bama is back

today, alabama football returns! I would say that I am an average to above average fanatic when it comes to alabama football and my wife (begrudgingly) can attest to it. in honor of the return of my favorite time of the year, these are my top 5 favorite alabama football memories...

5. (1998) alabama beat auburn in auburn for the first time in the long history of the rivalry. ever since that game we have not been able to beat them again in auburn, BUT we play there this year and hopefully history will repeat itself.

4. (2005) alabama played tennessee in tuscaloosa in a primetime afternoon game on CBS. i was living in searcy at the time and i was watching my undefeated tide play tn. with the game tied at 3-3, roman harper hit a tn fullback streaking towards the endzone for a touchdown causing the fullback to fumble out of the back of the endzone for a touchback. alabama was able to drive down the field and kick a field goal with seconds left to remain undefeated and beat tn 6-3.

3. (2005) alabama had a great season this year with losses only to lsu & auburn. however, two games from that season are memorable because of the setting and the people that i was with. first, we played florida in the fourth week of the season. i went with a bunch of my buddies to viola, arkansas to hang out and i planned to watch the game there. they gave me grief all day before the game saying, "alabama is gonna get killed", and "there isn't a chance ya'll will win", etc... but, alabama came out and routed florida 35-13 in dominating fashion. the other game was the before mentioned lsu game. espn gameday picked that game as the game of the week & i actually had tickets to the game. i took my buddies john & greg for their first trip to tuscaloosa. it was insane. there were people everywhere and gameday was awesome, and even though we ended up losing in an OT heartbreaker it was an awesome experience.

2. (2006 & 2008) throughout my college career in arkansas, i delt with a lot of razorbacks. i personally witnessed two gut wrenching losses in fayetteville that we had no business losing which ultimately made me very bitter towards arkansas. however, in 2006 i got to take laura (now my wife) to her first alabama game and it was against arkansas in tuscaloosa. arkansas was picked to win the game, but in the closing seconds john parker wilson hit matt caddell in the back of the endzone for a last second touchdown and the win! it was crazy and i loved it! Also to further ease the pain suffered from several losses in fayetteville, laura & i traveled to arkansas to watch the alabama game in 2008. i was nervous because every time i had been to fayetteville for a game we ended up losing, but...alabama ROUTED arkansas in a 49-6 beat down and to make things sweeter... the guy that had been ragging me for four years about the previous arkansas games was sitting right beside me.

1. *not including the 1992 national championship* (1999) this was the first season that i really became intense about alabama football. this season we won every single game except the lsu game and the orange bowl game against tom brady & michigan, but alabama was the outright western division champion and played florida in the SEC championship game. alabama had beaten florida previously in the season on an OT field goal in gainesville and weren't given much of a chance to win, but alabama came out with all guns firing and dominated florida to become SEC champions. this is the last time that we won that title, but hopefully history will repeat itself soon....

until september 5th....roll tide roll