Senior fullback Tim Castille has been outspoken this week about his disappointment over the Tide's three close losses this season. BOL sat down with Castille for a Q&A session regarding what went wrong against the Vols, where the team is headed and what can be done to salvage the 2006 season.

Q: Do you think the offense has improved significantly since the start of the season?

A: I don't think that we haven't grown but we aren't coming through in the clutch situations when we need to. We beat the teams that we have to but you recognize growth in tough times and in hard situations and in those hard situations this year, we haven't come through on the offensive side of the ball. That doesn't mean we haven't grown, we just haven't done anything to prove it.

Q: Are you optimistic that your team can turn these experiences into wins down the road?

A: If we don't believe that we're going to grow from these situations then we can go ahead and pack our bags because those games are over with. We have to have hope that these tough times we're going through will pay off in those tough games down the road.

Q: Why did the running game struggle as badly as it did against Tennessee?

A: We didn't have a lot of runs if you look at it. KD had about 25 runs against Ole Miss when he really got in a rhythm. Last week, he was only in on 29 plays and only carried on half of those. I don't think we ever got into a rhythm in the running game.

Q: Why do you think the offense struggled to get first downs against Tennessee?

A: It's tough because you know that if we execute then it's not a problem. We have to do a better job starting with the backfield. On first down runs, we have to get four yards to give our team second and short and we didn't do that. We weren't productive and that hurt us when it came to second and third downs.

Q: Has the team set new goals for itself now that the SEC Championship is out of reach?

A: You have to change your goals. We can't go in the dumps, that's just not an option. Right now our goal is to stay undefeated at home and try to win 10 games. We can still get out of here with a 10 win season and that would be a great success. If we could go out and win these last five games that would give us 10 wins and it's been a while since Alabama had back-to-back 10 win seasons. I think that's something I would be proud of for my senior season.

Q: Can you put yourself in the shoes of the Florida International players as they are going through an extremely tough winless season.

A: It's tough to be on a losing team. We went 4-9 my freshman year here and I hadn't lost 9 games in the five years I played high school ball. That was tough for me. I can't totally put myself in their shoes but being on a losing team, you start to feel things snowball on you after a while and there's nothing you can do but fight on and look forward to next season.


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