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Alabama Football 2004: Best and Worst Sunday, January 02, 2005
-- Offensive play of the year: Toss sweep left at Arkansas. Ray Hudson followed an escort around the end, featuring key blocks from Wesley Britt, Evan Mathis and Le'Ron McClain, and jetted through the opening for an untouched 63-yard score, the Tide's longest offensive touchdown of the season. That play nudged out Brodie Croyle's perfectly fired 57-yard touchdown strike to Keith Brown in the opener, a symbol of what might have been for the Alabama offense.
-- Defensive play of the year: Week two, Alabama leading Ole Miss 7-0 in the first quarter, Roman Harper came through clean on a third-quarter blitz. The safety plundered quarterback Micheal Spurlock with a sack and a strip, with Alabama recovering the fumble and scoring two plays later to put an early clamp on the Rebels.
-- Special teams play of the year: Alabama was clinging to a 17-14 lead at Kentucky and was forced into a punting situation in the third quarter when Bo Freelend pulled down a punt that would have been blocked and ran 24 yards for a critical first down that reversed the momentum and spurred a runaway Tide victory.
-- Best coaching move of the year: It's a tie, with one move on each side of the ball. The decision to utilize Freddie Roach at three positions paid solid dividends. Offensively, trying Tyrone Prothro at quarterback in week nine at Mississippi State -- to a rousing success -- proved the fans and media are not always stupid.
-- Worst coaching move of the year: Easy. Fourth-and-a-couple-of-feet from the Arkansas 39 with the Razorbacks leading 14-10 early in the fourth quarter at Razorback Stadium. Mike Shula called for a punt, which went into the end zone for a touchback, dulling the Tide's momen tum and costing Shula a chance to show faith in his short-yardage offense while going against his ultra-conservative type.
-- Best block of the year: McClain pancaked a linebacker and screened off another defender as Prothro rambled for the go-ahead 21-yard touchdown run against Mississippi State.
-- Most meaningful play of the year: Leading 31-0 on its first possession of the third quarter against Western Carolina, quarterback Croyle decided to spin away from a tackler on the sideline on a third-down pass play. The result -- Croyle's torn ACL -- did more to affect the Crimson Tide's season than any other occurrence.
-- Most discussed play of the year: Pass interferences don't come more flagrant than Corey Webster's two-handed shove-down of Keith Brown in the end zone at LSU. But no one on that officiating crew called it, pre venting Alabama from a shot at going up 17-6, and Webster's long interception returned flipped things in LSU's favor for the rest of the game.
-- Offensive player of the year: Running back Ken Darby. Without him and his 1,062 rushing yards, particularly the big burst after Hudson's season-ending injury, the Crimson Tide offense is a broken-down heap after week six.
-- Defensive player of the year: Safety Harper. In a close race with middle linebacker Cornelius Wortham, Harper gets the nod with 77 tackles, a sack, three interceptions, two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble and perhaps the best sound byte on the team.
-- Top offensive lineman: Left tackle Wesley Britt by a hair over left guard Evan Mathis.
-- Top defensive lineman: Todd Bates had a consistent year at strong-side end, edging out fast-rising freshman Wallace Gilberry.
-- Top receiver: Protho wins this by virtue of his explosiveness and versatility, which were underexploited in 2004.
-- Top linebacker: Wortham was the top dog in a strong corps that also featured DeMeco Ryans, Juwan Garth and Roach.
-- Special teams player of the year: Place-kicker Brian Bostick, a unanimous All-SEC selection, was nearly perfect, with 35-of-35 PATs and 16-of-19 field goals.
-- Top special teams artist: Matt Ragland deserves a special nod here for his kamikaze style, which was sadly lost on the opening kickoff versus Minnesota.
-- Top true freshman: This is probably cornerback Simeon Castille's prize if he hadn't been hurt, but he wasn't the same after hyperextending a knee. In a close duel between receivers DJ Hall and Brown, the nod goes to Hall for a slightly higher level of consistency.
-- Thomas Murphy
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