A note to the incoming Alabama football athlete

  You wouldn’t know that a below-average sized, thinning-haired, 69-year old male who last played the game when your grandparents were alive, would be able to coax you – the giant among giant on the high school football stage – enough to go and play in a State that to most people would be one they wouldn’t want to visit, let alone live.   And yet year after year, the Pied Piper of Tuscaloosa brings the Gods of American High School into campus and gets them to sign on the dotted line. So here’s a letter to that class. You could replay this letter for many of the major programs, by the way. ***** If you come to Tuscaloosa, you’ll

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Alabama – Clemson IV: A very quick National Championship Game preview

This Monday is the College Football finale between two teams that EVERYBODY thought would get there: Alabama and Clemson. It’s no secret that both teams are amazing. Both teams are stacked with first round draft picks. Both teams have five-star quarterbacks who been revelations. Both teams have insanely good wide receivers and running backs. And their defenses? Whoa. The only bad thing about the National Championship is that it’s going to be played in Santa Clara, California. My brother – who lives there – said to me: “Why in the hell are they having a massive college football game during rush-hour on a weekday? The place is hard to get to and isn’t a great stadium experience? The 49ers can’t even fill

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SEC bitchiness took over the College Football Play-Off

If you believe in such thing as social media noise, then Twitter shouted the loudest. And in particular, the insufferable yelling came from the SEC – and most particularly Georgia and Alabama fans. RANT NO.1: WHY WASN’T GEORGIA IN THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF AHEAD OF NOTRE DAME? Georgia fans were screaming their nuts off about the fact that Notre Dame’s blow-out by Clemson meant that they should have been in the blow-out instead of the Irish. “They don’t even have their own conference” said some. “How could the Committee talk about the best four teams? Sure Georgia, in their loss to Alabama, showed that they are one of the best teams in the country?”, groused another. “Notre Dame didn’t play anyone this

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Alabama 2018 Preview: Will the QB dance become a mess?

January 9th, 2018. Tua Tagovailoa replaces Jalen Hurts as Alabama’s quarterback mid-game after Hurts fails to show up, and wins the game for the Crimson Tide in overtime. Tuscaloosa celebrates (again). Athens mourns (again). Nick Saban breathes a sigh of relief. After all, he’d lobbied the program ever since the Tide lost to Auburn and didn’t get into the SEC Championship Game and might not have gotten into the danged play-off. Rammer Jammer was played, sung, and chanted. A lot. Someone swore that they saw Bear Bryant in heaven, crying. Roll onto August 2018 and a controversy still reigns around Tuscaloosa. Who’s going to be the starting quarterback when the team kicks off against Louisville? Will it be ‘Tua’ or will it

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The future doesn’t look good for Jalen Hurts, either way

As much as Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts respects his father Averion, I’m sure there’s a little bit of him that wishes his Dad would have shut up. Jalen Hurts didn’t need his father to tell the world about the man-to-man conversation they had in an interview with Bleacher Report. He certainly didn’t need Averion to repeat the words that he said to Jalen after his awful National Championship Game performance: “You f–ked up, you opened the door and put yourself in this situation…”Now it’s up to you to dig yourself out”. Jalen Hurts certainly didn’t need Averion to practically threaten Alabama head coach Nick Saban LaVar Ball-style with his son’s transfer should he not get the starting job by saying: “My job

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Refs, Freshmen, and Saban: 20 Goods and bads from the National Championship Game

hat Some people in Tuscaloosa are still up and drunk. Some people in Athens have kicked their wall, door and probably the cat. But whatever you have done, Alabama is the 2018 National Champion. But not everyone on Alabama had a great day, and not everyone on Georgia had a bad one. So here are your good days/bad days from yesterday…. GOOD DAY Tua Tagovailoa: Came on in the second half in the place of an awful Jalen Hurts and immediately put UGA’s defense on its heels with some bullet throws. Threw the game-winning TD that looked identical to the one Todd Blackledge threw against Georgia in the 1982 National Championship Game. Sony Michel: His 98 yards on 14 carries (that’s

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Will Alabama or Georgia win the National Championship?

Suck it, Ohio State. Suck it, Clemson. Suck it, Oklahoma. The SEC’s got two teams playing in the National Championship game. That’s right – in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium fans all over America will tune into Monday to a game they most feared: An all-SEC Natty featuring Alabama and – to less an extent – Georgia. Listen to the pundits, and they are hoping and praying that it won’t be boring. They hope it won’t be a 9-6 slugfest. They pray that Brian Daboll or Jim Chaney will come up with some offensive invention to stop that happening. They are hoping for end-zone celebrations and while craziness. They had a lot of that in two previous National Championships – and are

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The National Championship Drinking Game

Right, it’s the National Championship Game, and to keep you a little focussed on the game, we’ve got a drinking game for you. You know the rules: If ESPN mentions this (through the sideline reporters, Chris Fowler or Kirk Herbstreit (we’ll let you off the College Gameday show if you’re too busy tailgatin’ the last day of the College Football season (sniff! sniff!)). We aren’t expecting y’all to drink a shot-a-mention, because we don’t want to pay your hospital bills. And make sure that your drink is alcohol, not water or soft drinks. So don’t cheat us on the fun. So…..if ESPN mentions:  —- This is an-all SEC National Championship Game — DRINK A SHOT —- That tickets went for

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Should Alabama be No.1 in the first CFB Play-Off Rankings?

We know Alabama is one of the best four teams in the country. The Crimson Tide haven’t just played every team it’s come against well, it has (apart from Texas A&M) massacred them. The Crimson Tide has burnt through much of its opposition, and it’s probably the best team in college football. The College Football Play-Off Committee’s eye test would definitely see Alabama’s blitzkrieg of its opposition and put it as the best team in the country. But then, it has to worry about strength of schedule. And it also looks at how teams improve week to week rather than fall apart. That’s why Ohio State fans are probably very excited about the prospect of seeing their team in the

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Will Georgia raise a cocktail? Week 9 SEC Preview

It’s Cocktail Party week, when the Georgia and Florida fans descend on Jacksonville and get blind drunk before the 3.30 pm kick-off, and provide an atmosphere that’s OK. During the week before, Florida’s been talking a lot of crap, while the head coach has been telling stories (which might be true) about death threats. If we’re honest, that’s going to be the most interesting game of the week. The ones are a little bit of a struggle. No.3 Georgia (-14) vs Florida: Georgia fans are going to run, run, run the ball down Florida’s throat, and hope that Jake Fromm’s not forced into passing. Despite what people say, UF has a good secondary, and every game that they’ve lost have

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