"It wasn't pretty. But sometimes games aren't pretty."

That quote right there as the title of this blog post, that's from the best Defensive Coordinator in the NCAA. Ok so I'm biased, but I bet I could get at least a few people from ESPN to agree with me that Joe Kines is a football defensive genius. Let me back up....

If you care at all about me living a little bit longer on this earth, you should be thankful I didn't have a heart attack on Saturday afternoon/evening. All week long, my stomach had been turning over in knots just waiting for the opening kick-off and really wishing the whole time that the final seconds had already ticked off the clock. I feel so much better once that happens. Like Coach Kines said, "it wasn't pretty, but sometimes games aren't pretty." I've waited a long time to see Alabama beat UT in Bryant-Denny Stadium. I've heard a lot of cracks about how bad Alabama. In fact, in my 5 short years of college (undergrad and grad) I was witness to the two worst seasons Alabama ever played in its entire history. I watched a season when we didn't win even one game in Bryant-Denny Stadium...which was a record by the way...that was the year we broke all the wrong records like having the highest number of penalties in the entire NCAA...in one game alone.

You see, as fans go, I'm kind of a yungin' to this Alabama football thing. I chose to go to school there because they have one of the best accounting schools in the southeast not because of the 11 Saturdays in the fall when time seems to stand still. Mark my words though, one trip to Bryant-Denny Stadium will make you a fan. I thought I knew what being a football fan was...I was sorely mistaken. And about 9.5 seasons ago, I was schooled on the truth of it all. As of Saturday night, I have seen Alabama beat Tennessee a total of 2 times and neither of those times was when I was in school.

There's a lot of history between these two teams. In fact, the rivalry between them is longer than the one between Alabama and Auburn. We had a slight gap in play for about 30 some years with Auburn. But we've never taken a break from UT. As such, the hatred (yes it's hatred...no other way to describe it) has just grown over the years. A couple years ago, it came to a head in the form of NCAA immunity. Now, I'm the first person to tell you that Alabama and its boosters committed some bad NCAA infractions and deserved every penalty we got, but so did 4 other schools. There's some stupid NCAA rules out there, but Alabama doesn't tend to commit those. We like to stick to the ones with harsher consequences. And because UT's coach opened his mouth and testified against those other schools, he received immunity for his program doing the SAME EXACT THINGS. In fact, there's now an NCAA investigation guideline called the Fulmer Rule that basically prevents what he did from ever happening again. Great...where was that 5 years ago? In any case, it fueled the fire that already burned deep within our players, coaches, and fans. Saturday marked the first time Fulmer returned to Tuscaloosa after being exposed as the "secret witness." And he had to be escorted onto the field and off by 10 police officers. The most gratifying scene the entire night was seeing Fulmer on the sidelines completely flabbergasted and fuming because he couldn't control his team. That was better than any time I've ever seen Steve Spurrier throw his visor.

Though it didn't look like it until the very last drive of the game, but our players and coaches were prepared to expose a heck of a lot more about Tennessee. I can certainly attest to the fact, that both defenses played awesome games holding both teams scoreless until the second half. Alabama has now outscored its opponents this year 50-0 in the 3rd quarter. I certainly would have loved beating UT by as much as we beat Florida, but I'll take the "W" either way. I wouldn't really call this win luck though. It didn't have anything to do with it. That game was up for grabs the entire time. Even with 13 seconds left, I was still ringing my hands knowing what UT has had up their sleeve in the past. I think it came down to who got tired faster and who really wanted that win. The answer to the second one at least is Roman Harper. He's our senior free safety and just blows me away at his talent. He doesn't give up. He could be on one side of the field and see a way to make a play on the other side of the field and he'll go for it. Saturday night, he rammer jammered (only Bama fans will get that) right into the UT player carrying the ball. The UT player was about to score when Roman hit him causing the ball to fly out and through the back of the endzone. Football rules say when that happens, the defense gets the ball as a touchback (80 yards to go). Roll Tide, Bama Ball...and Roman Harper sails into the pontiac game changing performance voting for this week...but not until Brodie hooks up with DJ Hall for a 44 yard run. Then Kenneth Darby keeps it on the ground to get closer to field goal range since technically we only needed 1 point to win with the score tied at 3. Well the offense set up great field goal position for our new star Jamie "Money" Christensen who got a standing ovation in class last week following his game winning field goal against Ole Miss. 34 yards and Money is Money!!! Bama 6 UT 3. I'm not really sure when I started shaking. Was it after the fumble? Was it after the 44 yard pass? Was it after the field goal? I don't know...but I was shaking like a leaf.

There were 13 seconds left on the clock before we kicked off to them, and I just knew it wasn't over. Fulmer has something up his sleeve, I just know it. Apparently, it was a personal foul...they did that a lot on Saturday...get penalized that is. We kicked off and during the kick, they got two penalties, we accepted the 17 yard personal foul with 8 seconds on the clock. Phones started ringing along with me shaking and my hands also ringing. Clausen throws up a hail mary on the last play and it's beautifully intercepted by DeMeco Ryans (finalist for the Lombardi Award) as time expired. They did it, and even if they didn't intend to, they won that game for every single one of us. Fans, Students, Alumni, Players, Former Players, Coaches, Former Coaches (except Franchione), you name it...it was the ugliest, most perfect win I've ever seen. So here's to you Mr. Roman Harper, Mr. Brodie Croyle, Mr. DJ Hall, Mr. Kenneth Darby, Mr. Jamie Christensen, and Mr. DeMeco Ryans (and the rest of the #5 team in the nation). Thanks for letting us see that Bryant-Denny win at least once in my lifetime because I honestly didn't think we ever would.



P.S. The Colts won again. 7-0 now leading into their bye week. The Patriots had a bye. Shaun Alexander is now the Seahawks' leading franchise rusher. Great Weekend...SUPERB!