phil4bama

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I’m not sure it was my first game but the first memory I went with my dad to see Bama vs. Va Tech in Tuscaloosa in 1973. I was 8 years old. Bama won 77-6. I can still remember seeing the old Denny Stadium scoreboard lights with the final score as we walked out.

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That’s when Virginia Tech was known as VPI, Virginia Polytechnic Institute. I didn’t go, but I remember listening to Doug Layton and John Forney call the game on the radio. That was an epic beatdown. Alabama could have easily put up 100 if Coach Bryant hadn’t subbed in everyone but the cheerleaders.

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After thinking over things, it seem that it might be wise for some purists to roll out of college football. They are definately not going to be happy with where it is going. Because of the success of NFL with, essentially, pay-for-play athletes, I suspect college football is going to survive under its new form. People will still watch, and even identify with their school, the way that NFL fans identify wiht their local team, even though very few players are actually local, and most are there for a pay check. It is sad that high level NCAA sports over all have died due to NIL, but, that's reality. Folks can still go watch lower level college sports for that same old thrill.

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All due respect, sir, but that’s a crock of shite. I used to love the NFL almost as much as I loved Bama. Then free agency and franchise tags and all that shite happened so that your favorite team could transform to your favorite team full of the worst enemies from your biggest rival overnight and I lost all love for the game. Maybe I’m different or crazy, but I really LOVED knowing that we had Shaun Alexander and Derrick Thomas and Biscuit and Tua and Julio and all those great players for AT LEAST 3 years. The guys that transferred were the disgruntled ones not seeing the field so you didn’t really care that they left.
Now we have NFL Lite on Saturdays and it sucks worse than the real thing because you can take the equivalent of the Cleveland Browns, inject some cash, raid the portal, and in 2 seasons turn the biggest losers into undefeated national champions and not a damn one of them started their career in Bloomington. I can’t even name all the starters for Bama anymore and I used to know all of the 2 deep and usually a little deeper. You loved those kids because they were busting their arse for your coach and your school and maybe a chance to go to the league, but they busted their arse regardless. They were invested in the school, just like we were. They didn’t get a paycheck and didn’t leave for a bigger one next season.
Those players don’t like this shite either. You see them talking all the time about how these new kids don’t pay their dues, aren’t tough, don’t care about the team or the school. The love of the game and representing your school or your team is gone at the college (or should I say semi-pro?) level and the NFL level and the game and the fans are the worse off for it.

Fickell, I just don’t understand. I thought he would be successful in Madison. Is Barry Alvarez’s Ground n Pound DNA so ingrained in Wisconsin that they can’t win any other way? Sure seems that way.

Their RB situation has been very Meh! recently as well, putting even more pressure on a weak QB room to produce. Maybe the projected starter will improve the run game but as a freshman he didn’t really explode onto the scene. Kiffin is going to tear them a new a-hole on Labor Day weekend.

Dominate your opponent and make his arse quit!

Mmm, we get our arse whipping from Dawn Staley out of the way first thing this season.

Let’s just hope the injury bug stays away from Tuscaloosa this year. This is a theme that just about every team will have this year and every year under the current system. We have certain position groups where a couple of injuries forces us to play players that either aren’t ready or aren’t up to the needed standards. Now more than ever, injury luck is a critical component of winning a championship.

You’re not wrong but I have heard they are doing poorly in recruiting because they are hoarding cash for the buyout. The power brokers In Tallahassee have realized they bought a pig in a poke and will take some short term pain by tanking recruiting to help raise the cash to run Norvell. They have seen how the right coach can fix a talent problem very quickly if they use the portal correctly.

Clemson is in a bad spot. They will flounder again this year as Dabo continues to pontificate about the evils of the portal and the downfall of college football. They know it’s almost sacrilegious to fire a coach with 2 nattys and who played for 2 more. They very much want him to make good on his threat to walk away from the game. They will ask him, beg him to hang it up before he damages the program and his legacy further but Dabo won’t do it. Clemson will have to decide where the pain point is when firing him is less painful than watching the program continue to slide.

Cignetti is one of the best coaches in the country for spotting talent, especially undiscovered talent. He took that skill to James Madison and built a team that punched well above their weight. Then Indiana took him and with a bunch of his JMU guys, finding the best underrated QB in the country, and a dose of Cuban’s money to get whatever else he needed, he built a veteran team, mostly polished and developed under him at JMU, and won a natty in 2 years. He did it with experienced, developed players and diamonds in the rough and he put a chip on their shoulder. They aren’t going away this season, but they aren’t going 15-0 again either. Their non-conference schedule for the next 4 or 5 seasons is absolutely laughable it’s so easy, but until the CFP starts putting more emphasis on strength of schedule, playing rent-a-wins is not a bad idea. With Michigan and Penn State both in transition, Indiana and Ohio State are pretty much left as the two top dogs that will fight for the title.

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It will be glorious.

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Especially when it comes against someone like Arkansas after the dumb shite goes for it on 4th and 2 from his own 23 a couple of times and spots them 14 points. Baton Rouge will riot.