The New York Times is reporting that legendary NFL player George Blanda has passed away at the age of 83. Mr. Blanda played for Coach Bryant at Kentucky in the 1940s.  As kleph noted in his post "The Bear's Kentucky Boys," when Coach Bryant made his way to Lexington George said "I thought this must be what God looks like."

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A friend just gave me a  head's up that the 2010 National Championship Game is available for download in iTunes--it's $2.99.  Didn't know if anybody had posted about this yet.  At nearly 3 hours, I think it's worth a buck per sixty minutes of Alabama returning to national prominence--not to mention being able to screen the game at your own leisure at your computer (or on your iPhone, if you just have to).

It's September 28, 2008, around three in the morning, and we've just beaten the face off of Georgia in the "Blackout," and for the first time, I'm beginning to think this might be it.  This might be real. 

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"You can always do more, but I have found that a hundred hours a week [preparing for games] is enough."

Nicholas Lou Saban, How Good Do You Want to Be?, 89 (Ballantine Books 2007).

When we talk about Alabama, when we talk about tradition, when we talk about intensity, when we talk about preparation for tonight's Championship fight:  think of this quote.   Understand that 100 hours is the level he came down to for purposes of maximum efficiency.  Roll Tide.

It's hard to argue that a ten-point loss should be one for the record books.  Yet the 100 yard pick six Jonathan Banks snagged off of Tim Tebow could signal the future of Mississippi State football.

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State's star running back Anthony Dixon is averaging well over a hundred yards a game, and I've got no doubt in my mind that he will break the MSU rushing record held by Jerious Norwood--and break it this weekend.

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ed.- bumped from the fanposts.

In the past few weeks, a lot of electrons have been spilled examining the strong and capable 2009 Alabama squad.  TeamSpeedKills has even said "Alabama has played the best football in the SEC so far."  Here at RollBamaRoll, you'll see a lot of pride and praise, but constructive criticism as well, often revolving around the idea that the team may not be living up to its perceived potential. 

Recently, while acknowledging the value of statistics in achieving a deeper understanding of the Tide (in a great post by Nico), I urged that we use statistics "to serve as tools, or insights, but not definitions" of the team.  Said a lot simpler:  with Alabama, it's the intangibles that matter, and that make the real difference in our games.  Accordingly, it can be difficult for us, the hardcore fans, to get what others see--because we're gritting our teeth over a dropped pass, or a false start.

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So a few hours ago on this rainy day in Jackson, Mississippi a good buddy called.  "Hey, the wife's dad isn't going to make the trip this weekend up to Oxford, and we can't go--you want the tickets?"

I'm not saying I started crying, but I dang near did.

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Can't get out of Mississippi this weekend so I'm missing the A-Day--and I might as well scout out the enemy.  Big day on CSS in Jackson--Auburn right now, Ole Miss in a few hours, State after that.

First off, for those of you in Bryant-Denny (the Holy Land, my friends)--Jordan-Hare is EMPTY.  It's glutted at the 50, but no more than a good high school or C-USA game, with the end zones completely empty.  

There is some speed--Tate just ran in a touchdown, with a bit of explosive power.  

I'm more interested in what Kodi Burns does today.  He's a scrambler--and I'm hoping the boys really are pushing the pass-rush this year.  Don't want him to get out from under us.

Just realized there may not be much to watch during a Spring game. I'll clock in if anything of note happens.  

UPDATE 1:18:  Tate just got his second touchdown, after a great reception by Fannin (with his helmet knocked off!) to set up the six.  For right now, the scheme is Burns-Tate.

Sidelines note that Malzahn has the line on a 5,000 calorie diet!  Sounds like a lot of Nutty Bars, guys.  

Goggans is blowin' through the second-O line and getting the touch sack.  Back to back sacks on the 2nd O.

UPDATE 1:28:  Terrell Zachary blows down the field on a 70-yard reverse.

UPDATE 1:35:  WR Coach Trooper Taylor has been trying to fire up his receivers (most of whom are out today) by telling them that the're "not respected by the other teams."  Haw haw!

UPDATE 1:39:  Don't ever buy a Tiffin Motorhome, "official sponsor of Auburn Athletics."  They've got Big Al getting pulled over in a vintage Pontiac GTO, by a state trooper filling out a traffic ticket with a "Tigers" pen.  Points: Al in a souped-up GTO.  Negatives:  bite me.

UPDATE 1:42:  At the half, Quentin Groves is talking about the NFL and getting to play with folks like Peyton Manning, and declaring that Auburn "made the right decision hiring Coach Tuberville, and they made the right decision hiring Coach Chizik."  Nice equivocation.  Too bad Iowa State ain't Ole Miss.  

Third Cochran Law Firm commerical this half--I hope they got a discount.  Pretty good commercials, but it always weirds me out, since their namesake died in 2005.  

UPDATE 1:54: Um, Chizik changed shirts?  

I was hoping I'd get a clue as to what Auburn would be looking like for the fall, but I'm not seeing anything particularly insightful, nor really anything that marks a huge change from last year.  There's probably a lot of folks more sensitive to formation that might notice things I'm not--and maybe in the Spring Game you don't get much more than vanilla, but this is not even Blue Bell, it's so standard. 

HA! The announcer said, "we need to run this type of play, because, you know, we don't have a Julio Jones--" Fantastic. Yikes. Freshman Onterio McCalebb just blew through the line and showed some heavy speed. He's a little guy--5' 10" and just 165--but a freshman, out of Fort Meade, Florida. ALSO: MAY GOD PUNISH ESPN, WHO IS STILL SHOWING THE WORTHLESS CHICAGO-BOSTON BASKETBALL GAME AO87UAOSIHDFLAIHSEFO IA2WY46R98WYROAR DAMN THEIR EYES

UPDATE:  2:09:  ESPN continues to ruin my life, and Kodi Burns--while scooting out of a busted play--continues to show good footwork and speed.  I haven't laid out the score yet, because who cares, it's a scrimmage--but the first team is killing the second, 43-22, although the one pass-for-touchdown was from the second team.

UPDATE:  2:23:  The Bama game is bumped from ESPN due to some sort of "basket-balls" game, which makes me want to cry.  Troy notes that Auburn is sucking it up--and really, the numbers are showing that Johnny Second Tier (i.e, Neil Caudle) is beating out Kodi Burns.  Track 'Em Tigers is murmuring that the Barners are favoring Caudle already.

UPDATE:  2:31:  Game's over, first team won--and ESPN is still showing the Bulls & Celtics.  I'm going to cry.  

Listen:  It's 1982 and I am six years old and my Nana holds my hand and we walk into Legion Field and I point and laugh at Aubie and Big Al and

Tim Tebow:  my dad and I talked this morning--I should have gone to church, but calling your dad to talk about the Tide surely counts in the big scheme of things--and we both said if we had a vote, we'd vote for Tebow.  Can you believe that guy, we say?  He had Mount Cody in his face and could still make things happen, heckuva guy.  Looks like a movie star from 1952, with that brush cut and that

Listen:  It's 1992 and we're heading to Bryant-Denny because they're just doing so good--it's just the Cincinnati game, but my uncle who played for Coach Bryant is singing the National Anthem and

Javier--my favorite, my hero--sets his foot on the line and I suck in my breath, hoping this won't hurt.  All I can think of is my favorite game of the year, Arkansas--where he pushed a man out of his route, intercepted the ball, and faked Casey Dick so hard he fell down like a freshman.  A high school freshman, and

Listen:  It's 1999 and I'm in Dave's Darkhorse Tavern in Starkville, and Brother Dubose is sidling down the sidelines, and I'm running a block down to the B-Quik to call my dad on the payphone--"they did it--they did it--they

Throw that long ball--a two-play offensive drive!--John Parker to Julio and then Glen punches it in so hard.  I'm punching the air, screaming Roll Tide, the dog is barking, and my buddy John--whose great uncle played in the 40's, coached for Thomas and Whitworth--and I think they can pull it off.  There's this feeling:  that anything can happen, that the Tide can beat anybody.  It doesn't matter if it's Florida or Miami or Notre Dame or we're in the Rose Bowl or the Sugar, they can DO IT, this is Crimson Tide Football, and these young men could take cities, countries, our mighty atomic knights, and

Listen:  it's 1983 and I'm in the TG&Y in Forestdale, and there was an announcement over the intercom, and I don't quite understand what's happening, but the grown man in line next to my momma and me starts crying, the first man I've ever seen cry, and puts his head in his hands, and I get real scared and my momma hugs me close, and then

Rashad Johnson jumps up and there's two LSU men right next to him and I'm on the other side of Tiger Stadium and I only know he grabbed it because of the quiet that spreads, like a virus, through one hundred thousand people.  And

then

and

then

and

then

Roll.  Tide.  I wish I could have been in Tuscaloosa to welcome them home.  For every year:  every victory:  for the 315 I saw as a child, for the National Championship they gave us in high school, for the fear and pride and honor the day Coach Bryant died, for beating Florida twice in 1999, for the Undefeated Season, for getting to sing Rammer Jammer in Baton Rouge, for the way that my throat starts to catch when I say it:  for the way the tears came when

Roll

Tide.

Roll

May the story never, ever end.

Listen, lemme tell you a story:

A good friend of mine called me a few weeks back.  He's an LSU fan, but a good guy, through and through.  "Just so you know, I have an extra ticket."  I demurred.

Then:  Texas fell . . . and something inside me clicked.

So I find myself heading South and shaking my head. "I generally hate getting hit in the face, and I further hate getting hit in the face with Jack Dan'l's bottles."

I've never been in Death Valley before, and here are the things you need to know:

First:  good dang stadium.  Fast elevators, jambalaya at the concessions, drinking beer allowed on campus.  Second:  maniacs in your face screaming, Dark Lord avatars hung and burned outside the stadium.  My favorite slur of all time:  "Gump."  The Cajun accent obscured the meaning.  I didn't get it until, like, the third time.  Laughing just made the guy madder, but frankly, Gump is a hilarious put-down.

A good, all-LSU section filled with smart folks and a large anti-Jerrett Lee faction.  When the field goal was blocked, three seconds to go, what did I do? Damn near threw up.  The good folks around me hooted and hollered, but then quite kindly patted me on the shoulders.  I looked up:  "it's SEC," I said, and there were more hollers.  Those who left early were damned.

Right before the attempt, I told my buddy--whose ticket I was riding on--"I ain't singing Rammer Jammer.  No need when it's a clinical win via field goal."

Then, after the block (and what a helluva block):  fear:  then:  RASHAD!!:  then:  "I take back what I said."

And so when John Parker punched it in, what was left of my voice screeched out the holy lyric.  In the distance--lo!  An end zone away!--I saw my people singing, and I rejoiced.

HEY TIGERS!!

When was the last time we could sing that?

HEY TIGERS!!

When was the last time a Bama fan screamed that, hoarse through four quarters of SEC hell?

WE JUST . . .

I got to sing "Rammer Jammer" in Death Valley.  God bless the boys that made it possible.

Tough game; but we knew it would be, didn't we?  I talked this week about our quiet tradition with Kentucky, the mutual admiration and history we have together.  And isn't this one of the only teams that beat the reigning National Champions last year?  Do you really think it's a coincidence that both of the teams the Bayou Bengals lost to were SEC?  I didn't think so.

The rest of the country knows this.  I watched the game with a good friend of mine, who has the misfortune to be an Ole Miss fan, along with my Lula, the most beautiful woman I've ever known, who somehow deigns to be seen with me in public, who also has a dual Appalachian State/Ole Miss allegiance (I know; so weird, y'all).  Both of them told me:  "You're upset over what?  Winning?  Going undefeated?  Coffee looking like a champion, running dozens of yards over what he'd do last year?"

I'm taking that to heart.  I'm keeping the flags on my car all week this time; I want everybody to know.  I want my neighbors in Jackson, Mississippi to SEE.  I want them to know that sometimes we might only win by 3; sometimes we might be up by 31 at the half.  It doesn't matter; WE'RE ALABAMA, by God, and WE BELIEVE.

Never forget that.  Yes, we can always do better; but REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE.

Roll Tide.

Also?  GO, DORES!

Our mighty Crimson Tide faces the desperate and intrepid Wildcats of Kentucky this week.  It's more than just an SEC match-up between two undefeated teams; it's more than just a competition between the ascendant Tide and the one of the last teams to beat the reigning national champions.  It's a quiet tradition.

It's quiet because, despite great gains in the past few years, Kentucky hasn't quite yet cemented a football culture, and certainly not one to compete with its legendary prowess with the roundball.  Why, then, should it be a tradition?

For one simple reason:  our greatest Coach-the precursor to the Dark Lord, as the Church would call him-once struggled mightily, and damn successfully, on behalf of the Wildcats.  And but for Fate, would have remained there. 

In 1946-lo, 82 years ago-Coach Bryant made his way to Lexington, and he transformed a woeful 2-8 Kentucky team to 7-3 in his first year.  Sound familiar?

The next year, he'd push the Wildcats to 8-3, and their first-ever postseason appearance, besting Villanova in the Great Lakes Bowl (and you complain about the Music City!  Back in my day, we were  happy for a Bowl, no matter how terrible the name!  Dammit, we were proud to make it past the season, proud to fight in the cold of Winter).

The Bear guided Kentucky until 1953, when he asked to be released from his job after hitting seven wins.  This is after a phenomenal 11-1 year, losing only to the bastard Neyland Volunteers, an even more loathsome creature than the Fulmerite Orange of Today. 

Should I tell you that the Bear beat Oklahoma in 1950, 13-7, in the Sugar Bowl?  Does this posit a victory in 2008?  Do the superstitious among you feel the pull of Mme. Laveau on Bourbon Street, how for ten dollars you might ascertain the future?  Do you feel the truth of that unknown world echoed in the past?  Have you, like me, begged her for a tremendous gris-gris meant to sway the AP rankings?

Listen, my Crimson Brothers and Sisters, this is what you need know, as referenced by our friend Allen Barra:  "To Mary Harmon, leaving the lush bluegrass country of Kentucky for what appeared to her as a wasteland was devastating."  The Last Coach, at 157.  As Bro. Barra notes, "[i]n 1946," when the Coach arrived, "Kentucky was known for its lovely bluegrass country, its stately mansions, some untouched by the Civil War, its world-class thoroughbreds, and college basketball."  Id. at 111.  Mary Harmon grieved for losing her world of juleps and Derby when decamping to A & M:  but the One True Coach knew, he'd never beat Rupp, not in that world of bluegrass.

As. Bro. Dunnavant notes, "Adolph Rupp cast a shadow as large as the state of Kentucky," and there were greater things in store for Our Coach.  Coach:  The Life of Paul ‘Bear' Bryant, at 67. 

So this Saturday, I want you to do these things: 

1.  It's at 2:30 on CBS, so for God's sake, get out some Golden Flake potato chips, find some Coke in a bottle, and grab a Oatmeal Cream Pie like a Good Bama Fan.

2.  Put on some Drive-By Truckers, at the very least some Jason Isbell; it is Fall, now, and it's time to raise your hands in frustration and delight.

3.  Put your hands together in respect for Kentucky, because Coach Bryant, and the Great Mary Harmon, once loved them quite dearly.

And then, Brothers and Sisters, let us march to Number One. 

 ROLL. TIDE.

Lots of folks have been talking about the phenomenal recent performances of Roy Upchurch, our tough Junior running back.  I think we can all agree that redshirting Roy back in 2005 was the perfect decision by Coach Shula, as he has matured into a sturdy mainstay of this powerful Tide team.  I was punching the air just last  Saturday, yelling "ROY!  ROY!" as he barreled up the field against Georgia, glad that he has become who he is.

I've been thinking about the guts he has on the field, and started looking a bit into his past.  His official profile notes that Roy:

". . . spent his last three Christmas holiday seasons collecting donations from local businesses for local senior citizens. Donations have included blankets, space heaters, household items, gift cards and non-perishable food items.

"Upchurch continues this tradition in honor of his late grandmother, Gladys Garner, whom he took care of for 18 months before she passed away in 2001."

Roy was only born in '85--that means he was taking care of his grandmother when he was just fifteen.    

Roy Upchurch shows a lot of guts on the field, but after you look into his past, that's no surprise at all.  He was a man before he ever put on that Crimson number 5.