Have you heard from Kate

[RedDog]

Speaking of football, no comment from Kate yet on her Alabama Crimson Tide. The BCS National Championship Game is Monday night. #1 Louisiana State vs. #2 Alabama. LSU is unbeaten. The Tide's one loss was to LSU in overtime 9-6. The game goes in New Orleans. This is an epic winner take all clash of the titans.

Roll Tide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjRxdrg9BtU

[Kate Shaw]

I am waiting until my Sunday call with Mama (who thinks Bear Bryant should have been President) before expressing a reasoned opinion on The Game. Naturally I will be cheering for the Tide, regardless, (that should be taken for granted) but as to who will win, I need a seasoned analysis first!

Since this is a prime time game, it is one of the few reasons I am glad to be unemployed so I would not have to take a day off on Tuesday!

[RedDog]

I can't express how much it pleases me that someone else on this board knows who Paul "Bear" Bryant was. My sister in Shreveport, Louisiana will hate this, but ROLL TIDE. The coin toss in that OT game goes another way and we have opposite rankings here for all the same marbles. Forget that game. THIS is the one to win.

[RedDog]

Congratulations to the Crimson Tide for the defensive clinic they put on against the previously unbeaten #1 ranked team in the nation last night. LSU had only 5 first downs, 92 total yards of offence and didn't cross the centre stripe until there were eight minutes left. Bama are the National Champions for the 2nd time in 3 years.

Alabama 21 - Louisiana State 0

[Kate Shaw]

ROLL TIDE!

This was Big Boy Football, y'all; Alabama didn't let the big shots across midfield until the fourth quarter when it didn't matter anymore; they held discipline taking only one minor penalty (a punt) during the whole game; and the howling mobs of LSU fans who hate Nick Saban with the single minded focus of a NA$CAR fan toward Jeff Gordon were heading for the exits in the third quarter to drown their sorrows on Bourbon Street.

The 21-0 drubbing of the hitherto undefeated LSU was the first time since 1963, I believe, that a championship game was won in a shutout.

Even though the game ran well past my bedtime, and even though today I wake up still unemployed and anxious in real life, I am proud that the Tide continues to Roll.

[RedDog]

Factor in Auburn last year and you have the national championship three straight years in the state of Alabama. Try to imagine what Nick Saban would command in the NFL for a coaches salary. Isn't Bill Bilichick in New England around $6M a year?

[Kate Shaw]

Well, one of the things that anger the LSU people is that he dumped them after leading them to a championship, to go and work for the Dolphins; and then enraged THEM by leaving their team in a shambles and going to Alabama.

But he is the only coach that is likely to make people forget the Bear. (Some people.)

[RedDog]

Saban's salary to coach at Alabama - $5,997,349. (who needs the NFL?) He's on an eight year contract.

Saban and Paul "Bear" Bryant are the only coaches to win an SEC championship at two different schools. Saban is the first coach to win three BCS Championships and is the only active coach with three National Titles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Saban

[Kate Shaw]

He doesn't have the old time Southern Charisma of The Bear, or the hat (and in fact, the hat would look silly on him) -- but he has the mantle.

Somewhere among Mama's things is a large banner reading BEAR BRYANT FOR PRESIDENT. He was a great man. Let us hope Saban stays around for the foreseeable future and leads the Tide to many victories over Auburn.

[RedDog]

I distinctly recall Bryant's funeral procession through the entire state of Alabama. Thousands lining freeways and overpasses as the hearse motored through the state. All business shut down. A state in mourning. He was and is a God in Alabama. I suspect Saban is just being allowed to sit at that desk for a while. Hard to argue with the results thus far.

[Kate Shaw]

Who was the first coach chased out of Alabama after The Bear passed on? I can't even remember.

[RedDog]

Kate, I imagine you're thinking of former New York Giants head coach Ray Perkins. The Bear's shoes were tough ones to fill of course. Nick Saban (administering a spanking above) has had the luxury of the passage of time and a few lean years for the Tide to look like a genius these days.