SB Nation User Blog: kleph

Mark Ingram, Alabama's first Heisman Trophy winner, is hugged by John David Crow who won the award...

kleph — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:26:03 -0000

Mark Ingram, Alabama's first Heisman Trophy winner, is hugged by John David Crow who won the award in 1957 as a running back at Texas A&M. Crow is the only player under coach Paul W. Bryant to have won the trophy.

The two met on Dec. 15 at a reception for open only to former Heisman Trophy winners prior to the banquet where Ingram was officially presented the trophy. Also pictured are former Heisman award winners, Steve Spurrier, Billy Cannon, Howard Cassady and Johnny Lattner.

Mark Ingram, Alabama's first Heisman Trophy winner, is hugged by John David Crow who won the award...

kleph — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:16:56 -0000

Alabama Supreme Court Kills Keller Appeal

kleph — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:19:41 -0000

Alabama Supreme Court Kills Keller Appeal

The final nail in the coffin from all this nonsense.

Alabama vs Texas: 1982 Cotton Bowl

kleph — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:14:45 -0000

In the long history of the Alabama and Texas football programs, the two teams have met just eight times on the gridiron. This week Roll Bama Roll is looking back on each of these contests. Today we revisit the most recent game between the two, the 1982 Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.

The 1982 Cotton Bowl marked the last time Alabama and Texas faced each other on the football field and was the penultimate post-season game for the Crimson Tide's legendary coach Paul W. Bryant.

After almost a quarter-century in Tuscaloosa and 37 years as a head coach, Bryant's career was in its twilight and his legacy was almost complete. The 1981 season had seen Bryant pass one of the most revered milestones in college football - Amos Alonzo Stagg's 314 career head coaching wins.

On Nov. 14, Bryant tied Stagg's record with an emotional victory against Joe Paterno's Penn State squad in Happy Valley. Two weeks later, at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama beat arch-rival Auburn 28-17 and Bryant became the winningest coach in the history of the game.

The pursuit of Stagg's record had drawn unprecedented media attention on Bryant and the team during the season and it left both on unusual down note in its wake. But Alabama had a lot at stake going into the bowl season.

The Crimson Tide shared the SEC Conference championship with Georgia. The Bulldogs - boasting the powerful running attack of Hershel Walker - were ranked No. 2 at the end of the season and tapped for the Sugar Bowl vs Pitt. As the number three team in the nation, Alabama drew the matchup with No. 6 Texas in the Cotton Bowl.

Coach Bryant at the 1982 Cotton Bowl.

A victory in Dallas would give Bryant two of the few achievements that had eluded him in his long career - a win over Texas as coach at Alabama and an NCAA record seven straight bowl wins. And a longshot national championship was also not out of the question either.

The Texans, though, had other plans. When Darrell Royal stepped down following the 1976 season, one of his former assistants, Fred Akers, was selected to fill his place. Although Royal stayed on as athletic director, Akers went to work making his own mark on the program.

Gone was the wishbone and in came the "I" - an offense designed specifically to capitalize on the talents of running back Earl Campbell. An 11-1 record followed the Longhorn record of success rolled on. Texas tallied a respectable 9-3 record the next two seasons but 1980 brought a 7-5 record and a fair bit of grumbling by the faithful.

Akers and his program responded with a rebound in 1981. The Longhorns suffered one tie and one loss during the regular season - although the loss was a doozy, a 42-11 bashing by Lou Holtz's Arkansas squad. The Cotton Bowl marked a chance to finish the campaign on a high note.

Cotton Bowl Stadium was packed on New Year’s Day 1982 with 73,243 people on hand in the 42 degree weather to see the contest. The game began as a defensive struggle as neither offense could much progress for almost a quarter and a half.

Midway through the second period Alabama got the ball on their own 18-yard-line and began working their way down the field. On the seventh play of the drive, quarterback Walter Lewis completed a six yard pass to receiver Jesse Bendross and put the Crimson Tide on the scoreboard. It would be the only score in the first three periods of the contest but the fourth quarter proved to be a roller coaster.

Just more than two-and-a-half minutes into the fourth quarter, Alabama kicker Peter Kim tacked another three points onto the Crimson Tide lead. Then, suddenly, the momentum started swinging the other direction.

Texas return man Jitter Fields took the kickoff 22 yards, all the way to the Texas 40-yard-line. The Alabama defense finally slacked a bit and the Longhorns were able to drive to the Crimson Tide 30-yard-line, the farthest the Texans had managed all afternoon.

A pair of incomplete passes had the Longhorns staring at 3rd & 10. When Texas quarterback Robert Brewer stepped up to take the snap he didn't like the defensive formation he saw across from him and called a timeout.

Akers discarded the planned sprint-out pass and dialed up a quarterback draw - a play Texas had not run the entire season. When Alabama then brought an all-out blitz but the Longhorn line parried it perfectly. Brewer followed his blocks and reeled off a 30-yard run into the end zone. Alabama 10, Texas 7.

On their next possession, Texas kept up the pressure on the Alabama defense. In 10 plays the Longhorns had traversed 72 yards and had the ball on the Crimson Tide eight yard line. Texas fullback Terry Orr punched it in to give the Longhorns the lead.

Alabama's defense controlled the game for three quarters.

With more than two minutes left in the game, Alabama had plenty of time to put together a scoring drive. The odds got even better when Joey Jones returned the kickoff 61 yards to Texas 38-yard-line - the longest return in Cotton Bowl history.

Lewis threw for the end zone on the first play of the Alabama possession and Texas free safety William Graham reeled it in. The Longhorn was immediately tackled on the one yard line.

Three quarterback sneaks (and a delay of game penalty) made it 4th down on the 2-yard-line with just less than a minute left in the game. Akers then instructed his punter, Josh Goodson, to take the snap and step out of the end zone for an intentional safety.

Alabama got the ball back but with 43 seconds left on the clock and no timeouts, it wasn't able to put any more points on the board. Texas walked away, once again, with a win: 14-12.

Akers later said it was the greatest victory of his coaching career and Bryant gave him full credit for the win and praised the call for the intentional safety. What the Crimson Tide coach didn't put any stock in was the idea there was any jinx at work on Alabama for facing the Longhorns.

"I don’t think there is a Texas whammy on Alabama," he said. "Their players and coaches beat us - not a whammy."

Bryant would go onto coach for one more season. He announced his retirement two weeks before the Liberty Bowl and the 21-15 win over Illinois was his final victory - the 323rd of his head coaching career.

Less than a month later the Bryant passed away of a heart attack at the age of 69.

Alabama vs Texas: 1973 Cotton Bowl

kleph — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:50:01 -0000

In the long history of the Alabama and Texas football programs, the two teams have met just eight times on the gridiron. Roll Bama Roll is looking back on each of these contests. Today we revisit the epic 1973 Cotton Bowl.

The 1973 Cotton Bowl was the last meeting between two coaching legends who had dominated the previous decade college football and then reinvented themselves to continue their winning ways.

Darrell K Royal and Paul W. Bryant were longtime friends and colleagues with an abiding respect for each others skills as coaches. Bryant once claimed he spent $10,000 a year in phone calls to Texas to talk shop with the Longhorn head coach. On occasion, they had been sideline rivals as well.

The coaches had rebuilt the proud Texas and Alabama football programs and then guided them to an impressive collection of conference titles and national championships during the 1960s. But as the decade waned, so did the fortunes of the two teams and the men that led them.

Between 1965 and 1967, four-loss seasons became the hallmark of Royal's Longhorns. A 7-10 loss to arch-rival Texas A&M (coached by Bryant protégé, Gene Stallings) to close the 1967 season brought the situation to a head.

Darrell Royal and the wishbone offense.

Surveying his program Royal identified the team's anemic offensive production as the cause of the problem - the Longhorns only generated only 18.6 points per game in 1967 - and started searching for solutions.

The answer was provided by Texas' offensive coordinator, Emory Bellard - a three-man back-field triple option offense, better known as "the wishbone." Royal unveiled it at the start of the 1968 season and promptly collected a tie against Rice and a loss to Texas Tech.

Then things clicked into place. From the third game of the season until the final game of the 1970 season, Texas didn't lose a single contest and rolled up a pair of National Championships along the way.

It was about this time that Bryant began to look for ways to break the malaise that seemed to have a death grip on his program in Tuscaloosa. Losses had begun to pop up more often than normal until the Crimson Tide racked up a mediocre 6-5-1 record in 1970 garnished with a second straight loss to arch-rival Auburn.

Bryant found himself at the impasse Royal had reached three years prior. And the effectiveness of Royal’s solution was hammered home for Bryant when he faced Oklahoma in the 1970 Bluebonnet Bowl. The Sooners had adopted a version of the wishbone to counter its conference rival and brought it to Houston against Alabama. The game ended in a tie but it started Bryant thinking.

So, in the spring of 1971, Bryant flew to Austin to learn the intricacies of the offense from Royal. The Texas coach was not simply accommodating, he promised to be available by phone whenever Bryant might have a question in the future. That summer, Bryant brought Royal's staff to Tuscaloosa for a coaching clinic then locked the two groups in a hotel to get a crash course on how the wishbone worked.

Bryant unveiled his new strategy against USC on Sept. 10 1971 and stunned the unprepared Trojans. The 17-10 victory was the first of eleven the Crimson Tide amassed that season, the lone loss being to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.

Royal used the wishbone to fuel a high-powered running game based on options, fakes and inside blocking schemes. Bryant liked how it forced the secondary into man coverage which he could exploit with the passing game.

"With the wishbone you get what you want automatically," he said. "I don’t give a hoot what they do, I know what we’re going to do. We’re going to walk out there and read ‘em and go."

Things had gone well for all of 1972 as Alabama rolled up win after win all the way up to the Iron Bowl when they were stunned by Auburn 17-16. The loss put them out of the national championship picture and into the Cotton Bowl - against the master of the wishbone offense himself, Darrell Royal.

The Longhorns had a similarly frustrating season, winning every game except for an embarrassing shutout loss to Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout. They finished the season by trouncing Texas A&M 38-3 then headed up I-35 to Dallas.

More than 70,000 spectators packed into Cotton Bowl Stadium on a partly cloudy and chilly afternoon to see which of the two legendary coaches would be adding to their legend that day. At first it looked like Bryant would walk away with an easy victory.

Texas’ quarterback, Alan Lowry, was suffering from tonsillitis and almost didn’t play. His start was unsurprisingly shaky. Alabama’s Steve Wade grabbed an errant pass by the ailing quarterback and, seven plays later a 50-yard field goal put the Crimson Tide on the scoreboard.

The teams traded punts but then Wade snagged another Lowry pass and returned it 42 yards to the Texas 31. On the next play Alabama’s Wilbur Jackson took a pitchout and scampered untouched into the end zone. Just more than ten minutes had elapsed in the game and Alabama was up 10-0.

A 24-yard field goal put the Longhorns on the scoreboard at the start of the second quarter and Alabama matched it with a 30-yarder at the end of the period. The teams went into the locker room at the half with Alabama up 13-3.

UT's Terry Melancon about to steal the ball
from Alabama's Wayne Wheeler.

After the intermission things began to go the Longhorns way. A short punt by Alabama gave Texas good field position and Royal dialed up the running game. Longhorn tailback Roosevelt Leaks was the workhorse in a 15-play, 59-yard drive that ended with Lowry scoring on a three-yard run.

With the ball on the Texas 34-yard line in the fourth quarter Alabama’s quarterback Terry Davis went for broke and tried to connect with wide receiver Wayne Wheeler in the end zone to put the game away. Texas’ Terry Melancon grabbed it instead and downed it for a touchback.

With 7:42 left in the game the Longhorn offense went into high gear. Two passes got them to the Alabama 42-yard line and two running plays advanced it eight yards further.

Then, on third and two, Lowry took the snap, hid the ball on his hip and ran the bootleg play to the left. He cut sharply at the sideline and stayed dangerously close the white border the whole 34 yards to the end zone (so close that some later claimed he stepped out of the bounds at the 10 yard line).

The score put Texas ahead for good 17-13.

Still, Alabama staged a furious drive to regain the lead marching 47 yards down the field to the Texas 43 yard line before they were forced to turn over the ball on downs. Texas prevailed against Alabama once again.

It proved to be the final time the two coaches faced each other as Royal stepped down as coach of the Longhorns in 1976 with a 184-60-5 record – as well as a perfect 4-0 against Bryant. He remained the schools athletics director until 1980.

The next season, the wishbone was the key to one of the best offenses in Crimson Tide history. Alabama outscored opponents 477-113 on their way to an 11-1 record and the national championship. And the offense was still in place in 1978 and 1979 when the Crimson Tide claimed two more titles – the final ones under Bryant.

Alabama vs Texas: 1965 Orange Bowl

kleph — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:42:33 -0000

Just five years after their last meeting, Texas and Alabama squared up against each other in the 1965 Orange Bowl – a game that matched up two of the nation's most storied football programs at the peak of their powers.

By 1964, Alabama's legendary head coach Paul W. Bryant had succeeded in building a foundation of a winning program in Tuscaloosa and has begun working on earnest on his legacy. In 1961, Alabama team earned the SEC and National Championships after rolling undefeated through the regular season. They then capped the achievement with a 10-3 victory over Arkansas in the 1962 Sugar Bowl.

The following season, a young firebrand from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania joined the team and started lighting up the offense. It wasn't long before folks around the SEC knew the name Joe Namath although folks in Alabama just called him "Joe Willie."

Yet regaining the peak attained in 1961 eluded the program. Three losses over the span of the next 22 games kept the Crimson Tide from re-achieving such lofty heights in 1962 and 1963 but hopes were high as the 1964 season got rolling.

Joe Namath and Coach Bryant in 1964.

Through the first month of the season, everything seemed to be going according to plan as Alabama rolled up the wins. But things turned grim on Oct. 10 in a game against NC State in Tuscaloosa.

Midway through the second quarter, Namath was flushed from the pocket with no open receivers. He scrambled toward the sideline and started to cut upfield... then simply collapsed in a heap, completely untouched.

Namath had slipped on the turf, twisted his right knee and suffered ligament and cartilage damage. Backup Steve Sloan took over the starter slot for the rest of the season although Namath was put back in when a key game was on the line - pulling out victories against Georgia Tech and Auburn.

Although he was still a dangerous passing threat, Namath was clearly limited due to the injury and always in considerable pain.

"He moves like a human now," Bryant said. "He did move like a cat."

But Alabama kept on winning and climbing up the polls. By mid-November they were ranked No. 2 behind Notre Dame. When the Irish were upset by USC 20-17 in Los Angeles on Nov. 28 both the Associated Press and UPI selected Alabama as the 1964 National Champions.

In Austin, the season had been more bittersweet. In 1963 Darrell Royal had led the Longhorns to an undefeated season and Texas's first National Championship - an achievement they sealed in the Cotton Bowl with a defeat of No. 2 Navy led by Roger Staubach. The Longhorns undertook their 1964 campaign with a No. 1 ranking and dreams of a repeat.

That all came crashing to the ground on Oct. 17 when a failed two point conversion allowed visiting conference rival Arkansas to edge them 14-13 . The Longhorns dropped precipitously in the rankings and out of the national championship picture.

So on New Year’s Day 1965, the Longhorns arrived at Miami Orange Bowl Stadium with a 9-1 record, a No. 3 ranking and a determination to decorate Alabama's national championship punchbowl.

Not only were the stakes high, the audience was huge. In addition to the more than 80,000 in attendance the game was being televised by NBC on prime time - making it the first night bowl game in history and giving it one of the largest television audiences ever for a college football matchup.

Alabama's Sloan started the game since Namath had re-injured his knee in the practices leading up to the bowl game. He was not expected to play.

Texas' Ernie Koy had a school record 133 yards in 24 carries.

Texas struck first and struck hard. With 23 seconds left in the first quarter, the Longhorns called for a power sweep and tailback Ernie Koy ripped off a 79-yard touchdown run.

It got worse for the Crimson Tide before they got any better. When Alabama missed a field goal in the second quarter Texas made them pay. Longhorn quarterback James Hudson quickly completed a 69-yard scoring pass to George Sauer to put Texas up 14-0.

Then, with ten minutes left in the half, Bryant had enough and put his star quarterback in. Namath was wearing soccer shoes to ensure his cleats wouldn't catch in the turf and injure his damaged knee even more.

He proceeded to lead the Crimson Tide on a 14-play, 97-yard drive that culminated in a seven-yard toss to halfback Wayne Trimble that put Alabama on the scoreboard at last.

The Longhorns attempted a field goal when their next drive faltered only to see Creed Gilmer burst through and block it. David Ray recovered the ball and made it all of three yards toward the end zone before fumbling. Texas recovered.

On the next play the Crimson Tide succeeded in sacking Hudson for a loss but a holding penalty by the secondary gave the Longhorns the first down on the Alabama 13-yard line. A few plays later Koy ran the ball in from the one and Texas was up 21-7 and the game went into the intermission.

After halftime, Alabama‘s defense seemed to have shaken off its lethargy and stepped up to stymie the Longhorn offense.Over the next 30 minutes of play Texas would only manage four first downs and never made it out of their own territory on any possession.

Digging the Crimson Tide out of the two touchdown hole was on Namath’s shoulders. He responded with 9-play, 63-yard drive that finished with a 20-yard touchdown pass to receiver Ray Perkins.

As the fourth quarter began, Alabama was driving down the field again but this time the Longhorn defense stiffened and they had to settle for a field goal. The score was now 21-17 and the clock was becoming hostile.

Namath's 225 passing yards earned him game MVP.

Then, suddenly, fate seemed to smile on the Crimson Tide. The Longhorns fumbled the ball giving Alabama possession on their 34-yard-line. A run and two completions gave Alabama a first down at the Texas six-yard-line.

Three times Namath handed the ball off to fullback Steve Bowman and three times the Longhorn defense held. On fourth down, with the ball mere inches from the goal line Namath called for a quarterback sneak.

With 6-3, 204 lb center Gaylon McCollough leading the way, Namath plunged into the pile. Texas left tackle Frank Bedrick and All-American linebacker Tommy Nobis were there to meet them.

McCullough later said he knew it was a touchdown because "he was lying right on top of me and I was in the end zone."

The officials saw it differently and put the ball on the very edge of the goal line and gave Texas possession.

It was the last gasp for the Tide as their next possession ended with an interception and the last petered out with series of incompletions. Texas carried off the win and stymied Alabama's attempt to cap the national championship with a perfect season.

Namath's 255-yards and two touchdowns were enough to name him the game MVP but it was cold comfort in light of the outcome. As Alabama left the field, Namath told his coach that the officials were wrong and that he had scored on the play.

"If you can't jam it in from there without leaving any doubt," Bryant told him. "You don't deserve to win."

A frighteningly accurate enactment of the 2009 SEC Championship Game.

kleph — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:50:58 -0000

A frighteningly accurate enactment of the 2009 SEC Championship Game.

Alabama vs Texas: 1960 Bluebonnet Bowl

kleph — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:32:06 -0000

The 1960 Bluebonnet Bowl marked the meeting of two coaches that would become synonymous with the success of their respective football programs, Texas’ Darrell K Royal and Alabama’s Paul W. Bryant. Yet much of that success was still in the future since both men were still laboring to pull their teams out from the worst stretches of their long and storied histories.

In the mid-1950s, the Texas football program had fallen on hard times. Three straight losing seasons had culminated in 1956 with a 1-9 debacle that stands as the worst record in the school’s history. Head coach Ed Price resigned and Athletic Director Dana X Bible then hand-picked the 32-year-old Royal to take the reins of the Longhorns.

Royal had been a quarterback at Oklahoma under the legendary Bud Wilkinson during the 1940s. He then entered the coaching ranks and served as head coach at Mississippi State and Washington before coming to Texas. He immediately led Texas back to prominence in 1957 with a 6-4-1 record, a No. 11 national ranking and a berth in the Sugar Bowl.

The story was similar in Tuscaloosa. In the span of just three years Jennings B. "Ears" Whitworth, a former Crimson Tide lineman, had pretty much run the program into the ground.

In 1955 he began his tenure by benching all of the seniors - including quarterback Bart Starr - and lead Alabama to an abysmal 0-10 record. A pair of 2-7-1 campaigns followed capped with a 0-40 faceplant against Auburn on Nov. 30, 1957 led to Wentworth's firing.

Then mama picked up the phone.

By the end of the 1950s, Bryant had become known as a miracle worker for down-and-out programs. He had turned Maryland and Kentucky into winners and was busy doing the same at Texas A&M. In November 1957, the Aggies were on an eight-game win streak when news broke Bryant was going to return to Alabama.

The A&M squad was crushed and they went into a tailspin, losing the final three games of the season. One of those teams was Texas. Thus Bryant and Royal faced each other on opposite sidelines for the first time on Thanksgiving Day 1957 with the Longhorns besting the Aggies 9-7 in College Station.

Arriving in Tuscaloosa, Bryant wasted little time turning around the program leading the Crimson Tide to their first winning season since 1953. The next year they racked up a 7-2-2 record and climbed as high as No. 10 in the AP poll.

Alabama seemed to pick up where they left off as the 1960 season started. Beginning with a victory over SEC Champions Georgia to open the season and a dramatic 16-15 win over Bobby Dodd's Georgia Tech squad on Nov. 12 that prompted Coach Bryant to give his famous "We've got 'em right where we want 'em!" halftime speech.

At the end of the regular season Alabama boasted an 8-1-1 record, a No. 9 ranking and an invitation to the second annual Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston. Royal’s Longhorns had amassed a 7-3 record and were unranked heading into the Bayou City.

More than 68,000 fans gathered under sunny skies and slightly chilly temperatures in Rice Stadium on Dec. 17 to see the bowl rematch between the two programs. Once again, it was a battle of defenses with both teams struggling for whatever points they could get.

Royal and Bryant at the end of the game.

As the first quarter wound to an end, Alabama’s Bill Rice broke off a 49-yard one to the Texas seven-yard line. On third down, Crimson Tide QB Bobby Skelton cut in at tackle and dove for the goal line. The officials ruled he was stopped at the one.

Bryant ordered another run on fourth down and the Longhorn defense stopped fullback Bobby Richardson inches from the line. It proved to be a costly missed opportunity.

It wasn’t until midway in the third quarter before points were put on the board when Alabama’s Tommy Booker completed a 30-yard field goal. Texas finally matched that late in the fourth quarter with a 20-yard field goal that capped off a 13-play, 71-yard drive.

And the Longhorns weren’t quite done for the afternoon. Getting the ball on their own 48-yard-line with just 28 seconds left Texas' quarterback Johnny Genung went for the winning score and slung a deep pass only to see it broken up by the Alabama secondary.

On the next play, the Longhorns took to the air again but the pass went incomplete as Alabama's Leon Fuller and Texas' Bob Moses jumped up and battled for it.

And while time had expired on the play the game wasn't over. Fuller was flagged for interference and Texas was awarded one more play. With the ball on the Alabama 18, Petty tried for the game winner but booted it wide left. The game ended in a 3-3 tie.

After the game Royal was sanguine about the outcome.

"Naturally, we were all hoping that last kick by Petty would go through but it would have been a shame to win that way," he said. "I think the score was indicative of the competitive nature of the two teams."

UT Faculty Object to Mack Brown's Salary

kleph — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:48:57 -0000

UT Faculty Object to Mack Brown's Salary

A resolution criticizing the $5 million pay package for University of Texas football coach Mack Brown as "unseemly and inappropriate" was approved in an unofficial vote at a Faculty Council meeting Monday.

The resolution floated by the Faculty Council's executive committee said it was wrong to make the $2 million sweetener permanent at a time when some lecturers, teaching assistants and staff members are facing job losses.

Ticketmaster BCS National Championship Tickets

kleph — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:43:02 -0000

Ticketmaster BCS National Championship Tickets

Go on sale today at 10 a.m. at the link above. Get your clicking finger ready and remember your friends at RBR when you do.

UPDATE: Sold out within four minutes.