According to an article on foxsports.com, Coach Brian Kelly will be staying with Cincinnati for the foreseeable future.  Coach Kelly led the Bearcats to a 10-2 record and a Big East title this season.  This will be the first BCS Bowl in school history.  Kelly was one of the hottest commodities on the coaching circuit with the job he's done in Cincy.  In order to dispell rumors of leaving, he came out with a statement and said "no means no."  Also, it was noted in the write-up that Coach Kelly has several stipulations in his contract to improve the athletic facilities at the University including building a covered practice field. 

What's nice about this is that in our money driven college football world, loyalty and integrity still mean something.  In an era where coaches are trying to pull back-door deals, Kelly is instead focusing on building something special in Cincinnati and that is something to be proud of.  Just look at the stunt Rich Rodriguez pulled two years ago with Bama in order to negotiate a better contract for himself at West Virginia, claiming his loyalty only to leave a year later for Ann Arbor.  I don't even need to mention Saban do I?

Coach Brian Kelly is a throwback to better days when integrity in amateur sports actually meant something.  I hope he has a great tenure there and builds that program into a powerhouse.  Why can't there be more coaches like this?

Most people agreed, Auburn would lose this football game against Alabama.  No one expected a 36-0 shutout.  From the outset, Auburn's QB, Kodi Burns looked lost.  By halftime it was 10-0 Bama.  Then they came out in the second half and did what Coach Saban has been harping on all year: the Tide finished.  With a huge third quarter, they scored 19 points.  By the fourth quarter the third string was in and the game was over. 

The 36-0 victory was the first shutout in the series since Auburn's 9-0 victory in 2000 and the largest margin of victory for either team since 1962 when Bama won 38-0. 

Many pundits and sportswriters across the country said the game was irrelevant.  They kept saying Bama nation was focused too much on the SEC Championship and didn't really care about the Iron Bowl.  To those naysayers, I bring you the picture below, snapped today by me in a mall in Alabama outside of the famous Bama Fever/Tiger Pride store.  These stores specialize in Bama and Auburn merchandise including hats, t-shirts, pictures, and other items.  After the Iron Bowl victory last night, Bama fans were waiting literally for hours today in line for a t-shirt proclaiming their victory over Auburn.



 
We waited together as fans to get our opportunity to sport the score on our backs of the 2008 Iron Bowl.  This was a chance seven years in the making and being the proud Bama fans we are, we want to make sure we can wear this for the next 364 days as a reminder to Auburn that they're still second fiddle to the greatest football program in NCAA history.

Below is a pic I snapped of the front of my new shirt:



This is a pic of the back proclaiming the final score as a reminder to the Auburn family:




Now, Alabama can start focusing on our date with the Gators in Atlanta next weekend.  Many are expecting a blowout, but we are not going away.  This is Alabama Football!  It is what it is...aight?

It's finally upon us.  Iron Bowl week is finally here.  The state's greatest game has a lot on the line.  For Auburn, it's the chance to become bowl eligible, continue their winning streak against the Tide, and probably save Tuberville's job for at least one more season.  For Bama, it's the chance to remain unbeaten and have a shot at the BCS National Championship and finally end the streak of 6 consecutive losses to their arch-rivals. 

The conventional wisdom when it comes to college football's greatest rivalry (arguably) is that records don't matter when Alabama and Auburn matchup in the Iron Bowl.  The one thing you'll hear from fans, on both sides, is that once these two teams hit the field, you can throw the records and rankings out of the window.  History, however, has proven that this is anything but true. 

According to the Iron Bowl blog on al.com, the favorite in this game has won the matchup 75% of the time.  In the last 25 years, it's a little less, but not much at 68%.  So, the conventional wisdom should be that the records do, in fact, matter.  If one team is favored to win, most likely that team will win the game.  It gets even better though.

These two teams have faced off 31 times in their history separated by 3 or more wins.  In those 31 matchups, the team with the better record has won the game 28 times.  In the past 32 Iron Bowl games, the favorite has won 24 of those games.

That's bad news historically if your an Auburn fan.  Bama enters the game at 11-0 and ranked number 1 in the country.  The Tigers are 5-6 with close wins over both Miss. State and Tennessee with finals of 3-2 and 14-12 respectively.

Conventional wisdom should tell us that the favorite will most likely win this game.  It's hard to get that message through Alabama and Auburn fan's heads.     

Coach Saban gets fired up about this weekend's game against Mississippi State in the closing comments on his weekly radio show.  Sounds like he is ready for this week's matchup.  I know all the know-it-alls in the world sit back and say, "oh they should beat Mississippi State handily if they're a title contender."  Those are the same folks that don't watch SEC football every weekend.  Nothing comes easy.  Nick Saban knows it.  Watch and see:

All of the talk radio folks down here in good ol' Alabama kept talking about one thing all week.  LSU was going to put 8 in the box and force Alabama's QB, John Parker Wilson, to beat them.  Guess what?  He did it...twice in one game.  All the credit can't go to him of course.  Rashad Johnson had 3 interceptions one of which was returned for a TD.  That being said, the vaunted Alabama defense did show some holes in the armor.  They allowed LSU to run all over them knowing full well that all LSU would be able to do would be to run since they didn't have confidence in their freshman QB. 

So, they wanted to make Wilson beat them.  They got their wish.  With time ticking out in the 4th, Wilson made a dazzling run to the end zone that should have been a touchdown.  That would have been the nail in the coffin.  The play got called back due to a bogus holding call against Andre Smith.  Tiffin's field goal is blocked and just like that, they go to overtime.  In overtime, Johnson got his 3rd interception of the day giving Bama the ball back.  Score and go home. 

John Parker Wilson made a tremendous throw to Julio Jones who caught it bringing up first and goal.  A couple of snaps later, Wilson goes into the end zone again, sealing the deal.  They wanted to see if this kid could beat them and he did. 

Now, maybe all the LSU fans and pundits will shut up about how Bama doesn't deserve to be the number one team.  We beat them on their turf.  Still think we're a weak BCS Championship contender? 

I suppose the true tale of the tape will be when we go to Atlanta and play Tebow and the Gators.  Even though they won, the Tide looked bad at times.  Some early miscues could have cost them the game.  All season, they'd played near flawless football.  They made plenty of mistakes in this game.  While they escaped, don't look for those mistakes to repeat themselves once Saban gets hold of the game tape and breaks down every nuance to the players. 

This was a hard fought victory.  LSU showed up hungry for this one.  Fortunately for Bama, they came up short in the end.  Let's see how this plays out.