When your bowl game is a rematch, the familiarity as an analyst can serve as both an advantage and a disadvantage. On the one hand, you certainly have some understanding of your opponent -- a feel for the personnel/scheme, how the players match up, etc...But on the other, you've already written about those things extensively, and unless either team has changed substantively since the first matchup, finding something interesting to say about the matchup can become if you don't want to repeat yourself. So, with that said, I thought it would be a good idea create drop some of the previous pieces we've had, or links to others that are relevant to the BCS Championship game, just for a little review:
- For starters, here's the game preview and recap of Game of the Century Part 1.
- Jim Kleinpeter of the New Orleans Times-Picayune has had an strong series of film studies from each of LSU's games this season. Here's the one from the Nov. 5 game.
- Back in August, in preparation for the massive Jerradome opener with Oregon, I broke down the Ducks' explosive offense in three parts. Here's part two, which focuses on zone-blocking, something Alabama does extensively as well.
- Chris Brown of Smart Football wrote this primer on the Alabama defense for ESPN's Grantland.com.
- He also wrote this breakdown of the speed option, which we all remember as a key play in the Nov. 5 matchup.
- This link is in the game preview, but Brophy Football was able to break down Alabama's 2008 defensive playbook, with some Google doc links. For the extreme X and O dorks.
Below the jump, the LesMiles.net highlights, and a segment from ESPN's always-enjoyable Sports Science series on the two defenses...