Roll Tide!

According to Ell over at Bama Sports Report, "Josh Denmark has launched the very first Alabama-themed iPhone app. Search the AppStore for 'Crimson Tide'. It’s got the football schedule, the roster and staff in this version. Best of all, it’s free."

I don't own an iPhone, but I agree with Ell that this app is long overdue!

x-posted to uofalabama

The Crimson Tide has now beaten Auburn 96 times in a row in gymnastics. The last time Auburn won a meet against Alabama was 1979. That's pretty incredible!

http://www.bamasportsreport.com/2009/01/10/bama-extends-amazing-streak/

I know we're all still neck deep in Alabama football (it'll be so awesome saying that in January, too), but has anyone noticed how awful the basketball team is? After being picked to win the SEC West, the Tide promptly lost to Mercer and Oregon. Wins include FAMU, Chaminade (who?), St. Joe's, Alabama A&M, and LA Lafayette.

I had the misfortune of watching some of the Alabama A&M game live on WVUA here in town, and folks... I honestly can't explain how bad it was. A&M was within 2 points with 1:30 left in the game. A questionable offensive foul on an A&M player allowed us to finally put it away.

We are rewarded with an RPI ranking of... wait for it... 232. There are 343 Div. I teams. We are in the bottom half, and it's not even close. Alabama Basketball Blog has a list of all the SEC teams and their RPI ranking. The next closest is Georgia, long a joke program, at 198. Yeah, 34 spots higher. We are dead last. Auburn, another joke program, is 77. And that's with a record of 4-4! At least they lost to Mercer, too.

And Tide fans, when I'm typing lines like "at least they lost to Mercer, too," you know times are bad.

I think it's fairly obvious that Mark Gottfried is a decent recruiter, but can't coach worth a lick. (Sound like an old football coach we had?) I'm not saying there's a Nick Saban of basketball out there waiting for us to come calling, but I think we can do better. I think it's time.

Poll #1314316
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Fire Mark Gottfried?

(sings) Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye!

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3742934

Alabama coach Nick Saban insists he was "not really trying to score" late in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 36-0 Iron Bowl win over Auburn.

On 3rd-and-6 from the 34-yard line with fewer than three minutes go, reserve quarterback Greg McElroy hit Marquis Maze for a touchdown.

Some Tigers fans expressed outrage at the late score. But Saban pointed out that it was only the third pass attempt of the final period, that the subs played most of it, and that McElroy needs experience.

"The play was not designed for a long pass," Saban said. "It was a seven-yard out route to the tight end, but they were playing bump-and-run, and the read is to throw it over the top on that. We weren't trying to run up the score. If they didn't want us to throw it over their heads, they shouldn't have played bump-and-run."

Few things make me smile more than a well done (and well deserved) Rammer Jammer.

"We have an opponent in this state that we work every day, 365 days a year, to dominate," said Saban on the day he was hired to be the head football coach at Alabama. What does domination look like? It looks like 234 rushing yards to Auburn's 57. It looks like zero turnovers to Auburn's 3. It looks like over 35 minutes of ball control. It looks like 21 first downs to Auburn's 8. It looks like 412 total yards of offense to Auburn's 170. And it looks like Auburn's worst Iron Bowl loss since 1962.

Here's espn.com's write up with some video highlights.

Ian Rapoport's Rap Sheet: Alabama-Auburn, the day after... (Beatdown in T-Town edition!)

The coaches of three programs we've beaten this year have now been fired or resigned (Bowden, Fulmer, Croom). Tubs is on the hot seat, but appears to be safe for now.

Florida's next. Roll Tide.

36-0

Need I say more?

SEE YA LATER AUBIE...and maybe Tubby!

ROLL TIDE ROLL..BAMA IS 12 and OHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

I'd like to bid farewell to the fat SOB Phil Fulmer today!

Please know as ALWAYS I will be pulling for the other team and congrats on a losing season without a bowl this year and thanks for allowing us to whip your ass the last two years!!!!!

Good riddance!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WE8FciJQ_o

Things that make you go hmmmm.




Both coaches coached at 3 universities before coming to Alabama.



Both coaches coached 1 year at their first coaching job.



Both coaches came to the University of Alabama with 91 wins.



Both coaches won their 100th game in their 2nd season at Alabama.



The 100th win was against Tulane for both coaches. Even more interesting is the total points in the game against Tulane…you guessed it, the same (26) for Bryant 19-7, Saban 20-6.



Both coaches struggled with going to the pros. Bryant changed his mind, Saban did not, but it was the same team, the Miami Dolphins, and it led to both getting back to Alabama.



ALABAMA was the second stop in the SEC for both of them and will most likely be where they will end


(from a reliable source but may need to be checked for accuracy)

Did anyone catch Paul Finebaum call LSU fans the worst in the country and an embarassment? After this past week, I can't say I disagree.

Here's the video - it's at the end: http://www.myfoxal.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=7823311&version=1&locale=EN-US

If Alabama wins out and ends up facing Texas Tech in the National Championship, can the Crimson Tide handle them?

This is the second of two posts I made on my own LJ and decided to crosspost here. Enjoy!

I stupidly forgot my real camera, so I had to use my phone. Here are some pictures that give you a good idea of how Neyland Stadium in Knoxville is laid out. They were taken from where my friend and I were sitting, so as you can see, we had good seats.

Overall, I was impressed with the stadium. It didn't look like there was a bad seat in the house. Though the seats go pretty high up, they don't seem to bowl out from the field as much as in Bryant-Denny or the Georgia Dome. The empty seats you see in images 381 and 384 are part of the student section. According the UT grad behind us, the school didn't use to charge students for tickets. It was taken care of in their university activity fee. So that combined with the fact that the Vols suck this year means empty seats.

Fwiw, their band was pretty good, too. They did play "Rocky Top" about 43 times too many, though. And during pregame, they have the band weirdly hooked up to speakers. The MDB was drowned out until the game actually started.



( moooar pics! )

This is the first of two posts I made on my own LJ and decided to crosspost here. Enjoy!

Took my first ever visit to The University of Tennessee yesterday. They couldn't even sell out the game, but the Vol fans who did show up talked some pretty good trash until the inevitable occurred - a thrashing. Ryan and I met two pretty nice UT fans behind us (newlyweds, awwww), but of course there were plenty of hicks.

A good example is the guy a few rows behind us tossing ice cubes down at us. All the Bama fans nearby ratted him out and I called him out on it. I would have reported him to a cop had there been one around. (Curious...) Anyway, after a few seconds I decided to get even by saying loudly, "You can chuck ice at me all night, but it's not gonna get you 20 points." We were ahead 22-3 at the time.

Another good example is the UT fan who walked down the strip with his posse shouting out, "Alabama is garbage!" Hard to say anything to that other than "scoreboard!"

Also, the UT gals like to hockey-style check Bama fans walking down the sidewalk. It was rather odd.

Lowlights include putrid orange at every turn, country/folk music every 30 seconds on the PA, and the UT band endlessly playing "Rocky Top." By the end of the game, they had resorted to playing it whenever the Vols were able to make a 1st down.

We listened to the Vol postgame show afterward, and lemme tell you... Fulmer's in trouble. Then I saw him on the weekly Sunday coach's show on a local tv station today during lunch in Chattanooga. Ole Phil had his arms crossed pretty tight and looked like he was about to shit a diamond as he had to explain every single play of the game.

Alabama is now 8-0 overall, 5-0 in the SEC, won a rivalry game, played a COMPLETE game, and how were we rewarded? We lost our lone first place vote from last week, even though Penn St. stayed below us at #3. Double eww tee eff. It's easy to say we should just take care of business and everything will be fine, but I have to point out that Penn St. only has three legitimate teams on their schedule. They've already beaten Illinois and Ohio St. Their last test is Michigan St., which still doesn't tell you much.

An Alabama team that's undefeated or has one loss but wins the SEC Championship should absolutely be ranked ahead of Penn St. Getting ahead of myself, though. LSU (where's the defense!?), Miss. St., and Alabama Polytechnic Institute still have to be put down. Now the real fun begins. Roll Tide.

FOR those of you who were not fortunate enough to make it to Knoxville last night...This was my 25th straight BAMA vs. UT game and I've NEVER seen as many BAMA fans in that stadium and in MY opinion, RAMMER JAMMER has never sounded sweeter than when the band played it with about a minute to go and those who VOL fans that were left heard it....I don't think any of the BAMA fans until the clocked ticked to zero!!!!


ROLL TIDE!

Our favorite team... The Tide!!!

2008 SEC Football Standings

SEC Eastern	Conference			Overall
Division	W-L	PF	PA	W-L	PF	PA	STK
Vanderbilt (13)	3-1	75	64	5-1	147	98	L1
Florida (10)	3-1	149	65	5-1	231	78	W2
Georgia  (11)	2-1	70	62	5-1	198	110	W1
South Carolina	2-2	79	79	5-2	172	105	W4
Kentucky	0-2	31	41	4-2	157	63	L2
Tennessee	0-3	32	70	2-4	116	97	L1

SEC Western	Conference			Overall
Division	W-L	PF	PA	W-L	PF	PA	STK
Alabama (1)	3-0	107	58	6-0	202	81	W6
LSU (2)	2-1	81	96	4-1	163	112	L1
Auburn (20)	2-3	73	79	4-3	134	92	L2
Ole Miss	1-2	72	84	3-3	175	148	L1
Arkansas	1-2	46	109	3-3	112	212	W1
Mississippi State	1-2	43	51	2-4	98	121	W1

Click here for the actual web page.


EDIT (10-13-08): I think I got too excited yesterday. Next time I wont assume when I look at the SEC Standings... OR maybe I could look at the right thing next time.  Sorry to those who read this.

So... Did that bring us all back down to earth? I realize Kentucky was supposed to have a pretty good defense, but anyone watching that game had to see how badly we played. Wilson seems to have multiple personalities, and we never know who we're gonna get. Today we got 7-17 for 104 yards and an interception. (He was lucky the 'Cats didn't catch a couple more.)

I was glad to see Saban man up and go for it on 4th and 1 from the UK 46. At some point you have to play to win the game, and that was the moment to do it. Coffee made the 1st down. Unfortunately, Tiffin missed another field goal (a 24 yarder!?!). Two short field goal misses and a PAT banged off the post (thankfully rekicked) is just inexplicable. I'd say use the backup, but we all saw what happened in the Tulane game...

The biggest story, I think, had to be the penalties, though. It's true we got screwed on Julio's illegal formation and offensive pass interference calls. And I think the defensive pass interference call that ended up leading to UK's first touchdown was shady, as well. But there's no question we had too many holding calls and were just sloppy as a whole on offense all night.

The bright spots? Coffee ran for 219 yards, which was the most for a Bama RB since ole Shaun Alexander himself in 1996 vs. LSU. Julio is still the best WR I've seen at Bama, perhaps since I've been here. (Freddie Milons had talent, but Julio is a better pure receiver.) Arenas is exciting to watch even when he gains only 5 yards on a return. The defense is stellar - and won us this game.

I think the biggest bright spot for us, though, is just that we won. And what I mean by that is that we didn't come out so flat after a huge win that we lost a game because of it. This was a problem for us last year. This game was ugly, no doubt about it. We played a dangerous game and got away with it. You have to believe that Saban will use this to our advantage throughout the rest of the season: "See what happens when you don't prepare the same way every week?" This close win will perhaps teach us a lesson and help us win out.

And I truly mean that - win out. There are two major challenges left: LSU and Auburn. Say what you want about Auburn after tonight in Nashville - they will always play us hard. But it can be done. Auburn knows it, and most importantly, we know it.

From another email received today

Four football fans climb a mountain - a Tennessee fan, an Georgia fan, a Alabama fan & an Auburn fan. They argued all the way up the mountain about who was the most "die hard" fan. When they reached the top, the UT fan proclaimed to the other three, "This is for the Vols!" and threw himself off the mountain as a sacrifice, screaming "Rocky Top" as he fell to his death. Not to be out done by the Tennessee fan, the Georgia fan jumped up and shouted, "Go Dogs--Sic'em!" and threw himself off the mountain yelling, "Glory Glory to Old Georgia" as he fell to his death.

Refusing to be outdone by UT and UGA fans, the Alabama fan jumped to his feet and yelled, "THIS IS FOR THE TIDE!" and without any hesitation pushed the Auburn fan off the mountain shouting, "Fly you damn war eagle, Fly!"