LSU - National Champions

Well that collage about says it all. The last couple of weeks have seemed like a whirlwind trying to keep up with all the coverage and analysis since the LSU victory two Mondays ago. Our 2nd national championship since 2003 and the first two-time BCS national champion. You might remember a post I made about this time last year (here) where I talked about what great shape our program was in. OK...multiply that a few times.

Watching the game was great. The girls and I piled up alongside my dad who flew in town for the weekend from Tuscaloosa. And when you see the picture below of him in his gametime uniform, you have to promise not to faint. Anyway, the five of us, plus Derek who basically was there since we texted approximately 324,845,989 times, had a great time once those first few minutes got behind us.

As for the season, I really am still at a loss for words on all of it. From the early season beat downs of Miss St and ACC champion Va Tech (yeah...42 points) to my near heart attack at Disney World watching the Florida game, to the other near heart attack during the last second Auburn touchdown, to the seeming death of our season----twice----in the Kentucky and Arkansas games. And lets not forget the Michigan ordeal and the crazy day of the SEC Championship. Just ridiculous. But for those who question who should be the real #1, keep a few of these facts in mind of these two-loss teams.

LSU (12-2) - Played and beat 5 top 15 teams. Played 10 bowl eligible teams and beat 8.

USC (11-2) - Played and beat 3 top 25 teams. Played 6 bowl eligible teams and beat 5.

UGA (11-2) - Played 4 top 20 teams and beat 3. Played 9 bowl eligible teams and beat 7.

Keep in mind too that we did this after losing four first round draft picks (Russell, Landry, Bowe, Davis). Indeed, it was a very memorable season and I will be spending WAY too much money in the next few weeks on stuff.

As for the look ahead, recruiting is once again going very well (not as good as last year but it is a down year in Louisiana this year - although look out for some surprises on big time out-of-state recruits over the next couple of weeks - we already picked up the #1 corner in the nation out of Florida). It also looks like another possible #1 overall draft pick (Dorsey) with another first rounder (Doucet) to boot. And the record of "The Hat" continues to amaze - 34-6 with 1 National Championship, 1 SEC Title, 2 SEC West Titles, and three blowout bowl wins. Not bad for three years of work. And yeah, this year he beat 5 different former National Championship head coaches. I think it may be time to give the man his due.

And the SEC West...just ridiculous now. Miles, Saban, Tuberville, Petrino, Nutt, and Croom. Jeez. Add in Spurrier, Meyer, Fulmer, and Richt from the East and you've got a who's who of head coaches. 12 teams and five of them (should be six - Tuberville) have won national championships. Like I said...ridiculous. There is a reason the crowd changed from chanting "LSU" in the 4th quarter to "SEC." The Pac-1 and Big 12 each have two National Champion coaches and we won't even start with the Big 10.

Alright, that is my end of the year soapbox moment (that is until I put up more pics from this weekends Championship celebration at Tiger Stadium - no we aren't going, but I'll find pics about it - and, of course, signing day). So here are some pictures from the game with some provided by Mr. John Allen.

Finally, I highly recommend going to this link to see a great slideshow complete with audio of highlights from the game.


K in her pink LSU jersey. Pop in what many will call blasphemy.


Thanks to John Allen for this great pregame pic of the band.


The go ahead score and the turning point of the game.


Mr. Jenkins, meet Mr. Scott.

Oh yeah....

And again....

And one more time...



You got that right!


Above are some postgame celebration pics from John Allen.







Coach Miles with the new hardware.

Updates

So it has been a little break but updates are coming this weekend. Posts about Morgan's 14th (yes 14th) birthday and also our Christmas holidays in Mobile are already up and a post about, uh, oh yeah, what else, thoughts on that little thing called a national championship are coming. Stay tuned....

Christmas in Mobile

For Christmas, we spent the week in Mobile visiting Kerrie's side of the family. I'll have more on the TIMED picture taken above later. It was definitely a crowd but we had a great time. The 3-bedroom house slept 13 people every night and we had anywhere from 17-24 folks around during the days. Here was the rundown....

On the Friday before Christmas, Kerrie and I worked and then drove through the night. We got to Mobile pretty darn early and I was up the next day to go fishing on the bay. Lets just say that about 50 ounces of Mt. Dew, 32 ounces of coffee (both of which help me through the drive), a couple hours of sleep, and waves over five foot in the bay (thanks to the wind) just really did not mix well. Fishing did not last long and I spent the rest of Saturday eating crackers and drinking Sprite. Meanwhile, the girls shopped.

On Sunday, we had a crew attend church and afterwards went out to eat to celebrate Kerrie's parent's anniversary. Here are some pics....

K and Granddad doing some coloring.


K and Grahmie deciding on some food.


Me, Kerrie, Kerrie's brother Micah, and K doing a signature pose.

On Sunday and Monday, we did more shopping. Kerrie's grandmother from Baton Rouge and I were the only ones to brave the Christmas Eve shopping and had a pretty special time. And let me tell you...folks were in a "beautiful" holiday period. Monday night, we finally got the kids to bed so that Santa could make his appearance.


The loot.


K's reaction.


Digging in.


Thank you Cousin Savannah...

I don't here enough rip! And yes, K was excited to get her own "real" camera.


Funny story about this video. Morgan gave us like 3 things she wanted for Christmas because one of the things she wanted, an electronic reader, was pretty expensive. So, of course, that gift just "happens" to be put at the bottom of her stocking and it is the last thing she saw after opening all the other gifts. The whole time she was trying not to act disappointed but she was struggling.


Once we got done with opening presents from just the four of us, the rest of the family arrived and all heck broke loose. Lots of gifts, lots of paper, lots of trash, but a lot of happy folks.






Destruction.


And more destruction.


Once we got done with the presents, Granddad sat down all the grandkids and read the Christmas Story and had an interactive story for them to follow where they each had presents that had parts of the Christmas Story inside. Very cool.


Here is Kerrie in her new track suit, slippers, and necklace. One of my favorite pictures of the week.

After lunch, pretty much the whole family decided we wanted to go see a movie that night so Micah and I went early to buy tickets. This is what we found at the theatre....


Once we got through the line, this was my ticket order: 9 adults, 5 children, and 1 senior citizen. The guys response: "Can you repeat that?" Once I did, his next statements was "That will be $111.00 sir." Nice.


On Wednesday, we did a little resting and a lot of cooking. Here pic of Kerrie is another favorite of mine.


Lots of people in the kitchen.

Throughout the course of the week, we also did a whole lot of family picture taking. Here is a video of us trying to get all the little ones (sorry Morgan) to behave.




The kids with their great-grandmothers.


And with Granddad and Grahmie.

OK, so about the first picture of this post. That was the end result of a big group picture of the family after we opened presents on Christmas morning. Of course, we wanted everyone in it so the obviously answer was to just do a timed pic. It eventually worked but lets just say it took a few takes. The end result (again see above) is pretty impressive I think considering all the kids and the whole timing deal.

Here is the prep shot....


Another prep...


Take #1 - Yes, I am not in it. I set the timer for 1 sec. Not even I am that fast.


Take 2 - Apparently even with 5 seconds on the timer, me + flip flops + non carpeted floor = not enough time.


Take 3. And take 4 is the one above - Notice no more flipflops.



The girls and I on Sunday.


Kerrie talking...K getting sick of pictures.


Kerrie's brother Johnny, his wife Christy, and their two boys, Devin and Carson.


Us with my shopping date Grandmother Fields from Baton Rouge.


Us with Gran. And God love her for having that many people at her house for that long and not going absolutely crazy.


Us with Kerrie's mom and dad. K again tired of pictures.


Better.


Granddad and Grahmie with the grandkids.


And the great-grandmothers.

Thursday was Kerrie and I's 6th anniversary so we left the girls in Mobile with the grandparents and scooted off to the Grand Marriott at Point Clear. Dinner was gumbo, oysters on the 1/2 shell (for me anyway), and lots more. The next morning we headed back to Mobile to pack and were off soon thereafter back 10 hours to San Antonio.


Our view from the Marriott.