Crimson Tide Football and Other Alabama Sports Musings

Alabama vs. LSU Football Saturday, November 7, 2017 Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa 7:00 central A Long Historic Rivalry with a Recent History of Close Games While Bama fans wouldn’t likely define this game as an Alabama rivalry (at least not above Tennessee or Auburn), the Alabama-LSU series is historic, starting in 1895 with a 12-6 LSU win in Baton Rouge. Since then the game has been played in six locations: Baton Rouge, Mobile, Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, New Orleans and Montgomery. The game became an annual affair in 1964. One interesting footnote: for the past fifteen seasons the game has had some bearing on the national championship on average about every other year. It would be easy enough to dismiss the Bama-LSU game as just another wannabe SEC top tier team coming to Tuscaloosa without much hope of taking home a W. After all, this is number one Bama, right? And isn’t this the LSU team that lost to Troy a few games back? And was soundly defeated by Mi

Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Tennessee Volunteers October 21, 2017 Bryant-Denny Stadium 2:30 CBS Television Tradition matters The temptation is to jump on the bandwagon and talk about how The Tide will drown old Rocky Top and cram 40 points down his throat. But I'd rather think back to two memorable games in recent years before we go down that road. Let's start with 2009. Bama entered the game ranked number one in the nation and as 14-point favorites. Well into the 4th quarter, Bama led 12-3, when Mark Ingram (who would win the Heisman that year) did the unimaginable. For the first time in 296 carries, he fumbled. The Vols rode an adrenaline high right into the end zone. Then recovered an onside kick. Holy Pigskin, Batman, what's going on?! After the drive stalled at the 28, big Mount Cody (Terrence to his mom), blocked the line drive kick and Bama held on for a win. After this close win that could have gone into the L column, Bama went on the capture a national tit

Bama vs. Razorbacks Bryant Denny Stadium 6:15 p.m. ESPN Arkansas rolls into T-town with a mixed bag of results, a coach under fire, and a 2-3 overall record (0-2 in the conference). The Tide comes off an important win that left them with somewhat of a bitter taste, despite the good credentials of the Aggies and the fact that the Tide was coming off of two enormous performances and ready for a natural let-down. A part of me thought there would be some fall off from the previous two weeks, but the numbers simply said the momentum would continue. This Tide  team has made finishing games an important goal this year--and needing to recover an onside kick in the final moments to seal a victory is not the definition of finishing. Texas A&M came back from a 24-3 deficit to make the game interesting in the fourth quarter, outscoring Bama 16-3 to finish the game.  As a fan, I had to step back from my disappointment for a moment to realize how spoiled we fans have become. I can remem

Photo in honor of Bama's connection to TAMU, Coach Bryant's last stop before Mama called him home to Tuscaloosa. He coached there 1954-57, during which time he attempted to integrate the football team. When told by a board member that they would be the last team in the conference to do so, Bryant reportedly said, "Then that's where we're going to finish in football." Crimson Tide vs. Texas A&M Aggies Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017 Kyle Field, College Station, Texas ESPN Bama is -26.5 (opened at 24-25) I want to start with the thing most encouraging to me from last week. While at the start of the season, and especially in the Florida State game, I was hoping for a bit more misdirection in this offense. I simply did not see it. Or little proven plays like the bubble screens so effective last year. But when Josh Jacobs came in and served as a runner decoy, only to then become receiver and purposely get lost behind the defense to allow him a wide open s