Here we go...the playoffs

So college football has a playoff. Not a single championship game, but an actual playoff structure. In the words of Coach Jim Mora...



Yes, playoffs.

So here we go. Let's do this, Bama. Two more games on the Road to 16.



Roll Tide!

Sugar Bowl 2015: Going Back

It was Christmas Day 1977. As I opened my presents that morning, I got what may have been one of the best surprises of my life. My parents had bought me tickets to the Sugar Bowl.

One week later, my sister Kim and I were sitting in the lower bowl of the almost new Louisiana Superdome. It was a spectacular sight, my first indoor game ever. Coach Paul Bryant was roaming the sidelines minus his famous houndstooth hat - because his mama had taught him not to wear a hat indoors.

And Alabama was playing one of the great names in college football tradition...the Ohio State Buckeyes. It was my very first bowl game.

I will never forget that night. It has been a springboard for a lifetime of memories with families and friends watching Alabama play in bowls. There have been seven more in the Superdome. And now there will be another.

Against Ohio State. For the chance to play for the national championship.

That will be an intense, competitive night. There will be a lot on the line for our team. I'll be focused. I'll be wearing my game day Bama cap (forgive me, Coach Bryant.) But I'll also take time to pause and remember the night it all started, and I may be a little misty. Remembering when Alabama played Ohio State in the 1978 Sugar Bowl, and I couldn't believe I was actually there.

Alabama vs Ohio State. 2015. Bring it on. Roll Tide! 

History and Tradition: Alabama-USC

On Wednesday it became official. Alabama and Southern California will meet on the gridiron to begin the 2016 football season. This is huge. They are two of the most storied traditions in college football, and they have not played in almost 30 years. And when they have played...wow.

One of my favorite football-related childhood memories was listening to the 1971 Bama-USC game on the radio. Alabama was coming off a 6-5-1 season and the Trojans were ranked #1 in the nation. Nobody gave the Tide a chance in Los Angeles that night, but Coach Paul Bryant unveiled the wishbone attack, and pulled one of the greatest upsets ever:



The Tide went on to play for the national championship that season, and it all began on a shocking night in California.

Another of my favorite Bama memories came in my late teens, when the Tide once again traveled to LA to play Southern Cal. This one was televised nationally with the legend Keith Jackson calling the game.  Once again, Alabama was coming off a disappointing year (8-3) and USC was ranked at the top of the polls. With another improbably road victory, the Tide launched itself into the national picture and laid the foundation to win two national titles in the next three years.

Here is the entire 4th quarter, with the drama of USC nearly coming back from a 21-6 deficit to win. I paced the floor the entire time. Watch the whole thing if you can, but if not, go to the 37:00 mark and see the Trojans' TD drawing the game to 21-20, and the dramatic two-point conversion attempt. What a game!



Two great programs. A total of 26 national championships between them. One of the best venues in the country, Cowboys Stadium. By 2015, Steve Sarkisian should have USC back in the national championship picture.

I can't wait. Roll Tide!

Just say no

Here we sit, between the two games of the 2014 Final Four. And the one team that we know will play for the national championship is….

…The University of Connecticut.

Here is a team that finished third in their own conference, a team that was a 7-seed in their Regional bracket and was not even on the radar.

Three years ago, they won the national championship after finishing even lower in the conference - if I remember correctly, 7th!

Please, please, please, please, PLEASE…do not let anything like this happen in college football!

It's already scary how some are talking about the committee using resumes to select the participants. As I wrote in a previous blog post, that's like hiring an employee based on a resume comparison without even doing interviews.

But if they let too many teams in, ughhh. The basketball national champion is not necessarily one of the truly elite teams. Too often, it's the team that got hot at the end of the season. That's not what a champion should be. If UConn (or Kentucky) wins it all, it will be another year where the winner is not even close to the best team over the course of the season.

Football………JUST SAY NO!

Learning from history

About 33 years ago on a Saturday in November I was at YoungLife weekend camp. Fortunately (I thought) we had free time in afternoon and so I was listening to the Alabama game on the radio. Alabama was the two-time reigning national champion (familiar?), ranked #1 (familiar), and had a 28-game winning streak. On the road at Mississippi State. And then this happened:



Maybe the most stunning upset of the Tide in my lifetime. And it was not fun to listen to.

And so as I head to Starkville today, I am wary. Take this thing seriously. Don't let it happen again.

Roll Tide!

Can't look away

I was reading an article today that was all about the magic of college football. It captured the spirit of the game and why it is that so many of us love it. It's rather lengthy, but it got me thinking about why it is that it captures me - why I can't look away. This quote really summed it up for me:

College football is the world's biggest insiders' club, a sport with too many inane, insanely enjoyable traditions to count. It is off the beaten path. It is messy and absurd. It is nonsensical. It is wonderful. It is always changing, and it never changes.

What a wonderful description. It seems that at least once a week there is a game - not involving my team - that makes me say, "Wow, I love this game." One of the truly marvelous things about the sport is that on a football Saturday it seems like the whole country is in one place. Radios are tuned, TV's are hooked to satellite dishes, and scores are announced. It's truly not just about your team's game - it's about the entire picture, with each Saturday being its own work of art.

But one particular point of the article grabbed my imagination. The author talked about that moment each of us has when college football grabs hold of us. When we realize that it's something that will hypnotize us every fall, making the days of the season fly by like a speedy freight train. And making the days of the off season drag like a tortoise.

And so I thought back to my childhood, looking for a moment when I knew that loved the game - not just Alabama football (that moment would be the first time I walked into the stadium and saw Kenny Stabler lead the Tide to victory), but college football. The game, the pageantry, the whole picture.

It's the first time I remember building a day around watching a non-Bama game on TV. I was ten years old, and the hype was at an all-time high. Two undefeated teams, playing for #1. President Richard Nixon was there, and was planning to present a championship plaque to the winner after the game. And what a game it was! Arkansas jumped out to a....

You know what? Watch this 6 minute highlight video - I don't want to spoil it for you!



So, wow, right? If you didn't watch it, Arkansas jumped out to a 14-0 third quarter lead and looked to be in total control at home over the top-ranked Longhorns. But quarterback James Street (who passed away earlier this year) led an amazing 4th quarter comeback, which included a 43-yard touchdown run, a two-point conversion on the option, and then a long pass on 4th and 4 to set up the winning touchdown. It was dramatic, it was riveting, it was exciting. And it didn't even involve a team I cared about. I was hooked.

Yes, it is a wonderful thing. And it's going by way too fast. It doesn't matter that it's a Saturday like this one where the Tide has an open date. It's college football. And it is awesome.

Monday musings

Just a few random thoughts on a Monday night....

• In football, things are getting really interesting right now. The Crimson Tide sits atop the standings and probably just need to keep winning. If they do, they'll have chance to play for their third straight BCS Championship. That would be amazing. They seem to be getting better every week, but LSU is coming up and that will be a huge test. In the meantime, Oregon and Florida State are neck-and-neck for the second spot. Right now it looks like we are headed for controversy, but I have a feeling some folks are going to lose before it's all over. It may even be the Tide. So much fun to follow - the best time of year!

• I have the best family and friends in the world. No stories supporting that, just stating the facts. Sometimes it just hits me - today is one of those days.

• Finally, we are 23 days and change from THIS:

Tick tock.....

And here we go....

So another week passes, and the Crimson Tide dominates another opponent. But this week is different. Why?

Because the first BCS standings were announced last night. And here we go.

Here we go with the endless speculation about who deserves the second spot. With discussions of whether the current standings will hold up as the season progresses. With constant reminders of how the computer formulae don't make sense and the human polls are the result of people not watching games.

But also...here we go with the question, Who can beat Bama?

As a fan, it's fun being on that end of the speculation. Some of my friends are upset that the Tide is hated; I'm not, because I know it's a reflection of how good they are. It's hard to get it to sink in sometimes, but when the rest of the country watches my team, there is a mixture of SEC fatigue, Alabama fatigue, and boredom. Being the gold standard is lonely.

But I'm also very cautious. It's about this time last year that many of us thought Bama was unbeatable. Nobody had given them even the slightest competition, and we wondered whether anyone could hang with them. Then came LSU - and a last minute rally to come from behind and win. Then Texas A&M - and that story is all too familiar.

Yes, they got help after that and rallied to win their third championship in four years. But they can't count on that happening again. They need to take care of business week by week. If they do, the pieces will fall into place.

Get better every week. And start by beating Tennessee.

Roll Tide!