Tide Fans –
What an incredible day in Tuscaloosa! A much anticipated re-birth of an old rivalry between two of the most traditional teams in the country. Alabama – Penn State brings back so many fond memories. The Goal Line Stand, The Block, the Bobby Humphrey run at Happy Valley on a rainy night, the list goes on… The Alabama – Penn State series was always a great one, and I am so glad they decided play it again! As if we needed anything else to make the game more electric, Game Day was there, along with the likes of the two winningest football coaches of all time, Coach Paterno and Coach Bowden brought together on the birthday of the man they passed to achieve this record, Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant…just an incredible setting on campus.
This game was so special, that my family all agreed to take a limo. We figured it would be a great way to sit in traffic and enjoy ourselves to and from the game. If you know anything about my family, (and I know some of you do) anytime we get together for pretty much anything it turns into what I call a “Griswold” experience. Well, this trip didn’t disappoint. Our limo was supposed to comfortably fit 12 people…well we had 10 so we thought that would be plenty of room. Just a quick heads up…when they say 12 people can fit in a limo, they really mean about 6. We manage to pack ourselves in finally and we were on our way. About half way down we have to pull over for a bathroom break…and thank God we did! As we were opening the door to get out, a roach about the size of Terrance Cody decided to join the party! It proceeded to crawl up my dad’s pant leg onto his shirt and crawl up around his collar area before he even realized what was going on. I am not kidding you when I say this is the biggest roach I have ever seen. It had a neck and a head about the size of a pencil eraser…I was literally stunned by it’s size. Had we been on the road, I am sure the driver would have wrecked due to all the screaming. I have never seen 10 people clear out of a limo as fast as we did…it had to be amusing to anyone watching in the parking lot of the Flying J truck stop! To make matters worse – we weren’t sure if we killed it…so it may still be in the limo. With no choice but to load up and head down the road…there was a little tension in everyone for the remaining drive down. Thankfully, we made it the rest of the way without incident…except for almost getting the limo stuck on the top of a parking deck.
Bryant-Denny was buzzing before the start of this game. The new addition looked incredible, and the place was rocking with excitement. The new pre-game videos are just powerful, so make sure you get to a game early to check these out! The stage was set for Alabama – Penn State…as I sat in my seat, for some reason I was not nervous at all. I usually get nervous before big games, but I was not in the least bit nervous for this one. I guess I have just fully accepted the fact that we are once again just so powerful that no team makes me nervous…I have swagger…and lot’s of it! Not cocky swagger…just confident swagger. I just felt like our defense would take care of business…and they did!
As the teams came out onto the field I thought it was ingenious of the staff to have both teams run out at the same time. There would be no opportunity to boo Penn State, even though I am pretty sure after Coach Saban’s rant that no one was planning on it. We shouldn’t boo any team when they come into the stadium…I do not like this, and never really have (unless it was Tennessee w/ Fulmer or Auburn anytime). I have a feeling this little tradition our stadium has will die off soon…and that is probably a good thing. Besides, you don’t need to boo anyone you plan on destroying on the field. The only thing that deserved booing on Saturday night was the officiating. Not a very good crew from the Big 10. I know it didn’t really make a difference, but watching the replay today, there were some really bad calls! It was a classy move by our fans to applaud Paterno as he headed to the locker room at half…good job Bama fans…that was a nice gesture!
Alabama looked solid all around! I am convinced that Trent Richardson is not human. His running was absolutely awe inspiring…he just does not want to go down. His highlight reel runs were against a good defense also…not some division II school. We are truly blessed to have the skill in our backfield that we have with Ingram, Richardson, and Lacy. I thought McElroy made some great passes as well, and our core of receivers made some great plays - I love Darius Hanks…he always has a big catch or two! We also saw good use of the Wildcat on Saturday, and I still don’t think we have shown anything near what our offense is capable of. I have a feeling this is somewhat by design.
Defense played solid all around. Some of our rookie corners got picked on a little, but not much. The fact that we held Penn State to just 3 points is awesome! It is kind of scary to see how easy it looked for us to contain a top 20 team to only 3 points…wow! We have so much talent on defense, it is just awesome to see the amount of players that get rotated in and out. Believe it or not, I don’t even have all the defensive guys memorized yet – there are just so many!! I think this defense only gets better throughout the season…and we will need it to as we have some tough tests coming up soon!
This was a classic low scoring Alabama – Penn State game, and for many was probably boring – especially in the 3rd quarter. Just two good old school football teams, but Bama was just way more superior this time. A great win for Bama on a great day for college football! We have now seen Bama play well against a much better opponent, and I believe after next week’s game against Duke we will be full throttle heading into our opening SEC game. Keep in mind we have not even had our two best players on offense and defense play yet…that is scary! The Tide is looking good my friends…looking damn good!
The only thing that didn’t look good on Saturday was the traffic on the way home. Good Lord!!! I knew it was going to be bad, but we didn’t get home until 1:15. Thankfully we could sit back and let Stacy (the limo driver) do all the work. Even being in a limo it got a little old sitting in traffic…that is until our little friend decided to show up again! Yes, you guessed it…Terrance Cody the cockroach had apparently survived our first encounter, and was back for more! This time there was nowhere for anyone to go, so we swatted, screamed, squirmed, and spilled drinks until Cody the cockroach was finally declared dead. If only I had a video of this experience…words do not do it justice! Good times…good times!
Before I wrap up, I must give a shout out to the Penn State fans – they were great! On the way out of the stadium after the game, I asked this guy who was a Penn State fan if they had had a good time this weekend. He looked at me smiled and said, “Dude…next to my child being born, this has been the greatest day ever!” I can’t imagine what he would have said had his team won! Anyway, they were a very courteous group of fans, and I hope we all return the favor when we go up there next year.
Our first road test next week against Duke, should go smoothly. I believe our 2’s and 3’s will be getting more playing time, which is just awesome! Let’s just try to get through this week injury free, and hit the road for our first SEC game healthy and ready!
Until next week – Roll Tide!
Jason
