Week 10 - Miss. State

Tide Fans –

Powerful…just powerful. The Tide rolls on to another victory, and stays undefeated! Many people thought this was a “trap game” for The Tide, and that we may slip up, but no no…instead we crush another opponent dressed in black. I guess Dan Mullen didn’t get the memo from Mark Richt about black jerseys and Alabama…it don’t work!!!!! A somewhat fired up cow bell ringing crowd was silenced by a quick and powerful defense, while our offense brought the pain with some big runs and throws. Yes, it was a beautiful site in Starkville to watch the Crimson Tide dismantle their opponent, and get one step closer to the SEC Championship Game. I cannot wait to play Florida…I cannot wait!

Two years ago when I went to the game in Starkville, parking was an issue. I know this seems funny, as there seemed to be many available fields and grassy areas to park, but for some reason you can’t park in any of these. Every parking lot is reserved for the “Bulldog Club”. Remembering this from last time I prepared this year, got a campus map, and found out ahead of time where the “public parking” spots were for game day. When my wife and I arrived this year we found the public parking – not too close to the stadium, but not that bad. We actually were very close to the main road to get off campus so we thought we had a great spot (More on this later) We tailgated for a while before the game, and had the car radio on. About 45 minutes into our tailgate, the radio cut off randomly. Yes – my battery had died. Great…stuck in Starkville and my windows are all down, and my car won’t start! Thinking quickly, I checked the trunk and thank God I had a pair of jumper cables. (always have jumper cables – you never know!) I was worried about time, and missing kickoff so I flagged down the first car I saw. I must give a huge shout out to the friendly Mississippi State student who helped me jump my car off – I don’t remember your name, but thank you, and I’m sorry we whipped your team’s ass!! With the car started we rolled up the windows let the car run for a while to charge the battery, did our undefeated Jaeger Bomb shots, and headed to Scott Field.

I must say, the campus at Mississippi State has come a long way. What used to be pretty much nothing, now has a much better atmosphere, and a nicer look. I am pretty sure the new Jumbotron in the stadium uses more power than the entire town of Starkville – man that thing was huge! The stadium is still pretty small, but it does the job. We made are way up the myriad of ramps to our seats in the Bama section in the upper deck. Surprisingly we sat next to the same dude we sat next to at the Kentucky game – how weird is that! The new scoreboard was nice, but the speaker system was ridiculously loud. They had that thing cranked so damn loud that it was just annoying. What was even more irritating was the piped in crowd noise they play through the sound system to make it seem louder – just ridiculous! It didn’t help…The Tide came out and took care of business and it was awesome!

I knew when Miss. State came out in those black jerseys that the game was over. No little gimmicky things like cow bells, jersey manipulation, or simulated crowd noise are going to intimidate The Tide. In fact, I’m pretty sure it just irritated us, making our team want to crush them even more. Minus one or two plays, our defense just dominated. Mark “The Red Barron” was all over the place – catching balls, and hitting people so hard their fillings rattled. What and outstanding individual performance he had. Huge shout out to Marquis Johnson also – he has come a long way this season. The defense just keeps getting better, and I believe will continue to do so. So many talented players, so much speed, so much power…I am grinning ear to ear as I type this. Keep it up defense…keep it up!

Huge plays from our offense this week! We had several game changing plays that were fun to watch! I don’t try to get caught up in the Heisman hype, but I swear if they don’t give that trophy to Mark Ingram this year I will forever protest. There is not another game changing, explosive, reliable, team player than Mark – he is the man! He just continues to get the job done. McElroy had a good game, and got the ball to our receivers creating some huge plays. The pass to Hanks was awesome, as well as the Julio play. I swear when he first threw that ball to a wide open Julio it looked like he had overthrown him. Thankfully he didn’t, and Julio makes the grab for another TD. Shout outs also go to Hanks, Trent, and Maze – great games as well!

Returning to the car after the big win, I first just prayed that it would start…it did!!! All right let’s get on out of here…oh wait…why are all these cars jumbled up and not moving?? There were only 58,000 people at the game…traffic can’t be that bad! Oh yes people…remember that public parking lot we parked in? Apparently what seemed to be a great spot close to the road to leave turned out to be the last parking lot of cars to get out. Over two hours we sat there without moving a foot! There has got to be a better traffic directing effort than that Miss. State…come on! Two hours and no movement!!!!! It almost ruined the win for me. Here is a tip – if you ever go to Starkville, just park on the side of the Hwy and walk!

This was a big statement for Alabama to come off the big LSU win and pound an opponent that was apparently very fired up and ready to beat us. We could have come in with a big victory hang over, but we didn’t. We were focused, and played with good intensity, and came away from another tough SEC road win looking really good. I know we have two more very important games before the SEC Championship, but I want to play Florida sooooo bad right now. I’m glad the coaches don’t think like me and take each opponent at a time. All I can think about is Florida. I know our team is already focused on the Mocs of UTC now, which is what they need to be doing, but all I can think about is watching our defense crush Tebow! One game at a time Jason…one game at a time…I need to settle down.

Enjoy this win, and have a great week Tide Fans!

Jason