It's not that Julio Jones literally can't go out to grab a bite. It's just not worth the trouble.
"Before I left last week for the bye week, I went out and it got a little crazy," Alabama's sophomore receiver said. "I really can't go out."
It's really that weird in Tuscaloosa, but you knew that. Autograph requests, finger points, hands over mouths, whispering something or another. It's weirder when the Tide are contending for a national championship. Jones recounted the story of a recent visit to a sporting goods store. The clerk told him, "I can't stand Julio."
She didn't know Julio Jones from Julio Iglesias.
"Then I told her it was me," Jones said. "She went wild."
Not with shame, mind you. Probably with Beatles-esque worship.
Some thrive in the suffocating atmosphere of Alabama football. Some are driven out of town. Anybody seen Coach Fran, lately?
Yes, things are claustrophobic all over T-town, whether grabbing a bite or the football. Jones hasn't had much room to do either. He might have had the most upside of any SEC player coming into the season. A combination of injuries, double teams and dropped balls have limited Jones, a freshman All-American and SEC Freshman of the Year in 2008. All of it has contributed to an air of vulnerability for 'Bama going into Saturday's SEC West showdown with LSU.
"He's a guy that needs to make plays for us," said his coach, Nick Saban, who tends to blow smoke about as often as a nun. "He's got to become a part of the offense for us."
They didn't tell Jones there would be down times like this when he came out of Foley, Ala., as was one of the most pursued high school players in the country. When you're being recruited the BS flows like honey. At 6-feet-4, 220 pounds, he was T.O. without the attitude. Back then everyone thought cornerbacks would be swatted out of the way. Jones still gets mad when he is tackled by a single human.
| Video |
 Simulation: LSU at Alabama
|
| Column |
|
Reuter: Tigers, Tide a scouting dream |
 CBS Game of the Week |
|
LSU-Alabama on SEC Live and CBS, Saturday |
"That's just me," he said. "Can't be just one person to bring me down."
But things have become considerably more difficult for Jones as a sophomore. There was that NCAA dust-up before the season that was more a distraction than anything else. (For the record, Jones doesn't agree with the NCAA's ruling that he and Mark Ingram received benefits based on their athletic standing.)
The offense has become bogged down at an inopportune time. Counting Saturday, there are really only a handful of meaningful regular-season SEC games left on the calendar. Alabama plays in two of them, also counting the Iron Bowl with Auburn on Nov. 27.
There is no 'Bama-Florida II in the SEC Championship Game unless Jones starts producing.
It's not a sense of panic, but concern. The offense has scored one touchdown in the last seven quarters, all at home. Quarterback Greg McElroy hasn't thrown a touchdown at home since Sept. 26 and is completing less than 52 percent in his last three games. After breaking out against South Carolina, Ingram ran for 99 yards and fumbled once against Tennessee.
|
|
| Julio Jones has caught just 20 passes so far for No. 3 Alabama. (Getty Images) |
If this were Ohio State, they'd be going Terrelle Pryor on the kid. As it is, they're just hoping he busts out soon.
"We've just got to get him the ball in the right time and places," Ingram said. "He's so explosive, he can break out at anytime."
When, though? Jones has caught one touchdown pass in his last 16 games. His name does not appear in the top 100 nationally in receptions or receiving yards per game. There were separate surgeries after last season on his shoulder, wrist and for a sports hernia. In the preseason there was a sprained ankle and a bruised knee suffered in Week 2 against Florida International.
In the SEC they don't wait around for you to get better in the training room or on the field. They adjust. Jones has seen those double teams, as well as safeties dropping in over the top. And those drops, well, they happen to everyone. Even though Tennessee's corners were admittedly less physical than Jones, Monte Kiffin's defense held Jones to a 7.7-yard average on seven catches.
"We had to do a number of things," Tennessee's Lane Kiffin said. "No. 1 we had to try to confuse the quarterback so that he wasn't in rhythm when he was throwing to Julio. We didn't want to give up any deep balls. We don't have big corners. It was a big mismatch issue for us."
Not so against LSU, which comes in with a top 15 defense and a budding star at cornerback, Patrick Peterson, who is capable of following Jones all over the field. There will be no excuses, just like there weren't any when Saban visited Jones in his home. After selling the school and the program, the pitch was brutally succinct:
"We're going to win," the coach said, "with or without you."
Who wants to test that promise this weekend? Tuscaloosa has been stifling enough. If the Tigers shut down enough go routes, don't worry. Jones won't want to go out at all.
