I have not written since the glorious victory over Florida in the conference championship game. I will write after Christmas. Enjoy the Christmas season and have a wonderful New Year!

Champions Once Again

Unless you are a part of it you most likely hate it. You hate the never-ending stories we have of Rose Bowls and Sugar Bowls. You probably don't hate the man - the 'Granddaddy of College Football' but you might hate our houndstooth caps and our tendency to worship him and the past. Your favorite color most likely isn't crimson and you might think it's funny that we are slow-talking and stuck on tradition and history.

We love houndstooth and who it represents and crimson and southern drawls. We love college bowl games but we actually just love college football in general. And just as we believe tradition should be cherished we also believe that no matter how good or bad we may be, there is something special about our school and her football program.

Our quarterback explains it simply.

"There's a lot of pride in playing football for the University of Alabama." The past, the present, the future. We, the ones who are a part of it, know this to be true.

Before this past Saturday, the last time the Crimson Tide won the Southeastern Conference title was 1999 when the coach was Mike Dubose. The ten years that have followed Alabama's victory over Florida, coached then by Steve Spurrier, holds a multitude of coaching changes. After Coach Dubose was fired, Coach Dennis Franchione came and left, disrespectfully, for Texas A&M and the Aggies. Coach Mike Price was hired and then fired before coaching a single game for the University of Alabama. Then, amidst NCAA violations and bowl game suspensions, Coach Mike Shula returned to coach his alma-mater. With both post-season and scholarship restrictions applied to Alabama, the former Tide quarterback coached the program to mediocracy. There was the epic 31-3 upset over a No. 5 ranked Florida team in Bryant-Denny Stadium during the 2005 season, but repeated losses to arch-rival Auburn was a factor in Coach Shula's fate at Alabama. See, we at Alabama do not settle for mediocracy. Being a mediocre program is not accepted. Shula was fired and then Defensive Coordinator Joe Kines coached Alabama in the Independence Bowl following the 2006 season which resulted in a loss to Oklahoma State.

Meanwhile, the Alabama Athletics Department searched for the next head coach of the Crimson Tide. Title-hungry and determined, the search dragged on. The Rich Rodriguez rumors and Steve Spurrier rumors hung over Tuscaloosa but were ultimately, and gladly, dismissed when Nick Saban was announced the Head Coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. A perfect guy for the job. A highly pressured job.

Saban's short coaching tenure in the National Football League for the Miami Dolphin's franchise was what followed his tenure as the head football coach at Louisiana State University. While there, he coached the Bengal Tigers to a BCS National Title. The news of Saban's arrival meant a new era of Alabama Football was more promising than ever.

Without any of his own recruits, Saban's first season looked nothing like the two that would follow. The 2007 season held a 7-6 record for the Crimson Tide. Of the six losses, four of them were to conference opponents (Georgia, Mississippi State, LSU, and Auburn). Bobby Bowden's Florida State Seminole's met the Crimson Tide at a neutral site in Jacksonville, Florida and sent Saban and his boys back to Alabama with another loss on the season. The most embarrassing loss of the season, and maybe even in the program's history, was to Louisiana-Monroe on Alabama own home field.

And then, the tide turned. Since then, it hasn't stopped rolling.

The 2008 season brought the first undefeated twelve-game regular season in Crimson Tide history. It also brought the first trip back to Atlanta since 1999 to contend for the Southeastern Conference title. Underneath the lights of the Georgia Dome was a battle that featured the two top ranked football teams in the nation, the same two that played in 1999. The winner would receive a bid to the BCS National Title game in Miami, Florida. Defeating Alabama 31-20, the Gators went back to their home state and clinched the title against the Sooners of Oklahoma. Alabama went to New Orleans to play in the Sugar Bowl against the University of Utah. Although Alabama holds the record for the most Sugar Bowl appearances than any other team, the Tide played with no "home away from home" field advantage. The season ended with an upsetting loss, but it only fueled the fire for what was to come in 2009.

Quarterback John Parker Wilson was gone and all eyes turned to Greg McElroy, the junior out of Southlake, Texas. In the 2009 opening game in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome, McElroy proved that another successful season and maybe even conference and national titles were within reach as he led the Crimson Tide in a win over Virginia Tech, and thus gained respect from the title-hungry students and fans.

Fast forward. With another undefeated twelve-game regular season behind them, Alabama returned to Atlanta to contend in the SEC Title game for the second year in a row. McElroy and his offense made their opponent's defense and No. 1 ranking look like a perfect case of "over-rated."

Yet again, Alabama and Florida met for the crowning of the Southeastern Conference's "King" and to answer the most-asked question in college football this year: Which one of these teams will go to Pasadena?

All year long it was assumed that the SEC champion would be one of the contenders in the BCS National Championship game. The assumptions were on point and the question, as of Saturday night, has been answered.

ALABAMA.

Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, and McElroy were unstoppable against a defense who apparently was "the best."

When the scoreboard read Alabama: 32, Florida: 13 the promise was kept. The title was won. The new era of Alabama Football finally became a reality. That turbulent decade was over.

For those of us that are a part of Alabama, we no longer have to seek glory in the past. We have witnessed a return to glory.

A mental preparation exercise that Saban had the team participate in had the team state what they thought Sunday's headline should say about Saturday's game. He asked them this on Thursday.

Colin Peek goes first, according to what he told 'The Atlanta Journal Constitution'. His answer, simple and short, was poetically true.

"Tradition Restored".

Alabama held the record for the most SEC titles before Saturday's showdown. Yet, the ten years between the 1999 and 2009 conference championships made many people discredit that highly honored record. No more discrediting the Crimson Tide because the tradition has, indeed, been restored.

No larger than life man in a blazer and checkered cap stands on the sideline with a rolled-up playbook in his wrinkled hands. Just a man in a Nike polo with a cordless headset and a genius play-calling mind and a gift for assembling top-ranked recruiting classes that are changing the face of the Alabama football program.

A quarterback who plays a simple style of football and does things the old-fashioned way - similar to the quarterback legends who wore the same number "12" jersey like Joe Namath and Kenny Stabler. A standout sophomore receiver, a Heisman Trophy worthy running back, and a nose tackle whose size is as big as his game-winning plays.

The Alabama Crimson Tide has redeemed themselves. Although we have new coaches, new faces behind the masks of our crimson helmets , and new renovations and expansions to our stadium, we've restored our tradition. We've redeemed ourselves against the Florida Gators and we've relived our days of glory.

"Pride Restored"

"Class Remained"

"Glory Returned"

"History Relived"

"Excellence Regained"

Headlines or not, we're back. We reside among the best and we return to the level of the most elite. We show no sign of regression because of Coach Saban and "The Process."

One thing is for sure after Saturday's win over the University of Florida,

"Champions Remembered".

-BJJ

roll tide roll

Rematch Week

The week of rematches is finally here. In neither case has absence made the heart grow fonder.

Only when two lovers are separated does that deem true. And the saying, "out of sight, out of mind", does not apply to the rematches that this week holds.

Not when Tom Izzo and Roy Williams both shared the sideline at Ford Field in Detroit this past April in the national title game. That game, too, was a rematch of the Big 10/ACC Challenge earlier last season. This time they meet in Chapel Hill at the Dean Dome where Dickie V says North Carolina's sophomore point guard Larry Drew will "be the key factor in tonight's game." The eleventh ranked Tar Heels have not forgotten the ninth ranked Spartans just because they are out of conference foes and not part of the elite Atlantic Coast Conference. The loss to Syracuse proved that conferences like the Big 10 and Big East are not too far behind the ACC when it comes to powerful and highly ranked teams. Izzo and his boys in green and white haven't forgotten the loss to Williams' Tar Heels in neither last year's Big 10/ACC Challenge nor last year's national title game. The Challenge's games are already exciting but with a team hungry for vengeance and full of experience visiting the home court of a young but talent-packed reigning champion, we are certain this game will be one for the books.

The other rematch this week comes on Saturday as the two top ranked football teams meet for the crowning of the SEC Championship. The Florida Gators and the Alabama Crimson Tide will meet in a rematch of last year's conference championship game. The 364 days since their last battle has not been a time of fond hearts and bittersweet separation. The Alabama boys have wanted another shot at Tim Tebow and the boys from Florida since the second the game ended in the Georgia Dome last year. The two teams have been equally talented and successful in their regular seasons this year just as they were last year. Two of the best offenses in the nation, two of the best defenses in the nation, two of the best coaches in the nation, and two potential Heisman candidates. The rematch will be a story played out in true Southeastern Conference fashion that we will want Eli Gold, Alabama's famed radio broadcaster, to tell us for years to come. Out of sight, out of mind? No and no. Just because the two teams haven't seen one another on the grid iron this year doesn't meant that they haven't had their eyes on eachother all year long. It's been talked about and anxiously awaited for since Florida and Alabama have traded places amongst the rankings and held their opponents in defeat for twelve straight weeks. This rematch is almost too good to be true.

Enjoy the best of the best this week. College basketball and college football - the beginning of one season and the ending of another - but either way, revenge and redemption are looming.

As always, Go Heels and Roll Tide!

-BJJ