Under Armour All America Game (Bama Gets Two Huge Commitments)

The Under Armour All America High School Football game was played tonight and Landon Collins, the top rated Safety in the land,  was set to make his decision public as to where he would spend his college football career. Even though he is from the state of Louisiana, and despite the fact that his mama made it known that she didn't approve, Landon said he had two words for everyone: Roll Tide.

Damn right, Landon

This is a truly huge get for Alabama. This guy is a stud, an almost can't miss instant star. People are comparing him to Eric Berry, as far as the immediate impact he could make and the ability he has. In the game tonight, he had a huge INT and played very well all around

And to take him right out of LSU's back yard is always awesome. They are the number one team in the country, have already beaten us this year, and we have taken two of the top recruits from their state, including Denzel Devall.

Before Landon committed though, we already had cause for excitement as one of the top 5 WR's in the country, or one of the top 5 CB's (Whichever position he ends up playing), Cyrus Jones, announced that he would be coming to Tuscaloosa.

These are two of our biggest commitments of the year, both on the same night

Another guy who stood out in the game was WR Amari Cooper from Miami, who will also be a future Bama player. He had a 92 yard kick return for a TD, plus a few great catches also

The future is bright, and it just keeps getting brighter

Recruiting Update

My last post about recruiting was in August when Geno Smith committed. Alot has happened since then. We got our hopes up about the top QB in the country, Jameis Winston. Winston is from Hueytown, AL, just up the interstate from Tuscaloosa and we all thought we would get him

Alas, he committed to FSU. But since then, he has visited Alabama and there is a little buzz that he could still end up playing for the Tide. We shall wait and see on that one.

As for the players who are going to be rolling with us for sure, there are many promising prospects that include a few big names in recruiting circles.

Since August we have had 8 commitments, starting with Darius Philon. Darius is a 3 star defensive end from the Mobile area, and it was especially sweet to get him since he had previously been committed to Auburn.

Amari Cooper is a 4 star WR from Miami. He turned down FSU, Miami, and Ohio State to play for Alabama.

Brandon Hill is a 3 star offensive guard from the state of Georgia, who had offers from Georgia, Tennessee, Nebraska, and others

Kurt Freitag is a 3 star TE from Georgia who turned down Georgia and Auburn to play for Bama. He's said to be an old school TE, who is a great blocker and a hard worker. Another Preston Dial, I suppose

Denzel Devall is a 4 star DE from Louisiana, who camped at LSU before ultimately picking Alabama. Since Saban has come to Bama, we have gotten a couple great recruits from that state each year and I always love it

T.J. Yeldon is one of the top 3 running backs in the country and was one of my favorite recruits throughout this process. He originally committed to AU, before switching to Bama. But the timing of it makes me like him even more. He switched his commitment at the last minute, the night before the dead period where AU coaches couldn't contact him until the second week of January. Since he is enrolling early at Bama, this next week in fact, it will be too late for AU to try to steer him back to the cow pasture. He is another in a continuing line of great backs that Saban is bringing to the Capstone. 

Travell Dixon is the top JUCO corner in the country. And of course he wants to play for the best developer of defensive backs in the country. Travell also endeared himself to me on the night he committed when he did a UStream chat that went on for about 2 hours, where he took questions from fans and just chatted and had a good time with us. He answered several of my questions and I will really be rooting for him to be a star

Alphonse Taylor is a 6'6" 340 pound giant of a lineman that was originally committed to FSU, before switching to Bama. 

With only a few weeks left until signing day, we are in it for several more top prospects. Right now, we are ranked as the 2nd best recruiting class in the country behind Texas. But if things end the way I think they will, we should be number 1

The top rated safety in the country, Landon Collins, is set to announce today whether he will play for Alabama or LSU, and it looks like it's gonna be Alabama.

I already talked about Jameis Winston. His switch to Alabama would be huge

Jordan Jenkins is one of the top five DE's in the country who we could end up getting. Channing Ward is another top 5 guy at the same position. 

Suffice it to say this: There are 7 or 8 guys who are yet to announce where they will play college football. ALL of those guys are 5 star guys, rated top 5 in the country at their positions, and we are expected to get at least a few of them

And the train keeps a rollin'

Rematch Of The Century Of The World (I'm back!)

God, the season went by so fast didn't it? Seems like last Thursday night when I was at work, talking with my friends about how we thought the season would go. Of course we...the Bama fans, I mean....predicted 14-0. As we do every year. But this was the first year I had entered the season fully believing and expecting that we could pull it off

In 2009, I started the season expecting us to get back to Atlanta, and have another shot at Florida. We HAD to have that much success at least. And I really thought we could get them back for the heartbreaking defeat the year before. A few of Timmy's tears later, we were in Pasadena.

Great season that was

Entering the 2011 season, I felt like we had as much talent as anyone in the country and that we were good enough to beat every team we played on our schedule. And that proved to be true. We WERE good enough to beat every team on our schedule. Even LSU, who upon first meeting up with us had been running through their schedule as uncontested as we had

Now I will try not to spend too much time harping on the first game, but since I haven't written here in awhile, I guess I shall vent a bit. Clearly, we should have won that game. Clearly, we were the better team. We only punted 2 times. They had to punt 6 times. We ran up 295 yards of total offense. They only had 235 yards of offense. Our defense shut down most everything they did, and the should-have-been-Heisman-Winner Trent Richardson had as good a game against the Bengal Tigers as anyone else did all year, running for almost 100 yards and having a couple of really fine receptions, on the way to 160 something total yards

But then came the field goals. Or the failure thereof on our part.

I have said many times since then, like most Bama fans, that we should have very easily won that game. And I know that we are right in this thought. We had 5 or 6 opportunities more to score than LSU had. We kicked SIX field goals. Which means we got into their redzone, or damn close to it, SIX TIMES!!! LSU barely sniffed such scoring opportunities against our defense. They only had the opportunity to kick 3 field goals. Of course they made every damn one of them and we only made 2 of the 6 we kicked.

And that was the difference in the game. The only difference

And I've had about all I can STAND from Auburn fans, LSU fans, media members, and other assorted haters everywhere who continue with this assumption that LSU is just such an indestructible juggernaut who is just so much better than us. Clearly there is no way we can beat them, y'all. Obviously not. They'll probably beat us by 30. You know, like they did the first time around

People seem to put aside the facts of the first game, and just look at the fact that LSU won, and assume it will just happen again.

Well I have a few more facts for you

In the BCS era there have been 9 bowl games that involved teams who had already played each other in the regular season. In those 9 rematches, the team who won the first game went 3-6. Because it's extremely hard to beat a good team twice. A rematch always favors the loser of the first game. As pissed off and ridiculous as I was acting on Nov 5, once I collected my thoughts, one of the first things that I told my wife and friends was that...if we do get to play them again...that it might actually have been a good thing that we lost the first game.

Now it's never a good thing to lose, and I never feel that way at the time. It's always unacceptable and unforgivable. But if we win this rematch, how much will that first game have really meant? LSU can go home and celebrate the fact that they were the SEC Champions still, but it will be empty at the end of the day. We would have still risen up in the end and taken the real prize from them

And this is what I expect to happen.

I expect Alabama to win the rematch. And I expect them to win it in a really authoritative fashion

I'm gonna go with 24-13 Bama, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's a bigger margin than that. Yes, I am being completely serious. Go back to that first game. On the first drive of the game, we went right down the field without a problem. Then we shit our pants, made a few mistakes, and missed a field goal. And then that was the story of the game.

I can what-if all day, but seriously. Say we had made that first field goal. And then say Marquis Maze's pass to Michael Williams in the 4th quarter had been correctly called a reception. We would've gone in to score a TD there. You could very easily see how we had the opportunity to score 17-24 points in that game. LSU ended regulation with 6 points, just like us. But that was all they could get. They made good on the only opportunities they had. We pissed away almost every opportunity we had to put that game away. We really could've kicked their ass

That game could've easily been a 17-6 victory by Bama or even better.

Now assume that we correct mistakes, and find ways to actually score when we get the chance. And factor in revenge, and all the motivation that goes along with that. I could easily see a Bama beatdown

And I hope I'm right

Roll Tide, friends

"It's not about revenge, it's about restoring order" - Barrett Jones