The Nick Saban coaching tree extends a branch into Ole Miss

Nick Saban's dynasty isn't over. It's just beginning. He is the Genghis Khan of college football.

There are 14 teams in the Southeastern Conference. With Saturday's hiring of Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, there are now five current head coaches in the SEC who have served as assistant coaches under Alabama head coach Nick Saban.

They are:

1. Kirby Smart - Georgia
2. Jimbo Fisher - Texas A&M
3. Will Muschamp - South Carolina
4. Jeremy Pruitt -Tennessee
5. Lane Kiffin - Ole Miss 

The Florida Gators have twice put their hopes and dreams with Saban disciples, hiring Muschamp in 2011 and following with former Bama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain in 2014. The impatient Gators traded Mac for former Urban Meyer disciple Dan Mullen in 2018.

What's obvious here is that a successful stint under the coach who's almost certainly the best in his era (if not best ever) has led to very lucrative head coaching jobs at six different programs in the best conference in big boy college football. 

But wait: There's more.

Saban himself has coached at two SEC programs. He won his first national title in 2003 at LSU. So that makes eight SEC programs that have either been coached by Nick Saban or coached by at least one of his former assistants.

Only Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri and Vanderbilt have yet to feel Saban's touch. Missouri may get a Saban branch of their own if rumors of McElwain's imminent hire there play out.

How has coaching under Saban worked out for the programs that have hired his former assistants? The clear answer is "not too shabby." We excuse the patience-less Florida Gators, of course. (They're special and they'll tell you so if you ask.)

Jimbo Fisher has three conference titles and a National Championship and has a record of 99–32.

Kirby Smart has three SEC East championships, one SEC title and an appearance against his mentor in the championship game for the 2017 season. He's 43–11 in his first and only head coaching gig.

Will Muschamp has a winning record as a head coach, going 54–46 overall between Florida and South Carolina.

Jim McElwain has a 52–31 record with head coaching stops at Fresno State, Colorado State, Florida and Central Michigan.

Lane Kiffin has been the head coach at Tennessee, Southern Cal and Florida Atlantic. Along the way, he's cobbled together an impressive 61–34 record with two Conference USA titles. 

Jeremy Pruitt is the only Saban Padawan with a record at/below .500 with a 12–12 record at Knoxville.

That's a combined record of 321–166 with a national championship and six conference titles. In a 12-game season, that's an average 8–4 record, with a realistic shot at division, conference honors and an occasional chance at national championship contention. Not too shabby.

The only bad news for SEC programs with Sabanites at their helms is that they are a collective 0-19 against their mentor. Sooner or later, one of the students will best his master, but so far... they're not that good.

So, why the Genghis Khan wisecrack? An early 2000's genetic study shows that at least 1-in-200 men living today are direct paternal (Y-chromosome) descendants of the Mongol conqueror.

I'll leave you with this quote, attributed to Genghis hisself:

"The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms."

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Tua Tagovailoa is considering a return for 2020

In an interview with the Don of Tide Sports Media, Tua Tagovailoa says he hasn't ruled out a return to the Capstone for his senior year.

“Whatever God puts in my heart and my parents’ hearts, that will be the right thing.”

Tagovailoa, who suffered a hip dislocation in Alabama’s Nov. 16 game at Mississippi State and had hip surgery two days later in Houston, is finishing the semester at Alabama and will take final exams next week.

As far as his decision, Tagovailoa said he was looking “at both sides of the spectrum.”

“There is a risk and a reward if I stay and a risk and a reward if I go,” Tagovailoa said.

I don't know about other Bama fans, but regardless of where he plays next season, I will hold my breath every time he takes a snap. He's the kind of football player that Brett Favre, Kenny Stabler and Joe Namath were. They put finishing the play first and didn't care how the dice rolled on whether he survived it or not. Sometimes the play ended spectacularly, but sometimes it ended with us all gasping in sudden fear.

Go ahead, Bama fans. Tell Tua what he should do, and tell us why your counsel makes sense. Heh...

College football is big business whether we like it or not. With big business comes big risk.

He talks about money as part of his decision making, and that's ok. There's nothing wrong with squeezing every nickel out of your abilities and there's nothing wrong with the timing of his departure coming down to a business decision.

When Tua is healthy and all cylinders are firing, he is absolutely unstoppable. He sees plays unfold before the ball is even snapped and has finished games with more TD passes than incompletions. He's a rare phenomenon and we're blessed to have had him on our side.

The Crimson Tide returns a lot of talent next season. The 2019 team was deep and talented, but also very young. Great things are possible in 2020 whether he returns for his final tour or takes his God-given talent to the NFL.

Wherever he goes, may he take God's grace with him.

Iron Bowl 2019: A game that is almost always won or lost in the trenches

This is the Southeastern Conference, where big boys come to play big boy football and all little boys watch'em and pray they grow up to be'em. This is the Iron Bowl, an uncivil civil war between two in-state rivals. This game is like almost every other game played in this league in that it is almost always decided in that scant yard or so we call the neutral zone--a gentleman's euphemism for warfare's No Man's Land.

If your big strong ugly dudes can knock down the other team's big strong ugly dudes, you can win the game. If your less big, less ugly dudes can also block, catch and run, then you probably will win.

Auburn's defensive front seven is probably the best front seven in the league. They are big, athletic and have been wreaking havoc on opposing offensive lines.  Their defense has kept them in games that they shouldn't have had a chance at winning.

Alabama probably has the best offensive line in the league. It's better than Georgia's and at least as good as LSU's. Bama's offensive line finally gelled when Deonte Brown returned from a four game NCAA suspension against Ole Miss in September. The line has worked together as a unit since then--a usual key to success up front.

Auburn's offensive line has been a disappointment. Some of that is due to youth, but some of it is due to injuries. The shifting of players and lack of experience has kept the unit from working successfully together for any considerable stretch. Talent at 'skill' positions only counts if the defense isn't on your side of the line of scrimmage every other snap.

Likewise, Alabama's front seven has struggled. Part of those struggles are also injury related. Bama lost LB Dylan Moses to a freak injury in practice before the season started. The team has never lacked the physical talent necessary to make plays. But Moses was to be the defense's quarterback, making sure the players were in position for Coach Saban's 3-4 Over/Under defense. The left side of the defense has frequently been caught flat-footed or just plain out of position, and the team has often found it hard to get off the field on third downs. Whether Moses' presence could have made a difference is pure speculation but it damned sure wouldn't have hurt.

So we'll likely see a push and push--Alabama's offensive line will struggle to keep Auburn's front seven from wrecking plays, and Alabama's talented front seven will likewise wreak havoc on a young Auburn offensive line.

In games like this, anything can happen. I have no idea who wins.

Barstool Sports sponsorship deal with Mobile Alabama Bowl nixed

I didn't know that the folks behind the Port City's other post-season college football gathering had reached terms with Barstool Sports. If I had known that a deal was in the works, I'd have been saddened. Barstool is the kind of sports gossip site that makes Deadspin look as respectable as The New York Times.

I had learned earlier this month that LendingTree would replace Dollar General as the Bowl's corporate sponsor, but no mention was made at the time that Barstool was in the mix of potential candidates.

Then I saw this today at MyNBC15.com:

The founder of Barstool Sports says ESPN killed its deal with the Mobile, Alabama Bowl.

Sports Business Journal first reported the sports media giant was in talks to sponsor what is now the LendingTree Bowl.

The report from Mark J. Burns says the deal fell through due to pressure from the NCAA and ESPN, the channel airing the bowl.

.@barstoolsports Barstool was in the running to sponsor a college football bowl game in Mobile, Ala., @markjburns88 reports. The sponsorship ended up going to @LendingTree. SBJ Media is live: 🔒https://t.co/CUSFtmSJQ7🔒 pic.twitter.com/4PDLsZBeaD

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) November 26, 2019

The internet is filled with marvelous entertainment, news, commentary and humor websites. Barstool is not one of those. The site is basically what you'd get if you handed a website's credential keys to a bunch of 11-year old rich boys. A few of today's headlines:

• A Robot Vacuum Carried Out An Act Of War When It Sucked Up A Little Dog In Missouri 
• Dustin Johnson's Two Year Old Son Has A Better Golf Swing Than You (And Me, But You Too)
• Latest Instagram Model Trend: Sunbathe Your Asshole

It's about 20% sports content, 20% boys' locker room humor and 60% 20-something eye candy. Everything that pre-pubescent boys dig and everything that's wrong with the R-rated internet.  ESPN and the NCAA would have done the City of Mobile a favor if the Bowl had inked a deal with the site and they rode in to send all the kids to timeout.

But also today, the Bowl's leadership flatly denied that the behemoth NCAA and ESPN applied pressure to kick the Barstool out:

“Untrue,” The LendingTree Bowl President Jerry Silverstein told AL.com on Tuesday in response to the report the deal fell apart because of pressure. “Untrue." ...

“We had a third-party contact with several companies. Barstool was one of them,” Silverstein said. “The Bowl decided to go with LendingTree. The NCAA nor ESPN got involved. (sic)

“The bowl made the decision. We had other opportunities that were there. The bowl made a decision not to choose Barstool. It never got to the NCAA or ESPN for denial. The bowl had other opportunities and went another way.”

So, it was Jerry Silverstein and the grown-ups with the Bowl who nixed the deal. Whew. That's a much better outcome than having the two organizations that are close to ruining college football be the unlikely saviors. In truth, neither would have cared much as long as the check cleared. Well, ESPN might have cared a little because the relationship between ESPN and Barstool is not cordial. But business is business, so...

We all know that if the Bowl had gone through with the Barstool deal, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson would have straightened his tie, smoothed his jacket and put the best spin on the budding relationship with a trashy internet website:

“We are pleased and proud to welcome Barstool Sports as the title sponsor for this year’s bowl game. College football is a cherished tradition in Mobile, and we are grateful to the team at Barstool and the bowl organizers for carrying that tradition forward. Visit barstoolsports.com for tickets and hilarious content.”

Tell me I'm wrong. 

2019 Iron Bowl: It's that time of year again

Ahh, Thanksgiving. Turkey & fixin's on Thursday, a mad grab for material reward on Friday and the most uncivil civil war on Saturday. Then triage and hangover-nursing (for some) on Sunday.

Look at the history of the series. The average margin of victory is about 16 points. In the College Football Playoff era, the margin has been 17 but the BCS era was closer with a margin of 12.5. Alabama owns the only blowout victories in recent history, all in the Nick Saban era. There was a 36-0 shutout to end the Tommy Tuberville regime in 2008. Then 42-14 in 2011; then 49-0 in 2012 to end Gene Chizik's head coaching career and last year's 52-21 beatdown.

Rivalry games are always emotional. In a rivalry this heated, this bitter and this intense, the rivals’ adrenaline lasts a little longer than the first quarter.

A lot the players in this game are from the state of Alabama. They probably played against each other in high school and may have even played against each other in pee wee leagues. Their families know each other. They’ve gone to the same churches, the same schools and played on the same playgrounds. Sooner or later the two teams will settle in and just play football, but this game is always a little more intense than other rivalries.

Almost all of the fans in this state know each other. We work together. We live in the same neighborhoods. We worship together, shop together and share the road with each other. A big percentage of us all are related to one another, too. I have cousins and in-laws who have crossed over to the Dark Side, for some mysterious reason (I do pray for them; you should, too). Civil wars are always like this.

For most of the three months of college football's regular season, we kind of look at each other a little differently. For the other nine months we tolerate each other. For one holiday weekend, we hardly speak to one another and rarely about the Iron Bowl.

For about 3-1/2 hours on that Saturday afternoon, it's war.

The stakes for the 2019 installment are pretty high. Alabama still has a good chance to make its sixth straight appearance in the College Football Playoff. With three losses already, Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn is probably coaching for his job. Win this game and he probably comes back. Lose it, and he probably doesn't.

For us fans, there's just the Braggin' Rights thing and the schadenfreude pleasure of wearing the T-shirts, sporting the bumper stickers and sharing the memes on social media. Win or lose life will go on. We'll keep working together, worshipping together and living together because it's... just a football game.

Lefty protesters storm the field at halftime during #TheGame between Harvard and Yale

The 136th installment of The Game was interrupted Saturday when protesters stormed the field at halftime. The protest was staged by environmental wackos who really, really want Yale and Harvard to DO SOMETHING! about the weather.

Students from both schools occupied midfield after the Yale band had finished performing. Some held banners asking their colleges to act on climate change and Puerto Rican debt relief.

“Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go,” some protesters chanted.

After a few minutes, hundreds more people stream onto the field. A public address announcement asked them to leave “as a courtesy to the players.”

“As a courtesy to both teams, the game must resume.”

The Harvard-Yale football game has been delayed due to students protesting climate change in the middle of the field. pic.twitter.com/uY9Kc3Mn32

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 23, 2019

Oh, and cancelling Puerto Rican debt.

Of course, the only people who think this was a smart move are the folks for whom a college football game is just a distraction from far more important issues, like changing the weather and running interference while corrupt socialists pilfer disaster relief funds.

If these yahoos were 'brave' enough to try a stunt like this during the Iron Bowl or the SEC Championship Game on December 7, all hell would break loose. The few hundred 'brave' protesters would be followed by several thousand SEC fans, who would absolutely succeed in removing the pests from the field. The game must go on and no pantywaist protesters will stop it. We might laugh at a streaker. We might hurt more than feelings if the protesters' disrupt longer than a media timeout.

The difference in treatment of Saturday's protesters and the would-be 'brave' SEC protesters is why Antifa gets away with their crap in places like California and Connecticut, and why they'd never even try it in SEC Country. In Connecticut, Antifa is just a 'political protest movement.' In this part of the world, it's a terrorist organization.

First College Football Playoff rankings are out and no one outside the top four is happy.

Mark my words--we are headed towards (at least) a six-team playoff slate. Only the top four are playing for the national championship and the top four won't be set in stone until the first Sunday in December. But regardless of who those top four are, at least two teams that are left out will have at least two eloquent someones each complaining about how they got robbed.

The people squalling about how their team deserves to be in the group who produces the champ will credibly argue that the college football playoff is just an extension of the old Bowl Championship Series, where a consensus selection of the two best teams played for the title. They'll credibly argue that while the CFP is an improvement, it's not improvement enough. It's still just a popularity contest with twice as many popular contestants. More is better, they'll say.

Those arguing against expansion will counter with an equally credible case that extension of the CFP field continues to diminish the importance of the regular season. They'll also make a compelling argument that the regular season plus bowl games are the traditional foundation of college football's popularity. It's not the NFL, it never will be, so it therefore shouldn't ever be made to look even a little bit like the NFL. The BCS was only superficially flawed in that every now and then there really were three deserving teams.

So here we are with the first CFP rankings:

Rank	Team	Record
1	Ohio State University	8-0
2	Louisiana State University	8-0
3	University of Alabama	8-0
4	Penn State University	8-0
5	Clemson University	9-0
6	University of Georgia	7-1
7	University of Oregon	8-1
8	University of Utah	8-1
9	University of Oklahoma	7-1
10	University of Florida	7-2
11	Auburn University	7-2
12	Baylor University	8-0
13	University of Wisconsin	6-2
14	University of Michigan	7-2
15	University of Notre Dame	6-2
16	Kansas State University	6-2
17	University of Minnesota	8-0
18	University of Iowa	6-2
19	Wake Forest University	7-1
20	University of Cincinnati	7-1
21	University of Memphis	8-1
22	Boise State University	7-1
23	Oklahoma State University	6-3
24	United States Naval Academy	7-1
25	Southern Methodist University	8-1

And... they're already controversial. Here is a short and non-exhaustive list of complaints:

• Clemson is the defending champs and they're undefeated but left out because B1G SEC bias.
• Alabama has played no one (except everyone on their schedule). 
• LSU has played almost no one (except everyone on their schedule).
• Minnesota is B1G and they're undefeated, too. And they're not even top 10?
• Baylor is undefeated!

All of these complaints are at once both valid and stupid. They all make a point that will change next Tuesday as Alabama, LSU and Penn State all face conference opponents this Saturday. Ironically, this fact bolsters both arguments for and arguments against expansion beyond four teams. The "for" camp can argue that having Bama square off against LSU is a strength of schedule boost, a plus for inclusion of either or both in the final slate. The "against" crowd can argue that this is why we play the regular season and why diminish it by letting the regular season loser sneak in?

The constant debate over the post-season process is a distraction that diminishes interest in the sport of college football. It's not about the game anymore. Did you know that there is a profession called historiography? It's the study of history writing. That's where we are--instead of discussing college football, we're discussing schtuff that has as much to do about the game of football as historiography has to do about who won at Yorktown.

I miss when the Sugar Bowl matched the south against the north and the Rose Bowl pit the west against the east and all the other bowls were just post-season fun. And we debated all off-season long about who was best.

Awesome: Your President Donald Trump will be at Bryant-Denny Stadium for Saturday's Bama-LSU game

Who could blame him for wanting to witness a clash of the two best teams in College Football? It's a 2:40 pm kickoff. The matchup is between the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the coaches and media polls. Both teams are undefeated. Both have explosive offenses and improving defenses. Both have legitimate Heisman Trophy contenders.

Via the Associated Press story at Fox10tv.com:

President Donald Trump is expected to attend Saturday's college football matchup between the two highest-ranked teams in the nation, Louisiana State University and the University of Alabama.

The Federal Aviation Administration is advising that Trump will travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for the game.

This is Trump's third recent fly-in to a major sports venue. He attended Game 5 of the World Series in the Washington DC area and a UFC match in New York earlier this month. He was met with a smattering of boos and cheers at both. However, he won Alabama by 28 points in 2016 so the likelihood that cheers will outnumber boos is pretty high.

He also watched the first half of the National Championship game in January 2018, missing Tua's brilliantly orchestrated comeback against Georgia in the second half. He then welcomed the 2017 champs to the White House.

I think Trump is a Bama fan. Why wouldn't a winner be attracted to winners?

That moment when you realize you're going to the Belk Bowl, not the Sugar Bowl

There comes a time in every football season when the player realizes that not all of his hopes and dreams will come true this year. You've worked hard. You've had some success. There are many positive takeaways. But that dream of dreams; the hope that in the end you are alone at the top of them all... Not this time. No, you will not stand as the undisputed champions.

Big Kat Bryant “injury.” #AuburnVsLSU pic.twitter.com/Y5nniXOG62

— Creg Stephenson (@CregStephenson) October 26, 2019

Do we care whether Thursday Night Football better than Monday Night Football?

This is from a post on InsideHook.com, which is a general interest, Flipboard/Feedly type website with all of the in-depth analysis you'd expect from that kind of medium. It's interesting to me as a college football fan not just because Thursday is also a night for college games but also because the NFL is not the pinnacle of quality sports television that it used to be.

Though they used to be the exception, close, entertaining, games have now become the rule on Thursday Night Football, which airs on a plethora of platforms including Amazon Prime, the NFL Network and Fox. Meanwhile, at the same time, comparable games on ESPN’s Monday Night Football have shown a tendency to be blowouts, especially this season.

Consider: Over the previous three seasons the average margin of victory on TNF was 13.3 points compared to 11.5 on MNF. This season, those numbers have almost completely flipped with the average margin of victory on MNF ballooning to 14 points compared to it shrinking to just 6.75 points on TNF.

The close games which TNF has been offering of late make it a much more compelling product to watch, as does its broadcast team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Buck and Aikman’s counterparts in the booth on MNF, Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland, simply don’t have the chemistry of their competitors on Fox nor have they really had the time to develop it thanks to the lack of continuity in ESPN’s broadcast.

Interesting, but... many football fans are less than happy with today's NFL. The insertion of politics into the game and into commentary on or about NFL Football is a complete turnoff. This a sports competition. The players are there to be the best competitors they can, not make a statement.  Save the cultural and political statements for the halftime shows. 

Also, can we agree that the quality of play has dropped off? This is not the violent collision sport that I came of age watching. It seems to be more and more about the quarterback and his protection than it is about field position, defense and special teams.

Hmm... When the quality of a product falls, should its producers seek to provide more of it? If demand for a product is falling, the incentive for producers is to reduce supply. If television ratings and game attendance are any indication of consumer demand for NFL Football (of course, they are), demand fell in 2016 and 2017. It rebounded a bit in 2018:

Television networks rely heavily on the NFL. Games and NFL-related programming accounted for 63% of Fox’s gross ratings points last season, according to MoffettNathanson. ESPN, CBS and NBC all got about a quarter of their aggregate gross ratings points from NFL content.

Like the rest of television programming, the NFL has seen its ratings decline in recent years due in part to viewers increasingly ditching cable for streaming services. All four major rights holders saw ratings decline in 2016 and 2017.

The league also has been the subject of political controversies in recent years, as activist players such as Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid have drawn the ire of President Donald Trump.

The league’s ratings, however, grew by an average of 5% last year, according to MoffettNathanson. Viewership among people ages 18 to 24 shrank by less than 5%, and viewership increased among older viewers.

One might think that the 2018 rebound in TV ratings might indicate at least a bottoming out of consumer disfavor, but a Forbes review of attendance for 2018 indicates a "not so fast:"

All of this would seem to paint a picture of the NFL being completely back on the upswing. And in terms of television, you’d probably be right. But when it came to the gate for the NFL regular season, it wasn’t.

The 2018 regular season saw average attendance at 67,100, the lowest average since 2011. The Chargers were up the most, but that’s a bit misleading because their first season in LA was abysmal (average of 25,335) and they have should expected to sell out each week in 2018 given that they’ve been playing in the home of the MLS's LA Galaxy, with a seating capacity of 27,000, until they get into the new location they’ll share with the Rams in Inglewood.

Washington led the league in attendance decline, followed by Tampa Bay and Cincinnati.

So, while ratings rebounded a bit, attendance has slumped. The CNBC analysis shows that the ratings indicate that the 2018 rebound didn't regain what was lost in 2016 and 2017. The average attendance so far for the 2019 season is anecdotally lower. Finally completing the picture: revenues from advertising are down despite the ratings bump.

Demand is off. Revenues are off. So why do we care which weeknight offering is performing better, unless we're deciding which one of the two should be done away with?

One answer to this question is that the 2019 season started without a new collective bargaining agreement between the NFL Players Union and the NFL Owners.

Another answer is that in an environment of flat to falling demand, the league and its media partners will soon be renegotiating both broadcast and streaming rights contracts in the coming years. Streaming technology has completely changed the terrain of that battle.

Facing uncertain demand going forward, those negotiations will be... tough. Complicating those negotiations will be negotiations between the players and the owners.

As a rabid college football fan with a ... mild? attachment to the New Orleans Saints, my fanhood won't be hurt if either MNF or TNF goes away. That would just make more room for more college ball.

UThug: Tennessee player on video: 'Where I'm from, we shoot at cops'

Alternate headline: Tennessee is now early favorite for the Fulmer Cup Award.

Where I'm from, thugs like this go to jail and stay there for a while.

Here's the report from Fox News website:

At the time of the arrest, Banks had a polite demeanor toward the arresting officers. He told them he “never met no police officers as nice as y’all” but his attitude changed as the ride continued. He then asked the officers “What you would do without that badge?”

“I should’ve ran, test y’all’s speed,” Banks said. “Y’all would’ve never catch me. That’s what I should’ve did. Next time, I am, I promise you. Never again y’all boys will take me to jail. Not UT police.”

Banks also addressed a woman who was in the car for a ride-along.

“Ma’am, I don’t think you want to be an intern, because where I’m from, we shoot at cops. I’m from Memphis, Tennessee,” he said.

This is a shame. The University of Tennessee used to be one of the Southeastern Conference's finest athletic programs. The football side of the Athletic Department was regarded as an outstanding example of class, distinction and gentlemanly tough competition.

Coach Paul W. Bryant had deep respect for Tennessee. Coach Robert Neyland had the same respect for Alabama. The Third Saturday in October was the biggest rivalry in the SEC football season.

The culture began to change shortly after the 1992 season. You may remember when Phillip Fulmer stabbed then Head Coach Johnny Majors in the back and took over the team after Majors' heart surgery. From that point forward, it was win-at-any cost and the UT football program traded its integrity for a BCS title in 1998.

Fulmer ended his career as Head Coach after posting a dismal 5-7 record (3-5 SEC) in the 2008 season. He has somehow finagled his way into the Athletic Director's office, where it looks like Ethical Fulmerism is back in style.

Hey, y'all... there's a very good reason why the team with the longest rap sheet each year is awarded the not-so-prestigious Fulmer Cup.

Oklahoman: College football rankings: Auburn is No. 1? Oh, my...

Hmm... I'm all for having championships decided on the field. But this is a bridge too far.

"I don't know yet how Oregon or Texas A&M will fare. But there's reason to believe both are quality competition. Auburn beat them both, and neither on the plains of southern Alabama.

Auburn is No. 1. That's abundantly clear. The Tigers have done more than any other team in college football so far.

Maybe that won't hold. Probably that won't hold. But polls that refuse to acknowledge what has happened are as silly as a computer ranking that measures first downs."

https://oklahoman.com/article/5642114/for-the-ap-poll-which-has-no-clue-about-auburn

This is like shouting that the 800m runner with the outside track in a qualifying heat is in the lead! ... one second after the starting gun. Everyone will have to do the full distance before the finalists are selected.

This is why the BCS and college football playoffs have never started releasing rankings until well into the season. The 2019 rankings for the CFP  won't be released until November 5.

Nonetheless, this column from the Oklahoman is surely gonna get some bandwidth on da innerwebs and lots of time on the Paul Finebaum show.

Bama welcomes an old friend to Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday

Once upon a time in the 1980's and 1990's, Alabama played three teams with the word 'Miss' in their name. Games against Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Saturday's opponent Southern Miss were as customary as the Third Saturday in October and the Iron Bowl.

In fact, Alabama has played Southern Miss more than some Southeastern Conference foes, such as Arkansas and Florida who didn't join the conference until the 1992 season.

Alabama has dominated the series with 34 wins, 6 losses and 2 ties.

Some of the Southern Miss games were memorable and not always for the right reasons. Here are some of those memories.

1953 & 1954. Alabama was in one of its "wilderness wanderings" and a very athletic Golden Eagles team put together two straight wins, beating the Tide 25-19 in '53 and 7-2 in '54. That caused Alabama to take some time off and the series didn't resume until Coach Paul Bryant started it back in 1966.

1982. Coach Bryant was in the twilight of his legendary career at the Capstone and Southern Miss had tied Bama the previous season. The 1982 game featured Senior Golden Eagles QB Reggie Collier. The powerful, mobile signal caller led his team to a 38-29 win that wasn't as close as the score indicated. More importantly, the loss snapped Bama's 57-game winning streak at Bryant-Denny Stadium, then the longest in the country.

1990. This was Gene Stallings first year as head coach. Alabama was ranked 13th preseason and welcomed an unranked Southern Miss squad led by some unknown QB named Brett Favre. Bama's star RB Siran Stacy tore up a knee in the game, costing him the rest of the season. Favre tore up a thin, tired Tide defense in a comeback win and spoiled our season opener, 27-24. Coach Stallings later said, "You can call it a miracle or a legend or whatever you want to. I just know that on that day, Brett Favre was larger than life."

1992. Wary from the 1990 shocker, Alabama played it safe for all 60 minutes of a game played in tropical heat and humidity. It was brutal, y'all. Miserable. Suffocating. Africa Hot. The Tide won 17-10 in the closest game of the 1992 Championship season.

2000. Eight years later, Bama had been ranked 3rd preseason but had also blown its opener against UCLA. Southern Miss pitched a shutout, embarrassing the Tide 21-0 in Mike Dubose's final, dreadful season as Head Coach. It was the only time the Goldies have held Alabama scoreless.

2005: The Catch. The last time these two programs met on the field is best known for what is arguably the most amazing play in modern college football history. Whether you saw this live or have seen the replay 587,991 times... it's still awesome.

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Alabama is expected to have only a little trouble extending its series lead against USM Saturday. Read the preview and prediction by Tidefans' Jess Nicholas here. It's unlikely that a Nick Saban Bama squad takes the opponent lightly, but the game could be interesting if the pass-happy visitors pick on Patrick Surtain and the right side of the defense like South Carolina did last week.

Enjoy!

I am NOT coming to your Fall Wedding

Not only am I not coming, you’re not even getting a gift. In fact, I’ll hack your on-line registry and mark everything on your wish list as “already have.”

Ladies, this is football season. College football season lasts approximately 100 days, which is less than one-third of the calendar year. You can have a Christmas wedding. You can have a Summer wedding. You can even have a Mardi Gras wedding. You can get married in any of the other nine months out of the year (and that number of months is significant for a reason).

My lovely wife of nearly 33 years wanted to have a fall wedding. Shortly after I proposed (and she wisely accepted), the conversation went something like this:

Me: “So, Honey. When do you think you’d like to schedule the wedding?”
Her: “I want a fall wedding. The weather is cool and dry, the colors are great. So, sometime in October or November.”
Me: “No.”
Her: “But I am the bride. I am paying for this and I get to pick the date.”
Me: “Not no. but Hell no.”
Her: “This is not right. You will marry me on the date I select, or it’s not happening.”
Me: “Honey, I love you. I really do. But it’s time we started seeing other people.”
Her: “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS %$#&^!!! You and your friends are &^#Q&$!!!”
Me: “Yes, we are. And we’re watching college football all day on whatever Saturday you have in mind.”
Her After much wailing, gnashing of teeth and thing-throwing: “[sigh]  Ok. When is a good weekend, Mister Football?”
Me: “The First Saturday in December is probably good.”

So, we got married on the First Saturday in December, 1986 and we were in total wedded bliss until… 1992.

That’s when the Southeastern Conference expanded to 12 members with two divisions and created the world's first major college football conference championship game. They scheduled the annual SEC Championship Game for ... the First Saturday in December.

I was horrified.

So, the conversation in November 1992 went something like this:

Me: “Um, do you think we could reschedule our Anniversary? Because Alabama is playing Florida in the first ever SEC Championship Game.”
Her: Not no, but Hell no.”

There are some battles that are not worth fighting.

The lesson here is that in 1986, the first Saturday in December was probably a good date to schedule a “fall” wedding. It is no longer.

Gentlemen, grow some balls. Be the Man of the House® or something. If you allow your future bride to schedule a wedding during football season, you are probably one of those pantsless dudes driving around with “House Divided” vanity tags on the front of your vehicle.

And your vehicle is probably a Toyota Prius, Chevy Volt or some other such “sensible” nonsense.

Guys drive cars. Men drive trucks and they proudly display their team’s logos on the front bumper, back window or tag frame. She’s marrying you. She is not entering into some sort of truce that allows her to decorate your schtuff with her team’s colors and logo.

Grow some cajones, and don’t let the bride-to-be ruin a perfectly good football Saturday.

That is all.

Quit whining about the Tide's schedule strength!

If you want to find a team with a weak schedule, look outside the Southeastern Conference.  When you play eight games against opponents in the toughest league in the history of tough leagues, you don't have a weak schedule.

The team that emerges from the gauntlet that is the SEC schedule--including a win in the conference championship game--will be one of the four teams selected for the playoff.

Accept that, please. You don't have to like it. You don't have to agree with the system that produces it. You just have to accept it.

Once that's done, the discussion becomes a pointless argument over who has the least murderous schedule.

It is not Alabama's fault that Duke is the only major conference program that was willing to risk their season's hopes and dreams by starting off with Alabama on a neutral field. If you're going all snowflake on Bama's schedule, how about growing a pair and getting on the rotation? Lines are open in Tuscaloosa. Southern Cal, Michigan, Penn State and Florida State have all made the big boy decision and took the big boy consequences. So either bring what ya got, or shut yer yap.

It is also not Bama's fault that Auburn has to play Georgia and Alabama every year. Georgia plays Alabama and Tennessee every year, and Alabama has Tennessee and Auburn every year. Tennessee still sucks like a big orange and that's not Bama's fault any more than it is Auburn's fault that Georgia sucked under Donnan, Goff and sometimes Richt. Stuff happens. The Wheel Weaves.

It is surely not Bama's fault that Auburn's schedule intimidates teh fambly™. It's not our fault that the starting quarterback is a big, fat question mark. Or that Auburn once again has a "young team." Indeed, when has Auburn not had a young team? They've had a young team every year since Tommy Tuberville's regime. It's not our fault that the whole conference has figured out that every play in Gus Malzahn's encyclopedia of football strategery is a sandlot trick.

Texas A&M did the right thing and did the Longhorns a favor by dropping them, so their biggest out-of-conference game is a trip to Clemson. That's a tough out, but aTm only has them in 2019 to complete a home-away deal started last year. Given tools and time Jimbo will have the Aggies in shape (aTm is my Western Division sleeper). South Carolina has Clemson, too. Florida has a questionable Miami date and a laughable Florida State matchup.

It is true that the non-conference teams playing at Bryant-Denny are not power conference teams.  But 95% of the top conference programs do what Alabama is doing--helping smaller schools build their programs. The "Alabama Game" was used by Florida State, Miami and Southern Miss to develop very nice facilities. Those programs can legitimately demand that Bama and other top notch programs agree to home-away arrangements and Bama does do those, agrees Penn State. As long as we split the proceeds.

Look, all Alabama can do is play the teams that sign up to show up.  Everyone else? Shut up.

Bama’s great year ends on a sour note

What the hell just happened? How is this even possible? What unworldly spirit has possessed Justyn Ross? Is this even real?

There is an awful lot to unpack in the worst beating of an Alabama team coached by Nick Saban. But there are only four keys to what happened in Santa Clara.

1. Clemson used QB Tua Tagavailoa’s greatest strength against him. Tua’s ability to read defenses pre-snap is uncanny. He made history and headlines in 2018 by deciphering coverage and pressure schemes and putting the ball exactly where the defense was at its weakest. Clemson’s defensive braintrust addressed this by showing Tua one thing, and quickly doing something else, making a weakness a strength and vice versa.  This shook the youngster’s confidence and produced two critical turnovers.
2. Clemson’s front seven played over their heads. Once Tua’s first options were taken away, even a four man rush got him out of the pocket and forced him to throw before he was ready. That is the holy grail of pass defense. A hurried throw is rarely a good one but Tua made several amazing throws under pressure anyway. He’s going to learn from this.
3. It was Alabama’s defensive backfield, not Clemson’s, that played poorly. Clemson receivers were open all night, and it was Alabama’s front seven that could not get Trevor Lawrence to panic. He could have pitched a tent and lit a campfire in the pocket. When a QB that good has receivers that good running that wide open, bad things happen to you.
4. Dabo Swinney &Associates outcoached Nick Saban & Co. Swinney, The Pelham, Alabama native and Alabama alumnus had the advantage of a pushover first round opponent in Notre Dame. Clemson prepared scarcely two days for that cakewalk and spent the rest of the time between the ACC Championship Game thinking up new and interesting ways to torment the Tide.

Those four little things added up to the 44-16 shellacking we saw last night. And it could have been worse—Clemson opted to eat clock deep in Alabama territory as the game expired. Please resist any urge to blame officiating (it was awful, but awful both ways), blame Tua, blame the receivers, etc. Alabama was just beaten by a better team that had a better plan. It happens. Thankfully, it happens only about once a year but it’s as inevitable as tomorrow.

Alabama will regroup after this. This machine Saban has built is not just going to go away. Much to the dismay of its future opponents, the 2019 National Championship loss is not the beginning of the end of anything. It is simply another chapter in another volume of Alabama football lore.

Watching social media out of the corner of my eye during the game last night, I was struck curious by the volume of other teams’ fans who deliriously celebrated Alabama’s defeat. Then it occurred to me that Bama may be one of the most hated programs in the modern college football era. And then it occurred to me that it was better to be the hated rather than the hater, because that usually means the former has whipped the latter so often that the hater legitimately fears the hated. And as we all know, the only righteous fear is the fear one has of something capable of your destruction.

It’s just a game, folks. And we’re just fans.

And it’s just a scant 235 days until kickoff.

Tua Tagovailoa didn’t win the Heisman Trophy, and here’s why that’s ok.

I was as disappointed as every other Bama fan on the planet when Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray edged out Tua Tagovailoa for the highest individual honor in college football. But I’m ok with that, and here’s why.

• He’s only a sophomore and if he stays healthy through the 2019 season, he’s a slam dunk to be back in New York City next December.
• He’s a pure-hearted class act who will look at this the same way he sees an incompletion. Pray. Get up. Try harder.
• There’s a lot of Bama fatigue out there. The Alabama Crimson Tide is a football program that people are tired of talking about.
• There’s a lot of Nick Saban fatigue, too. But Nick Saban talks back and he’s not often kind to the media when he speaks to or about them. Rat poison, and all.
• Tua will use this as motivation to play his best game on December 29, when he faces Murray in College Football Playoff the Orange Bowl.

Don’t be ticked off, y’all. All three finalists deserved the trophy and Kyler Murray was nothing short of sensational this year.

This very well could be just the impetus that the whole Alabama football team uses to crush their remaining two opponents and be the first team in the CFP era to win back-to-back championships. Just like Alabama was the first to do it in the BCS era for the 2011-2012 seasons.

Alabama still has a lot to prove, and so does Mr. Tagovailoa.

You hate Gary Danielson because he’s your DADDY

Face the mirror and face the truth. You hate the esteemed, accomplished and popular CBS Color Analyst because he knows more about football than you ever dreamed about knowing. And you will read this blog post because you know every word of it is true.

Gary Danielson is the snide wingman at the bar with you, pointedly explaining why your hairline is the reason why the hot chick across the room isn’t interested in you. He’s the catty tagalong girl who doesn’t know when to STFU about the outfit you spent two hours putting together, wondering loud enough for everyone to know that the reason Mr. Right ain’t looking this way is because… well…

The biggest beef you have with Gary’s commentary is that he says exactly what you don’t want to hear, right when your team is sucking before your very eyes. Your Heisman Trophy Quarterback  just threw an interception and Gary says, “boy, he really missed the read on the Safety playing deep.” Your team’s defense is defending the run like the Convent of Mercy and he says, “wow… they can’t stop anyone between the the tackles today.” Your team has the ball on their 40, there’s 2:20 left in the first half and your coach won’t call one of his three timeouts and try to at least get in field goal range. Gary asks the question that’s in your own bewildered mind: “What in the world is he thinking?”

Meanwhile, your team’s opponent can do no wrong today. In fact, he says in that casual, condescending voice of his that “they’ve been doing this to your team since so-and-so stepped on the scene in 2007.”

Gary, Jedi Master of colorful annoyance doesn’t stop there, either. Right after the 3,279th commercial break in the 3rd quarter, he comes back with the Telestrator. Then,  he finds the last three plays that drove you nuts and he diagrams precisely what your team did wrong. He carefully explains what they need to do to stop sucking, and then you throw things at the television because he’s right.

Here’s another thing about Gary. If you’re an Alabama fan, you think he hates Bama. If you’re a fan of any other team, you think he loves Alabama and secretly has a man crush on Nick Saban. This facet is the grandest illustration of why Gary is the perfect color commentary dude for when your team is losing to Alabama or isn’t winning big enough yet.

I know fans that have picked up the phone to call the police and file harassment charges against Gary. I know fans that have logged onto GoFundMe to start raising money to buy out his contract. I know fans that have put a piece of paper on the television screen so they don’t have to look at his face. I even know fans that have turned down the volume on the television broadcast and turned on the homer radio broadcast so they can hear what they want to hear instead of hearing what they need to hear.

He is the greatest color commentary prick of all time and he’s trying to help you, not hurt you. It’s true. And you know it.

What you have to do now is not only accept it, but embrace it. Gary Danielson is your Daddy. Don’t hate him for it.

Mississippi State at Alabama: Bulldogs are just what Bama needs

And no, I don’t mean a cupcake. That comes next week when the Citadel Bulldogs visit Bryant-Denny for an 11:00am SEC Network ‘showdown.’

Mississippi State has some of the things LSU didn’t, like a decent defensive line and a mobile QB in Nick Fitzgerald. LSU will still be the best team Alabama faces in the regular season but State has matchups that could cause some problems even with a full-health Tua Tagovailoa. And Nick Fitzgerald’s toughness and ability to run right by our 300 lb. block of soap can convert 3rd and short in the second half. 

Alabama’s defense just keeps getting better every week, and the cool thing is that the whole unit has improved its play. There is a tremendous difference between the defense that let Louisville receivers run around in September. Arkansas and Mizzou would struggle to score even one touchdown against this unit. On pure passing downs, Fitzgerald will need every bit of his ball totin’ skills because he could be running for his life.

We can look for MSU to borrow from LSU’s game plan. They want to take the ball out of Tua’s hands and make Alabama beat them on the ground. They have a front seven capable of bringing pressure but the question is whether they’re capable and deep enough to do that for four quarters. It’s… unlikely.

Alabama’s offense revolves around Tua now. With Jalen Hurts out for at least another week, it’s either Tua or Mac Jones. Jones is a very good QB, but the playcalling changes with him. He doesn’t have the athletic or defense-reading chops that Tua does, so the playbook has to be trimmed down for him and we get more Sabanball. Let’s hope Tua stays upright, y’all.

Alabama wins both trench matchups, with MSU’s DL having a little better time against Bama’s OL than LSU did. I think we’ll see Bama put up less than 40 points again unless our offensive braintrust finds and ruthlessly exploits a Bulldog weakness.

Let’s say…

Alabama 38, Mississippi State 10

The College Football National Championship will be decided Saturday night, y’all

If LSU can’t beat Alabama in Death Valley, at night, in front of 100,000 screaming crazy drunk Cajuns, nobody can. You might as well just ship the natty trophy to Tuscaloosa.

There is nobody else on the Bama schedule or in the likely College Football National Championship Playoff field with the personnel and scheme that can hang with the Crimson Tide.

Both teams are coming off bye weeks. Traditionally, the team with the most emotional investment suffers from a week off because it interrupts the momentum of success that the emotion is built on. That team is LSU, but the pause will be offset a little by the night kickoff and the crazy coon ass energy in the stands.

Alabama comes in with a Sabanesque business as usual attitude, having already sampled the road in Columbia and Knoxville.

LSU’s defense is what has brought them to this point. Defensive Coordinator Dave Aranda’s base package is a 3-4 scheme that looks a lot like a Nick Saban strategy. Their problem though is a lack of true 3-4 talent and depth, forcing Aranda to rely on some nickel lineups and even a 5-2 look that’s designed to confuse the offense and create opportunities to disrupt. LSU is so-so when it comes to total defense but they’re 7th in scoring defense.

Their star defensive player, Devin White, must sit out the first half Saturday night due to a targeting penalty called on him against Mississippi State two weeks ago. 

They will be sorely tested by an Alabama offense that has yet to see a defense they can’t destroy by halftime. Starting QB Tua Tagavailoa is an absolute phenomenon (and he’s only a true sophomore!) and he has a young-but-freakishly-talented corps of wide receivers. Behind Tua is a fleet of at least three bowling balls for tailbacks, and the studly Jalen Hurts waits in the wings as Tua’s backup. LSU can’t afford to let Bama get up by two scores in the first quarter but my sense is that this will happen, anyway.

Alabama’s very young but very talented defense faces an LSU offense that Les Miles would be very proud to call his own. QB Joe Burrow is a so-so passer and a decent runner when the field is wide open before him. He managed to make a few plays against Georgia but was only 50% and no TD’s. He’s 53% overall with only six TD’s and three INT’s. Burrow in the pocket is not going to beat Alabama, and Burrow has only so-so backs to carry the ball. There is no Leonard Fournette at LSU this year.

Alabama’s defense is getting better as the season progresses. The injury bug that bit so hard last year has gone elsewhere in 2018, so the unit has been developing together all year long. Expect the Tide front seven to get LSU’s offensive line out of position from time to time, and for Williams, Davis and Buggs to wreak havoc. A very young defensive backfield has also gotten better through the first eight weeks but is still inexperienced and somewhat thin. One reason why teams have been able to score 20+ points on this defense is opposing receivers running free in long yardage downs.

Bama’s only weakness remains special teams. Tide fans should pray this game doesn’t come down to a special teams play or three.

It shouldn’t, though—the game of football is always and everywhere won or lost in the trenches. Alabama’s OL appears better than LSU’s front seven, and LSU’s OL might hold its own against Bama’s front seven for a half. If Alabama gets up by 14 or 21 before halftime… well… you’ve seen that movie before.

Bama wins another one comfortably.

Alabama 44, LSU 17