Ok, so I'm sure most of you are saying, nuh uh...only 5 days to Christmas! I'm not talking about Christmas in this instance though. I'm talking Signing day.

So far the Tide has racked up a bunch of verbal commitments from some great prospects. Most recently Earl Alexander, Ricardo Wright, and Justin Woodall.

Earl Alexander **** (4 Star)
Ht: 6-4
Wt: 203
40: 4.55
Position: QB
Projected as: WR, QB
Position Rank: 22
Year: Class of 2006
High School: Central HS(Phenix City, AL)

Earl made his verbal commitment to Alabama on Dec 15th. He hopes to vie for the position of Quarterback, however he may be moved to wide reciever where many believe he is very strong.

Personally I would love to see Alabama use a 2 QB system using each QB throughout each game, playing on each QB's strengths, opening up the field for many QB options. With Earl's strength in both positions (WR, QB) there are many tricky plays that could be used with the starting QB and Earl on the field at the same time. Yeah, so I like to be sneaky, but I bet it would shock the crap out of some folks and make for some outstanding plays.


Recardo Wright **

Ht: 6-2
Wt: 215
40: 4.65
Position:LB
Projected as: LB
Position Rank: NR
Year: Class of 2006
High School: Dr. Phillips HS(Orlando, FL)

Recardo is said to be one of the fastest line backers around. Who couldn't use a fast line backer? :)

Justin Woodall ***

Ht: 6-1
Wt: 200
40: 4.75
Position:CB, WR
Projected as: S, WR
Position Rank: 33
Date of Birth: 11/6/1987
Year: Class of 2006
High School: Lafayette HS(Oxford, MS)

Justin completed his senior year with a total of 16 interceptions on Defense, and caught 30 passes for a total of 750 yds a 8 TDS offensively. Justin is sure to be an asset to the Tide with his quick hands and quick feet!

Well, folks this wraps it up for me this evening. I truly hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas filled with lots of joy and love. I'm out of town for the holiday, and hopefully will be able to post a little something before the Cotton Bowl.

Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men (and Women!) and Roll Tide.

Yes, if you haven't heard the news, Tim Tebow ranked as one of the best dual threat quartbacks in the nation has chosen Florida and Coach Urban Myer as his choice for his college career. Tebow will see playing time right away behind Leak and should be on schedule to take over the starting job in 2007.

Yeah. Bummer. Oh well, that's how the cookie crumbles. I kinda figured Tebow would lean towards Florida being that he has ties with the college, although I had hoped for a Bama pick. No worries though, I'm sure the Tide will do well with what we are going to get as far as recruits go.

Well, tomarrow is my birthday, and it's really past my bedtime so I'm outta here.

Roll Tide.

Anyone who is keeping up with the recruiting situation for Alabama is looking at this kid with big eyes.

He's 6'3, 217lbs, runs the 40 in 4.69 seconds, lifts close to 400lbs and is a left handed quarterback.

His name is Tim Tebow, and he'll announce the lucky college of his choice Dec. 14th at 10pm on ESPN.

What a wonderful birthday gift that would be for me. I would love nothing more to hear those two little words come from this QB's mouth...Roll Tide.

Of course on all the Bama boards in internetdom the buzz is that he'll choose Alabama, and vice versa on the Florida boards.

I read on one particular recruiting blog that the Florida coaching staff attended the championship game for Nease high school and sat and hugged family members after the win. Can't be good for Bama if you ask me.

Then comes team mate Charlie Kirschman who has already committed to Alabama and places a Alabama hat on Tim's head. Thanks so much Charlie! I have read several reports that have stated the Charlie is really trying to get his team mate to choose Alabama.

I would really like to say that I have a feeling that Tim is going to choose Alabama. I can't say that though. Facts are that Tim is going to choose the school that gives him the best offer, a promise that he'll play, a promise that he'll get that scholarship, a promise for his future.

I really hope that Tim chooses Alabama, quite frankly I don't want to see Alabama playing against him at Florida or any other school.

One thing we all have to remember though. Just because they are great in high school, doesn't necessarily mean they will be great in College. There are a lot of differences between playing high school ball and college ball, a lot more pressures. I guess the only way we can find out what Tim or any other recruit will do is sit back, wait, and watch.

I hope that sit down with Coach Shula did the trick.

DeMeco Ryans has been named the SEC Defensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press.

DeMeco was also a unanimous First-Team All-SEC pick at linebacker.

Ryans played in 11 games and led UA with 69 tackles. He was second on the team with 3 1/2 sacks (-31) and 13 tackles for loss (-46) this year. He also added four quarterback pressures, two forced fumbles, two PBUs, one interception and one fumble recovery. Ryans is fifth all-time at Alabama with 300 career tackles. Ryans anchored an Alabama defense that ranked first nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 10.7 points per game. The Crimson Tide will likely finish the 2005 season with the fewest points allowed since the 1996 defense gave up 143 points (11.0 per game).




University of Alabama head coach Mike Shula has been named the AFCA's
Regional Coach of the Year.

The 2005 Regional Coach of the Year winners will be recognized at the AFCA Coach of the Year Dinner at the 2006 AFCA Convention in Dallas. The dinner is scheduled for January 10.


Prothro’s catch is one of four finalists for the ESPN Pontiac Game-Changing Performance of the Year.

The winner will be announced at halftime of the BCS National Championship game on Jan. 4, 2006 on ABC Sports. Pontiac will make a $100,000 donation to the winning school’s general scholarship fund.

Prothro’s catch against Southern Miss was one of five weekly winners by Alabama this season.

Other UA winners this season were Brodie Croyle’s 46-yard pass to Keith Brown at South Carolina, Croyle’s 87-yard TD pass to Prothro vs. Florida, Roman Harper’s caused fumble vs. Tennessee and Matt Miller’s fumble return of a second half kickoff at MIss. State. Pontiac awarded Alabama $5,000 for each Pontiac Game Changing Performance this season, totaling $25,000 to the general scholarship fund.

To vote for Prothro’s catch as Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Year log on to espn.com and the keyword is Pontiac.

Don't forget, you can vote once per week, so vote often!

It seems as thoughts of a Alabama and Texas Tech match up have been confirmed according to CollegeFootballNews.com. I also checked the Cotton Bowl website, however they must be updating it because I keep getting a notice saying that the page can not be loaded at this time. If you are interested in checking out what teams are going where as far as the Bowl games, check out that link I provided, lists all the games/times/teams etc. I counted 8 SEC teams in Bowl games this year. Not bad, not bad at all. Not that it surprises any SEC fans, but as always the SEC powerhouse is still in business.

A side note here. I recieved a couple of emails from shocked men who just couldn't believe that I am a woman who knows as much as I do about football. C'mon guys. There are a select (cough) few of us out there who might actually know what we are talking about as far as football goes. To sum up: My dad wanted boys, what he got was two girls before getting that boy. Needless to say as kids my sister and I were into every dirty sport we could get into. I was more into them than my sister however and it's stuck with me through my adult life. (If I could count how many times I went home with holes in my jeans from playing tackle football with the guys in gravel dirt I would indeed be a rich woman.) I have loved the sport of football for a great many years and on occasion have joked with my father that I could be a SEC referee just as well (if not better *smile*) as any of those guys out there. I must say, it's a pretty powerful thing for a woman to get into a conversation about a football game with a bunch of guys and prove that she may actually know more about the team and the sport than they do. (It's also quite entertaining, I might add..at least for me.)

All that being said, yes, I am indeed a woman, a pretty cute one at that (sorry fellas, I'm married, odd thing is he hates football!) I'm a Crimson Tide fan, and most of the time I actually know what I'm talking about, at least as far as football goes. :)

Enough of that now. I just checked the Cotton Bowl site and it does indeed confirm Alabama and Texas Tech.

Also, today while browsing the internet for information on Texas Tech I stumbled across a super site that has in depth information on the recruiting situation for Alabama. You should really skip over there and check it out...I sure hope he is right about Tebow! Check out Clay's Bama Page.

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.

It seems Tyrone Prothro will never leave the minds of many college football fans for a long while. Weather you are looking for a picture of his fabulous catch, or video footage of the awful day he broke his leg in the game against Florida, Tyrone is consistently at the top for search hits to my lovely little blog. Believe me, I'm not complaining. He's a GREAT player and I adore him and his talent.

For this reason I had been thinking I should devote one post entirely to him and dole out as much information as I can muster up. :)

First, I don't know how many folks out there have seen Daniel Moore's "Immaculate Reception". It's fabulous. Wish I had the dough to shell out for this one, but even if I did, they are sold out. If you are lucky you may be able to find one or two listed on Ebay, but I wouldn't hold your breath too long. "The Catch" in the pic above is also sold out, but you can still buy 8x10 prints for $30. This Immaculate Reception isn't the one by Daniel Moore (I don't think because the one I saw on Ebay was different, just can't find it now.) but there are prints left on this one. At least for now there are.

Anyone looking for video of "The Catch" visit The Houndstooth Huddle, scroll down to videos and you will be able to download your own copy.


If you are looking for video footage of that awlful day when Tryone broke his leg you can find it by clicking here. For those faint at heart beware. I cringe everytime I see this.

UPDATE:04/30/06 Medical

Tyrone had his second surgery to replace the steel rod in his leg on Feb. 21, 2005. The surgery has been deemed a success and doctors believe that Tyrone's rehabilitation will be quick from here on out. Tyrone has not been able to participate in spring practices, however he has been working on his upper strength and hopes now that the second surgery has been completed that he will be ready and on the field come fall. The coaching and training staff reminds fans that there will be no certainty of weather Tyrone will return this fall due to the fact that in "normal" cases it takes up to a year for the healing of such a severe injury. Things should be made clearer come June when summer practices start.

If you would like to send Tyrone a note to say hi, wish him well, or whatever, please send inquiries to:

Tyrone Prothro
c/o Alabama Football
Box 870323
Tuscaloosa, AL. 35487-0323

You can visit TyroneProthro.com and leave Tyrone a message, however the site has not been updated since sometime in October. It is heartwarming to read the messages though, so you should take a peek at what other fans are saying. (Wish I had thought of buying THAT domain name!)

Some on Ebay are selling "Prothro 4 Heisman 2006" T-shirts. Big fans out there will want one, just go to Ebay and do a search for "Tyrone Prothro".

Updated! Tyrone and his "catch" won the Pontiac Game Changing award for 2005. Pontiac will donate a check for $100,000 to the University's general scholarship fund in Prothro's name. The Crimson Tide football team has been responsible for $150,000 worth of donations to the University's general scholarship fund this season. Alabama garnered five different Pontiac Game Changing Performances this season, receiving $5,000 for each honor and senior linebacker DeMeco Ryans earned an additional $25,000 for the general scholarship fund at Alabama when he was awarded the Lott Trophy given to the nation's outstanding defensive football player.

If I have missed anything or you would like for me to add some information, please feel free to give me a shout and I will see what I can do. Any hey, if you want you can steal this:

updated 04/30/06