12/7 SEC Championship
Who remembers November, 2006? Mike Shula had just been fired for blatant incompetence, and the media was throwing around names that we could “realistically” get as our head coach. These were all second and third tier coaches, because after all, Bama was a second or third tier program, and we couldn’t possibly expect that a top coach would be interesting in coaching us. Sure, Nick Saban was mentioned as a candidate, but no one took that seriously. After all, why would Saban want to come to Alabama? Sure, we had 21 SEC Championships and 12 National Championships, but that was all in the past. Somehow, Mal Moore decided that we were indeed an elite college football program, so for once, we weren’t going to settle for someone that will be thrilled to finish third in our division of our conference, or finish 2-6 in the SEC and claim that the SEC is just too tough to expect any more than that. Nope, he wanted the best coach in all the land, Nick Saban, and on January 3, 2007, he got him. Less than three years later, we are SEC Champions, 13-0, and ranked Number 1 in the nation.
Saturday night was one to remember for the Bama nation. We faced the mighty Florida Gators (and I’m not saying “mighty” sarcastically), and manhandled them in a 32-13 blowout. It’s hard to put this game into historic proportions, because as much as we all like to point at the 1993 Sugar Bowl as our best game ever, in my opinion, this year’s Florida team was MUCH better than that Miami team. In fact, I’ll take it one step farther and say that this Florida team is the best team that any Alabama team has ever beaten. That’s the kind of statement that can never be proven, but I stand by it, and I’d be interested in any teams that you guys can think of that might challenge that statement. And if you say the 1978 Penn State team, I’ll laugh at you.
As for the game itself, I really don’t know where to start. I will say that several plays happened early in the game that really turned the momentum in our favor. Demps dropped an easy swing pass that might have been a TD; Hernandez dropped a TD pass on a drive that ended in a Florida FG, and in perhaps the most important early play, PJ Fitzgerald’s miraculously took down Brandon James on a punt return when I thought a Florida TD was a foregone conclusion. When all was said and done, we took a 19-13 lead into halftime, and even though the score was close and UF was getting the ball first in the second half, I actually felt like we had pretty good control of things.
Even though I felt that the game was tending towards us the whole time, I thought it took a tremendous turn in our favor at the very beginning of the second half. Florida got the ball down by 6, and gained 9 yards on their first three plays, leaving them with a fourth and 1 around their 40. Urban Meyer decided to punt, which I thought was a huge tactical error. Now, I know that the prudent thing to do in that situation is to punt and play field position, but Florida has the most effective short yardage package and the best short yardage back in college football history. We didn’t stop them in short yardage situations all day, and I really don’t think we would have then. Nonetheless, my prayers were answered, and they punted the ball back to us, and really, they were never in the game again.
Our offense was productive throughout the game, but in the second half, it was absolutely dominant. Our line was opening up holes, our backs were hitting them, and McElroy simply refused to let a drive end with anything less than a TD. The drive that took the last half of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter was stuff of legends, and when Ingram pounded the ball into the end zone over the right tackle to make the score 32-13, I think everyone knew that the game was over. Sure, Tebow engineered some late drives that could have closed the gap, but quite frankly, there was no way that Alabama was going to lose that game at that point. I sensed it all week, and I saw it in Saban at the Coaches’ Luncheon on Friday; I have never seen a coach or a team that wanted to win more than Alabama did on Saturday against Florida. This wasn’t a hungry team; this was a starving team, and they played this game with every bit of passion, determination, focus, and intensity that they possibly could. I’ve never been prouder of an Alabama football team.
We’re almost to the top of the mountain. It seems unfair that after everything that we’ve accomplished, we still have to play another game against a tremendous opponent to win the national championship. And to those of you that think us beating Texas is a foregone conclusion, I feel like I need to warn you that Texas is a much better team than you think they are. They are absolutely loaded at every position, and they have coordinators that are among the best in the nation on both sides of the ball. You’d better believe that I’ll be posting a preview or two before the big game on January 7.
But that’s for another time. For now, we’re the 2009 SEC Champions, and no one can ever take that away from us. Congratulations to the players and coaches, and know that we appreciate and understand the tremendous effort that it took to get here. Now go get ready for the Longhorns!
That’s it for now. As always, feel free to send me any questions or comments. Until next time, Roll Tide!
Kenny
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