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My name is Eric. My love of and loyalty to the University of Alabama football team is unparalleled and completely inappropriate. I hate all other teams, and wish them peril. Also, you can hear my music at www.reverbnation.com/EricBlackerby or www.youtube.com/EricBlackerbyMusic

Saturday, July 2, 2011

We Have It Really Good

I was just reading through 'Bama Magazine's yearbook issue and it's pretty exciting when you think about what a good position we are in right now under Coach Saban.

Think back to January of 2007, when you first found out that Saban was coming to Alabama. How elated were you? I was pretty stoked. I hated Saban when he was at LSU, of course, but I knew what a great coach he was and I knew he would turn us into contenders again. 1992 had been a long time ago. I was only 9 when that Sugar Bowl was played and the idea that we could just get back into the big picture with teams like USC, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, and Ohio State seemed like a mere dream.

Now, remember back in 07 when Saban came. We were so happy to have such a proven good coach coming to coach our boys. Our opinions of him were based on the fact that he took LSU from 3-8 the year before to 8-4 in his first year, won the NC in 2003, and basically turned them into a perennial national power. Everyone knows that LSU is one of the best teams in the country now, STILL, 6 years after he left. He built them up to that level, and so we thought he could do the same here for us.

And we were right. But the thing is, he has had more success at Alabama, already, than he did at LSU. Before coming to Tuscaloosa, Nick Saban had never won 10 games 2 years in a row. He had never coached a Heisman winner. The coach that we see coaching our team right now is BETTER than the one that landed in Tuscaloosa in 2007 to a crowd of fans so happy to see him that one drunken lady even kissed him. He has set Alabama up for consistent domination that he never saw at LSU.

All you have to do is watch almost any NFL game right now to see the amount of great players he put in the league from LSU, and even that is better at Bama now. The talent level is ridiculous. We had 4 first rounders this past draft, and we have 6 players, SIX, coming back this year that are projected as possible first rounders next year.

All you have to do is look at the fact that this last season was a major disappointment to so many of us, and you realize how far we have come in really a short time. In 2007, we lost to Lousiana freaking MONROE. LOUSIANA MONROE! Over the last 12 years, we have lost games to Lousiana Tech and Northern Illinois also. And Utah. And Southern Miss. And Central Florida.

Seriously.

And now, alot of us, including myself, were pissed that we *only* won 10. That's a far climb from hiring 4 coaches in 8 years and losing 6 in a row to Auburn.

Speaking of Auburn. Probably the reason this last season stung so bad, was that we had to watch The Intstitute Of Bovine Proctology win the NC. At least, that's what did it for me. And knowing that we had at least a dozen guys on the team that could end up being first round draft picks and we still couldn't win it all.

So we have gotten really spoiled. And I don't really mind. Because it's just another testament to the drastic change Saban has brought to town.

We have won 36 games in the last 3 years, and who doesn't believe it could be 50 wins in 4 years after 2011 is said and done?

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