Tide regrouping, changes planned

BOB HOLT
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama Coach Mike DuBose was a few minutes late for his Sunday media teleconference.
"I apologize for being late, but we just got out of a staff meeting," DuBose said. "Hopefully, it was a productive meeting."
It had to be more productive than Alabama's offense, which laid a big, fat goose egg against Southern Miss, losing 21-0 on Saturday night in Birmingham.
It was the kind of shocking loss that had a Birmingham columnist declaring Auburn, not the defending SEC champion Crimson Tide, the best team in the state.
A Tuscaloosa columnist ripped Alabama's coaches for not providing their players on offense with a game plan which would allow them to succeed.
DuBose, who is 22-17 in his fourth season at Alabama, said he can take the heat.
"I love this group of guys and they deserve better than what they're getting from me right now," DuBose said of his players. "People who love this university deserve better from me right now."
DuBose indicated there will be some changes on offense this week as the Tide (1-2) regroups for Saturday's game at Arkansas, but one thing that won't change is the starting quarterback.
Sophomore Tyler Watts made his first start of the season for the Tide in place of junior Andrew Zow, and DuBose said Sunday Watts is still Alabama's starter.
Watts completed 11 of 16 passes against Southern Miss, but for only 57 yards. He had 10 rushing attempts for 16 yards.
Zow, who is considered the better passer of the two, came off the bench in the fourth quarter and completed 8 of 18 passes for 65 yards with an interception that ended Alabama's last scoring opportunity.
"I thought Tyler did some good things, tried to run the offense that we asked to him to run, but had three or four passes dropped on him," DuBose said "There are some things we would have liked him to have done mechanically a little bit different, some situations we would have liked him to change the play ... But I thought overall that he played pretty good.
"I thought when Andrew came in he made some good decisions as far as throwing the football. But I don't see a change right now as far as the order of play."
With both quarterbacks returning from last season along with talented flanker Freddie Milons and four starting linemen, Alabama wasn't supposed to struggle on offense, much less be shut out.
"There's not a lot of flow, a lot of continuity to our offense," DuBose said. "We've got to go back and address some things there ... We're going to do some things that I think will help that.
"I'm not going to get into all of that right now. But I think in time it will all show itself.
"I do know we've got to do a better job of getting our best 11 football players on the field more, and that means (senior fullback) Dustin McClintock's got to be on the field more than he was."
DuBose said he also is contemplating making a change in the positioning of his assistant coaches, with offensive line coach Neil Callaway moving upstairs to the press box with quarterbacks coach Charlie Stubbs.
While Callaway has the offensive coordinator's title and is responsible for implementing the game plan during the week in practice, Stubbs calls the plays on game day.
"I'm still looking at the press box situation, and thinking about putting Neil up top to get another set of eyes up there," DuBose said. "Charlie and Neil would be able to converse that way."

This article was published on Monday, September 18, 2000

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