The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Since Auburn first played Georgia in 1892, there have been many changes in the way the game of football is played. Many rule changes have been instituted since that time. Technics of playing the game have been altered as well. For example, blocking technics today would have brought down wrath from my coaches in the 50’s. Use of the helmet has been taken out of the game except for serving as protection for the offensive player mostly. The NCAA has morphed into a cumbersome monolithic rule make bo...
On September 21, 2018, Mr. Phil Norton was inducted into the Faulkner University Sports Hall of Fame. Phil was an outstanding linebacker and offensive guard on Robert E. Lee’s state championship football team in 1960. He also became an astute football and basketball official for the AHSAA for 20 years. His philanthropic contributions to sports in Montgomery is unmeasurable. Other inductees were Shane Reynolds, 11 year veteran pitcher for the Houston Astros: 2001 National championship b...
Never in my forty years of doing pre-season projections on how the top college football teams will finish their regular season, have I seen how the scene looks this year. Seven teams have a good chance to finish undefeated. As far as I can remember this has never happened and it is not really expected in 2018. Some of these teams will have a bad game and drop out of the undefeated category. Clemson has the best avenue to an undefeated season because of their schedule. The Tigers play at Texas...
For the last seventy years, my attention has been on the game of football, especially college football. To my knowledge, during this time, never has there been such an obsession with who the quarterback will be at Alabama for the 2018 football season. Alabama fans are apoplectic. Some are actually being counseled for this unusual disorder. A number of sports writers in the state are providing fodder for this addictive behavior. What makes the quarterback situation at Alabama so puzzling is that...
Editors note: One afternoon in June my telephone rang and it was an old Auburn buddy, Bill Marks. Bill and I went to Lanier together where he played on the tennis team. Bill went on to play for Sewanee University. We had talked many times, mostly about Auburn. But, that was not the purpose of his call. He reminded me of what a great tennis background that a mutual friend of ours had. Coach John McWilliams is the individual that he was talking about. I have known “Coach” for probably twenty years...
An NFL player, whose name will not be mentioned, kneeled during the national anthem last year in protest of black men being killed or abused by white policemen. The actions of this millionaire was intended to rally America behind the “racist” nation that has been represented by the “Flag of the United States of America” from it’s inception at millions of public events all over the world. Behind this flag, the founders of this country hammered out a constitution that has been the model for every...
Believe it or not, coaches are not just money hungry, self centered opportunists. They are not heartless, uncaring individuals who only care about winning. They are not manipulators who use players to advance their own agendas. With few exceptions, coaches become emotionally attached to their coaches and their players for life. For the players this occurs from the beginning of the recruiting process through graduation, through professional careers, through connections with their families and...
Ah, Spring, where young men’s thoughts turn to...football. Alabama and Auburn are hard at work in their spring practice, or spring training for the older fans. Auburn took spring break off from practice to give the players a break and give the coaches more time to evaluate players, especially those who have moved to different positions. It seems that most of the players took the break to energize themselves for the grind that always awaits during the last half fo spring practice. This is when t...
All my life my heart has had a soft spot for the underdog. This probably comes from my younger years. My friends started outgrowing me in the fifth grade. Montgomery had an excellent football program for kids based on weight and age. I played in the 80 lb. league for three years until my age got me. Then I had to play in the 100 lb. league, even though my weight was only 70 lbs. When graduating from ninth grade my weight was still just 90 lbs., but my age got me again. In the spring of my 10th g...
During the course of a lifetime, one will encounter someone who has character, conviction, determination and a sense of purpose that influences your life more than most. Such a man is admired, respected, loved and imitated in word and deed. Such a man was Coach Raymond Boykin. He was the same as a player, as a coach and as an educator. His personality was always the same. He made time for others. He was interested in your successes, your failures and your pain when life was difficult. He was...
Freshman Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa Delivers for BAMA! Nick Saban may have done the best coaching job of his career at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on the night of January 8, 2018. Trailing for the entire game, Saban made a tough decision at halftime down 13-0. He pulled Jalen Hurts and started Tua Tagnovailoa in the second half. Hurts has been the quarterback for 25 wins and only two losses in two years. However, those losses were devastating. One was in the national championship game last...
Defense has always been the tool that brought Alabama to the pinnacle of the college football world. Coach Paul Bryant used this tool to win six national championships. Coach Gene Stallings used it to win one. Coach Nick Saban uses this tool probably better than anybody ever has. He played for his sixth national championship on Monday, January 8th. Never has defense been so demonstrative as Alabama's was in the demolition of Clemson in the semi-final game on New Years night. The Tide's Defense d...
PLEASE NOTE THIS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE AUBURN/GEORGIA GAME. HISTORY CONTINUES TO UNFOLD IN NATIONAL COLLEGE FOOTBALL. IT IS NEVER ENDING...ESPECIALLY WITH THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP UPCOMING. Auburn has a direct line to the 2017 National Championship. But, the path goes through the state of Georgia. First there is the SEC Championship in Atlanta’s brand new Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday, December 2nd. Another win over the Georgia Bulldogs locks up a date for Auburn in the NCAA top four footb...
In the August issue of the Alabama Gazette, my column was entitled: "1st Coach to Fall". This story was about the demise of Coach Hugh Freeze at Ole Miss. The full story of the Ole Miss debacle has not been revealed, but enough was known by June to force Freeze to resign. Because of the short time left before the season started, Ole Miss officials had no time to search for a new head coach. Therefore, they did the only thing possible by naming a member if the present staff to be "Interim...
Grab your hat and your cane. We may not be coming back this way. You could be offended by my commentary, which is totally acceptable to me. Therefore, if you should decide to discontinue reading after realizing where I am going with this story, please understand that I am a red-blooded American patriot who served in the United States Marine Corps and retired from the United States Army. My opinions are skewed as a result of my training. This includes what I learned in kindergarten and what I...
Picking the top football teams in the country for the 2017 season was very difficult. There are more good teams this year than in other years it seems. There will be more ten win seasons this year than ever as far as my calculations are concerned. It is my belief that there will also be no undefeated teams as we end the regular season. The Alabama - Florida State game on September 2nd in Atlanta will not determine who wins the national championship, but it will give the winner a little cushion...
In the era of “million dollar coaches”, a lot is given and a lot is expected. In the SEC the average salaries, benefits and bonuses of coaches is around $5,000,000.00 PER YEAR. With a maximum of the 15 games it takes to play for the national championship, this works out to an approximate $420,000.00 PER MONTH. Most of us looking at this page have never been fortunate, or good enough to be worth that much to our employer. I know a few bankers that have earned that much, maybe a few lawyers, may...
Football in the Southeastern Conference is not just a game, it is a right of passage from one generation to another. Inter-marriages are not recommended. This writer has been to many stadiums over the years. The crowds at Ohio State and Notre Dame were almost as fanatical as a game in Bryant-Denny Stadium or in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The SEC is really where the action is. The following is a brief sketch of the players that must excel in order for their teams to make it to the SEC Championship....
Maybe people will figure out why Alabama has had a definitive dominance over Auburn during the Saban years. No matter how hard one pulls for Auburn, no matter what the pre-season prognostications are, no matter how many Heisman Trophy candidates Coach Gus Malzahn has at his disposal, no matter how many new coaches Malzahn hires, no matter how many coaches Nick Saban loses, no matter what the schedule difficulty is, in ten years Coach Nick Saban has lost only three games to Auburn, one to Tommy...
Every football fan wants to know who the quarterback will be. Nobody seems to care who the center and the two guards are. If the interior offensive line is not excellent, the quarterback will not matter. We sometimes forget that the center touches the football on every play. That makes the center the primary focus when building a successful offense at all levels of football except for professional football. Because of the high percentage of passes in the NFL it is much easier to move a guard to...
When Crum Foshee was running through, over and around players at Red Level High School, neither he nor the citizens of Covington County realized that one day Crum would be the most powerful legislator in the Alabama Legislature. All Crum really wanted to do was help his daddy and his brother run one of the largest ginning operations in the south. The daddy, Wheeler G. Foshee had built quite a dynasty in Covington County. He was raising cotton, processing peanuts and shipping all over the...
Starting with the football season of 2014, a four team play-off was initiated by the NCAA to determine the real national champion on the football field, replacing the original two team BCS. The SEC has won or played in the last eleven play-offs. This four team play-off will not satisfy the football fans of American very long. Many are interested in an eight team play-off. Mark my word! That is the next step for the NCAA and the American Football Coaches Association. It won't be far away! Let's...
It has been heartbreaking to me as a football fan to watch some of the teams in the south who have moved up to Division I football over the last decade. Teams like Troy, UAB, South Alabama and Georgia State were probably correct in the assessment of moving into the top class of college football with the plethora of bowl games available, the promise of more money in the coffers due to expanded crowds and fan bases. Also the alumni were stuck in what they considered the oblivion of Division 1-AA...
Coach Paul Bryant had many “sayings” as he called them. One of them was “the harder you work, the luckier you get.” So, using this little bit of wisdom from The Coach, it is my belief that Alabama and Clemson playing in a rematch of the national championship game last year is not even remotely a result of luck. Coach Nick Saban learned the basics to coaching football from Coach Don James at Kent State. Saban played for James and later coached for James at Kent State. Don James, who was an assi...
Most of the pundits had Alabama as a prohibitive favorite in the first bowl game of the year, the Iron Bowl. The Vegas line was 17 - 18 points. Many Auburn and Alabama friends of mine wanted to know what I thought would happen Saturday, November 26. My reaction never waivered. I believed that Auburn could make it close if Alabama had at least two turnovers in the game. If not, then I saw Alabama winning by 14 points. They had two turnovers in the first half and Auburn only trailed by four...