Crimson Tide voted No. 1
January 9, 2010
It’s unanimous. Alabama is back on top in college football.
The Crimson Tide was voted No. 1 in The Associated Press poll early Friday to earn its seventh AP title after beating Texas 37-21 in the BCS championship game.
Only Notre Dame has more AP national championships, with eight. Oklahoma also has seven.
The Crimson Tide (14-0) hadn’t finished No. 1 since 1992, but in just three seasons under coach Nick Saban, the South’s most storied program has returned to greatness.
“Third year and we’re already national champions?” Alabama nose guard Terrence Cody said. “That’s hard to believe.”
Texas (13-1) is No. 2 in the Top 25 and Florida (13-1), last season’s champion, was third.
The only other unbeaten team in the nation, Boise State (14-0), wound up fourth. It was the Broncos’ best finish in the AP poll. Back in 2006, the last time Boise State busted the BCS and went undefeated, the Broncos ended up fifth in the final rankings.
Only four points separated Florida and Boise State.
The USA Today coaches’ poll had the same top five as the AP, but the gap between No. 3 Florida and No. 4 Boise State was 11 points.
The Tide is the fourth straight Southeastern Conference team to win the national title. No league had ever captured three straight before last season. Alabama is the first unanimous No. 1 in the final Top 25 since Texas in 2005.
Ohio State finished fifth followed by TCU, Iowa, Cincinnati, Penn State and Virginia Tech, giving the Big Ten three top 10 teams, the most of any league.
Poor postseason showings in recent years have hurt the Big Ten’s reputation nationally, but this season Ohio State and Iowa won BCS games as underdogs and Penn State beat LSU in the Capital One Bowl.
Pac-10 champion Oregon starts the second 10, followed by BYU, ACC champion Georgia Tech, Nebraska and Pittsburgh.
For the Cornhuskers, it’s the best final ranking since 2001, when they finished eighth.
No. 15 Pittsburgh, along with Wisconsin, Utah, LSU, Miami and Mississippi complete the top 20. The Hurricanes hadn’t finished a season ranked this high since they were No. 17 after the 2005 season.
The final five were Texas Tech, Southern California, Central Michigan, Clemson and West Virginia.
USC’s victory in the Emerald Bowl against Boston College helped the Trojans avoid ending a season unranked for the first time since 2001, coach Pete Carroll’s first year.
Alabama won five AP championships under Bear Bryant, three in the 1960s and back-to-back titles in 1978 and ‘79.
After Bryant retired in 1982, Alabama couldn’t keep up with the high standards he set. Gene Stallings, one of Bear’s Boys, came the closest, winning a national title in 1992.
But in the late 1990s and earlier this decade there were some lean — and at times embarrassingly bad — seasons for Alabama.
The Tide lured Saban away from the NFL after the 2006 season. He had ‘Bama back in the national title hunt last season and completed the journey this season.
“I’ll tell you what I told the team,” Saban said, “that I’ve never been prouder of a group of guys for their resiliency, their buy-in, their hard work, the blood, sweat and tears that they put in to accomplish what they accomplished this season.”
Tags: Alabama, bama, coach nick saban, Crimson Tide, fourth quarter, greg mcelroy, Insider, julio jones, leigh tiffin, mark ingram, Tide, touchdown pass, yard field goal, yard touchdownRelated posts
Saban accepts championship hardware
January 9, 2010
Nick Saban is thrilled to have brought another title to Alabama and a lot of joy to everyone involved in the Crimson Tide program.
Saban spoke at a news conference on Friday, sitting alongside four trophies crowning Alabama as the national champion following a 37-21 victory over Texas.
The Associated Press trophy honored the Crimson Tide for being voted No. 1 at season’s end. The others were from the National Football Foundation, the Football Writers Association and the crystal BCS trophy he received on the field Thursday night.
His wife reminded him this morning that a statue of him will be going up outside the stadium in Tuscaloosa. He says he hopes it serves as a model of the reward for working hard.
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Bama VS Texas OverView
January 9, 2010
It was over when… Texas QB Colt McCoy went down on the second series, leaving the game in the hands of freshman Garrett Gilbert.
Gameball goes to… Mark Ingram, who followed up his Heisman win with 116 yards and two touchdowns against the nation’s No. 1 rushing D.
Stat of the game… 11. Alabama QB Greg McElroy attempted just 11 passes, completing six, for 58 yards on the day.
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Dareus deals dual blows to Horns
January 9, 2010
Like a baseball hitter who knows when he gets a hold of one just by the way his hands feel on contact, Marcell Dareus knew he’d tattooed Texas quarterback Colt McCoy.
What he didn’t know was that it would be the final play of McCoy’s brilliant career.
“I didn’t want him to be out for the game. You never want to hurt anybody, and you always want to beat teams at their best,” said Dareus, Alabama’s sophomore defensive end.
“But I knew I’d got him by the way the hit felt and by the way his head rocked back. I got a clean shot on him, and those are the kind of hits you can feel.”
It was also the hit that paved the way to Alabama’s 37-21 win and its first national championship in 17 years.
McCoy never returned from the pinched nerve he suffered on Texas’ fifth offensive play of the game. His backup, true freshman Garrett Gilbert, played valiantly, but he also wasn’t the real McCoy.
“That comes with the game,” said Dareus, named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player of the Citi BCS National Championship Game. “Sometimes you miss. Sometimes you land a good one. The main thing is that we made enough plays to walk out of here with a championship.
“That’s what we all came here for, to get this program back to winning championships. It still hasn’t sunk in. It probably won’t for a while.”
Dareus’ night was far from over after knocking McCoy out of the game. In fact, he would strike again in the first half with a play that completely turned the game in Alabama’s favor.
With 15 seconds remaining and Alabama leading 17-6, Texas coach Mack Brown decided not to play it safe.
Instead of taking a knee and going into the half down 11, the Longhorns tried a shovel pass from their own 37. The ball deflected off of Texas receiver D.J. Monroe’s hands, and Dareus was there for the carom.
“It almost seemed like slow motion,” Dareus said. “I saw it hanging there and knew I had to get it.”
Dareus might be a 6-foot-4, 296-pound defensive end, but he looked awfully comfortable toting the rock.
He stiff-armed one Texas player and then did a little pirouette on his way to a 28-yard interception return for a touchdown.
“All I was thinking about is Mark Ingram and Javier [Arenas] and just doing moves I didn’t think I could do,” Dareus joked. “I was like, ‘I can’t believe I pulled off that screen.’ I saw the lineman coming for my legs, and my first reaction was to spin.
“I looked to my left and saw Eryk Anders. I knew it was a touchdown. I could not wait to get to the end zone.”
Dareus’ return made it 24-6 going into halftime and totally changed the complexion of the game.
And with the way Texas battled back in the fourth quarter, who knows where the Crimson Tide would have been without Dareus’ defensive touchdown?
Or his only tackle.
That’s right, the only tackle he was credited with was the one on McCoy.
“That put a dagger in them. You could see it in their faces,” Alabama nose guard Terrence Cody said. “The game started going downhill for them from there. They came out after halftime and fought back, but we had to finish. That’s what we do.”
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Walmarts to host Bama’s BCS trophy
January 9, 2010
The University of Alabama is going to display its new national championship football trophy at a place where most anyone can see it: Walmart.
The school says the Coaches’ Trophy will be on display at a Walmart Supercenter in Tuscaloosa on Saturday and another Walmart store in Gardendale on Sunday.
Fans will be able to get their picture taken with the actual Coaches’ Trophy that was presented after the BCS win over Texas. The $30,000 trophy is topped with a football made of Waterford Crystal.
The school will permanently display the trophy on campus. The Walmart stops are part of a sponsorship deal.
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Saban already ‘thinking ahead’
January 9, 2010
Though other current coaching giants who also won two national titles in the last decade may be leaving the college game or temporarily stepping aside — see Southern California’s Pete Carroll and Florida’s Urban Meyer— Alabama coach Nick Saban isn’t going anywhere.
His likeness will be immortalized in a statue at Bryant-Denny Stadium along the Walk of Champions in the stadium’s north end. Alabama athletic director Mal Moore didn’t have any further details on Friday, but Saban is expected to join the Crimson Tide’s coaching pantheon of Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Paul “Bear” Bryant and Gene Stallings.
“I guess that when you’re driven and you put as much into what you do as we have, not just for this year but or 30-some years, you would hope that something you do leaves a mark that is positive, that maybe could affect someone in a positive way in the future,” Saban said the day after his team won the Bowl Championship Series title after beating Texas 37-21 at the Rose Bowl. “That would be the most significant thing I would see from something like that.”
In the statue, Saban probably won’t be smiling. His focus will be intense, perhaps looking to what lies ahead, just as he did less than 12 hours after hoisting the crystal trophy.
Already, his message was clear: “I’m always thinking ahead, anticipating problems. Every success brings a new set of problems. Every success brings a new set of issues — the attitude of next year’s team, development of the players for next year, issues that you have from a staff standpoint or player standpoint, personnel standpoint, recruiting standpoint.
“There’s really no time to sort of let your guard down. And being able to manage that is what allows you to be successful with more consistency.”
Alabama will likely begin the season ranked No. 1, given much of its offense returns next fall, including running backs Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson, quarterback Greg McElroy and receiver Julio Jones. Defensively, the Tide will lose nose guard Terrence Cody, cornerback Javier Arenas, two starting defensive ends, Lorenzo Washington and Brandon Deaderick, and likely junior linebacker Rolando McClain, who expected to declare early for the NFL draft. Also gone will be All-America kicker Leigh Tiffin and punter P.J. Fitzgerald.
As Saban ticked off all the players the Tide will lose, he downplayed expectations in hopes of keeping the players focused and lofty projections in check.
“I think that people who make those statements sort of just look at the periphery. You’ve got to build a team. We play 50 or 60 guys through the course of the season, and like I always say, the bottom 40 guys on your roster usually determines how good that team really is. I don’t want to criticize the media or anything, because God knows I get punished enough by you guys, but you guys will look at the top four or five guys (returning) on the team and make your determination.”
Indeed. Expect the Tide to start the season just as they finished: No. 1.
Tags: Alabama, BCS Bowl, champs #1, coach nick saban, Crimson Tide, game, greg mcelroy, julio jones, mark ingram, SEC, yard touchdownRelated posts
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