Does it seem like the week is so much longer when you have a Monday holiday? I mean, jeez. This is just ridiculous. It feels like I've worked 10 days straight. Oh well.
Mal Moore is being recognized as one of two distinguished sportsmen at this year's Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet on Sunday in Birmingham. Good for him. He deserves it.
Brent Maze, over at the Clanton Advertiser, says he's glad that the Iron Bowl is back where it belongs: on Thanksgiving weekend. I kind-of agree - partly because the last game I remember being on Thanksgiving was the 17-0 win in the '92 season. Maybe we need to get back to that. The Tennessee game is back on the third Saturday in October again, and now we're back to playing Auburn or Thanksgiving weekend. :-)
Alabama has a team-high 9 players in the Alabama vs Mississippi High School All-Star game on Saturday in Mobile. It comes on at 7pm, incase you didn't know. Players like Josh Chapman, Brandon Gibson, and Patrick Crump go into detail about how they like Coach Saban's intensity.
The rumor mill had been swirling, mostly by Auburn fans, about Rolando McClain's lack of work ethic, but McClain puts that rumor to rest.
If you were nervous about the fact that Coach Saban and The University not having the contract signed yet, don't worry about it. TideSports is all over it.
Apparently Les is still pretty damn bitter. His response to questions about himself and Coach Saban were "icy" at best.
THE DENNIS FRANCHIONE ERA
#14: Alabama 28 Southern Miss 15Thursday, Nov. 29th, 2001 in Birmingham, AL
Alabama had just destroyed Auburn in Jordan-Hare the weekend before this, so it was very possible to have a letdown in this game, but the fact that we needed this one to become bowl eligible wouldn't let them drop off at all. There were tornado watches / warnings and severe flood warnings, etc, but that didn't stop about 20,000 fans from showing up. The final number was about 79,000, but if you saw the television broadcast, they were lucky to have 20K.
It was Alabama 3rd straight win, and it avenged the 21-0 loss to Southern from the year before. This was also the game that changed the way bowl selections are done in the SEC. Ole Miss had a 7-4 record, but did not get selected for a bowl game because the Independence Bowl took Alabama with a 6-5 record. A lot of people viewed this as unfair, since Ole Miss beat Alabama in the regular season, but hey...we draw and they don't. :-)
The game itself was a little bit disgusting, due to all the missed / blocked PATs and field goals, and the lack of a decent passing game, but all of this can be blamed on the storm that was coming down that night. Our rushing game, with Ahmaad Galloway, was a force to be reckoned with. I can't remember why Santonio Beard didn't play, because he had owned Auburn the week before.
Anyway, Andrew Zow threw a couple of touchdown passes, tying Mike Shula's career mark at 35, Ahmaad Galloway ran for a couple of touchdowns, and that won the game for us. Southern Miss didn't really have a lot of punch this go round, and...again...we can blame the rain for that, I'm sure.
It sure was a blast to watch on TV. haha.
¶ 8:46 AM
