Just so all of you understand exactly how much Coach Saban is putting into Nov. 3rd this year, here's what Ron Higgins from the Commercial Appeal in Memphis has pulled up - "... My mole in Tuscaloosa tells me new Alabama football savior Nick Saban has already had his staff breaking down game film of LSU's 2006 season. Think Nick wants to beat his last college employer? LSU fans, by the way, requested 36,000 tickets for this season's game in Tuscaloosa. If you think this year's game is big, wait for the 2008 return match in Tiger Stadium. You'll see some of the finest Cajun throwing arms since former New York Yankee pitcher Ron Guidry."
Check out the new guys that are hoping to be part of the BCS Rankings one day. They're from Huntsville, AL and they run the site AtomicFootball.com.
It's very ironic, to me, that Josh Moon is bitching about how awful Auburn's non-conference schedule is, when he could look in Tuscaloosa and have a heart-attack. At least Auburn has top-notch no-names on the schedule, like New Mexico State and Kansas State. We get Western Carolina and La-Monroe.
THE MIKE SHULA ERA
#22: Alabama 26 Ole Miss 23 OTOct. 14th, 2006 in Tuscaloosa, AL
We'll bring last year's Ole Miss game in at #22, simply because it's still fresh in the memory, and because it had some last minute drama.
Ole Miss was the 2nd worst team in the conference last year. They would have lost to Vanderbilt at home, had Chris Nickson not had 4,000 turnovers. They played well against almost everyone, but always ended up losing (see the LSU game last year).
Somehow, with us being 13.5 point favorites, we managed to nearly give them the football game. Brent Schaeffer ran the football on us with ease. Everyone else though, BenJarvis Green-Ellis and Mico McSwain, ran a combined 27 times for 75 yards. Not exactly a great average.
Ole Miss took a 13-10 lead into the half, and we came out and drove the ball down the field in the 3rd quarter. We had to settle for a 26 yard field goal by Christiansen to tie the game up at 13.
We then drove down the field again in the 4th quarter and actually scored, making it 20-13. But Schaeffer rallied the troops and threw a 55 yard touchdown pass to tie the game up. The Ole Miss defense held, as did Bama's, the rest of the 4th quarter to force overtime.
In OT, Ole Miss got the ball first and had to settle for a 37 yard field goal. We took the ball and marched 25 yards right down to the goal line, where we threw a 2 yard touchdown pass to Le'Ron McClain to win the game. It was great to win in such dramatic fashion. It just sucks that it was against one of the lower tier SEC teams.
¶ 9:21 AM
