AND ALABAMA’S NUMBER ONE

The nerves have all calmed down, but I suspect some heads may be throbbing. There is a nation of college football fans celebrating and another nation of college football fans shaking their heads and saying, “what if”. Was the BCS Championship game for the 2009 college football season a game in which two best college football teams in the nation battled it out to see who reins supreme until mid-summer when the pre-season rankings come out? I would say yes. There’s no doubt in my mind that the University of Alabama and the University of Texas were the two best teams in college football in 2009. Did these two teams play to the best of their abilities, running on all cylinders, battling it out to the last minutes of the game, to determine who takes home the crystal football? Uh, No! Alabama was flirting with disaster. That fake punt was very un-Saban like. No one has mentioned this yet, but it could have been worse. If the Texas player that intercepted P.J.’s pass had let it fall to the ground, Texas would have started much closer to our end zone and pay dirt. Instead, Texas got the ball a bit up field, our defense held, forcing them to kick a field goal. Then we failed to cover a kickoff. Now how bone-headed is that? The fact that we escaped this series of events only yielding six points, though, has to tell you about the heart and intensity of the Bama players. Was the stamina of Gilbert, the second string quarterback for Texas, amazing as he improved during the game and brought his team to within a field goal of being able to tie the game and sent it to overtime? You have to say yes. I could go into the details of the game, but you have access to those details.

Would this have been a different game had Colt McCoy not been injured? Oh, definitely. Would Texas have won if Colt had not gone down? We don’t know, and we’ll never know. I refuse to get into a “you know what-ting” contest with anyone who may throw out that Alabama would not have won if Colt McCoy had played. This game sure wasn’t Alabama’s best of the season, and it wasn’t Texas’ either. But the winner of this game is the national champion and that’s that.

As some of you know, the Bama Nation’s world was rocked in the early 2000s when the news of the possible payment by boosters in the Memphis area to high school coaches in order for them to steer highly touted players to Alabama. The details of which could fill a book. The sanctions that were handed down to Alabama by the NCAA were brutal, resulting in a major loss of scholarships and a ban on post-season play for two seasons. As one can imagine, this made the recruiting of top quality players difficult, if not downright impossible. In addition, the sanctions were given as the reason that Head Coach Dennis Franchione bolted for Texas A&M. The coach hired to replace Franchione, Mike Price, had some serious character flaws to surface shortly after coming to the Capstone. When the UA Board of Trustees voted to let Mike Price go, May 2003, we were left without a head coach, with “slim pickins”. In Mike Shula, Alabama hired an unproven head coach, with everyone hoping that his “good genes” would allow him to grow into the job. Well, Shula never grew into the job and was let go after the Auburn game in 2006. In his farewell speech, Shula indicated that he left the program in better shape than it was when he got there. I’m not so sure about that.

Alabama took a pretty big PR hit for the firing of Shula after his fourth year. In his third year, he had a successful season, taking the tide to a major bowl and a top ten finish. The after a mediocre fourth year, we fired him. Furthermore, the fact that he was Don Shula’s son didn’t help our image either. After firing Shula, everyone said to us, “Alabama will never be able to hire a decent coach. No one in their right mind would want to coach at Alabama.” When the news that we might be talking to Nick Saban broke, everyone started laughing. “There’s no way that Nick Saban is going to come to Alabama.”

With regard to the Memphis area recruiting incidents, there is speculation that there may have been collusion between the NCAA, the University of Tennessee, and the Southeastern Conference to set Alabama up. There was also speculation that then Tennessee Head Coach Phil Fulmer would report indiscretions by Alabama to the NCAA in exchange for the NCAA turning its back to the activities by the Tennessee Athletic Department. In other words, there were folks out there that wanted Alabama taken down, one way or the other. I wonder what those folks are thinking today.

Alabama football has been on top or near the top for most of its existence. But there have been some times when it was bloodied and near death, the most recent being from about 2003 to 2007. Last night when the players and coaches were passing around and kissing the crystal football, I couldn’t help but think about the difficult times that we’ve been through and the players who stayed with Alabama when they could have transferred somewhere else. These players did not get to play for championships and received little or no accolades. I’m thinking about Shaud Williams, the little guy with the big heart. I’m thinking about Wesley Britt, the guy with big everything. I’m thinking about all of the players on the teams in the early to mid-2000s. I’m thinking about Dennis Franchione. He asked those players to “hold the rope” then bolted to Texas A&M, only to be fired. As skuzzy as Franchione’s actions were, he did influence players to remain at Alabama during the hard times and therefore provide the foundation for what is today.

Alabama has played and won fourteen games; that, in and of itself is a magnificent feat. Then on top of that, one of our players, Mark Ingram, was awarded the Heisman Trophy. Alabama was to play the University of Texas for the national championship, a team that it has never beaten in about eight tries. Very few times in college football history has the team with a Heisman Trophy winner also been number one. Many times that Heisman Trophy winner has not played well it his bowl game whether it be for the national championship or not. Well, Alabama won its twelve regular season games, won its conference championship game, had a Heisman Trophy winner, and won the BCS Championship game against the University of Texas.

Once again, Alabama is number one.