The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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A 6'-5", 235 lb. quarterback that never lost a game in college (14-0) did not receive an invitation to compete in the NFL Scouting Combine. He also led his team to the 2015 NCAA National Championship. From my vantage point, he was the MVP of the championship game. So, what's the problem? It is that Alabama's Jake Coker was not on any scouting lists in 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012. Why? He had never started a game since his senior year in high school, that's why. The chemistry on this 2015 team was...
Levi Stadium in San Fransisco could be "Peyton's Place" on February 7, 2016. Two months shy of his 40th birthday, Peyton Manning will start the 50th Super Bowl with a determination to end his remarkable career with a win for the Denver Broncos over Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. This is a contrast between the past of one of the greatest quarterbacks in history (Manning) and the new breed of quarterback (Newton) which may define the future. Peyton will be the oldest quarterback to start a...
Starting with the football season of 2014, a four team play-off was initiated. This may or may not be better than what we had with the BCS Championship Plan with only the top two teams participating. The football world has been anxious to come up with any plan that will keep the SEC from dominating the national championship play-off. The SEC has won or played in the last ten play-offs. This four team play-off will not satisfy the football fans of American very long. They are only interested in...
As the 2015 football season winds down, the talk centers on what four teams will make the National Championship Playoff, which teams will fill the 40 bowls. (The NCAA needs 80 teams to fill the record high 40 bowl games), and of course, who will win the Heisman Trophy. The Heisman Trophy was originally created to honor the best college football player in America. For the last 65 years it has been presented to the best quarterback or running back in America. The award is named for a former...
This column should be praising the resurgence of Alabama. However, I don't consider them ever being down. This Alabama team is the most physical in years. It is no surprise to me that they are headed toward the Final Four. On the other hand, the demise of Auburn is a national Shakespearian Tragedy! Every pre-season poll had the Tigers ranked in the top ten and some in the top four including your's truly. And, why not? After all Coach Gus Malzahn had hired the "best defensive mind in college...
The top teams in my "Top Forty" started the 2015 season well. Alabama smoked Wisconsin 35-17, Auburn got up 24-0 on Louisville then had to hang on as Bobby Petrino's team came roaring back. Ohio St. dug the hole a little deeper for Frank Beamer's Virginia Tech, 42-24. TCU handled Minnesota on the road 23-17. Georgia did a number on La-Monroe, 51-14. UCLA treated Virginia gingerly, 34-16. USC busted Arkansas St., 55-6 only to lose to Stanford two weeks later 41-31. Baylor started their...
Picking the top college football teams for the 2015 season was more difficult than in most years. The top four teams will of course qualify for the 2015 National Championship Play-Offs. The obvious choice for number one is the national champion Ohio State Buckeyes from last year. They don’t lose any key missing parts. Coach Urban Meyer is a proven commodity. He now has three national championship rings, two from Florida. He has built successful programs at every stop-Bowling Green, Utah, Florida...
It was cold. It was wet. It was miserable. It was November. It was 1967. It was Birmingham. It was Legion Field. It was the Iron Bowl. It was late in the second half. It was Auburn 3- Alabama- 0. I was huddled with my date under one of 40,000 umbrellas in the stadium. Ken Stabler takes the snap. He's running the option right. Alabama's right guard "tackles" Auburn's nose guard, Gusty Yearout. Stabler cuts inside, breaks right and sloshes through the Legion Field mud for fifty-seven yards. It...
"There's a time to be living...a time for to die." Montgomery and Troy lost a favorite son on the last day of April this year. Coach Pat Garner lost a somewhat short battle with lung cancer and bone cancer. He was 77. Coach Garner certainly knew how to live. He also knew how to die. His life was so full of activities that he never got bored with daily living. His faith in God was strong enough to carry him through the death of his first wife Jane Marie Helms Garner, (the mother of his five...
In the December issue of The Alabama Gazette, the most successful monthly newspaper in the state, my column dealt with the dilemma that UAB, Troy, USA and other colleges have gone through by moving from D-I AA to D-I in football. Unfortunately, this upward and onward quest has not provided the desired results. The struggles that my friend Larry Blakeney has gone through in order to make this work at Troy has not escaped my attention. In consultation with Coach George "Snoozy" Jones my attention...
With all of the SEC spring football games completed, one can better make a determination as to who is improved, who has digressed and who remains relatively the same. All spring games are for basically three reasons. First the coaches need to look at some of their younger players in a game situation as similar as possible to a regular football game. Remember, many of these players have not played in a game in two years in some cases. The coaching staff likes to evaluate their performance in...
The greatest rivalry in college football is without question the annual Auburn - Alabama game. It is known around the country as the "Iron Bowl." The game was just another game when the Alabama State Legislature passed legislation that would force the two schools to renew the rivalry after being dormant for four decades. So, in 1948 Auburn and Alabama began playing again in Birmingham's Legion Field. Alabama won the first game. Auburn won the second. Then Alabama reeled off four straight wins...
Last month thousands of “football people” converged on Indianapolis, Indiana for a most important week. Thirty-two NFL teams will have had at least six representatives move into hotels and motels near Lucas Oil Field, the site of the 2015 NFL Combine. Over 300 players from college teams are annually invited to participate in their first “audition” for the best job that they will ever have. Depending on how well they perform, they will become instant millionaires if they are drafted high enough...
JOINER On Sunday, February 1, 2015, the last vestige of the glory days of Sidney Lanier High School came to an end. Legendary basketball coach Bill Joiner fittingly passed away as the half-time of the Super Bowl began at the age of 83. What a fitting way for him to go. As the coach in the pressbox for Coach Bobby Wilson's great football teams of the same era, Bill would scramble down the stadium steps as fast as his old bad knee would allow in order to give Bobby and the rest of the Lanier...
The proliferation of bowl games has been a favorite of mine. There are too many and next year there may even be more. The NCAA sanctions every bowl game played. ESPN will televise any bowl game within a thousand miles of the Continental United States. Why? ESPN makes money. The NCAA makes money. The participating schools make money for themselves, and for their affiliated conference. The independent teams like Notre Dame and Brigham Young really make money. The professional gamblers in Las...
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-A 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 of colleges who were stuck in what they considered the oblivion...
In the spring of 1955, a new high school was being born on Ann Street in what was then East Montgomery. At the time, Sidney Lanier High School, which had been an intellectual bastion of excellence and an athletic power in the state of Alabama, was bulging at the seams, with over 2,000 students. This was somewhat confusing news to nineteen Lanier football players that would be eligible to transfer to the new school, which would be named Robert E. Lee High School. We had all grown up hoping to...
In the spring of 1955, a new high school was being born on Ann Street in what was then East Montgomery. At the time, Sidney Lanier High School, which had been an intellectual bastion of excellence and an athletic power in the state of Alabama, was bulging at the seams, with over 2,000 students. This was somewhat confusing news to nineteen Lanier football players that would be eligible to transfer to the new school, which would be named Robert E. Lee High School. We had all grown up hoping to...
The battle for number one begins August 28 with the SEC contest between Texas A&M at South Carolina. South Carolina could be a contender but Coach Steve Spurrier can not afford to lose to Coach Kevin Sumlin’s Aggies in the opener. Auburn and Alabama kick off the season on the following Saturday. They both will be in the mix to go to the “final four”. However, Auburn plays at least eight teams that could beat the Tigers. Alabama only plays two teams with a legitimate chance to beat the Tide,...
The Auburn road back to the national championship to redeem a lapse of the mind on defense against Florida State last year, became muddy at best just before the SEC Media Days in Birmingham in mid-July. THE LEADER of the Auburn offense was stopped in Georgia for having his windows tinted too dark, which is a traffic violation in Alabama and Georgia. Before completion of a warning ticket, the alert police officer smelled something "funny". It wasn't so funny to Nick Marshall, the Heisman T...
The truth is that all three are very important. But another factor in the success of a football team is injury luck. That means if the team has good coaching, good talent and a favorable schedule, but don't lose any key players during the course of the season, the talent level will not drop below good. This is called injury luck. Then there is the other major factor, schedule luck. Take the Auburn Tigers for instance. They play a formidable schedule in 2014 which includes Kansas State, LSU,...
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” (Proverbs 17:17). When I was a young boy, I always wanted a brother, but, it was not to be. One day in the eighth grade at Capitol Heights Junior High School, my life changed in a way that I could not have predicted. My blue and white bicycle with the fenders off, and blue and white stripes on the wheels, was my only means of transportation at the time. One of the members of the football team had a Florida drivers license, which...
The state of Alabama has sent some very good football players to the National Football League, some drafted in the first round. Roman Harper (DB), Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram (RB), Trent Richardson (RB), third in the Heisman voting, Rolando McClain (LB), Corey Lemonier (DE) and Nick Fairley (DT) just to name a few. Most have not lived up to their draft status. The only player from Alabama that is actually starting or contributing to the success of his team is 2013 "Rookie of the Year",...
With spring training winding up for most college football teams, the players will be elated, the coaches will be either happy or deeply concerned and the fans will be delirious after watching the spring games. That event usually indicates that the grueling spring football is over. It is never over for the coaches. They must spend the next week grading the spring game and the entire spring practices. They want to come out of spring with a good idea of who the number ones are, but just as...
It seems that the NFL Combine has been a part of football all my life. That really can not be true because it has only become an important event in professional football for a few decades now. And, it is important, for the players, the coaches, the general managers and the owners. It is not uncommon to see owners in the stands with note pads or stop watches. There are more stop watches at the NFL Combine than there will be at the Summer Olympics. What is "The Combine"? It is an enormous...