Saban Responds

Oh the heartbreak...

Saban Not Interested

Good quotes...

Saban said he hasn't been contacted by Alabama and doesn't want to be.

"This has been the case for years," he said. "When I was in college it was always about coming to the pros. This is the challenge I wanted. I had a good college job. Why would I have left that if I was going to be interested in other college jobs?" (Exactly)

"Mike Shula is a good guy. He's a friend," Saban said. "I think he has done a good job there and should have been given an opportunity to stay there."

Ouch

The guy over at CollegeFootballNews.com doesn't hold back.

The Hammer is Yellow

Some quotes....

"Well, that hammer is definitely yellow, all right... as in cowardly."

"The Alabama administration is a bunch of gutless moral midgets..."

"This rates as one of the most disgusting and morally repugnant coach firings in recent college football memory."

"That, folks, is a plainly delusional (there is that word again) worldview on the part of the Bama administration. Mal Moore must think that the earth is still flat."

"If I'm looking at the Alabama job today, I'm definitely thinking, "those are some bloodsucking opportunists over there in Tuscaloosa. Thanks but no thanks." Here's hoping that football karma runs over the dogma of a clearly inflexible and ruthless Alabama administration." (AMEN, but I'm sure Saban and Spurrier will look right past this.)

"The hypocrisy--and the moral cowardice--are overwhelming. I smell football politics in Tuscaloosa, and boy, does it stink. Bama brought the hammer to Mike Shula, and that smelly hammer is definitely yellow. Each time the Crimson Tide gets nailed on the football field in future seasons, poetic justice will be served."

Holy Good Gosh

As if the story in the post below was not bad enough, just look at the poll the Tuscaloosa News website is running.

Who should Alabama hire to replace Mike Shula?
Jim Grobe
Greg Schiano
Steve Spurrier
Paul Johnson
Jeff Tedford
Nick Saban

In a shocker, Spurrier is leading - a man all Bama fans hated with a passion just a few years ago. But seriously, "who should Alabama hire?" - it's as if they are all just lining up to take the job and Bama has the option on who to pick. Unbelievable.

Here They Go Again

Well, as predicted, this did not take very long.

"Options Abound For Alabama"

Yep, in this article, the Tuscaloosa News writer speculates that at least six possibilities are there for Bama including Greg Schiano (Rutgers), Jim Grobe (Wake Forest), Jeff Tedford (Cal), Nick Saban, and Spurrier. The writer thinks "Jeff Tedford might have the strongest interest in Alabama, especially since he’s in the shadow of Southern California in the Pac-10". Of course, the writer conveniently omits that pesky Bear Bryant shadow in Tuscaloosa. For Spurrier, he says "although Spurrier has publicly said he’s not interested in the Miami job, Alabama might be able to sway him a little more." Of course, he doesn't say exactly how Bama would sway him. And then for Saban, the writer says "Although Nick Saban’s agent denied that the current Miami Dolphins coach had been contacted earlier this week, the former LSU and Michigan State head coach could also merit strong consideration."

On that logic, I believe Tony Dungy, Bill Parcells, Pete Carroll, and Bill Belichick could merit strong consideration as well.

On the saner side of things, check out this article by Stewart Mandel at CNNSI.com. It somewhat coincides with my post from last night. Plus, it has the word doofus in print.

Bama Does It Again

Wow

So it looks like the post last night was pretty timely. Unbelievable. Oh well, the carousel continues.

They Never Cease to Amaze

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. The girls and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with all of Kerrie's family and are dreading getting up in the morning. I'll have pictures up of the weekend in a day or so. I actually wasn't going to post anything until I got the pictures ready but this article got my attention and left me shaking my head.

Agent Denies Saban Rumors - Alabama Head Coach Job

It seems no matter how often Alabama looks to fire their coach, they always seem to believe every top-tier coach will be clamoring to come to Tuscaloosa. When Fran left a few years back it was Butch Davis, Frank Beamer, Steve Spurrier, and the like. Fast forward a few years and here we go again. In the last week, I have heard Saban and Steve Spurrier (again). Did I mention that Shula hasn't even been fired yet?

Although I am a diehard LSU fan, I am originally from Tuscaloosa and would really like for them to be successful (except, obviously for one weekend a year). But until they get off the non-stop coaching carousel, they are never going to attract a top-tier coach (or top-notch recruits for that matter - a little hard for a coach to recruit if he can't even say for sure that he will be attending the University next season).

Unfortunately, the high-horse (and delusional) attitudes of the University will continue to believe that Alabama is currently a national powerhouse and continue to believe the assumption that top coaches should be honored to have the privilege to coach at Alabama. Until they realize that the reverse is true, I don't see anything changing in the near future. Nothing changing, that is, except for the head coach.

Brad Paisley & Carrie Underwood

On Thursday, Kerrie and I went to the Brad Paisley-Carrie Underwood concert at the AT&T Center in town. We sat in the Bank of America box, which was just a little bit closer than the seats we had for the Tim & Faith concert. The concert was great (did I mention Paisley can play a little guitar), seats were great (thanks Greg), and we actually found a real-life babysitter to keep the girls (although we probably made her parents mad when we didn't get home until 11:30). Of course, 5:30 AM came just as early the next morning.


Carrie Underwood.





No zoom.


Zoom.


Singing "Whiskey Lullabye".

An interesting choice from Underwood - although she pulled it off pretty well.

Kerrie & Mo's favorite song right now.

This was Brad's encore, filmed especially for Pop.

The Bo-Bo is Better and a little Soccer

As you can see, K's injury has gotten significantly better in the last few weeks. The scab fell off a few days ago so now we spend ours days smothering it with Vitamin E. As for the scar, not bad for glue.

Also this weekend, we had Mo's soccer tournament. They won their first game Friday night but then lost to the #1 team in the league today 1-0. The other team got their score off of a freak direct kick from about 30 yards out. Oh well - Mo improved a great deal this year - she was heralded by the other parents as the best dribbler on the team since she constantly was going right past two or three defenders. She also was known as one of the toughest since she didn't back down to anyone. I guess this type of competition from last year with all the boys from DC (link) prepared her for that. Good job Mo! Here are a few pics from the game.


K and her big sis walking Jackson. (If you can't see him, he is in front of Mo's foot - he's little.)


Mo chasing down the ball.




Mo with a little shoving action. The ref told us the girls play rougher than the boys.

Beautiful

Halloween

Here they are - Tinkerbell and Elizabeth Swann (from Pirates of the Caribbean). The girls got quite a bit of candy and Karlyle was snoring by 8:30. I think she tired herself out by walking the neighborhood. She was big this year and rang the doorbells all by herself. And she was sure to set everyone straight who made the mistake of saying, "What a cute princess." They all got a "I am Tinkerbell." Good times.



Getting dressed.