ROLL TIDE!!!
Tonight The #1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide takes on the #2 Texas Longhorns in The BCS Championship game. Hopefully Bama will bring home it's 13Th National Championship(and 1st of the BCS age). With a Bama win it will be the first time any conference has won for straight national titles, so all you LSU fans need to suck it up and pull for your conference tonight.
But I got to thinking today that My feelings about this game are much different than they were the last time Bama played for a National Championship my Senior year of High school, 1993.
Then it was like life or death, it was all I thought about for days leading up to the game. It consumed me and the people around me.Fast-forward to today, I still hope Bama wins and will be excited if they do(I'll even by the t-shirt) but if they don't win I wont take it personal, I won't slip into a depression, I'll still go to work tomorrow and be a damn good teacher.
I guess I've just reached a point in my life where I see that these games, and I do mean games, don't rule my life. Family, friends, The wolfpack, educating our youth, those things rule my life and football is just a away for me to spend time with family and friends. Coaching is a way to teach our youth.
Ultimately, there will be a winner and a loser, but regardless of the outcome there will be a battle. and it is the battle that I love (sounds familiar). Its the battle and shared experiences that we remember, enjoy, and that we learn from.
Texas has a great team and a high powered offense. Alabama has a great team and an awesome defense. It should be a great game. My prediction is Bama by 17. Hopefully the tide will roll. But if the longhorns stampede the Crimson Pachyderms. It will just be the end of a season, not the end of the world.
PS-Rammer Jammer Yellow-Hammer, Give 'Em Hell Alabama!!!
As for the # of titles Alabama has won, feel free to debate how many they should count, as for me, if somebody names me champion I'm claiming it. And so would you!!!
It was a shame Tiffin purposely missed his final kick so that your prediction would not come true.
ReplyDeleteEven though I'm an LSU fan, I was pulling for Alabama & Nick Satan last night. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to, but I found my self rooting for the tide from the beginning.
I also vividly remember the 1993 Sugar Bowl, U of A's last national championship. I thought the feel was much different going into that game. Although both were undefeated, Miami (who was on a 29 game winning streak) had for almost the previous decade seemed unbeatable. I would have never wanted my favorite team (which was Notre Dame at the time, I didn't become an LSU fan until I became an LSU student) to play Miami. Unfortunately ND played (and lost to) Miami more than once, the worst being when Miami snapped ND's 23 game winning streak on the last game of the regular season in 1989. I lived in fear of playing the University of Miami for several years (Including when LSU played them in the Chick-Fil-A sponsored Chick-Fil-A Bowl, formerly known as the Chick-Fil-A sponsored Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl brought to you by Chick-Fil-A in 2005 - a game which LSU won 40-3).
Anywho I was very nervous for Alabama (for whom I was rooting) on January 1, 1993. Of course to my delight the Tide handled the Canes easily. For me the highlight of the game was on the very long pass when George Teague caught Lamar Thomas from behind and stripped the ball from him. That combined with Teague's interception retured for a TD should have netted him the MVP, but it didn't. I think it went to Sherman Williams or Derrick Lassic - almost always to an offensive player...and I don't remember Jay Barker (UA-QB) really doing anything special that game.
I know I'm turning this into my own post, but allow me to continue...
See, I used to have a tradition with some Alabama fans I knew of going to Tuscaloosa, eating at Dreamland and then going to the game. I went to the 2001 and 2003 contests in Tuscvegas (do they do that in Alabama?) - both wins for LSU. Unfortunately the rides there and back were more memorable than the games themselves, which I don't really remember any details from.
We always traveled in a crimson deluxe van that had a tv & vcr built in (what's a vcr?). We would watch the taped 1993 championship on our drive up, so I've watched the 1993 championship as recently as 2003. The rides back were just as memorable. In 2001 we listened to the 7 overtime game between Ole Miss and Arkansas. It was quite exciting listening on the radio.
The ride back in 2003 was just as memorable, but for a different reason. November 15, 2003 was election day in Louisiana. Since I knew I would be travelling all day and would not have the opportunity to vote, I abesntee voted two or so weeks before the election. Aren't I a responsible citizen? Anyway I think I was talking to my mom after the game and she told me that Bobby Jindal was ahead and some of the tv people were predicting him to win. As soon as we could catch WWL we tuned into the big 870 to listed to election results, which apparently weren't so favorable for Jindal. Before we arrived in New Orleans that night someone named Kathleen Blanco was our new governor. For the Alabama fans, it was a double doozy (losing to LSU 27-3 and losing the Governor's race to the Democrats).