Tide Tidbits – January 21, 2010

Tide has several holes to fill for 2010
When the University of Alabama football players jogged off the field at Rose Bowl Stadium on Jan. 7, confetti in their hair and elation in their hearts, several Tide athletes had played their final collegiate game. Nineteen seniors and two juniors, linebacker Rolando McClain and defensive back Kareem Jackson, finished their Alabama careers at the highest level by winning a national championship. The voids left by their departures can be plainly seen with a glance at an Alabama depth chart. The offense loses two starting linemen, including All-American guard Mike Johnson, a key reserve running back and a big target at tight end. Aside from that, offensive coordinator Jim McElwain’s unit will remain mostly intact. The losses are heavier on the defensive side, and the production will be difficult to replace. Up front, Alabama loses its entire starting defensive line, including popular All-American nose guard Terrence Cody. [More]

College coaches in favor of BCS
Last week approximately 8,000 football coaches congregated in Orlando for the annual coaches’ convention. I attended faithfully for over 40 years but decided to stay home and enjoy the sunshine. One interesting development from the convention was the polling of all 120 Division I football coaches about the BCS. Newsflash — most of the coaches favor the present system with the BCS over an expanded playoff. New BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said this in a press release, “Coaches want what’s best for the game and for the student-athletes Clearly, this survey carries a lot of weight. It is understandable that the coaches appreciate the BCS for what it has done: match the top two teams while preserving the bowl system and continuing to emphasize the regular season.” [More]

The Best of the Decade for College Football
Best coach, Nick Saban: The only coach in the AP poll era to win national titles at multiple schools. Further, Saban accomplished the feat in four years at an LSU program that hadn’t done anything notable in decades, and in three years at an Alabama program that had been paralyzed by scandal…two programs not only in the same conference, but in the same division of the SEC. And this was with taking two years off to coach the Miami Dolphins and with no coaching history or ties to the Southeast prior to taking the job. [More]

Sen. Shelby collects on National Championship wager
U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) presented Alabama’s senator, Richard Shelby, (R-Ala.) with a smoked turkey after losing a friendly wager on the recent national championship game. Hutchison was rooting for the University of Texas Longhorns to win, but the University of Alabama Crimson Tide’s victory cost her. On January 5th, Senators Hutchison and Shelby announced a friendly wager on the game that included a Greenberg Smoked Turkey of Tyler, Texas from Senator Hutchison and a Bates Smoked Turkey of Fort Deposit, Alabama from Senator Shelby. Shelby donated the smoked turkey he won to the Central Union Mission in Washington, D.C. [More]

Previewing the SEC in 2010
Looking to the 2010 college football season, one thing about the SEC is certain: The league that has produced the past four BCS champions has one of the favorites to make it five in a row. And it happens to be the team that won the most recent one. After Alabama, however, things are more of a mystery. The East is wide open for a change, and it remains anybody’s guess who might make a run at Alabama in the West. An early projection of how the nation’s premier league will shake out next season: WEST 1. Alabama | The offense returns quarterback Greg McElroy, Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, his sterling backup Trent Richardson and star receiver Julio Jones. The defense must replace three All-Americans, but Nick Saban’s great recruiting the past few years should make up for those losses. [More]

Roll Tide!

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