I'm seeing stars

"This recruit is a 4-star."

Since CNS has taking over the helm at UA he has hit the recruiting trail hard. Doing his best to put together a good recruiting class, but all we do is talk about how many stars a recruit have. It you can play, you can play, damn the stars. You can't measure heart. It's also hard to tell how well all recruits will do in college. Me personally, I feel like players that play at solid programs(HS) will be seen and evaluated more, while great talents at weaker programs(HS) will get over looked.

02/01/2002

By David Wasson
Executive Sports Editor

TUSCALOOSA | Feb. 1, 2002 was perhaps the darkest day in University of Alabama football history -- the day the NCAA handed down penalties and probation to the Crimson Tide. Thursday, the Tide's five-year probation ends.

To mark the date, both looking back on how and why Alabama found itself "staring down the barrel" of the NCAA's gun as well as examining whether Alabama football is better off having gone through the process, we present a multi-part package both in print and online.

Christopher Walsh dissects the sting of Alabama's NCAA punishment, as well as all that has happened since Feb. 1, 2002. He also tracks down the key players -- both on the field and off -- that were associated with Alabama, the NCAA, the SEC and beyond during that period. Cecil Hurt offers a unique commentary reflecting on probation and its effects. And various documents -- both public and unprecedented -- will be published again online.

All that appears in the Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007 edition of The Tuscaloosa News, and online at www.tidesports.com.

David Wasson
aka = ESE D-Dub
Executive Sports Editor
The Tuscaloosa News

Tide Football Places 13 on SEC Academic Honor Roll

TUSCALOOSA – The Southeastern Conference announced the 2006 fall academic honor roll with 13 University of Alabama football players named to the list.

The group of Tide players selected to the honor roll includes eight seniors, two juniors and three sophomores. Four of the 13 players were named to the honor roll for the third straight year, while the other nine were first-time recipients. Matt Collins, a senior biology major, received his third consecutive selection along with Barrett Earnest (junior kinesiology major), Bryan Kilpatrick (senior finance major) and Kenneth Vandervoort (senior biology major).

Collins played in all 13 games in 2006 with 11 tackles and one sack. Kilpatrick was one of the leading players on special teams with 14 tackles and Vandervoort recorded one tackle against Florida International.

Seniors Tim Castille (telecommunications major) and Jamie Christensen (business major) were both named to the list for the first time. Castille led the team with six rushing touchdowns to go along with 129 yards rushing. Christensen made 13-of-17 field goal attempts, including a perfect 10-for-10 under 30 yards.

Other players receiving a spot on the honor roll for the first time were: Trent Dean (junior business major), Charles Hoke (sophomore finance major), Justin Johnson (senior general studies major), Cory Reamer (sophomore business major), Chris Rogers (sophomore consumer sciences major), Brian Selman (senior business major) and Luke Spaulding (senior psychology major).

In all, Alabama had 35 student-athletes named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll in football, soccer and volleyball.

Was Saban the right choice for Alabama?

Was Saban the right choice for Alabama? I say yes but others may say different. What do you think?

AU fans find Tide won't die

The comments keep coming in from a column last week entitled "Tuberville Can't Catch a Break." I've racked my brain (OK, no jokes!) for days attempting to understand why it bothered some people so much.

I simply stated the obvious, which is that Auburn has taken a back seat to Alabama as a result of the mania over Nick Saban, and even some of Tommy Tuberville's success has been marginalized because four of the five straight wins came against Mike Shula.

And then, I finally figured out the rest of the story.

It isn't so much the hiring of Saban that has some Auburn fans sniveling, but the resiliency of the Alabama Nation. How many times has this Alabama program been knocked down to the canvas since the death of Paul Bryant but somehow, some way, been able to get up, bloody, beaten and battered, to live to see another day? Even to someone from another state and who attended a rival school, it is an extraordinary thing to witness.

I won't bore you with a long litany of events to support this thesis, but here are a few to consider:

Bill Curry, after three straight losses to Auburn, tucks his tail in early 1990 for Kentucky, replaced by a popular but underwhelming choice in Gene Stallings. He loses his first three games. Yet he wins a national championship in 1992 and runs off a streak of 28 games without a loss. In 1995, the Tide program is humiliated with its first NCAA probation, but the next year Stallings wins 10 games and retires with a 5-2 mark against Auburn. Mike DuBose enters, gets caught up in a secretary scandal three years later, is nearly fired, loses to Louisiana Tech (and is days from being fired), and follows up with an overtime win over Florida and then beats the Gators for the SEC title. He goes from preseason No. 3 in the nation to 3-8 in 2000 and is gone. The Albert Means story explodes and Alabama is staring down the barrel of a gun from the NCAA, which is threatening the death penalty. Dennis Franchione has a cup of coffee and bolts; Mike Price, his replacement, goes down in flames (before ever coaching a game); and Mike Shula, who seemingly throws up all over himself for two years, wins 10 games and finishes No. 8 in the nation ahead of Auburn, which should have played for the national championship the year before.

This season, of course, Alabama loses to Mississippi State and nearly everyone else, and gets left at the altar by Rich Rodriguez (and nearly everyone else) in the aftermath of Shula's bungled firing. The entire college football world, led by Auburn fans, are dancing on Alabama's grave and guess what? The Tide lands Saban -- one the most feared college coaches in recent history.

Yes, I can feel the pain of the Auburn Nation. I can understand its frustration. It's like, "Dude, what else do we have to do?"

At seemingly the darkest moment in the Tide's history, the school rises like Phoenix from the ashes.

There is an old saying that has been passed down from Plato's time and repositioned by the great essayist and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, which seems appropriate here: "If you strike the King, you must kill him." In this case, the King is obvious, and as often as Alabama has been hit in recent years, as desperate as the times have seemed, as dire and late as the hour has often been, the school's football program has survived.

Saban knows he can't revive it by simply waving a magic wand. However, he has given people reason to feel proud again. He has given people reason to hope again for better days. In some respects, this is what kills the other side of the state.

The Auburn program has grown and prospered beautifully under Tuberville. He was the right man at the right time. It has been pretty resilient, too, with Terry Bowden reeling off 20 straight wins following the ouster of Pat Dye, and when Tuberville went 13-0 and made his critics eat crow after he was nearly fired.

However, in spite of what the record book says, showing a 6-2 mark against the Tide and five in a row, there is still something missing. The sight and sound of Alabama still makes some Auburn fans quake. There is a nervous feeling that -- let's go to the history books for one more quote -- they have awoken a sleeping giant. That, of course, being the Crimson Tide.

Tide gets WR

Alabama picked up another commitment Monday while four schools await an announcement today from one of the state's top prep players.

Receiver Darius Hicks of Norcross, Ga., said he will sign with the Crimson Tide on national signing day on Feb. 7.

Alabama's Saban addresses use of ethnic phrase

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — As an audiotape spread on the Internet, Alabama coach Nick Saban acknowledged Wednesday using a phrase considered derogatory to Cajuns but said he doesn't condone such language and merely was repeating something a friend told him.

Saban, a former LSU and Miami Dolphins coach, used an ethnic slur Jan. 3 while telling Florida reporters in Tuscaloosa an anecdote about an LSU fan's angry reaction to his hiring.

When asked about the LSU fans' reaction, Saban related a phone call from a friend on the LSU board of trustees, whom he did not name. In what seemed to be an attempt at humor, Saban told of the friend's encounter with an LSU fan, who speaks in a Cajun dialect.