw for 2,247 yards and 11 TDs. He is also growing more tolerant of the popularity of “Chad is Fab” t-shirts.

However I am most proud of CB Jason Miles (KC 2nd-58) and early entree WR Brandon Luke (CAR 1st-14), both were instrumental in their teams run to the Super Bowl. Luke was only the #4 WR, but he was the main man on PR and KR. But Jason Miles was a superstar. He was the Cheifs #1 CB and had the tough task of covering Steve Smith. Miles held him to 65 yards and 1 TD (yes I did watch the entire game while watching Laguna Beach Highlights on MTV overdrive and doing my laundry) in a 13-10 Super Bowl victory for the Chad Pennington led Cheifs. Miles’s part in the game, makes CR’s comments back on Nov 28 at 4:03 pm all the more sweet

take that Steve Smith

Go Chiefs

soundtrack for 2012

twas a great year for both Stolenbike & Riverdale Palm Trees, and rightfully so here is the youtube video soundtrack for 2012:

please note that Blackup It’s the Backup was supposed to be the intro song, however due to the graphic nature of the video, Youtube took it down.

Blur “Universal” & Slim Thug “Like a Boss”

- The last three years at Arizona have been defined by their two star QBs. Univeral was Zelman’s song and Like A Boss was Wright’s, as illustrated in this highlight reel , back in 2010.

P.McCartney & Stevie Wonder Ebony and Ivory

- In the post-Chad Arnold era, Bama had their own QB controversy, but coach Namath choose the two QB system and it brought racial harmony to the state of Alabama.

Los Abandoned Van Nuys es Very Nice

- Latino American influence was huge in both dynasties (although there were some problems), hopefully bringing in more hispanic girls to both schools. Best latin player gets this award.

Young Jeezy “I love It” and “My Hood”

- Despite the regional differences in the Bama locker room ,these Young Jeezy tracks brought made everyone happy

Joanna Newsom – Bean Sprout “The Sprout and The Bean” & Jewel “Who Will Save Your Soul”

- Not everyone likes the hip hop music. Because most of ethnically challenged players on both Dynasties don’t grow up dodging bullets or having to go through rap battles they tend to develop WASPy problems, such as Alcoholism (Mikulec), Religious self doubt (Selmon/Zelman) or Depression (Spicer) and thus the need for songs of salvation from Jewel and long ones from Joanna Newsom

Aimee Mann “Wise Up”

Despite Zona’s offensive domination, The Oregon and ASU game showed the holes in the secondary which proved costly against West Virginia in the finals. But regardless of the loss, Zona’s season ends with a smile, just like this video.

R.Kelly “World’s Greatest”

Despite the losses, we still love these teams and for better or worse leaves us more eager to play more years in our dynasty. But even if we threepeat, we’ll always remeber our 2012 teams.

full playlist

yes!

alabama anthem slideshow

the anti-adam banks & josh reese

hey everyone, remember Adam Banks in the Mighty Ducks movies. He played for the Hawks, but boundry rules forced him to play for the Ducks and he wasn’t welcomed with open arms until he played like played like a star. Same held true for Alabama legend RB Josh Reese in my dynasty. He transferred to Bama from Ohio St. talking all this smack about the South and he wasn’t accepted by the Crimson Tide faithfull until he proved his worth on the field.

So on that note I present to you these jackasses, who have decided that they rather get P/T in the moonunitwesterneastern conference, than provide much needed depth to a national tilte contended

Carlos Roberts HB FR Hemet, CA – UCF
William Fuller HB Valley, AL – Troy
Kurt Jones G Edmond, OK – Troy

This left me with one running back, Seth Sanchez (he’s not even a true HB, recruited as an ATH), going into recruiting. I can handle the Fuller and Jones transfers as they were both lightly recruitied. Although Fuller did end his rsFR season with an 87 OVR. However the Carlos Roberts transfer hurts. When this Orange County star signed with Alabama, I was very excited and saw him as the future of the program. But the wealth of talent at HB put him at #4 on the depth chart, the transfer would be understandable except for the fact that he accused the program of racism. He said that the program was giving Sanchez p/t in order to attract more Latin girls to Bama.

As for Fuller and Jones, let’s just say that they were roomates the last two years. And I will schedule Troy in 2014 when they are eligible to play

The other players on the 2012 roster who will not get their degrees at Alabama are All American’s John Ross and David McCullar, both true JRs who declared for the NFL draft with the blessing of Coach Namath

These loses set up an interesting off-season.. report to come

MV

this hurts

here are scenes from the 2012 National Title Game in Miami.

I had slept pretty early on sunday night after 1456 straight days of work. So I woke up at 4 AM monday, watched some soccer highlights from Spain and was ready to play. I prepped well for the event with a good luck charm, french press coffee and some waffles

gametime monday morning

SR HB Steve Ferguson on the cover of ESPN

things look good after a U of A victory in the godonlyknows Bowl over Utah St, the team that CL beat earlier in the year. Was this a sign?

1st quarter got off to a good start. Mikulec contained the running game and would not let Brandon Davis scramble. 0-0 at the end of the first.

this INT by their OLB Brandon McCaleb (who finished 2nd to Mikulec in Bendarik Voting: errr can we say Vince Young to Reggie Bush, the Defensive version) turned around the game. OU would score 17 straight points. However two perfectly orchestrated drives by Terrence Graves brought the score to 17-14 at the half

nerves got the best of me in this game and polishing off my coffee probably didn’t help. It was OU domination from here. They would go on to shut out my offence. There was nothing I could do. It hurt too much to take anymore screenshots. OU wins their 31st straight game and their 2nd national title in 2 years

Final Key Stats

Bama
Graves 11-15-108-2
Spicer 3-7-38-0-1
Ferguson 3 RUSH YARDS
Curry 1-76-1 (very proud of this 2 star recruit)
Wayne 3-14-1
Thomas 3-48
Thornton 2-19 (they double teamed him like crazy)
Richard 2-26

Mikulec 9 tackles

OU
Brandon Davis 20-26-252-2-1
Jonathan Young 4-39 (McCullar did a good job on the star WR)
J. Barbour 2-72-2 (this BB player 6′7 225, was clutch, has no shot at NFL 89 OVR)
Bluementhal 7-64 (this guy was tough and will be a star in the NFL 99OVR)

OU 31, BAMA 14

USC would go undefeated as well with a 35-3 victory over PSU in the Rose Bowl, while Bama dropped to #4 in both polls

winning isn’t everything

i used to think that the phrase: “winning isn’t everything” was garbage, but look at my favorite teams of all time

85 Jays
87 Jays
93 Leafs
96 Jarvis Basketball
01 Raptors
04 Gonzaga BB
05 USC Football
06 Marissa & Alex
11/12 Wildcats
12 Bama

none of those teams won a championship, yet they will all have a special place in my heart, more so than the 93 Jays, as magical as that was. So this video not only goes out to 2012 ZONA BAMA, but for all those special teams who never won , sorry I’m tearing up again. But instead of sadness, its joy