CoachHal.com

Voters Get it Right

The next time somebody tells you that the Heisman Trophy is nothing more than an overhyped award that lost its luster a long time ago, mention the name Mark Ingram.

There was no hiding his emotion Saturday in the Nokia Theatre. He slowly exhaled several times, doing his best to compose himself. His voice cracked, and then he cried.

Admittedly overwhelmed, Ingram thanked everyone -- Nick Saban, his parents, his teammates, his sports information directors, even his teachers at Alabama.

He understood unequivocally how historic the moment was in the realm of Alabama’s proud football history.

Of all the great players who’d come before him – Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, Ozzie Newsome, Cornelius Bennett, Lee Roy Jordan and Shaun Alexander – Ingram became the first Alabama player to hoist the Heisman Trophy as his own.

Sure, there probably have been better players to come through Alabama than Ingram, the third straight sophomore to win college football’s most prestigious individual award.

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Mark Ingram makes Alabama history with Heisman

NEW YORK (AP) — Mark Ingram completed the trophy case at Alabama, delivering the first Heisman to a school that boasts one of the richest histories in college football.

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Report: McElwain interviews
By Chase Goodbread
Published: Friday, December 11, 2009 at 9:02 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, December 11, 2009 at 9:02 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA | University of Alabama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain has interviewed for the head coaching vacancy at San Jose State, according to the Bay Area NBC television affiliate, along with Stanford offensive coordinator David Shaw.

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Fellow tailgaters,

Finally. Alabama got redemption after the get wrenching loss in 2008…now on to the summary after a great weekend.

1. We enter the BCS final at 13-0. Alabama and Texas. Beebo and Beevo. Saban/Smart and Brown/Muschamp. Applewhite. Etc. This is going to be quite a month of anticipation and smelling of the roses.

2. We have our hotel and plane tickets already booked for LA. Hope to catch a Lakers game while out there, maybe some horse racing, some time on the Pacific, and then the big one is Thursday night.

3. We have our hotel reservations secured for next year’s SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. You gotta believe…

4. We stayed in a hotel right by the Dome and Centennial Park this weekend. When we saw Lane Kiffin arrive on the ESPN Gameday set, we decided to head out into the cold and see the game picks from Corso, Herbstriet, and Kiffin. We were not disappointed as Kiffin talked trash (“Florida has the better players, Alabama has the better coaches”) and then Corso put the Big Al head on when he picked Alabama.

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By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
Dec 5, 10:26 pm EST

ATLANTA – Back in Tuscaloosa, to one side of the walkway in front of Bryant-Denny Stadium, stand four statues of Crimson Tide coaching greats, including Gene Stallings and, of course, Bear Bryant.

Closest to the stadium there is a space set up for coach No. 5, an empty spot that’s served as a figurative gap in this storied program for more than a decade. Four different coaches tried to fill it. All failed, often disastrously. All they left was a powerhouse desperate for a leader.

Then came Saint Nick Saban three falls ago and if they want to sculpt an unlikely, if telling, image of the man, they might choose his flying hip/chest bump with Tide running back Mark Ingram conducted in the final seconds of his program’s masterpiece performance here Saturday.

“I don’t know what we were doing,” said Ingram, as surprised as anyone that a man generally known to be as fun as the flu would suddenly loosen up. “I didn’t know he’d do it. I saw him coming to me with a chest bump.”

Alabama 32, Florida 13, Tim Tebow tamed in tears and the Tide rolling onto Pasadena, Saban actually celebrating despite being 60 minutes from the ultimate glory.

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By Damon Young
December 06, 2009, 5:57AM
Confetti and streamers fell from the rafters, tears dropped from Tebow's eyes, and cheers of Rammer Jammer erupted from the Alabama faithful. The domination and dismantling of the Florida Gators was complete and finally after two undefeated regular seasons, Alabama had something to show for it: 2009 SEC Champions.

Going into the game you just kept hearing about how even these two teams were. Great defenses, great skill players, but the difference would be at quarterback. Well, one difference would be at quarterback and another would be at the line of scrimmage and another would be the coaching staffs.

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