Sunday, May 29, 2016

LOL @ Ole Siss: Sort of explains a two year streak, huh?


No way any of Hugh Freeze's wins are legit. Call it what you will, but you can't escape the fact that it took MASSIVE cheating just to score second place.

And Ole Siss is STILL the only SEC West school to never see Atlanta in December.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

The obligatory Lucas Black–Roll Tide video post

 

NCIS New Orleans is not bad when you consider what passes for prime time TV these days. What makes it even better is that in character or in real life, this bammer means it.

Enjoy!

Exit question: Anyone ever heard a character say War Eagle, Geaux Gators or Hotty Toddy?

Me either.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Here’s the real reason why Verne Lundquist is retiring from CBS College Football broadcasts

Yes, Ol’ Verne’s getting on up there. Yes, he’s given us some great memories of Alabama Football through the years.

We were all (mildly) saddened by the news of his impending retirement. We thought he’d go on butchering our favorite players’ names for like… forever.

But this was just too much for the old guy.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Bama’s Marlon Humphrey makes Daddy proud

Former Bama great and 1st Round Draft Pick Bobby Humphrey couldn’t be more proud.

The elder Humphrey was recruited by and played for Ray Perkins in a “new” pro-style offense as a running back. The kid who grew up parking cars and selling cokes at Legion Field tore through defenses and record books playing for the Tide.

Three decades later, his son Marlon is doing just as much damage, but “little” Humphrey is wreaking his havoc on Nick Saban’s defense.

Another thing that’s changed is Bobby’s perspective on the game.

“It’s a different level of excitement,” Humphrey said. “When you are playing the game you are so involved in the outcome, you have to control your emotions. I’m not a former player when it comes to watching the game now. I’m just a fan, I can let myself go.”

The Birmingham native was a featured guest at the annual Chattahoochee Valley Bama Club spring dinner Monday night along with defensive backs coach Derrick Ansley and university president Dr. Stuart Bell.

Before speaking at the Green Island Country Club, Humphrey smiled describing the experience of watching Marlon start for Alabama in a 45-40 win over Clemson for the national title.

“Unbelievable,” Humphrey said. “I was very happy to enjoy that moment with him and be able to enjoy it with my wife. It’s an appreciation. I never won a championship playing football at any level.”

In the national title game, Marlon Humphrey recovered the Tide’s onside kick in the fourth quarter and had five tackles, one for a loss, with two pass breakups. Winning a championship was one of the goals Humphrey set for himself before stepping on campus two years ago.

“He’s trying to achieve greatness,” Bobby Humphrey said. “He has a goal of being an All-American, he has team goals and other individual goals. He wrote them all down before he got there and he set those goals high.”

Underclassmen are notoriously forbidden from speaking to the media, but there’s no doubt that the son has all of the drive, ambition and athletic ability of the father.  He’s assuredly as proud of his father as is father is of him.

As a defensive back in Saban’s juggernaut defensive machine, Marlon is not likely to smash record books like Ol’ Dad did. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t making a name for himself. He made a key interception against Georgia in Samford Stadium last season, and we all remember his textbook catch of the fourth quarter onsides kick, a play many point to as the Gettysburg of the 2016 National Championship Game.

When the game is on the line, the Humphreys have always seemed to be at the right place, at the right time, making the right play.

The elder Humphrey never won a championship in football. Humphrey the younger already has at least one.

They sky is the limit for Marlon and Ol’ Dad looks on proudly.

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Why Democrats need to worry about Donald Trump

Chris Cilliza stole my thunder on this topic, comparing the presumptive GOP nominee to that unpredictable, yet talented pickup basketball player. He's the guy who never does what you expect and keeps you off your game.

Chris is absolutely right, and here's why.


Hillary Clinton and her supporters are building a massive political machine geared for winning a national election. So is Trump, but he ain't doing it right, if you ask the wizened veteran political observer. While the Clinton camp builds a machine according to well known and oft-followed rules, the Trump camp is breaking almost every rule in the book.


Nothing is more American than fighting a war against the rules, and this dates back to the Revolutionary War.


The Red coats trained and planned for full-on frontal combat, where two armies faced each other on the battlefield.

The Americans were having none of that, choosing instead to fight a guerilla campaign that had colonists picking off Red coats like ducks in a carnival shooting gallery. Hell, those dastardly rebels even aimed and shot at officers! (that simply wasn't done in gentlemanly warefare).


The Brits never figured it all out and got whipped.


Fast forward a quarter millennium and observe. Using the most unorthodox means, The Donald systematically destroyed the deepest GOP field in modern political history.


No one in Europe gave Washington much of a c
hance in 1776. No one gave Trump much of a chance last year either (myself included). But here he is, one election away from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Trump will use the same tactics against Democrats. He will refuse to fight on their terrain. He will use his MASSIVE social media presence to ridicule, infuriate and bewilder the dinosaur-ish Clintons.


And he will do it to the cheers of millions of Americans who innately understand that when you're not in a fair fight, you don't fight fair.


Trump will not fight fair.


posted from Bloggeroid

Alabama’s Amen Corner threatens a second repeat

Image result for saban alabamaWhat are the chances that the Crimson Tide repeats as National Champions? Can Bama really expect such a lofty feat? The optimist says “HELL YEAH, ROLL TIDE!”

The realist channels my inner Brent Musberger and says “Now, hold on a minute pardner [sic].”

The reason for my caution: Arguably the toughest four-game stretch in October-November faced by any team in the country.

Per ESPN:

September treats Alabama to games away from Tuscaloosa against USC and Ole Miss, but the October slate for Alabama would spook anyone. This all-SEC gauntlet features road trips to two schools that will enter the season ranked and will make or break Alabama's chances of three-peating as SEC champs and returning to the College Football Playoff for a third consecutive season.

There are actually three road games during that stretch, with visits to Fayetteville, Knoxville and Baton Rouge. Teas A&M visits the Tide during the stretch, but there’s every reason to think that the Aggies’ Kevin Sumlin could have his team playing well and smelling blood.

Per Bleacher Report (I know, I know):

That leaves the tough three-game span from October 15 to November 5—at Tennessee, Texas A&M and at LSU—a stretch that would cause nearly any team to stumble and will more than test this team’s mettle.

BR’s Walsh doesn’t include the trip to the Hawg’s Fayetteville. While Arkansas still has a lot of questions, it’s still an SEC road trip.

If Alabama reaches this stretch unscathed, and if it wins three out of these four with a loss on the road, the chances are good that Bama makes the SEC Championship Game (perhaps with a rematch against Tennessee). Win that and a playoff berth is a slam dunk.

What happens there is a coin toss. It could go like the inaugural visit, where Bama gets booted in the first round. It coud play out and pit Alabama against, say, a hungry Ohio State.

The standard disclaimer: It’s way too early to start making predictions. The standard response to the standard disclaimer: Who the hell cares? it’s the offseason and we can talk about anything we damned well please.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

aTm’s Sumlin to Johnny Football: “Call Me, Maybe”

Texas A&M Head Football Coach Kevin Sumlin issued a public plea to his former QB, Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.

Speaking on the Paul Finebaum show, Sumlin sighed and said:

We’ve reached out to him and I haven’t gotten a response yet,” Sumlin told the radio program. “What we want is for him to be at peace and be safe. That has nothing to do with football and has everything to do with his life.

“That was my message to him (at the wedding). That’s the only thing we really care about right now. Where he is as a person is more important than football or anything like that.”

Johnny Football was indicted on a misdemeanor count of assaulting his girlfriend, a serious allegation whether it’s misdemeanor or not. Raising a fist and committing violence against a woman shows signs of someone who is out of control.

This begs the question: When was he ever in control? He comes from money and privilege, possesses a skill that was rare for teenagers (but less so for grown men), and got a free pass until he left the protective bubble of College Station.

Now he’s a man and being treated like one. Cut from NFL rosters because his “skills” weren’t so special after all. Dropped by agents because he was unmanageable. Indicted by a grand jury because he couldn’t exercise a modicum of self-control.

What does that sound like to you?

In the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-Step program, you start the First Step with this:

“We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. 

Nail, meet hammer. Johmmy football sounds like Johnny Barleycorn. With every passing episode.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Coach Shaun Dion Hamilton, anyone?

imageESPN has a fun rundown of who on each of the Top 25 might grow into a coaching position once he hangs up the cleats.

Here’s the Bama pick:

Shaun Dion Hamilton

If you already have Nick Saban as your head coach, you already have a leg up on the ways to run a program at a championship level. There are probably a few guys on this team who could grow into future coaching roles, but the junior linebacker might have the best coaching mold. Some call him the smartest player on the team and former defensive coordinator Kirby Smart even said he's the smartest guy he's ever coached. Hamilton is coming into his own more at linebacker, and he knows the ins and outs of the game well. A future in coaching wouldn't shock anyone. -- Edward Aschoff

Amen. Alabama’s defense is one of the most diverse in the history of diverse—and difficult—defenses to master. Not many have done so, and those that have usually go on to riches in the NFL or… on the sidelines?

Clemson’s choice is a good one, too: Hunter Renfroe. In last season’s title game he caught two TD passes against Saban’s defense.

Read the whole thing for some off season fun and discussion.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

No. 6 dual-threat QB Tagovailoa chooses Bama

No. 6 dual-threat QB Tagovailoa chooses Bama:



Tua Tagovailoa, the nation's No. 100 prospect and No. 6 dual-threat quarterback, announced his commitment to Alabama on Monday night over USC, Hawaii, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and UCLA.
The 6-foot, 215-pound lefty said the Trojans were his clear leader in early March, but that all changed after an SEC trip that included stops at Auburn, Alabama and Ole Miss.
What ESPN doesn't mention in this piece is that Tua visited Bama twice and all the other guys once. Here's a nice quote from the AL.com story:



 "I feel like I'm home over there," Tagovailoa told KHON2. "Everybody on Sunday goes to church and that's something big in my life as far as spirituality. I couldn't ask for anything better."
Not only is he a good prospect, he sounds like a good man, too.

Auburn players arrested on marijuana charges

But will Gus send them to alcohol/drug rehab like Saban does with his potheads?



Let's face it: Today's college campuses are as infected with marijuana users as they are special snowflakes looking for safe spaces. But some football programs put first time offenders in an in-house rehab facility. It's anybody's bet whether that trip to drug boot camp does any good, but hey... At least our guy is trying.



Maybe their guy is too?

I stretched back and I hiccupped, and looked back on my busy day…

Eleven hours in the tin pan; God there’s got to be another way

Actually, it’s been almost eleven months since this blog was active, but it really does feel like I woke up in a Soho doorway.

Suffice it to say that your beloved blogger has been through the shitstorm and came through it alive and kicking (Keith Moon, not so much).

In January of this year, we lost my mother to pneumonia and the complications of age. We were close—my brother and I looked after her for about a year or so before her death. I would pack up my laptop at 0600 hours and be at her house to spend most of the day working while looking after her, her house, her dogs, whatever. My brother would take over in the afternoons and evenings.

Like I said, we were close and even though we all knew what was coming, her passing devastated me. I fell into a pit of depression, self pity and hard drinking.

Recovery has been a cast iron bitch but I’m gaining on it, one step at a time.

A lot of you sent emails, texts and PM’s on Twitter and Facebook, expressing concern and wishing me well. I sure do appreciate that, y’all. I’ve never even met some of you, despite “knowing” you in a digital sorta way since May 2002 (that’s 14 years for the folks in Lee County).

I’m back now.

You’ll see me humbly offering my opinions on matters politic and football in the usual old hangouts like Tidefans.com and here as well.

In lieu of an exit question: