Crimson Tide Football and Other Alabama Sports Musings

Alabama vs. Mississippi Football Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday, Sept. 30 8 p.m. central Bama is -28 in Vegas Alabama leads series 48-11-2 Bama won in 2016 by a narrow 48-4 3 Mississippi Coached by Matt Luke The Crimson Tide football team will defend its 14-game home winning streak on Saturday. Southern Cal has a 12-game streak as the next closest. The Tide opponent Ole Miss will roll into Tuscaloosa trying to recover from a somewhat sloppy loss to California that I thought they should have won. The Rebs are also trying to rebound from a 5-7 year after losing exactly half their starters at the end of 2016, but the good news for Mississippi is that QB Shea Patterson continues his march to football history as one of the most prolific passers in the school record books and the Reb are 2-1. After coming in last year  to engineer a comeback win over then no. 8 Texas A&M near the end of the season, he has not slowed for a second. Patterson currently leads the SEC as a passe

This Saturday, battle of the bands.. Vs.

Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Vanderbilt Commodores Vanderbilt Stadium Nashville Sept. 23, 2017 2:30 central time Airs on CBS Bama record against: 59-20-4 Betting line Bama -19.5 The Commodores' sails are full this week after a mild upset of Kansas State 14-7 last Saturday, prompting defensive lineman Nifae Lealeo to say, "When you come to our house, we show you how to play some SEC ball...Alabama, you're next." Mighty big words, but at 3-0 and with a win over a previously ranked team, let's let that pass as adrenaline and exuberance that I love to see. Good for you, young man. And for you 18,000 fans at the end of the game shouting "We want Bama", just be careful what you ask for (K-State took 20,000 of the tickets). Ask Washington, the last team to shout that to the nation, after going 12-1 in a very good conference only to return home after a 24-7 whipping in the Final Four where they went the final three quarters without a score. But the

Sept 16, 2017 Bryant -Denny Stadium 6 p.m. kickoff Airs on ESPN2 When the Rams come down from the thin Colorado air to enjoy our  sunny fall weather on Saturday, it will be only the second time for the schools to meet. The first was due to our former offensive coordinator Jim McElwain taking on the head coaching job in Fort Collins, Colorado. Bama won that meeting 31-6, one of the 11 times Coach Saban has bested his former staff. (The most recent, of course, being Jimbo Fisher of the Noles.) Last year, the Rams finished a decent 7-6 and played in the Idaho Potato Bowl. The Rams are solid in several aspects of the game and bring a 2-1 record to Alabama, with wins over Abilene Christian and Oregon State and a loss to cross-state rival Colorado by 14. By the way, next week the Vandy road game has been scheduled for 2:30 central on CBS. This will be the 84th meeting, in which Bama has a record of 59-19-4. I feel like this Saturday night will be a decent game.  Colorado State

I started following women's soccer a few years ago when Mississippi native Molly Atherton played. Her dad Johnny is a good friend from Gulfport and it was always a fun afternoon watching the team with friends from Mississippi. Molly finished her senior year in 2012 as a leader and gave us Mississippi Tide fans a thrill to watch as she finished as the all-time shot leader with 199. She played in all 18 games and started 17. She had 8 points on the year on two goals and four assists. It was a great intro for Virginia and me to this team. This week Soccer American ranked the Tide no. 19 in its Week Four College Top 25. The Tide also advanced from 8th to 6th in the MSCAA Southeast Regional Poll.  The Tide is 7-1 on the season, including wins over Jacksonville, Samford, Florida State, South Alabama and Troy. The lone loss was to South Florida, 2-1, back in August. The win over the Noles was its first win over a Top 10 opponent. This Friday Sept. 15 the Tide will open SEC matches aga

Before we get to the Fresno State game, which will not likely be very close, let’s talk about what happened last week against Florida State. The Tide won and I’m very happy to start a season against a number three team and win by a nice margin. But at the time it was happening, I was not as happy as I hoped to be. The Tide did get 60 of 61 first place votes in the AP and retained it #1 spot. (Ohio State is #2 and Clemson moved up to #3.) One part of me was sorely disappointed in what appeared to be an incredibly vanilla Tide offense. But the Tide did beat the preseason number 3 team 24-7 despite losing two starting linebackers for the season and suffering two other serious injuries that will cause players to miss a game or two.  I’m trying not to whine about a win, but part of me is apprehensive about the playbook I saw. Christian Miller and Terrell Lewis are lost for the year at LB, and I thought Miller would be the breakout star on this defense. Rashaan Evans with a groi

Bama vs. Florida State  Date: Saturday, Sept. 2 Game Time: 7:00 central Location: Mercedes-Benz Stadium (AKA Bryant Denny East) Network: ABC Before diving into the season opening game prognostication, let me roll back the memory bank to last year for a moment before I go into why the Crimson Tide will continue its dominating play this year (which is not necessarily the same thing as undefeated, of course). Yes, Clemson deserves every bit of the praise it can garner. They took a national championship game from one of the greatest teams in college football history. And it w as no fluke. They lined up and won it. No referee BS. No excuses. No tipped pass or blocked punts. The Tigers lined up and did what they had to do. I forecast the Tide score almost correctly (prediction 30, score 31), but never saw the Tigers reaching 30 on this defense. Here’s what I missed in my analysis. I didn’t see us going 2-15 on third downs,