CECIL HURT: A year later, the memory is still vivid

It’s not as if it was just going to slip Dave Rader’s mind. It’s not as if he had just blocked last year’s Alabama-Auburn game from his mind, erasing the image of Brodie Croyle’s 11 express trips to the Jordan-Hare Stadium turf as carelessly as you’d misplace the grocery list.

It’s the sort of thing that no offensive coordinator is ever likely to forget.

But just in case Rader didn’t have that memory burned in his brain, particularly as his University of Alabama offense prepares to face Auburn yet again, he’s had plenty of friendly reminders.

“People bring it up," he said. “There’s always someone in this town there to remind you."

So while they won’t be forgetting the 11 sacks UA suffered last season, the one thing that Rader and the rest of the Crimson Tide offense can do this week is to prevent themselves from reliving it.

“We watch [that film] every day," Rader said Tuesday when asked about the Tide’s current preparations. “It has to affect you. For quite a few minutes at the start of that game, we did not play well. Our quarterback got hit too many times. And it doesn’t make me feel any better now than it did then."

Rader fielded several questions Tuesday about whether the Crimson Tide would be “prepared" for Auburn’s pass rush this season.

“If I just say that we are going to prepare to see that it doesn’t happen again, then that sounds like we didn’t prepare last year, and that’s not what I’m saying," Rader said. “But it is important. If the quarterback doesn’t get hit, then he can throw the ball better. If he throws the ball better, we can move better. And if we move the ball better, we can score more points, which is what we are trying to do. It’s a triple-tier effect. So I guess I’m saying 'Yes, we’ve got to make sure that doesn’t happen again.’"

It wasn’t a case of Auburn getting a pass rush through blitzing, either.

“They didn’t blitz us last year, not very much," said Tide fullback Tim Castille. “I know. I was there. Even in the fourth quarter, when we were having to throw it on every down, they only blitzed one or two times.

“They just beat us up front. And if I can beat you up front, then why would I blitz? We’ve got to do a better job this year."

Head coach Mike Shula also said he did not expect a repeat of the Tide’s nightmare.

“I think our line is better, and I think John Parker [Wilson] is more mobile than Brodie was, although Brodie might disagree with me," Shula said.

Whatever it takes, Alabama has to find some way to keep its quarterback standing in the early going. Recent history has favored the team that got going first in the game, although Alabama, which led at halftime in 2004, did not hold on to win that game.

In 2003, Auburn’s Carnell Williams scored on an 80-yard run just 15 seconds into the game. In 2005, while the Tide offense reeled under Auburn’s onslaught, the Tigers scored three quick touchdowns and took a 21-0 lead in less than 11 minutes. And while it’s out of the Alabama-Auburn context, the Tide found itself 14 points down to LSU quickly in last Saturday’s game and had to play from behind.

“If you look at history, that’s not a good position to be in in this game," Rader said.

For one thing, if an early deficit grows large enough, it forces a team to abandon any ground-based game plan and throw the ball more than it might otherwise choose to throw. That happened at LSU last weekend, and it happened at Auburn last season.

Obviously, Rader has spent long hours scheming on this weekend’s game plan. He also knows that Auburn’s defense usually has “something special" in reserve for the Alabama game. But the most important thing on offense might not be a trick play, or a particular call. It might be a memory, the recollection of last year’s line-of-scrimmage debacle -- and a collective Alabama will to see that it doesn’t happen again.

Cecil Hurt is sports editor of The Tuscaloosa News. Reach him at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0225.