Larry Brown Sports

Alabama further proved that it is in a class of its own on Saturday with another dominant victory, this time over 11th-ranked Mississippi State. Those of you who like to gamble may have seen Mississippi State getting 24 points heading into the game and thought it was easy money since they are ranked so highly. Instead, Alabama covered another mind-boggling spread. Nick Saban still saw room for improvement.

“I got upset with the backup players because they are better than that,” Saban said according to Andrew Gribble of AI.com. “They can play better than that. They need to play with poise and confidence when they go in the game and compete just like everybody else competes. That’s being able to execute and do your job.

“Everybody has to understand their role and go out there and do it.”

Alabama won 38-7, but Saban was upset about Mississippi State’s lone touchdown drive which included a 15-yard facemask by freshman cornerback Geno Smith. The Bulldogs’ nine-play, 63-yard drive spoiled a potential shutout, but Saban insisted it is not holding his opponent to a goose egg that matters.

“It’s not about shutting anybody out,” he said. “It’s not about any of that. It’s about them playing their best football. We are trying to get our players to play their best that they can play in every regard. We need to keep improving as a team.”

Saban is a perfectionist, which is why he has his team in a tremendous position to repeat as national champions. As we have seen from some of the blow-ups he has had at the media, Saban obsesses over making sure his team never gets too cocky or underestimates its opponents. If that involves ripping reserve players for not preserving a shutout, so be it.

Tim Tebow is serving as a source of motivation for one of his biggest former rivals. Heading into what would be the perfect trap game scenario at home against Ole Miss, Nick Saban is trying to keep his No.1-ranked Alabama squad focused. One loss can cost a team a season, and that loss could come at any time if the Tide fail to take all of their opponents seriously. That’s where a famous Tebow speech comes in.

As The Birmingham News pointed out, Saban said he has played video of Tebow’s “I promise” speech that he gave after Florida — which was ranked No. 1 at the time — lost at home to none other than Ole Miss.

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If Alabama was able to beat No. 8 Michigan by a score of 41-14 at a neutral site last weekend, what will they do to Western Kentucky at home? Tide fans have likely been wondering just that, which would help explain why there were still tickets to Saturday’s game available on Thursday afternoon. Nick Saban feels as though the defending national champions should never have to work to sell out a football game.

“A thousand tickets?” Saban asked according to the Montgomery Advertiser. “I’ll buy them and give them away. We can’t sell out with all the games we’ve won?”

Alabama has a tremendous support group, but that doesn’t mean people enjoy watching a snoozer. That’s exactly what this game will be, and all the fans know it. The game will still sell out eventually — especially since Saban also lobbed a compliment toward the fans.

“It’s important for fans to know that anytime we play in Bryant-Denny Stadium, they create a wonderful atmosphere for our team,” he said.

Saban’s argument is that the team has done enough to deserve playing in front of a sellout crowd, and he’s right. We already know he doesn’t want to hear the media underestimating this weekend’s opponent, so I’m sure Saban feels the same about the fans. Unfortunately, fans don’t think that way. Some of them just refuse to spend money on a game that is such a mismatch.

As we mentioned earlier in the week when we told you about Alabama’s championship trophy being accidentally shattered, it’s likely that no one feels worse about the incident than the player’s father who caused it. As you can see in the clip above from WHNT in Alabama, Nick Saban certainly doesn’t seem worried about it.

“I fell off my boat and (almost) killed myself once cleaning up after taking the kids wakeboarding,” Saban said, trying to downplay the fumble. “That could have been real disastrous. Breaking a crystal ball — even though it’s very meaningful — nobody got hurt, nobody meant to do any harm and I’m sure we can replace it.”

Mistakes happen. Alabama will make up for the $30,000 the trophy costs in the first 10 minutes of their single-game ticket sales. Life goes on.

Maybe the BCS National Championship trophy should just stay in the trophy case. After a team wins the national championship, it’s understandable for everyone to want to touch and hold the winning hardware. Assuming the crystal football makes it out of that commotion unscathed, teams may want to consider just counting their blessings and tucking it away. Alabama may feel that way after what took place Saturday afternoon.

According to ESPN.com, a current Alabama player’s father accidentally tripped over the rug that was under the podium holding the BCS Coaches’ Trophy and sent it tumbling to the ground. The $30,000 trophy reportedly shattered and broke into tiny pieces of crystal.

The $30,000 can easily be replaced by Alabama, so in this situation I just feel badly for the father who caused it to fall. Can you imagine how humiliated he must have felt? For what it’s worth, he’s not alone. Florida recruit Orson Charles fumbled the Gators’ BCS National Championship trophy back in 2008 and the end result was the same.

“It’s pretty fragile, I guess,” trophy manager for the American Football Coaches Association Charlie Green said. “It only weighs about eight pounds so I can see where if it gets bumped it would roll off.”

Green also added that he uses adhesive tape to secure the trophy to its stand when it’s touring around the country. In hindsight, that was probably the way to go.

Photo credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Now that’s what we call irony. Of all the possible three-letter combinations in the alphabet, this is what Alabama’s state Motor Vehicles Division came up with. There’s very little you could say to convince me that this isn’t some sort of sick practical joke. Alabama fans probably hate Cam Newton more than any athlete in the history of the Auburn program.

There are 1,000 of these custom “Roll Tide Roll” vanity license plates being distributed, and something tells me at least a few of those 1,000 people will be turning them in almost immediately. If you’re a big enough Tide fan to get a “Roll Tide” license plate, you’re a big enough Tide fan to return a “Roll Tide” license plate that says “CAM” on it.

Picture via Will Collier on Twitter
H/T Eye on College Football

Knowing how big Mardi Gras is for the people of Louisiana, I can’t imagine there were too many happy faces looking at this parade float. A group of people — clearly Alabama fans — had to have spent a ton of time putting together the float you see above, which is loaded with one-liners, portraits, and numbers that completely rip LSU for their loss to the Crimson Tide in the BCS National Championship game.

The masterpiece ripped on LSU quarterback Jarrett Lee for having to watch from the sidelines as Jordan Jefferson and the Tigers offense did absolutely nothing for 60 minutes. As you see below, another section showed a Bama elephant protecting the 50-yard line so no Tigers could get across.

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