Rocky Stop!

The University of Alabama Crimson Tide defeat the University of Tennessee Volunteers 12-10 on Saturday October 24, 2009 in Tuscaloosa, Ala

There really are no words to describe the way one feels after something like that happens. My whole life I have dedicated such strong emotion for sports. Yet, last night made me realize that even if I wasn't such a sports enthusiast I would have still experienced the feeling of bliss as I sang the words of my school's ever-so-taunting song.

Hey Vols! Hey Vols! Hey Vols! We just beat the hell out of you, Rammer jammer yellow hammer give 'em hell, Alabama!

It always feels good to sing that song when Alabama, with it's spectacular special teams and indestructable defense, adds another opponent to the long list of wins in our record book. When you're singing it to the the Volunteers of the University of Tennessee, however, the words and the tune just sound so much sweeter.


The rivalry that compares to very few has entered a whole new era with Nick Saban and Lane Kiffen leading the boys in crimson and one well-hated shade of orange. Dating back to Robert Neyland and Paul Bryant, October's famous game is still sixty minutes that holds just as much emotion as it does tradition. When Tennessee comes to town, it is more than just a normal Saturday in Tuscaloosa. The tailgaters are in their normal spots sprawling across the quaint University of Alabama campus and the Million Dollar Band still leads the crowd in routine cheer throughout the game. By game's end, though, the song favored by the Alabama student body and the Crimson Tide die-hards is shouted with a little more glee as the boys in Crimson spend an extra few minutes of excitement with their fellow students in Bryant-Denny's South endzone. It's a historical rivalry that makes for a highly anticipated Saturday in Dixie.


The three times Tennessee has visited Tuscaloosa in my five-season tenure as a student at the Capstone, I've had the pleasure of singing 'Rammer Jammer' each time. The infamous 'Rocky Stop' game in 2005 that resulted in the Crimson Tide's 6-3 victory over Tennessee is what I had always figured would be my biggest nail-biter and near heart-attack type game. That was until the feelings of excitement in pride set in after the 12-10 victory over our most hated rival. As a student, last night was indescribable

As it is every year, this season of college football is full of surprises. We were all surprised with Southern California's loss to Washington. We were shocked when Tim Tebow suffered a concussion. We're all a little surprised that Bobby Bowden doesn't see that it is time to step down. And some of us are surprised at how one man is capable of turning around a program in only three seasons. Not me. As part of the 'Alabama faithful', I am not shocked that Alabama is regaining control of football's throne.

When Nick Saban announced he would be the coach of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide in January 2007, the people in Baton Rouge knew the Tide was about to turn. The coaching staff in Gainesville hoped he 'pissed off' enough Miami Dolphins fans so that recruiting in Florida wouldn't become a problem. The people on the East side of Alabama were scared of what the future would hold for the annual "Iron Bowl" showdown. Phil Fulmer, the then-coach of Tennessee, went back to researching any other way he could make the NCAA hate Alabama, as he was known for. In Tuscaloosa, however, a new light was shed on the football crazed town. The rising of the Tide meant a turning of the page. For a program that is criticized for living in the past and for the people who are critisized for not believing the football program they adore so much was at a dead end, the hiring of Coach Saban was a salvation. The frustration of mediocricy and the hate in losing was finally relieved when Mal Moore, the Alabama athletics director, presented to the Crimson Tide faithful the man who would put their boys in pads back on the road to domination. His first year was an expected slow start. His second year was an undefeated regular season that, after winning the Western division, gave the Tide a chance to play in Atlanta for the SEC Title - the first time since 1999 - and a BCS bid to play in the Sugar Bowl. His third year, he's coaching another unbeaten team who plays a weekly game of musical chairs with Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators for the nation's "No. 1" poll rankings. Two years in a row, might I add, Saban has proved to be a recruiting genius with the commitments he has received from high school football's most elite members. In a personal, off-the-record conversation I had with a member of his coaching staff, whose name I will withold, Nick Saban's coaching power was described like this: "Hell, he'd have all 95 pounds of you convinced you could run through that brick wall. You'd believe him because he's that good at what he does. I know he seems a little harsh in the media and a lot of people call him a jackass, but his job is to coach those boys and I've never seen anyone do it better. You'll see."

We've seen, all right. It's undeniable that the Tide has risen. There is no doubt that Alabama is a good football team. You can't misconstrude what the experts say, no matter how badly you want to disagree. With Alabama's success each week, those who warrant any speculation or disapproval of what Saban is doing lacks what large amount of credibility is needed to argue the case of the Crimson Tide's road to the national championship. Kirk Herbstreit,the well-known ESPN college football analyst, put it this way in 2007, shortly after Nick Saban took the head coaching job in Tuscaloosa: "At Alabama all Saban has to do is shore up the special teams and the defensive line. If he does that, Alabama will be shocking a lot of people in the college football world."

Now, in the 2009 season, Alabama's special teams and their defensive line are both regarded as the best in the nation. A mediocre quarterback, Greg McElroy, is a first-year starter who has made the expected mistakes that come with inexperience, but at the same time he proves his ability to get his job done. When you have the amount of strength in your defense that Alabama has, a less-thrilling offense is rightly excusable. Except, Saban's play-calling (especially in the 'Wildcat Formation') is thrilling enough in it's self. When you add top Heisman candidate and running back Mark Ingram in to the picture, the thrills that come from McElroy, Ingram, and the rest of the Tide's offense, are felt just as often as they are when the defensive boys are on the field.

Thrills are everywhere in Tuscaloosa these days. They come on Friday afternoons when tents pop up under the oak trees on the quad. It's thrilling to hear the Million Dollar Band practicing on the field that is over looked by the tower that is seen in so many iconic images of the late Paul Bryant. The thrill of waking up on a Saturday in the fall and dressing in our best dress or suit and pouring out in to Tuscaloosa's streets in good cheer for our team while upholding respect for the visiting fans. Spectacularly thrilling is the sound of 'the Bear' through the stadium speakers as a video highlights the twelve years in college football owned by the University of Alabama. And as each week passes, the excitement and thrill grows deeper in the heart of the Crimson Tide fanbase. It warms the heart when the thought of a thirteenth title beings to look even more like a very near reality. A dream come true, if you will.

Only a couple of years ago did the dream of that thirteenth title seem like a distant fantasy because of the Crimson Tide's probation nightmare. The up-hill struggle with the NCAA was accompanied with a whirlwind of coaching changes while becoming inferior to Auburn - the hated, in-state, conference and Western-division rival. When Saban came to town, Herbstreit simply stated on ESPN, "All due respect to Auburn... but when Alabama gets this thing going, they control that state." Saban's first-year loss to Auburn was hardly a blow-out victory for then-head coach Tommy Tubberville and his Auburn Tigers. Saban's second-year was an "Iron Bowl" victory for Alabama. Not just any victory - a shut out, the ending of Auburn's seven-year winning streak, the completion of Alabama's undefeated regular season, and the 'unsaid' reason behind Auburn's firing of Tubberville. In this case, the expert was right. The nightmare seemed to be over and the dream was coming true. Alabamians could finally sleep at night.

Being one of the thousands in the 'Bama student section last night, I looked around at the masses behind me in an attempt to take it all in. The break I took from yelling at referees and screaming for my team gave me a chance to soak in all the thrills that are exclusive to the Alabama family. I'm talking the experience that is only known to the fellow students that sat around me. The student body is made up of 25,000 individuals that each have their own background, their own values and moral beliefs, and unique life journeys. However, we share a common bond that threads us to our neighbor and, on Saturday, we are 'one.' We have a shared love for our school and we support her just as she has supported us. She is our 'home away from home' and, in a sense, she is our family. We prefer her crimson glow and we all find a nemesis in all of the different shades of orange that threaten to stain her on Saturdays in the Fall. We sing our own version of Rocky Top. We haven't the slightest care that bourbon drinks are flying and splashing amongst us as we sing 'Rammer Jammer.' The celebration, like the one last night, is a sweet, sweet expression of joy for our family because our brothers in pads won. The extra sweet, like I said before, is because our brothers in pads won - against Tennessee!

Sure, I am aware that Terrence Cody had to desperately block two field goals to protect our team's perfect winning record. I was there when the Tennessee kicker was actually able to get it over the Tide's phenomenal blockers but still couldn't get the three points out of it. I was also there when Mark Ingram fumbled the ball. The sweetest of them all is, I was there when the student section went into hysteria after UT's last-second attempt was thrown back in their face, literally. I was there with the 92,011 others who were fortunate enough to see the game that left everyone anxiety-ridden, yet ever so appropriate in regard to the storied rivalry of our lady 'Bama and her much-hated 'Vols' from Knoxville, Tennessee .

The game was, undoubtedly, Southern football at it's finest and with Terrence Cody's heroic effort it was proof that our school's fight song tells no lies, "you're Dixie's football pride, Crimson Tide!"


Roll Tide!
-BJJ