Croyle and Alabama bring good health, high expectations to season

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Posted 7:12PM on Saturday, July 30, 2005

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) Alabama quarterback Brodie Croyle would like to set the record straight: He's OK. The knees and shoulders are intact. His psyche's fine, too. ``I feel better right now than I probably have since I was a junior in high school,'' Croyle said Friday at Southeastern Conference media days. That's good news for Crimson Tide fans who are pinning much of their hopes of finally returning to SEC title contention this season on their senior quarterback. Croyle was sidelined most of last season after knee surgery. The previous season, he was limited by a shoulder injury. No wonder he gets a steady barrage of questions about his health particularly since the Tide cruised to a 3-0 start with him healthy before stumbling to 6-6. He does get a little tired of reading and hearing that Alabama's fortunes hinge on whether he makes it through without yet another injury. ``It gets old. It gets annoying,'' Croyle said. ``I obviously don't plan on getting hurt, but I can see where they would say it all depends on his health, because I've been hurt the past two years.'' Coach Mike Shula said Croyle and tailback Kenneth Darby (sports hernia) are both 100 percent recovered from injuries entering preseason practices next week. Fullback Tim Castille's status is a little less certain after tearing two knee ligaments last season, but he will participate in two-a-day practices. But the offseason focus hasn't been on the fact that nine starters return from a defense that ranked second in the nation or the fact that all the key receivers return. It's all about Croyle and whether he can finally stay healthy for a season. After all, he tore a knee ligament in the opening game of his senior season in high school and he's had injuries to both shoulders and the other knee at Alabama. He estimates during the spring he would get asked about his health ``50-75 times'' a day, in class, at dinner or wherever. ``I'm kind of running out of things to hurt,'' he said, ``so there's a good chance that I'll have a healthy season. ``If I thought about the injuries, I'd be thinking about the wrong thing.'' Besides, enough people are already thinking about his injury problems. The Tide was never the same with Spencer Pennington or Marc Guillon leading the offense last season, winding up last in the SEC and 112th in Division I out of 117 teams in passing offense. Croyle's teammates know where the preseason focus has been. ``I try to put all the pressure on Brodie,'' free safety Roman Harper said. ``Let him take it all. He knows it, too. We'll go as far as Brodie goes, that's what I tell him.'' Alabama's scholarship numbers are still eight shy of the maximum 85 because of NCAA sanctions. Unlike last year, when Alabama played 13 of 19 signees, Shula is expecting to need only about a third of this year's 25 scholarship newcomers. Still, he enters his third season amid higher expectations after leading his team to the Music City Bowl last year. ``Our comfort level is higher, our expectations are higher,'' Shula said. ``That is a little scary, too, because you don't want your guys sitting back and reading about how good they are because (then) there's a tendency to not work as hard at it.'' Still, Croyle doesn't think an SEC title is far-fetched even for a team picked third in the West. He's also looking to an unlikely source for motivation rival Auburn's surprising title run last season. ``It's well within our reach,'' he said. ``I'm sure a lot of y'all (reporters) are saying, 'How can they expect to win the SEC championship after they went 6-6?' Everything that went wrong last year with our season, our whole group's just like, 'Why not? Auburn did it, why not us?''' (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)