http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/sports/ncaafootball/28rhoden.html

An Alabama fan can't raise this issue of course and most of the media have skirted it but Rhoden in the NYTimes seems to zero in on the impact of Urban getting humiliated in the SECCG.   His father says Urban has a tough time with losses after all.   I am biased but its a bit hard to imagine Urban getting "stressed" over running up the score on FSU or UGA.   He always seemed to enjoy doing that so I am having a bit of trouble seeing him going to the hospital in that situation.   But getting embarrassed in the SECCG and contemplating life without Tebow could be "stressful."   (Well, not stressful like the situation Nick Saban encountered after the La Monroe game or Mike Shula faced pretty much his entire tenure or the stress soldiers have in Iraq or the stress defense lawyers have trying to get innocent defendants acquitted or prosecutors have trying to convict child rapists.  But its still stressful I suppose.  Stress is no fun but being able to handle stress used to be considered a "manly" virtue that separated the men from the boys.  Now it seems its just another medical problem.)  I think Meyer is a good coach and hope he stays and certainly hope he doesn't have serious health issues but he does seem to be getting a bit of a pass here.  The mighty gators may better get the ol' pr machine humming because I think the media worm is turning after three years of Meyer/Tebow hagiography.   Anyway, enough of Meyer -- we have a BCSCG to play.

I posted this on another site but thought I would repost it here because I think this team deserves all the accolades it can get.

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Alabama teams are clearly judged by championships but this team will go down as an all-time great in my opinion because of some the moments it created. There were some truly classic moments but a few of my favorites include:

1) The ATL beat down on Clemson: Given the total in your face euphoria of Clemson fans before that game, the beatdown on Bowden was one to remember (and I never liked how Bowden used the Alabama job to get a raise back in 2000 and how the Clemson AD rolled over like a dog during UA's NCAA appeal).

2) The 4th quarters of the Tennessee and Auburn games: Those 4th quarters had to have been like Chinese water torture for Fulmer and Tuberville (two of the slimiest guys in football). The games were out of reach and the Tide just systematically ground them into the turf during the 4th quarters. The look on Fulmer's face when we converted a 3rd and 9 with a few minutes left and the look on Tuberville's face on that final TD to Maze were priceless (and by the way, where did the Tuberville smirk go?).

3) OT in LSU: Ripping their hearts out in OT helped make up for the heartbreakers in 05 and 07.

4) The first half of the Funeral Game in Athens. Just beautiful.

We didn't finish off Tebow (and I was hoping to get a payback shot at Stoops) but this team created some lasting memories.

All in all, a very good year.

And I don't mean for Alabama.  The joke was always on Auburn with that guy.

First, in 03, after a poor coaching job, he uses his relentless media whoring against his own employer and creates such a media storm that he gets the University president fired, the AD fired, Lowder tarred, and the school on academic probation.  (No coach in college football courts the media like Tuberville -- and it was always for his own personal benefit and not the school.)

Second, he cynically uses the Auburn fanbases's obsession with Alabama to extort one of the largest salaries in college football and routinely uses this leverage to get more money despite a very mediocre record outside of one year in ten.  His success was always primarily a function of the disarray caused by the NCAA and the Franchione/Price debacles.  Everytime he laid an egg, he would either fire a defenseless coordinator (with no remorse) or create a diversion in the press (remember the little diversion he created in 04 right after he lost to LSU about ESPN not being fair to the SEC -- he wasn't really serious since he basically retracted it when challenged by Dan Patrick but it changed the subject from the LSU game).   And remember all those schools that supposedly courted him through the years -- was there even anything to that or was that just Tuberville planting rumors?   I have a hunch on that.

Third, he gets $5.1MM to leave but the university is tarred on the way out despite his turning the program into a joke and losing the Iron Bowl by the worst margin in 40 years.  And yet, he walks away smelling like a rose in the media (his weekly calls to Herbstreit have really paid off) and students are protesting his departure.

Finally, the school has trouble hiring a successor (in part because of the disarray of the program he left and the fact he showed he wasn't capable of competing against Alabama with Saban) and becomes the laughingstock of the nation.  

That guy just raped and pillaged the administration down there.  Its really been pretty amazing to watch.   I bet Bobby Lowder, the Board, Jacobs, et al,  rue the day they ever heard the name Tommy Tuberville.