A Team Worth Hating-Via And The Valley Shook

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Would I rather be a Bama fan? Of course not. LSU is just boatloads more fun. Alabama is respectable, dignified. They are college football royalty. We're completely unhinged psychopaths. In the SEC Family, we're the crazy drunk uncle. Everybody loves that guy, so long as he only trashes somebody else's house. Well, we're coming to trash Alabama's house this week. Hide the china.

Nowhere is the difference between the two programs more apparent than in our head coaches. Nick Saban is a great football coach. He wins a lot, primarily by preaching the Process. Alabama fans love the order and discipline he brings. Here's a guy who probably has a detailed plan on how to order eggs at Waffle House (if Saban would ever eat at a Waffle House). Saban has fostered the image of himself a dictator, who derives about as much joy from winning as you would from brushing your teeth. It's all part of the Process.

Les Miles can't even spell process. He's embraced the crazy and the lunatic fringe. Miles is also a great coach who wins a lot, but you get the sense that he's more exciting than anyone else in the stadium. He'd high five Mike the tiger if we'd let him. He seems to embrace that this is a game, and that all of this is fun. Not just the game, but the whole experience - the fans, the tailgating, the pageantry.

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