Yes, the torture is about killing me. I hate to wait. I want to know now who is going where as far as the bowl games. Ok, to be honest, I'm really only concerned about where Alabama is going.

Georgia 34- LSU 14
I don't generally watch too many games if Alabama isn't playing but I did watch the Georgia vs. LSU game yesturday. (Seems this season I have watched a few too many "outside" games.) I never realized how hard it is to watch a game when deep down in your soul you really couldn't give a darn who wins or looses. I understand that it being the SEC title game that it was a bit longer time wise, but I swear I thought the game would never be over with. Georgia made LSU look really bad pretty much from the start of the game. Shocking? Well, I don't know about that. Don't get me wrong, LSU is strong in a lot of aspects and lucky in others. It just so happened there luck ran out when they met Georgia.

Congrat's to Georgia for gaining the SEC title. (Oh the pain of it!)

Crazy Football
Football is a funny sport in some aspects. My mother made an interesting comment about how she heard a coach once say that any team can win or loose a game at any point during the season and that it really doesn't matter how good or bad that team may be. I hate to think that any game is left to fate or chance, but I'm starting to discover that this statement can be very true indeed.

Anyone can look at the goings on of college football this past season and will discover that there have been a few upsets as well as some really intriguing wins from teams that were at one point or another not even ranked in the polls. It really has been a crazy season.

A month ago I don't think anyone would have thought that Alabama wasn't going to be in the SEC title game. Ok, so there were probably those who hoped they wouldn't, and they got thier wish, but just as an example look what ended up happening. Who would have thought that not one team in the SEC would go undefeated? Georgia pretty much had a stellar season but managed a loss against Florida. Florida was upset not once, put twice, and one of the teams didn't have such a stellar season. (South Carolina) Auburn and Alabama both upset by overtime wins by LSU. Every team in the SEC had something go wrong at some point in the season where the football gods just decided to make things a bit more interesting than in the past.

What does this mean? I really have no idea, but I predict next season will be quite interesting. Much of the SEC is improving to standards much above what they have been in the past. Georgia, LSU, Auburn, Florida and Alabama all had really great programs this year, and next year South Carolina will be included in this mix. Say what you want about Spurrier, but he does a good job and gets the job done. South Carolina had a rough time the first part of the season but improved with every game. Yes, they will be a contender next year, indeed.

Cotton Bowl Bound????
Papers in these parts are still printing that the Cotton Bowl wants a Alabama vs. Texas Tech matchup for the Cotton Bowl to be aired by Fox on January 2nd. Here it is 11:30am and there still has been no confirmation of this. A recent online poll wants to see the Alabama-Tech matchup compared to a LSU-Tech matchup by 73%. Go figure. Alabama has a history at the Cotton bowl as well as a couple of great former coaches from the state of Texas. (Gene Stallings (played for Bear) and former great Paul "Bear" Bryant.)

The Crimson Tide practiced for the first time this past week since the loss to Auburn. Coach Shula says that this year that want to be prepared for the bowl game no matter who they play as compared to last year when they didn't start practicing until a couple of weeks before the game.

The Tide will have thier hands full if the bout is against Texas Tech. From everything I have read on them, this is a highly intense football team who loves to pass the ball. That could be a good thing for the tide being that we have a couple of great players who love to steal those passes, but at the same time, it's hard to predict what will really happen.

The Crimson Tide will definately have to work on thier concentration and forget about what has happened (the two losses against LSU and Auburn) go out there and play a great game of football. It's reported that seniors want to go out with a win. It would have been much sweeter had that win been against Auburn, but at this point there is no looking back, only forward. A bowl win may not be much, but it would make a lot of fans happy here in this state.

Back off the QB
Alabama fans are something else. I know, because I am one of them. Loyal to a fault until something bad happens and then it's called the blame game.

I look at this from a different perspective than most because my brother was a quarterback for a winning high school football team at Newport HS in Newport, NH. (I bet there are a few out there who still remember him fondly.)

If the team is winning, the QB is the #1 man on earth. You loose, and the QB takes all the flames and all the blames.

The quarterback of any team has a lot of responsibility and a lot weight on his shoulders. Of course the QB is the leader of the team and of course the players look to him for those leadership skills.

Brodie has proven his leadership abilities in more than one game this season but now is being belittled by some Alabama fans because of the perfromance of the last two games. I am not denying how important these games were, but Brodie shouldn't take the heat for a team effort that failed.

TEAM. This is the key word here. There are a lot of aspects that go into a team, it's not just the QB, or the RB who was injured, the center, the kicker, the defensive end or even the coach(es). The entire team has to unite as a unit in order to fulfil the outcome that they are looking for. Unfortunately in the last two games there was lack of communication, lack of concentration, or just a lot of lack.

If you want to place blame, how about we blame those fellas who should have been blocking Brodie on one of the 11 times he was sacked. Blame the coach for not pulling Brodie out of the game sooner so he could get his barrings back to where they should have been. Blame the recievers who couldn't catch the ball when it was thrown right at them. Blame the team for not having thier focus where it should have been. I probably could sit here and go on for antoher ten minuets about who should be blamed for what, but it's pointless to do so.

When we were winning all the fans were out there wanting Brodie's autograph, patting him on the back telling him how great of a job he was doing, and now that there are a couple of losses under us, Brodie falls in the eyes of the fans. This isn't the way it should be at all. Brodie and the team had a great season and should be thanked by the fans for the wonderful memories they have given us and patted on the back for what they have accomplished.

The Crimson Tide has come out from under a nasty shadow of doubt, sanctions, and accusations and in my opinion have prevailed and proven that you may knock us down, but it is only temporary and we will come back winning.

Roll Tide.