I'd like to be knowledgeable to start this thread off with some good, conversation provoking information, but I have never been to L.A. and know little about it. Outside of LAX, which I've passed few a few times, I am clueless. The other thread seems to have focused in on getting tickets and making hotel/flight reservations, so I thought I'd start another more focused on what to do once we get out there!

Perhaps those of you who have experience in Los Angeles could offer some advice as to what to see, do, and eat in and around L.A.? Some conversation starters after the jump...

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I thought I'd create a thread for us to discuss our opinions of the stadium experience, especially in relation to the cheers.

A few points:

• I remember reading comments from a UT fan that they thought we use too much 'pumped in' music and this takes away from the crowd's enthusiasm to some extent. I am inclined to agree. I understand the idea behind it, and I bet there is more research and planning that goes into it than could ever be considered appropriate or necessary, but our fans are aware enough to know when to be loud. When it is borderline deafening without the crowd even having to make a peep, there is much less motivation for the crowd to scream and get into it, so when "Hell's Bells" or whatever else cuts out, the sound level really drops off as well until (or if) the crowd makes up for it by cheering louder.
• I am not a fan of the "First down, Alabama! ROLL TIDE!" but if it is what Saban or his wife or his third cousin wants, I'll happily oblige. The part that seems to work even less for me is the little thing the band does after the crowd's "ROLL TIDE." The cheer is supposed to be ROLL...TIDE...ROLL...TIDE...ROLL...TIDE...R-O-L-L-T-I-D-E...GO! but it seems like no one outside of a few students sitting right by the band (I am one of them) and the cheerleaders know this cheer. I sat on the press box side and the cheer may as well have not happened. It is hard to master, awkward, and way too long. I say scrap it and bring back the theme from "Superman."
• "Tusk" is a great stand tune for Alabama, and I've always thought we should incorporate it in some capacity, but it is weird the way it is implemented in the pre-game show. Either make a bigger deal out of it (make it feature Big Al more or something) or just leave it as a stand tune. I liked the old-school fight song they played for the last few years better.
• Rammer Jammer. If we stopped doing it before games because it wasn't classy, how on earth does bringing it back only for the end of the games make any sense? The way I see it, any old team can cheer after they beat the hell out of you, but it really takes some cojones to say it before the game. Now that we are a national power again, and we are clearly okay with playing the Rammer Jammer Cheer, why not return it to pre-game? The first time I heard it, I thought it was incredibly intimidating, mainly because we were telling the opponent about the beatdown that was coming. Rubbing salt in their wounds is nice, but lacks the punch and swagger of having the guts to say it before the game. I'm not saying to scrap it as a post game tradition (although playing it after beating some teams just seems wrong), but rather that I think its rightful place is in pregame, with the band facing the opposing teams fans.
  
• Speaking of pre-game, to me, the cheerleaders doing the first few cheers without the band is really lame. Seems very high school, or like some cheerleading people didn't feel like they were featured enough. Let's get everyone out there for pre-game and then all do the cheers together.

Okay, I know the Rammer Jammer discussion is nothing new, but I still decided to include it, because if other people do indeed feel this way, the only way to get it changed is to continue to talk about it.

Just some thoughts. What are yours?

I've personally always thought it neat that Alabama has not had a Heisman Trophy winner, as this is clearly a result of the mentality that the team comes before the individual, and that we win team championships rather than individual trophies, but I am getting tired of hearing "they can shove the Heisman" and such comments on Alabama boards.

Other than never having been a team designed around the superstar mentality, the other reasons for us not having a winner include the fact that we don't generally campaign for players to win the Heisman, seeing such campaigns as distractions more than anything else. But what would we say if Shaun Alexander hadn't gotten hurt for several weeks his senior year and had won the trophy? All the people who were thought to be ahead of him at the time of his sprained ankle fell by the wayside, and as consistent as he was, he would have had an awfully good shot at it. What if Ingram were to win it this year? You can't tell me those guys wouldn't appreciate being honored for their work on the football field, although I do think that individual trophies aren't (or weren't) their main goals.

I believe a better approach is indifference, which is the position that Mark Ingram has taken in a few comments as have other players regarding their individual award possibilities, namely Javier Arenas, Rolando McClain, and Terrence Cody. Our negativity towards the Heisman Trophy screams of jealousy or bitterness when viewed by outsiders, even if that is not necessarily the case. If we take the "we are working towards a championship; the other awards are nice gestures and will take care of themselves if we win" mentality that Saban and the team seem to have taken, we won't look like bitter, wounded people to the football world, and if we ever DO have a Heisman winner, the honor won't be tarnished to the player and his family and friends by the fact that we have talked so negatively about if for so long.

The Alabama vs. Ole Miss game will be a 2:30 kickoff, and part of a CBS double-header, with Florida-LSU coming at 7:00. I haven't read a press release confirming this, but the information was buried within Don Kausler's run-down of the Top 25 poll released earlier today. From the article:

Changes in the poll could be coming in the next week or two. Florida visits No. 4 LSU (5-0) at 7 p.m. CDT Saturday in a game that will be televised nationally by CBS.

Alabama visits Ole Miss (3-1), which had been ranked No. 4 before a 16-10 loss on Sept. 24 at South Carolina. The 2:30 p.m. CDT game will be televised nationally by CBS. The Rebels dropped to No. 21 last week and now are ranked No. 20. They are coming off a 23-7 victory at Vanderbilt.