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Sports Arena
Roses in Crimson and Orange
Alabama and Texas: two red state teams meet in Pasadena tonight.
PASADENA, Calif. — College football expert Stacey Mickles yesterday offered a bold prediction for tonight’s BCS finale — a repeat of top-ranked Alabama’s 32-13 victory in the Southeastern Conference title game, which brought Florida QB Tim Tebow to tears.
“If we can make Tebow cry, we can make anybody cry,” said Mickles, a Crimson Tide fan and Army sergeant currently stationed at Fort Dietrich, Maryland, who was in town for the game with her boyfriend and fellow soldier Richard McAlpin.
Some may doubt Sgt. Mickle’s expertise, but none of the doubters were wearing crimson and white yesterday outside the stadium in Pasadena where ‘Bama hasn’t played in January since 1946. The year after that game — in which the Tide crushed USC 34-14 — the Rose Bowl committee reached an agreement that the annual event would match champions of the two conferences now known as the Pac-10 and the Big Ten.
The decision to match the best teams from the West Coast and the Midwest ended the proud boast of Alabama’s fight song, “Remember the Rose Bowl we’ll win.” The game tonight (8 p.m. ET, ABC) will therefore not be the Rose Bowl — eighth-ranked Ohio State won that game 26-17 over No. 7 Oregon last week — but Tide fans outside the stadium didn’t care. Neither did fans of the No. 2 Texas Longhorns, who were unperturbed by the fact that ‘Bama is a four-point favorite to win the collegiate football championship.
“We wish y’all luck tomorrow — just not too much luck,” Texas attorney Ron Dickens told a Crimson Tide fan yesterday outside the stadium shortly after the ‘Horns arrived for their pre-game walk-through.
Texas quarterback Colt McCoy may not be in tears when tonight’s game ends, but like Alabama fans, the Longhorns didn’t come this far to lose — not even to a team whose star running back Mark Ingram just collected the first Heisman Trophy in Crimson Tide history. Ask any Texas fan and they’ll remind you that four years ago the USC Trojans — led by Heisman winner Reggie Bush — were defeated 41-38 by the boys in burnt orange right here in Pasadena.
“Hook ‘Em Horns,” the Texans yelled yesterday as their team debarked from buses outside the Rose Bowl and walked through the famed gate beneath the palm trees in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains.
The universal hand-signal of Longhorns fans is indistinguishable from the satanic symbol commonly displayed by heavy-metal rockers, but it is Alabama head coach Nick Saban — a.k.a., “Coach Satan” to his enemies — who is arguably the most demonized figure in college football.
Saban was hired away from SEC rival LSU three years ago, coming to Tuscaloosa for a record $4 million a year. As USA Today reported earlier this week, an NCAA study found no correlation between a team’s record and the head coach’s salary, but Saban’s 25-2 record the past two seasons has contradicted that statistical trend.
Among Saban’s admirers is Texas head coach Mack Brown. “I really admire what Nick has done,” Brown said yesterday at his final pre-game press conference. Saban’s teams are “very disciplined…he wins at everything he touches,” the Longhorn coach said.
A Tennessee native, Brown himself was a youthful admirer of the Crimson Tide’s most legendary coach. “I grew up… loving Coach Bryant and Alabama and the tradition. There’s so much passion in the South,” Brown said yesterday.
Texas has four national championships to its credit and Alabama has 12, but the Tide may be hungrier for the BCS title, because ‘Bama hasn’t won the No. 1 spot in college football since defeating Miami in the 1993 Sugar Bowl.
Both squads that will take the field in Pasadena tonight are from states where football is more serious than… well, almost anything. Alabama and Texas are both part of the Bible Belt, but if evangelical Protestantism is the region’s leading religion, college football is certainly not far behind.
Which brings us back to Sgt. Mickle. Her expertise might not yet be nationally famous, but as she stood outside the Rose Bowl one day before the biggest game of the season, her guess about the final outcome was as good as anyone’s, including University of Alabama undergrad Tyler Anderson.
“34-17 Alabama,” predicted Anderson, who was hanging out with friends in front of the stadium. Like every other fan in town, the history and political science major from Huntsville was impatient for that moment when predictions give way to the final conflict.
“I’m ready for the game,” said Anderson.
His sentiment was answered with an enthusiastic “Roll Tide” by an otherwise neutral and objective journalist.
About the Author
Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current). He blogs at The Other McCain.
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Pingback| 1.7.10 @ 7:18AM
‘They Stood for Everything Good and True and Right in the American Spirit . . .’ : T links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Appleby| 1.7.10 @ 7:22AM
Yesterday there was national angst in Canada because Team USA beat their junior hockey team for the gold in the World Junior Hockey Championship. Nobody in the USA even knew there was such a tournament, much less cared who won.
All over America, however, there are people who will be settling in tonight to see Alabama beat Texas for the NCAA Championship at Pasadena tonight. And plenty of us expats here in Kanukistan as well.
ROLL TIDE!
Thank you.
Roy| 1.7.10 @ 9:24AM
Are you a gulag prisoner?
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.7.10 @ 10:07AM
I don't know, Roy
...but obviously a communist who probably likes soccer. heh!
Al Adab| 1.7.10 @ 11:39AM
Bevo for President.
SoCon| 1.7.10 @ 3:36PM
Hahaha!
Bugler| 1.7.10 @ 10:18AM
What a great game! Two quality programs with classy coaches and players going head-to-head for the prize. This is what makes college football great.
Roll Tide!
Al| 1.7.10 @ 11:40AM
Gotta love America. Hook 'em Horns.
pete the mediocre| 1.7.10 @ 11:58AM
I wonder if the officials will deliver the BCS championship to the Horns like they did the Big XII championship? I doubt it'll be that close: 27-17 Tide.
Ken (The Splendid Old Texican)| 1.7.10 @ 12:31PM
heh, pardon my giggle at mediocre.
OK, folks, let's set aside the future of our country for one evening.
Let's enjoy the game.
Tomorrow, lock and load!
Angel| 1.7.10 @ 4:54PM
Yes, Old Texican, you are splendid!!
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.7.10 @ 6:17PM
Well, Angel,
Shucks!
Thank you.
You can read a lot of my gibberish at out gateway site
http://judgeroy.wordpress.com
Frank (Middle Aged Texican)| 1.7.10 @ 12:36PM
"Saban was hired away from SEC rival LSU three years ago."
Actually, Saban was hired away from the Miami Dolphins, who had hired him away from LSU.
"I wonder if the officials will deliver the BCS championship to the Horns like they did the Big XII championship?"
The Horns do seem to get the calls in every game they play -- ask every other team in the Big 12 and they'll say the same thing.
Al Adab| 1.7.10 @ 3:12PM
As the old song says,
"When I die I may not get to heaven,
I don't know if they let cowboys in.
So if they don't just let me go to Texas,
'Cause Texas is as close as I've been."
Andy| 1.7.10 @ 6:13PM
Frank, at least someone knows the facts. It certainly isn't the author. BTW the quote from the fight song is "Remember the Rose Bowl, we'll win then." It refers not to the '46 crushing of USC, but the '31 win over Washington in the Rose Bowl and our first national championship. No one believed a team from the South could possibly match up with Washington. It's a call to the team to remember that no matter who we play, or what they say, we can win. The beat down begins in 2.5 hours.
AllenG| 1.7.10 @ 12:44PM
See, I'm really disappointed TCU didn't beat BSU. If they had, I could back 'Bama. But, as a good Texan, since TCU didn't win, I have to back t.u.
As a (doomed) Aggie fan, my blood runs orange normally once a year (Red River Shoot Out). I'd hoped to avoid a second case this year...
Al Adab| 1.7.10 @ 3:14PM
Hold your head up Allen. Remember how Bevo got his name?
SoCon| 1.7.10 @ 3:42PM
You guys are great! I'm rooting for Colt and his boys, but both teams bring honor to their schools and states.
What a terrific American tradition; all hail the Red,White and Blue!
Al Adab| 1.7.10 @ 3:54PM
Red, White, and Blue.
Yes indeed those colors don't run.
Pingback| 1.7.10 @ 1:24PM
Link: Tide and Texas from the American Spectator - TideFans.com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Paul from SA| 1.7.10 @ 1:42PM
Longhorns, red state? Yes, but they are from Austin, the San Francisco of Texas.
tu Longhorns in Texas are known as 'tea-sips,' sipping their expensive tea, served from minimum-wage minority servants, paid for by the students and tax payers, from expensive sterling silver and china, from their ivory tower, overlooking the ignorant masses. They are the farthest thing from conservatism that exists in the entire state. They are the snottiest, most stuck up, conceited bunch of pampered crybaby children around.
Longhorn = Liberal
Liberal = Longhorn
And they are the luckiest team in America. So often they get favorable calls from the officials just at the right time to avoid losing a game.
My blood is maroon.
One of the problems with teams like texas is that the liberal media likes them and assume the rest of American loves them too.
The longhorns, Yankees, Lakers, Notre Dame are the most hated teams in the country, but are the media favorites.
Longhorns are overrated every game, every season.
Bama 28
tu 17
poooor aggyyyyyyyy| 1.7.10 @ 2:23PM
POOOOOOOOOR AGGGGGGGGYYYYYY
Al| 1.7.10 @ 3:09PM
Paul, as much as I appreciate his comments, is from SA. That is way too close to College Station.
True there is a little of the Florida whining from Austin, but after all football is the State religion of The Texas Republic.
Enjoy the bread and circus, oops I mean the game, tonight Paul. See you on the flip side.
Brooke| 1.7.10 @ 3:45PM
Paul, sour grapes much? Not attractive, not attractive at all.
Hook 'em Horns!
Paul from SAa| 1.7.10 @ 4:02PM
You bet, but your repetition is a tacit admission that all my points are true, except , maybe, my predicted score.
I hope Colt McCoy plays well, but....
Brooke| 1.7.10 @ 5:03PM
Makes you look bad when you root against your own state; like a loser, actually. It's the principle, you know?
You should be proud of your kids; like it or not, they represent you and your state.
And, I'm not even from Texas. So there!
explosion proof floodlight | 11.25.10 @ 1:25AM
If freedom has a natural home in the modern world, therefore, it is the nation-state: the legal entity that claims sovereignty within a bounded territory, and which can grant freedom within that territory through its law.
NavyBrat| 1.7.10 @ 1:46PM
"...but obviously a communist who probably likes soccer. heh!"
Easy Ken, my old friend. I played soccer on scholarship, & you know me to NOT be a commie. Us midgets have to have SOMETHING to play. And I hate to be the typical SEC snob (I'm a Tennessee Vols fan), but I really can't wait to watch the Tide win. Yet ANOTHER conference rolled up by the juggernaut that is the SEC.
ROLL TIDE!!!
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.7.10 @ 7:14PM
Hi Navy Brat, long time no hear.
Just kidding. Every time I go on national radio with my favorite host we tease back and forth...baseball vs soccer. He is a soccer nut.
For me, 6 foot two and 150 in highschool slow as Christmas, couldnt' catch, couldn't hit, so they made me a lefthanded pitcher. heh! I tricked 'em though. got a college education throwing knucklebballs.
Pingback| 1.7.10 @ 2:11PM
Tyler Anderson Predicts BCS Result : The Other McCain links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Tex Expatriate| 1.7.10 @ 3:20PM
This Texan with two degrees from A&M will be rooting for the Longhorns tonight while wearing my A&M cap.
Al Adab| 1.7.10 @ 3:55PM
Which campus, Island at Corpus?
Michael Gewin| 1.7.10 @ 5:32PM
"A hundred years ago, men played football for Alabama and no one remembers their motivation save one: to win. A hundred years from tomorrow, it will be no different." “J”, The University of Alabama Football Report, December 4, 2009 bamareport.blogspot.com (site visited December 4, 2009)
Pingback| 1.7.10 @ 8:32PM
The American Spectator : Roses in Crimson and Orange links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
John - TMF| 1.8.10 @ 12:16AM
Wow... what a stinker....
Fexas quits in the first quarter, rolls over and plays dead until some sort of pride factor causes them to rally in the early 4th.... and then on the potential winning drive the outside blitz is wide open with no one to pick it up, and no discernible movement of the QB in the pocket... Ball out... Game over.
Looks like Colt McCoy's agent (they do have them don't let anyone fool you...) calls Daddy... says don't let him gut it back out on the field... his Pro Career is more important than the team...
Game over after the first series.
Sad. Fexas fans should be angry.
The thought of the Nictator winning a national championship really does not appeal.
Ok.. College football over for the season.
We lost Worilds to the draft today... rebuild D-Line for Foster.
At least one thing about an Alabama win, it makes the Hokies look much better in the final polls.
There is always next season. Can't wait to "Start Jumpin'"
:-)
The Mighty Fahvaag
Holmby| 1.8.10 @ 4:31PM
I hope Virginia Tech loses every game next year because of loser alumni like you. That metal plate of yours must be in your head--obviously, there's no room for a brain there.
Get a life, moron.
Appleby| 1.8.10 @ 7:43AM
Send in the 300 lb. gorilla to jump on the other teams star quarterback early in the game (good Lord, the gorilla when called upon for a comment after the game, could barely grunt -- how on EARTH has he managed to stay in college? Never mind... ) and you got it whipped. Although Alabama forgot the game had TWO halves, an epic fumble by the Texas Freshman Quarterback on Alabamas 3 or 4 yard line (I was pretty tired by then) and the return of Mark Ingraham just in time, and the game was over.
Did you notice that every time the camera flashed to his Mama, she lookd as if she were sitting on a hot griddle and longed to jump up and run away? And what was the point of pointing out so frequently that the Heismann Trophy Winner had a father who was in prison for bank fraud and money laundering? He may be a low life, but he is the kids Daddy after all, and a dignified reticence should have been observed. Good for the kid for standing behind his Daddy.
ROLL TIDE!
Pingback| 1.9.10 @ 1:49AM
The View Out My Window : The Other McCain links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 1.9.10 @ 12:19PM
Here Is The Only BCS Championship Game Coverage You Need links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Oldefarte| 1.9.10 @ 3:11PM
Saban was not '...hired away from SEC rival LSU...'---he left LSU for the NFL/Miami Dauphins, and Alabama hired him away from the Dauphins. The LSU idiotic athletic supporters termed him 'Satan' because they moronically reasoned that Saban belonged to them and should have returned to LSU [instead of Alabama] upon leaving the Dauphins/NFL. Saban is chasing the historical legacy of Alabama's football program/ Bryant's success, and he just may eventually climb to the top of that mountain before he retires!!!!
jaya | 1.11.10 @ 1:02AM
"If we can make Tebow cry, we can make anybody cry," said Mickles, a Crimson Tide fan and Army sergeant currently stationed at Fort Dietrich, Maryland, who was in town for the game with her boyfriend and fellow soldier Richard McAlpin.
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