Friday, November 14, 2008

Saban Fired Up


This video is from Hey Coach last night, Coach Saban's weekly radio show. It is pretty motivational overall but gets really hot around the 2 min. 45 second mark.

I think he wants Tide fans to be ready this Saturday. Enjoy.


Saban Fired Up

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Bryant-Denny Expansion One Step Closer to Reality

The University of Alabama Board of Trustees Physical Properties Committee heard a presentation from the University of Alabama today regarding the proposed $80.6 million expansion of the south end zone of Bryant-Denny Stadium.

After the presentation the Board unanimously approved the project to move into the third of four stages, the fourth being final approval to begin construction and bring the
facility to a capacity of more than 101,000 seats.

As you can see by the picture, this place would be sweet.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Game 11 Preview: Mississippi State Bulldogs


Starkville, MS is a beautiful town. No I am kidding Starkville is horrible, but it is home to our next opponent the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Coming off a Liberty Bowl appearance last year the hype around Bulldog football was a little higher than normal this preseason but these Dogs have failed to live up to the hype.

Sly Croom's team enters this matchup riding a two game winning streak against Alabama but this is a different year. This State team is 3-6 overall and 1-4 in the SEC. The lone SEC victory came against Vanderbilt at home a few weeks back 17-14. That lost started a current four game losing streak for the Dores. The problem for State has not been on the defensive side of the ball but putting points on the board.

34 points is the highest point total of the season and that came against football superpower Southeastern Louisiana. State is yet to break the 25 point barrier against a SEC defense. On the flip side their defense is fairly stout as evident by their 3-2 classic against a potent Auburn offense earlier in the year. On offense the Bulldogs are led by QB Tyson Lee who enters the game completing 114 or 183 passes for 1119 yards and 4 touchdowns. 4 touchdowns for your QB through 10 games is not a good sign. Their best returning skill player coming into the year was RB Anthony Dixon but he has had a disappointing year with 647 yards and 6 touchdowns on 155 carries. To compare those stats to Alabama's RB, Glen Coffee enters the game with 1020 yards and freshman Mark Ingram has 539. Both of Bama's RB enter the game with 8 touchdowns.
On the defensive side of the ball Starkville's finest is often put in terrible spots by the offense. The defense is giving up an average of 21 points per game but the Dogs only average 16 points per game. Ouch.

In his Tuesday press conference, Mississippi State head coach Slyvester Croom (pictured below in a stunning leather jacket) knows the opportunity his team has.

"It's a great opportunity for us as a football team," Croom said. "It's rare that you get a chance to play the No. 1 team in the country during the course of the season. That opportunity has been afforded us and we're going to prepare as best as we possibly can and go over there and play as well as we possibly can in the hopes of winning a game, on the road, in Tuscaloosa, against the No. 1 team in the country."

A win over # 1 Alabama in Tuscaloosa would make State's season. It would make their third win in a row over the Crimson Tide and would put Croom (a Tuscaloosa native) back in brighter light in Starkville. Fortunately for us, it shouldn't happen. The last two seasons turnovers have doomed the Tide in this game. If we run the ball and play defense like we have all year and do not give the Bulldogs easy points we will win this game. Alabama is on a mission to make the national title game and will not overlook this team.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Tide Still # 1 in Latest BCS Rankings


Another win. Another week at # 1.

Alabama remained the top ranked team in the country this week in every major poll and held off # 2 Texas Tech in the latest BCS poll that was released last night. The complete rankings are listed below. # 1 Alabama returns to Tuscaloosa this Saturday to take on their SEC West rival, the Mississippi State Bulldogs.




BAMA # 1 Again

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Ramma Jamma in Death Valley...It Gets Better Every Time


After Alabama's win at Tennessee a few weeks ago, we gave you a video of Alabama fans signing Ramma Jamma in Neyland Stadium, and it was sweet. Well this one is no different as Tide fans celebrate our victory yesterday in Baton Rogue. Enjoy and Roll Tide!


Oh and in case you were still wondering, Nick Saban is better than Les Miles.


Ramma Jamma in Tiger Stadium

# 1 'Bama Wins SEC West, Face Gators in Title Game


Hello Tim Tebow.

With # 1 Alabama's road win at # 15 LSU yesterday the Crimson Tide locked up the SEC West title and will play in the SEC Championship game December 6th in Atlanta. On the same day Alabama won the SEC West, the 5th ranked Florida Gators took care of business at Vanderbilt and clinched the SEC East title.

That means we will have a sudo-college football playoff. Alabama and Florida will be playing a national semi-final to see who will move on to the national title game. Being ranked # 1 currently, if Alabama wins out against its remaining schedule of Mississippi State, Auburn, and Florida they will be in the title game for sure.

Florida's remaining slate has South Carolina, The Citadel, and Florida State before they meet Alabama. If the Gators win out they should also be sitting pretty to play for it all in January.

HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE WIN!!!

After 3 mild heart attacks and a mini stroke I finally was able to sit back and enjoy # 1 Alabama's huge road win at # 15 LSU on Saturday. In their toughest game of the year, Nick Saban's bunch gutted out the overtime win, 27-21, in front of 93,000 plus angry Bayou Bengal fans.

Alabama (10-0, 6-0) did about everything possible to lose the game in the first half. On the opening possession Alabama drove the ball right down the field only to turn the ball over as WR Earl Alexander stretched the ball towards the goal line only to have LSU safety Chad Jones knock it out of his hands.

Alabama would turn the ball over two more times in the first half and luckily with a stout defense and terrible QB play by LSU's Jarrett Lee, the Crimson Tide headed to halftime tied at 14-14. The man responsible for ruining most of Lee's day is Alabama safety Rashad Johnson. Johnson had an All-American day with 3, that is not a misprint, he had 3 interceptions. One of those was in overtime that helped seal the victory for Alabama. Another one of them he returned for a TD to make the game 14-14 and take Alabama into halftime still feeling good about its chances.

On offense RB Glen Coffee had 126 yards and a TD and Les Miles' crew simply had no answer for freshman WR Julio Jones. Every time Alabama needed a big play in the passing game they went to Jones. We knew it was coming, Miles knew it was coming, everybody in Tiger Stadium knew it was coming, and they simply could not stop him.

I felt good about this game all week because I thought we simply had better players. As the day went on and the game started I began to realize that LSU had everything in its favor. Playing at home (advantage), College GameDay in town (advantage), playing the # 1 team in America (motivation), and playing their ex-coach who they hate (motivation). Alabama was also just a better matchup for LSU then Georgia or Florida were. Those two teams run a spread type offense and LSU is just not built for that. They are a tough, physical strong team that wants to run you over. Sound familiar? That is us as well.

Given everything that pointed in LSU's way, including the three turnovers, Alabama still won the game. We went to Baton Rogue and beat the defending national champions with everything in the world going against us and that says something about this team. We played poorly and still figured out a way to win in one of college football's toughest road enviornments.

Attention now turns to our last two remaining home games against struggling SEC West rivals, Mississippi State and Auburn. State has beat us two years in a row and Auburn six. That will be motivation for this team but they have a larger goal...a shot at the national title. With the SEC West title already wrapped up and a date set with the SEC East champ Florida Gators, our brutal schedule continues. I am not sure if this team can win all three of those games, but I love our chances as this team just keeps finding a way to win.