Wednesday, October 15, 2008

apologies and wednesday youtube

Can't apologize enough to the 14 people who read this thing regularly for the lack of posting of late -- I'm still getting adjusted to this new schedule. I do need to shape up, obviously, particularly with Tennessee and LSU still out there on the horizon.

Anyway, here's this week's youtube, in honor of Alabama-Ole Miss, one of the truly underrated series in the SEC. True, the Tide has dominated the Rebels numerically -- 44-9-1 all-time, 31-1-1 in the state of Alabama -- but the game is almost always interesting.

One of my favorites is this one from 1989, when undefeated 'Bama fell behind 21-0 at Ole Miss in the first quarter.



Tide didn't lose that season until the trip to Auburn ... and I'm still dealing with that psychologically.

In any case, the last three seasons have delivered on a consistent basis, starting in '05 with another undefeated Tide team being pushed to the wire two weeks after a big win over Florida.



(Note: if you're looking for reasons Ed O lost his job in Oxford, the following is pretty much a tribute to his entire reign -- just close enough to break his fans' hearts.)

The very next season -- the one that turned out to be the swan song for Mike Shula -- Ole Miss came to Tuscaloosa and pushed Alabama again, this time sending the game to OT. Interestingly, I watched the ending of this one in the press box at Auburn prior to the Tigers' big win over Florida.



And, of course, there's last season's ending, when poor Shay Hodge and Lionel Mitchell got caught up in this.



Obviously, the poster of this particular vid is more than a little biased, as are these guys -- even if the song is pretty funny.



I can't really say much more about that particular play than I did on the old LJ the day after it happened -- basically, that Jackson and the refs got it right, regardless of whether you think it should've been reviewed; that it was such an obvious call that I'm not sure how the zebra on the scene screwed it up the first time; and finally, if Ole Miss really wanted to be pissed at the right thing, maybe they should've been more angry about the fact that they let a flaccid Tide team score 10 points in the fourth quarter to take the lead in the first place. Just saying.

Anyway, be prepared for another nail-biter in Tuscaloosa this Saturday. If you're a gambler, stay away. You'll thank me later.

wlh

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