FloraBamaFrankie

The rules are the rules. Saban uses them to his advantage. You can’t blame him for that. There were plenty of good reasons to leave LSU (program in disarray, new coaching staff, provincial culture for a California kid) without the fact that Ricks and Bryce Young were HS teammates in Cali, which assured Rich’s that he would fit in. The kid has to look out for his own interests. Bama has had many high profile transfers including Tua’s little brother to Maryland. Kids have to do what’s best for them, and hopefully the fans wish them well and avoid being vicious.

The placement of the bye has more to do with putting it in the middle of the season than putting it before LSU. It's just that LSU is the toughest game for both teams and it's still the 3rd quarter of the season. I doubt Saban or Orgeron would take the bye three weeks into the season no matter who they were playing. At that point, your players are still relatively fresh and injuries have not taken their toll.

As it is, the bye for both teams comes eight weeks into the season which is currently 15 games long counting the postseason. Taken too much before that and it's wasted -- taken too much after that, your players are so beaten down that they can't recover and it doesn't much matter, and considering that if a team makes it past the SECCG, they have three weeks to recover, it only makes sense to put it somewhere in the middle of the 15 game season.

Bama has more “sidewalk” fans per capita than any other program due to the success of the program. Many fans, like me, grew up in Alabama during Bryant’s decades of dominance, and are now reliving that success under Saban. It’s an amazing thing. Most fans have one or two NCs in a lifetime, while Bama fans have twice that many in the last decade. That unprecedented success is sure to bring bandwagon fans out of the woodwork, and I think the OP distinguished “bandwagon” fans from those who didn’t attend the school but otherwise have a connection. If attending the school is the criteria for fandom, most programs would lose the majority of their fans, and I bet Tiger Rant would lose most of its posters.

I have some acquaintances who attended schools like Troy, Southern Miss and East Carolina and they’re loyal fans to those programs. I respect them and quite frankly, envy them just a bit. It’s easy to be a fan of a big program having success. I do remind myself that I was a loyal fan through the decade of failure and embarrassment after Gene Stallings. Getting beat at homecoming by Cental Florida (Dante Culpepper) was one of the many low points not to mention Fran abandoning the program and Mike Price with his strippers. During those years, fans celebrated every little success like Dubose beating Florida on a missed extra point then beating them for real in the SECCG.

There is a real sense in which Bama fans have become spoiled, and are in for a repeat of history after Saban leaves. Those will be tough years agaiin, but will rid the program of bandwagon fans (maybe they’ll become LSU fans again) but what I saw at LSU last week was something to be proud of. The current LSU fanbase is loyal win or lose and while they would much rather win than lose, they enjoy the journey and relish every small triumph along the way. There is a real sense in which I miss that and kind of look forward to again, and yes, I know LSU fans look forward to Bama fans being there again too. :lol:

It was just the way it worked out. We got there midmorning and got parked in the free, golf course parking across from the stadium (That's another thing that was mindboggling. I'm still amazed that there's free parking available for LSU football games). After that, we concentrated on finding tickets. It took us about an hour and a half to find good tickets, and by then we were starving. As we walked along we saw the Tony Chachere's trailer and thought it was a food truck, but they were giving out fried catfish samples. We were the only people around at the time and we stood around and talked with the Tony Chachere's chef for a bit then noticed the Wendy's over in the corner of the Market. We had a long day in front of us so we decided to get a burger. When we walked around the tailgate area we were not looking for or expecting anyone to invite us to eat although we wouldn't have turned it down.

It was incredible. We got to the stadium around 10 am Saturday morning and spent all day walking around, looking for tickets and taking in the sights and interacting with LSU fans. To a person, LSU fans were the nicest, most hospitable, fun-loving group of fans that I've ever encountered, and I've been to games in Tennessee, Florida, Clanga and neutral site games in Dallas, and of course Tuscaloosa, but LSU fans have them all beat. Bama fans have gotten better, but they have a long way to go to match the passion, spirit and fun loving, hospitable nature of LSU fans, and I mean that with all sincerity.

Night games in Death Valley are legendary, and I had heard many stories of rowdy LSU fans, so to be honest, I was a little worried coming in, but visiting every SEC stadium is on my bucket list, and I'm not getting any younger. It turned out that I had absolutely nothing to worry about. None of that proved true. We did have one young LSU fan near us who had to be escorted out of the game because he drank too much and threw up, but it was his fellow LSU fans who were mad at him. Stadium Security and EMTs had to hold on to him to get him down the stairs otherwise he would have taken a nasty fall because the poor kid was blitzed and probably ended up in jail. I suspect Sunday was a rough day for him.

We got a few good-natured, "Tiger Bait," chants as we walked around, but even those were few and far between. Almost to a person, every person we spoke to said, "Welcome, enjoy your stay," and they said it with a smile on their face. I was so impressed. The atmosphere was electric and the campus is beautiful. We made several trips around the stadium, took in Tiger Mike's enclosure, walked through the tailgaters, got some Tony Chachere's fried catfish samples which whet our appetites, and we went looking for some good food. We didn't find anything and ended up at Wendy's. By that time we were pretty hungry so it was good. We listened to the bands and heard, "Calling Baton Rouge" and watched the crowd go crazy. The moment was infectious and energizing.

We ended up getting some pretty good tickets, but as someone on here had predicted, we paid a steep price -- $450 a piece -- but we were getting desperate when we found them. We wanted lower level sideline, but all we were able to find at this point were endzone or upper deck and those were going for $250 to $350 then we encountered, "Ticket Leonard." Nice guy! He had two in section 302, but they were in row 59. We decided to get them and tried to negotiate, but several people spoke up behind us to buy them if we didn't, so we coughed up the $900 which was painful. "Bucket list," I kept telling myself.

The Game. I know LSU fans are disappointed, but from my perspective, watching it live, it was not nearly as one-sided as the media tried to portray it, and the crowd was definitely a factor, and can be credited with keeping the Tide out of the end zone on the first drive. I've never heard a louder crowd in my life, and I've sat next to the student section with their cowbells at Mississippi State. When Bama drew back to back off-sides, it felt like a bomb going off. I didn't end up feeling comfortable until the 3rd quarter. LSU did a great job of pressuring Tua and he was not nearly as accurate as he's been against lesser defenses and Alabama was not able to run until the LSU Defense was tired in the 2nd half. I think Saban brought back the jet sweep for that very purpose -- to get the defense running side to side in the first half. LSU moved the ball very consistently and got into the red zone several times but just didn't punch it in. I know it doesn't help, but overall there is much to be positive about.

In any case, I just wanted to say thank you to LSU fans for an incredible experience. You set the standard by which all fanbases should be judged.

Clemson has as good or better QB now, and a better defensive front, and is as good in every other unit. If Bama makes it that far (State will be physical, Auburn will be tough, UGA will be a slobbernocker) this Clemson/Bama will be a toss up.

What are the chances that we can get a pair of lower level seats if we hold out until closer to kick off?