Time Out
by Paul Jordon

Devil or angel? Guess it depends on who you ask.

Talking about current Alabama football coach Nick Saban, who is also the former LSU football coach. At LSU, Saban took the Tigers to a national title. In his first year at Alabama, Saban has led the Crimson Tide to a 6-2 overall record and a 4-1 league mark. LSU is 7-1 and also 4-1 in conference play. The two meet Saturday in the 4 p.m. CBS showcase (no other games are being broadcast at that time).

The game has so many story lines that the pre-game hype has taken on Super Bowl proportions. The two teams are tied for the top for the SEC West lead and the winner will have the inside track to the SEC title game. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that it will be the first game in which Saban will lead his new team against his old team. Some 17 players that he recruited will be playing for the Tigers against their old coach.

Now, as both camps have stressed over and over this week in a less-than-successful attempt to downplay the coaching angle, the players will care little who is coaching once the opening whistle sounds. But the fans are another story.

Saban has become the savior of Alabama football and is considered by many in Tuscaloosa and around the state (except in Auburn) as an angel, if not a god. If you attend a football game in Baton Rouge, you will see t-shirts proclaiming Saban to be Satan and calling the upcoming game the “Satan Bowl.” T-shirts in Tuscaloosa, on the other hand, deify the new coach and call the upcoming game the “Saban Bowl.”
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Time Out
by Paul Jordon

This is Eastern Division Showdown Week in the Southeastern Conference. Western Showdown Week will be next weekend.

In what used to be called “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” (before organizers were forced to toe the politically correct line) Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, Fla., Florida and Georgia get together in what has to billed as the biggest SEC football game of the week.
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Time Out
by Paul Jordon

The third Saturday in October has always (well, since 1928 anyway) meant a lot to Alabama and Tennessee.

That year, the Vols beat the Tide 15-13, a win legendary Tennessee coach Robert Neyland always credited with putting the Volunteer grid program on the map. The two schools have played every year since, except one year during World War II. The game has had national implications as well as league championship implications many times over the years.

The third Saturday looms large for several teams this season, almost across the board with what has to be termed “must wins” taking place at Alabama, LSU and Kentucky.

And no matter who wins this week, it will only make things more interesting as the season rolls along to its conclusion. Right now, in late October, both division races are wide open and possible scenarios with their accompanying story lines are mind boggling.
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by Paul Jordon

The football season is halfway over and it’s getting down to the nitty gritty in the Southeastern Conference with five of six game’s on the weekend lineup league contests. It is hard to say which of the half dozen conference matchups is the most important when each game means keeping championship hopes alive for at least one of the teams involved.
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by Paul Jordon

As we get deeper into the season, games begin to mean more … and more … and more. This week there are two (were three) really big games that have significant impact on both league and national standings.

At the halfway mark of the 2007 Southeastern Conference football season, LSU is the only team still undefeated (5-0 overall, 2-0 in league play) and is the odds-on favorite to represent the Western Division in the SEC Championship Game. But the Bayou Tigers have challengers, with Alabama and Auburn each with just one league loss.
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by Paul Jordon

Exactly half the Southeastern Conference teams were ranked in the Top 25 heading into the 2007 football season. After Week One, the tally still stands at six, with LSU, who demolished Mississippi State on national TV last week, leading the way at No. 2.
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Editor’s Note: For better or worse, it’s that time of year again. Football time. So today, we resume our regular Friday feature from legendary columnist Knute Bryant on what’s coming up for the weekend, including TV times and stations.

by Knute Bryant

The list of things that could be foremost on the minds of people this weekend is long. Some of them include the Iraq war, global warming, the failing housing market, the failing health care system, and more.

But here in the South, most males – and a goodly number of females – will be thinking (What else?!) football. After all, this is the opening weekend of the 2007 college grid season.

Southeastern Conference fans have been looking forward to this weekend all through the long, hot summer as it looks to be a very interesting season indeed.
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by Glynn Wilson

TUSCALOOSA, Ala., March 27 – In the springtime, when the wisteria blooms along the river and students return all tanned from spring break, the talk among the youth is not just about classes or prayer or sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. No where else on the planet do they start talking about football so early like they do in the Homeland of the Alabama Crimson Tide.

The mosquitoes have not even had water enough and time to launch their summer offensive against the human population and they are already hard at football practice in the pollen and sun on the famous field about a 100-yard dash from here.

And they have good reason to be talking football now, because they have a new head coach who has his eye on that empty slot on the Walk of Champions leading up to the new front entrance to Bryant-Denny stadium.

They say there’s nothing funny about football here – except that the fans seem to take it so seriously.
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Colette Connell: Bond $500

University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban receives a kiss from Colette Connell as he’s mobbed by Alabama fans at the Tuscaloosa Regional Airport last Wednesday.

Apparently a version of this was broken on an Auburn listserv in the past few days. No one’s seen it in the mainstream media yet.

Priceless

Meeting your new head football coach at the Tuscaloosa airport at 3:47 p.m. and kissing him on the cheek …

$0

A bottle of Peach Schnapps …

$9.95

Getting arrested for DUI 3 hours after the encounter and still wearing your team jersey and smiling …

Priceless!