Larry Brown Sports

Alvin Kamara of Norcross (Ga.) is one of the top junior running backs in the country. So, it’s only customary that he will be receiving phone calls and letters from some of the biggest football programs in the land. But what he says showed up in his mail box one day recently is unprecedented: 105 letters, all from the Alabama Crimson Tide. I wonder if the Tide might be interested in him.

“I was shocked,” Kamara told Rivals.com. “I didn’t expect there to be that many in the mailbox. When I opened it, it was overflowing and some of them fell out.”

Kamara’s 1,500-plus yards rushing for Norcross last season and stellar performance in the Rising Seniors Georgia Junior Bowl in December has made him one of the most prized recruits in his state. A four-star prospect according to Rivals, he’s already received scholarship offers from Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Clemson, among others.

Whatever school he decides to play for will probably be lucky to have him. But let’s just hope his mom will be on board.

H/T Jan and Gunther

The Honey Badger doesn’t give a bleep. We already knew that.  Whatever the Honey Badger needs to do to get what he wants, he’s more than willing to do it.  Typically, Tyrann Mathieu is one of the most physical players on the field and accomplishes his goals that way.  However, he is also a known trash-talker.  With such an enormous amount of time to prepare for the BCS National Championship game, Mathieu has decided to do a little research so his smack talk can be on point when LSU takes on Alabama.

According to the Crimson White, the Honey Badger has been looking up mother’s names to prepare for the Crimson Tide wide receivers.

“You try to get the edge any way you got to,” Mathieu said. “When you are on the field you’re just having fun, you’re just talking. If you can get a player out of his zone, you win the battle.”

Mathieu’s plan has drawn a mixed reaction from the Alabama players.  On one end you have guys like defensive tackle Josh Chapman, who lets trash talk go in one ear and out the other.

“It don’t matter. if they find out my momma’s name, then so be it,” Chapman said. “Trash talk only really affects guys who don’t know how to handle it. I hope a lot of them know my momma’s name, because if they’re trying to do that much to find out your momma’s name then you’re doing too much besides learning about some football.”

However, Chapman won’t be on the field at the same time as Mathieu to hear him talking.  Alabama wide receiver Marquis Maze will be.  From the sound of it, just the thought of the Honey Badger talking about Maze’s momma gets under his skin.

“I really don’t care what he say, he don’t know my momma,” wide receiver Marquis Maze said. “Whatever he says, he just don’t need to say the wrong thing. (If he brings family members into it) then I won’t have any respect for him. I have respect for him, but if he says something about anyone in my family, I will have real problems with it.”

Maze is forgetting one important thing: the Honey Badger don’t care.

Whatever Nick Saban said to five-star defensive back high school recruit Landon Collins, it worked. Collins was one of the most sought-after players in the country before Thursday night, we he announced his decision to enroll at Alabama after the Under Armour All-American game. The irony of the situation is that Collins is from Louisiana, meaning he has decided to betray his roots by not committing to LSU. At least Collins’ mother will always support him no matter what he does even if the people of Louisiana turn against him, right? Wrong. Check out this video that Kegs ‘N Eggs passed along:

Now that’s a diehard LSU fan.  It would be tough to find a more committed Tiger than one who is willing to turn against and embarrass her son on national television for announcing his plans to sleep with the enemy.  Granted, LSU will still have Tyrann Mathieu next season and he can play every position in the secondary at once, but this is a slap in the face to Tiger nation.  Let’s all just cross our fingers this situation doesn’t create another one of those dreadful half-and-half jerseys we have been seeing more and more of.

The drumbeat grows louder. Presumably, by this time, the average college football fan has all but ruined their appetite by filling up on the crudités that is every other bowl contest leading up to the BCS National Championship Game on Monday. (In this metaphor Northern Illinois versus Arkansas State would serve as the radish just there for show, and eventually gets disregarded.) Already, the offering of bowl games has run the gamut from the lemons (Temple’s ho-hum win over Wyoming and Arizona State spud-dering against the Idahoans from Boise State) to the sublime (Baylor-Washington minus the defense, and Michigan State actually taking the ‘block that kick’ chant to heart against Georgia). But, it’s doubtful that anyone not associated with SMU and Pittsburgh can explain the importance of the BBVA Compass Bowl trophy in a thousand words or less.

What piques the interest in college football in the absence of leprechauns, unicorns, and a suitable playoff system is the national championship game. It’s the one for all the marbles. The whole shebang. The big enchilada. The giant kumquat. (OK, I made that last one up). It’s the reason for spewing countless numbers of clichés, but then again you’ve to give them (the government?) credit because, at the end of the day, they all make plays, oh and the sun sets. For more information on this subject, listen to Kirk Herbstreit for about ten minutes.

This year’s game — just as seemingly every one before in recent memory — has been the subject of ire for anyone who doesn’t live in a locale that might double as the setting for a John Grisham novel. Either LSU or Alabama will become the sixth straight team from the Southeastern Conference to win college football’s prized national championship. Odds are, if one doesn’t currently possess a southern drawl, that mere fact is not likely to have someone whistling “Dixie” any time soon.

Just in case, you’ve expunged the last seven weeks from your memory or had it erased as a result of New Year’s imbibing, the two teams met already once this season, making this game the first BCS title game involving two teams from the same conference, division, and/or who have already met this year. If the notion of a replay doesn’t have people cursing a blue-state streak, then perhaps remember that the first meeting involved four quarters and an overtime of 9-6 goodness. Plenty of defense, 5 field goals, and just as many touchdowns scored at the game as there were from the couches of the fans watching it.

Read The Rest of the Story…

As if a rematch between LSU and Alabama for the BCS National Championship game needed any added buzz surrounding it.  As you know, the SEC rematch was made official on Sunday night, much to the dismay of many fans who don’t believe in allowing a rematch regardless of the circumstances.  Just a few hours after the game was announced, a computer coder made a small mistake on LSU’s website.  What was originally thought to be the job of a hacker is now believed to be merely human error, but LSU’s online store was briefly transformed into Roll Tide city last night.  Check out this picture that Darren Rovell shared with us:

Let the games begin.  Though many will argue that Alabama already had their shot at the Tigers, I think the BCS committee got this one right.  We showed you some interesting notes on the voters earlier, and while it was a tough call after Oklahoma State demolished Oklahoma, there was nothing that could stand in the way of the rematch.  Until Saturday night, even Mike Gundy thought the Crimson Tide deserved another shot.  Out of every one-loss team, it’s tough to argue that the one-loss team who lost to the No. 1 team in the country by three points isn’t deserving of the No. 2 spot.

With the way it stands, the BCS National Championship game is destined to be a rematch between LSU and Alabama. Assuming all of the relevant parties win out, it should be. LSU is the consensus No. 1 team in the nation and the only undefeated remaining. Alabama, who lost by three points in overtime to LSU on the road, can obviously make the strongest case of any one-loss team. Even Mike Gundy, whose Oklahoma State Cowboys are ranked third, can’t argue with that.

“If somebody sat me down and said (I) had to make a decision, with where we’re at right now, Alabama lost to what would be the No. 1 team in the country (LSU), and Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State,” Gundy explained Monday according to the Daily Oklahoman. “In our situation, if I was doing it fair, I don’t know how I could put us in front of (Alabama) right now.”

Gundy’s calm demeanor would seem to indicate that nobody in the room wrote something nasty about his quarterback or was wearing an Oklahoma shirt.  As College Football Talk pointed out, Oklahoma State has actually faced four teams in the top-25 of the most recent BCS standings and defeated all four of them.  Alabama, on the other hand, has faced only three teams currently ranked in the top-25 and lost to one of them.

Are we saying OSU is more qualified than Bama?  No.  Oklahoma State’s loss to Iowa State was a bad one whereas Alabama’s loss to LSU was as good a loss as a loss can be.  That being said, it would not be insane to make a case for the Cowboys — especially if you’re their head coach.

I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here, don’t you? Gundy is afraid of the Honey Badger, and I can’t say I blame him.

Ever seen a 4,000-pound pot of soup?  Neither had we until now.  The giant pot you see above was filled with enough seafood gumbo to feed 10,000 people on Saturday night as part of the festivities before the LSU-Alabama game.  As you might imagine, that was good enough for a world record.  According to WWLTV in Louisiana, former Alabama lineman Bom Baumhower and famous Lousiana chef John Folse oversaw an operation that called for 750 pounds of shrimp, 450 pounds of catfish, 200 pounds of alligator meat, and 150 pounds of crab meat.  Each bowl sold for $5 each with all proceeds going to benefit Tuscaloosa-area charities and tornado relief.  Here is a video that helps explain the event in more detail:

Read The Rest of the Story…