Valiant Step

A Valiant Step Forward

Much has been written about the faring of the Alabama Crimson Tide over the last month. One can begin with the devastating overtime loss to national powerhouse LSU. The Tide simply ran short, but not before giving it a great run against a deeper, stronger Bayou Bengal team from Baton Rouge. The ultimate demise happened down on the ABarn plains to cross state rival War Eagles. Throw out the horrendous first quarter of the Auburn game, and Bama was in the ball game.

An amazing 9-2 season has landed the Tide a trip to Dallas for the 70th Cotton Bowl facing the explosive Red Raiders of Texas Tech. What a great match up : a top ranked explosive offense against one of the stingiest defensive teams in the nation!

So what is so valiant about this? For starters, Bama was predicted to end up at 7-4 if they could catch a few breaks here and there. They surpassed the expectations.

Next, Bama was a long shot for a major bowl, and especially one on New Years Day. Well, not only did they land the Cotton Bowl, but they beat out LSU for the bowl bid. They surpassed the expectations.

Lastly, the recruiting war for Tim Tebow went right down to the wire. Florida got him. But shouldn’t they? Both parents are Florida grads and older brother is a student at Florida. Plus, Tebow has been a lifelong Gator fan. But in his press conference, Tebow singled out one coach in his comments paying Shula and Bama a huge recruiting boost. Tebow stated, “Mike Shula is one of the most respectable men I’ve ever known.”

It’s been a long time since Alabama has been toe to toe in the national blue chip recruiting wars. Truthfully, even Coach Bryant didn’t land the big time blue chippers. Mike Shula has given and brought the University of Alabama not only a sense of pride and dedication, but a class act that in the end will reap huge rewards. Although Bama fans want to win, love winning, and believe in winning, most Bama fans know like Mike Shula that there is more to life than football, and it is a winning character.

Hiring Mike Shula was a valiant step forward that will reap huge rewards for the University of Alabama. Shula will surpass expecations just as he did as a Crimson Tide quarterback.

Dreamin' of Cotton

Despite the downturn at the end of the season, Alabama did beat LSU...to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas against the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Yes, LSU, you learned that spending the day before the SEC Championship should have been focused on Georgia. Instead, your head coach and AD were in Dallas courting the Cotton Bowl for the invitation to play there on January 2nd.

The result of that poor logistical decision was two losses: one to Georgia in the SEC Championship game and the other to Bama who got the nod to play in the Cotton Bowl.

It works like this LSU: Champions usually have a long record of winning which is the result of hard work and planning over a long period of time with consistency. You're not there yet. The reason Alabama was chosen for the Cotton Bowl was its two records as the leader in most bowl games played in and its record as the leader in most bowl games won. Add to that equation the fact that Bama fans will swoop up those bowl tickets soon if not already. Plus those Bama fans will travel to Dallas in droves and spend money in Big D.

From the football perspective, the Cotton Bowl will feature the No. 1 offensive team in the nation in the Red Raiders against the No. 1 defensive team in the nation in the Crimson Tide. Throw in the Coach of the Year for Division I Region 2 will bring with him the SEC Defensive Player of the Year plus 5 All SEC players. Yes, Big D wants Bama to face off with the Red Raiders.

Les Miles either choked against Georgia or just doesn't still quite catch on to the importance of the SEC Championship game. He still doesn't quite have the leverage he thinks he does.