Ala-Freakin'-Bama!

Congratulations to the Ala-Freakin'-Bama faithful (I love this Trace Adkins song)! A national championship and its first Heisman trophy winner in the same season! In six months no one will remember that Colt McCoy was knocked out of the game with a shoulder injury on the Longhorn's first possession. Gilbert Grape (I mean Garrett Gilbert) was simply overmatched in the first half by a combination of the Crimson Tide defense and his own offensive coordinator. Once Colt McCoy was out of the game, the game plan was to run twice up the middle for short losses on first and second down and then try to complete a screen pass or shovel pass or run a draw play on third down and 14! Good luck against the best defense in the country!

When Texas got the ball back with less than 30 seconds in the first half and ran on first down for 9 yards, it looked like Texas would go into the locker room losing 17 to 6 and hoping that Colt McCoy might lead a comeback in the second half. Instead, for some inexplicable reason, Coach Brown calls a timeout and then the offensive coordinator (see above) calls a shovel pass that is intercepted and returned for a touchdown to increase the Tide's lead to 24 to 6 at halftime, at which point all of the televisions in the United States (except in Alabama and the women that wanted to see the halftime show) went black.

I used to be a Mack Brown fan mostly because he is Watson Brown's younger brother. Watson Brown was the offensive coordinator of the formidable Vanderbilt Commodores in 1981, my first year at Vanderbilt. Watson was the quarterback at Vanderbilt from 1969 to 1972 when the Commodores upset the Crimson Tide 14 to 10 in 1969; it was Vanderbilt’s first victory over Alabama since 1956 and I do not think Vandy has beaten Alabama since then (I hate to bring up that nightmare for Crimson Tide fans at this time, but I do not want them to get too cocky!), but the Dores came close when the "World Of" went to Tuscaloosa in 2006 (I am sure that High Right will correct me if there have been other memorable Vandy victories in his lifetime). Back to Mack Brown. After his clock management almost nightmare in the last drive against Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship Game and the shovel pass at the end of the first half of the BCS National Championship Game, I am questioning Mack Brown's football intelligence! To Mack Brown's credit, today's newspaper says that Colt McCoy was begging to go back into the game and his father said the injury was not that bad (for the benefit of the NFL scouts), but Mack erred on the side of caution (and Colt's future) and did not put him back in the game.

By the time that the rest of the country realized that this Gilbert Grape-kid was pretty good and Texas removed the offensive play-calling shackles, Alabama was leading 24 to 21 and Texas had the ball on its 7 yard line with about 3 minutes to go and momentum favoring the Longhorns. I could hear a pin drop all the way in Arizona from the homes of Crimson Tide in Birmingham and Turtle in Guntersville (The Mouth is never quiet!). As soon as the announcers said that the Texas quarterback had not been sacked all game, Alabama blitzed from the blind side and Eryk Anders (his mother must have been a spelling bee champion!) caused a fumble, followed by two more interceptions and two Alabama touchdowns, making the final score 37 to 21, Crimson Tide!

Finally, what was up with Nick Saban and the Gatorade bath? OK, the defense was too quick and hit him upside the head with the bucket (but isn't that what Alabama football is all about!). Lighten up Nick, you just won the national championship and you are going to Disneyworld!