A sea of crimson...
Today, the University of Alabama goes for its 13th national title against the Texas Longhorns. I am a two-time alumnus of the Capstone, and will be drinking and cooking and gearing up for this through the balance of the day. There are so very very many things that could be said about this one, but I think OTS's writeup at RBR is close to what I'm feeling....
On a personal level, it's such mixed emotions that it is hard to even single out any one feeling. It's one big bag of hope, excitement, intrigue, fear, and anxiety all somehow mixed together, ultimately yielding some indescribable feeling. You know that today could bring about the highest of highs or the lowest of lows, and it's all just a mixed array of emotions.
Just like this...only with booze and food
For those more inclined to the sanguine and reasoned analysis, none is better than TideFan's breakdown of the game. I;m not going to copy and paste all of their content...go visit them. But, here's an excerpt.
When the clock wound down on the 2007 Independence Bowl, a game Alabama won to put itself at 7-6 in Nick Saban’s first year at the Capstone, it’s a good bet that if you floated the idea of a national championship run two years later, only the most perennially optimistic fans would have thought it likely.
Alabama seemingly had so very far to go. The Tide wasn’t a tough team, its ranks were still dotted with players accustomed to the Mike Shula way of doing things and Alabama was decidedly looking up – way, way up – at Florida and LSU.
What a difference these last two years have made. Now Alabama is standing four quarters away from its 13th national championship. But to get there, the Crimson Tide will have to defeat a team it has never beaten before, despite having eight shots at it.
Texas doesn’t so much arrive at this game as it does careen sideways into the spot following a near-miss win over Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship Game. The manner in which Texas won that game has created a media-driven, David-vs.-Goliath setup that Saban has already bemoaned in several interviews.
The fact is, this will be the best offensive team – at least through the air – that Alabama has seen this year. But the real issue is the Texas defense. Pundits quick to award Alabama a runaway victory have overlooked the fact that Texas managed to put up good pass defense numbers even in the pass-happy Big 12, and recorded the No. 3 ranking in total defense at the same time.
This will probably shake out to be a close game, won in the fourth quarter.
So, ladies and gentlemen, let's do this. Tomorrow I will either be very happy man, or in desultory moaning. This is Alabama football.
In the words of the man "Keep your heads up...act like a champion"
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