Cody Mandell set his mind on punting for Alabama

Since March, former Acadiana High punter Cody Mandell has had his mind set on punting for the defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide this fall. He still does. Only Mandell is much closer now to making that dream a reality. Declared eligible on June 28 after completing a summer math course with a 92-A, Mandell was finally ready to make the trip to Tuscaloosa. He’s been there a week now taking classes, working out in the weight room and generally being indoctrinated into the Alabama way. Technically still a walk-on, now comes the chore of beating out his roommate and scholarship punter Jay Williams of Thomasville, Ala., enough weeks this fall to earn both playing time as well as a scholarship with the Crimson Tide. “It’s really been like a dream come true,” Mandell said. “When you start thinking about wanting to play college football, you want to go to a true football town and that’s what this is. Everybody is a football fanatic here.” [More]

New Orleans Saints edge out The Crimson Tide

The 2009 Alabama football team no longer is undefeated. The Crimson Tide lost Wednesday night to the New Orleans Saints. Not on the field. In the ESPYS. Alabama coach Nick Saban and Crimson Tide running back Mark Ingram did not win awards in categories in which they were nominated. ESPN held its annual show, billed as “where sports and entertainment come together,” on Wednesday night in Los Angeles. Online voting by fans determined the winners. [More]

Vanderbilt’s Johnson Resigns

Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson abruptly retired from coaching today, saying it’s a personal decision about what he and his wife want to do with their lives. He said he and his wife are both healthy. “Football is not life, but it’s a way of life and it consumes your life,” Johnson, 59, said at a news conference in Nashville. “You only have so many years to live, and you want to see a different way. …. I want to do some other things.” Assistant coach Robbie Caldwell was named the Commodores’ interim head coach, with only seven weeks until the season opener. [More]

Poems of coaches

When Brenda Thrasher isn’t styling hair, as she has for 31 years at Your Beauty Salon, she’s likely putting the twist on another poem. An Alabama football fan, she has written and printed only two poems dedicated to coaches. They leap from her memory like the Crimson Tide getting off the ball fast in a crucial battle. Inspired by the life of Paul Bryant, she wrote “Tracks of the Bear” after his last game, a 21-15 win over Illinois in the old Liberty Bowl in Memphis on Dec. 29, 1982. Her plan was to send a print to the legendary coach, but he died less than a month later. In August 1983, she sent the poster poem by registered mail to his widow, Mary Harmon Bryant, at her Tuscaloosa home. Later that month, their daughter, Mae Martin Tyson, sent Thrasher a hand-written note. “Thank you for sending your poem to Mother,” Tyson wrote. “It is beautifully written. She has shared it with the family and we liked it, too. She also appreciated your letter.” Bryant’s widow died a year later on Aug. 26, the same date of the post mark on Tyson’s envelope. [More]

Roll Tide!

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