Excitement is building...

Game week is finally here. To say I’m excited about opening the season would be a serious understatement. I had wondered if the excitement and anticipation would be the same in the NFL as it was at Alabama. As Sunday approaches, the excitement and anticipation continues to build and will definitely rival that of Alabama. You can tell its game week as you travel around the city of Houston. I think the city is ready to see what this 2006 team will do. Like in college, you have to make sure you temper your emotions and peek at the right time, which will be Sunday morning for me.

Philadelphia is a tough team to defend. Most people talk about Donovan McNabb’s ability to run but forget the guy is a pretty good passer as well. We’ll have to be at our best to keep him in check. It will take all eleven guys focusing on their individual tasks in order for us to get the job done. For me personally, calling the sets from my middle linebacker position will necessitate me being extremely focused on what the Eagles are doing while keeping in mind what we want to do defensively. I know I’ve never seen a quarterback as athletic as Donovan but playing in the SEC allowed me to see multi-faceted quarterbacks.

We practiced Tuesday and began working on our gameplan. The rest of the week will consist of fine tuning those plans and giving ourselves as many advantages to win as possible.

Last Saturday night I had the opportunity to go to the Fox and Hound to watch the Alabama/Hawaii game. It was great to be around all the Bama fans. I know some people were disappointed in the final score, but a win is a win. Defensively, I’m sure there are some things Coach Kines wants to work on but I can tell you from personal experience that Hawaii offense is hard to defend. Considering there were seven new starters on the field Saturday night, I think the Tide did well. Tide fans should always remember that most teams make the biggest improvements between week 1 and week 2. I remember folks weren’t too happy with us last season until we got to October and the Florida Gators.

I’ll check back in next week.

Roll Tide and Go Texans,

DeMeco