2013: Pain For The Plainsmen

Wow!
THIS football season has really flown by, and these two teams have both certainly been the story!
THE TIDE, as expected, has sailed through and is poised to have a chance for a berth in the SEC Title Game AND a shot at an unprecedented 3rd Straight BCS Championship. The tigers, surprisingly, are still in the hunt and can both derail The CRIMSON TIDE's season AND put themselves in that very same SEC spot with a win. This is the most relevant IRON BOWL for BOTH teams in recent memory.
Gus Malzahn has done a fine job in motivating this tiger/plainsmen/war-eagle team and giving them focus. He has this team playing at a higher level than in the past, and has taken advantage of some VERY lucky breaks. He is certainly a lock for SEC (and possibly National) Coach of the Year.

Cowpie's End 

All of this will be for naught, though, as auburn's 'Cinderella Season' comes crashing to to a halt as BAMA overpowers them and eventually buries them in their own cowpie-filled pasture. On the downside, the game is on CBS, so we have to listen to Verne & Gary.

IRON BOWL GameDay Pick:
ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE      31
auburn                                   17

Happy Thanksgiving...!

MUCH Craziness!

With the level that THe UNIVERSITY of ALABAMA has been playing as of late, it's starting to look like EVERYbody wants to get in on the act...
This is starting to get a little out of hand...

NFL Chiefs fans want in on the action

Seattle Silliness

GAMEDAY Comic: LSU

ROLL TIDE!!

Yep... It's LSU Week Again...!

Apologies, again, for the sparse posts. Health and family-related issues have kept  me preoccupied.
Not surprisingly, The TIDE is rolling along this year as expected. These fine young men are buying into "The Process" and are on the verge of achieving something NO OTHER team has done in the modern era: A possible THREE-PEAT Championship, if they stay the course.

Coach NICK SABAN has done a mighty fine job of brushing away the distractions to mold this team into a methodical machine. Pounding rushing offense. Maybe pounding isn't strong enough... Punishing, maybe...?
A fast fleet of receivers. A smothering defense. Attention to detail and minimal mistakes.
As Coach so eloquently describes it: "Imposing our will...!"

On that note, HERE's this week's LSU Gameday Comic:

BIG AL stars in his own "Crimson Tide Comics", and literally kicks the corndogs out of the Bayou Bengals

The Bayou Bengals are battered, but still VERY dangerous. They ALWAYS play THE TIDE tough, and this year is no exception. Look for BAMA to eventually dominate, though.

Prediction: ALABAMA 31, LSU 17

BCS Title Game Thoughts

Well, here we are again. Another college football season winding down, another CRIMSON TIDE  appearance in the BCS Championship Game. Once again, all the haters can come out. Sadly, though, I didn't get to see their heads explode at the prospect of another all-SEC title game again.
 Sure-- just like last year, BAMA needed some help after a mid-season loss to get back in the picture, and just like last year-- they got it. Like I had said all year, Johnny 'Football' Manziel was the real deal, and dangerous. He made the plays, and Texas A&M's defense stepped up to the plate. Luckily, The TIDE fought their way back, teams ahead of them lost, and BAMA's back in the game-- this time as SEC Champs...!
 With SIX teams in the Top Ten, it's a shame that the Georgia Bulldogs didn't even get a BCS Bowl bid. After that SEC Championship Game slugfest with BAMA, they deserved it. With Florida, LSU, South Carolina and Texas A&M, this was a pretty impressive showing. The Gators get the Sugar Bowl bid as next highest-ranked, and The Bulldogs are relegated to a lesser-tier bowl.

  VS  

ON to THIS year's CHAMPIONSHIP Game. I remember learning to hate Notre Dame early on. As a child, I had perfectly good Christmas Holiday vacations RUINED-- two years in a ROW-- by the Fighting Irish. Two weeks out of school, Christmas gifts, fun-fun-fun. All wiped away by soul-crushing losses by BAMA to Notre Dame. The first time in the Orange Bowl, 24-23. The very next year was a repeat in the Sugar Bowl, 13-11.

As a child, I had become accustomed to The CRIMSON TIDE always winning. When they lost-- on a national stage, no less-- I was emotionally confused. Back then, there were only a few games televised every year. If you were lucky, you could see The TIDE twice, maybe three times in a season. Usually, you listened to games on the radio. TV games were a rare treat, but better when the outcome was a win. 

Throughout the years, I've always harbored ill feelings for those bitter memories, as I'm sure thousands of fans have, as well.

 I was never "over-the-top" like SOME, though. I remember that there was a gas station on Schillinger Road that was obviously owned by auburn fans. After every TIDE  loss, they always would post something 'clever' and derogatory about The CRIMSON TIDE. After the '74 season, following the Sugar Bowl loss, they posted "THE TIDE GOT ROLLED" on their marquis. I knew it was a bad idea for them when I saw it. After the first day or so, someone broke (vandalized) their sign, but inexplicably THEY PUT IT UP AGAIN!

 The following weekend, some bitter redneck burned the gas station to the ground! These lunatics took that stuff seriously even way back then...!

 I will post my thoughts and prediction for the upcoming game in a week or so. In the meantime.....

ROLL TIDE!!

S.E.C. Championship Gameday Comic & Prediction

ALRIGHTY, then! Here, as promised, is my SEC Championship "Gameday Comic"...!

My prediction for the game:

Georgia's tough, and they play good ball. I just think BAMA's a little better, and a little more experienced.

ALABAMA 35, Georgia 17

ROLL TIDE!

ANOTHER S.E.C. Championship Comic!

Well, since Georgia's players don't think that BAMA's that good....

THIS is what BIG AL does to 'smack-talkers'...!! ROLL TIDE!

ONCE Upon a Time.... SAD CORNDOGS!

WHAT IF "BIG AL" and his travels throughout the SEC were put into picture-books? Here's a page from a possible collection of children's stories......

New TIDE Cartoon

Sorry for the delay.

As I was up in D.C. for the birth of my first grandson, Preston Daniel Hundley, I was too busy to crank out some National Championship drawings commemorating The TIDE's 21-0 shutout of LSU in the BCS Title Game.

This Week's GAME Of The CENTURY

 Alrighty, kids! Armageddon has arrived!
The Mighty Top-Ranked Louisiana State Tigers waltz into town to face THE Second-ranked UNIVERSITY of ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE in a game that is being set up by media pundits and 'talking heads' as one for the ages!
The frenzied build-up will rise to a crescendo this evening as all eyes in the college football world will be on Tuscaloosa's BRYANT-Denny Stadium in a universally-televised (CBS) matchup of SEC West Titans.
 I imagine that immediately after kickoff, it will sound like the opening day of dove hunting season:

BAM! BAM! BAM-BAM! BAM!

  These are two of the hardest-hitting teams in college football, and it'll show-- and be heard. The consensus is that the squads are pretty evenly-matched, but I think the difference will be our defense. The Tigers have been successful against lesser competition, but I think The TIDE will bring a little bit more to the fight.

 Look for quarterback AJ McCarron to have a modest, yet workman-like night, and for Trent Richardson and his gang to eventually plow through the bayou bengals defense late.

Brentoons's Pick: ALABAMA 24, LSU 14