Ask Larry

By Larry Burton

As expected, most questions were about the Iron Bowl and what it meant to future events of this season, but some were on the subject of why things happened the way they did.

Is there any scenario that could get Alabama back into the national championship game?

Yes, but they aren’t likely. Duke is not going to beat Florida State, so there’s half the options out the window. Florida State is in. So what are the other possibilities?

Michigan State beats Ohio State, (a real possibility) and Missouri beats Auburn in the SEC Championship Game. Then voters would have to agree that a one loss Alabama is a better team and more deserving that a one loss Missouri who just played one more game than Alabama and beat the team that beat them.

Just because Alabama is rated ahead of Missouri right now doesn’t mean that they’d keep them there after they defeated Auburn. Missouri would have to win a very sloppy game.

If Auburn beats Missouri, no matter how badly they win, they’re in. Period. But only providing that Michigan State takes care of Ohio State as I think they can.

But like I say, overall, Bama getting back in this year is unlikely.

So what bowl will Alabama be in now?

If Ohio State stays undefeated, there’s the other BCS Championship team.  So that puts Auburn in the Sugar, Missouri in the Capital One Citrus Bowl in Orlando and Alabama in the Discover Orange Bowl in Miami where they will play Clemson.

If Ohio State loses to Michigan State, then look for everyone to shove up one bowl. Auburn to the National Championship Game, Missouri to the Sugar, and Alabama to the Citrus in Orlando.

But if Missouri should look bad in a loss, then Alabama has a shot to go the Sugar Bowl as they have the right to take the highest ranked SEC team available.

If you had to money on things right now though, look for Alabama to be in the Discover Orange Bowl to play Clemson.

Was the play reviewed by the officials on the field goal run back to see if he stepped out of bounds, it looked really close.

The call on the field was touchdown and the replay official didn’t see evidence that was 100% that he stepped out of bounds. Personally, I have seen the run over and over and played it in slow motion and what I saw is that his foot got very close to the edge and at one point his toe was inbound and his heel was over the line, but in the air and his heel did not touch on that line. But it was close enough to make people wonder.

No reputable news reporter or sports writer who has seen the footage has come forward and said the runner was 100% clearly out. Since no one, including the replay officials, could see anything presented 100% irrefutable evidence that the call on the field was wrong, justice was done in this case.

What do you think the main reasons were that caused Alabama to lose the Auburn game?

I do have questions I’d like answers to. Some of them are:

1. Why did we not see more Kenyan Drake who seemed to be having better luck against Auburn?

2. Why did Alabama not pass more against the nations 100th ranked passing defense?

3. Why didn’t Alabama kick a field goal from the 14 yard line instead of going for it? The field goal would have put them up by 10 or two scores.

But mostly I think it was bad play calling on offense, too many stupid penalties and an offense that appeared sluggish on not up to their standard.

Larry is an award winning writer whose work has appeared in almost every college football venue. Now he primarily writes for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter