RT1966

Saban is the CEO of this organization and like any other CEO of a major company he runs the show. No need to worry about their relationship.

I too am kinda surprised at the grade Humphrey received. I know the NFL has a bunch of teams needing help at DB. I sure would like to see him stay one more year but hey can't fault the kid. Good luck

Great game. Congrats to Clemson. Not the kinda fan to make excuses or blame the lose on players. They had the better quarterback tonight. One thing I am curious about and certainly don't know the answer to is why is just about every pass play end up a roll out to the right? Just would like to know if it's by design or not. You just take away half the field and miss opportunities. Still extremely proud of this team we have a 18 year old kid at quarterback that's a heck of a athlete, just gotta get him coached up. Really excited for 17 season with the talent and offseason development should be another great year. A special thank you to all the seniors, your commitment to this team and the way you represented the university of Alabama. Roll Tide

I'm extremely proud of this team and the staff. This team accomplished a lot of terrific things and represented the university very well. Tonight we got beat plain and simple, Clemson is a very talented team and played well. Congrats to them. Roll Tide

Excellent read. This is a great inside story that will be told for generations. This has truly been one of if not the greatest decades in Alabama football history, thanks coach and terry and god rest your soul mal. Roll Tide

clemson is better than all our teams?, really now , look welcome to the sec message board and feel free to support your team. A good way to start your first post on this article is to be living in the real world. I will give you that Clemson is better than maybe half the teams in the conference THIS year. Glad you are a supporter of your team as every fan should be but just be realistic about your team. Example, see we Bammers love our tide, we are all in, every play of every year, no bandwagon types. See we have endured the good and the bad as most fans have, the obvious difference is we are realistic. Sixteen national championships helps keep you real. Yes, you guys have had very good football teams the last two years but when were you last revalant, prior to that, 1981 I believe. You have a talented group of playmakers and I'm sure it will be another well played and exciting game so good luck to your tigers please check with the university and make sure that the insurance policy for Watson is payed up, he may need it. Roll Tide

Really? Dumb bammers, why don't you look at some game replays. 80 percent or more of our big runs this year have been right up the middle Only outside jet sweeps to receivers. While our offensive line has struggled in pass blocking the run blocking has been fine

That's exactly right but the difference is it's happening in the national championship game after spring summer and fall camps. As of now sark hasn't called a play one for him

I partially agree but as the article states the play calls are predetermined before the game based on the situation. Yes the passing game particularly was horrific on Saturday but Kiffin wasn't the quarterback. There is plenty blame to go around concerning the offense the past 4 to 5 games and a major part is we have a dynamic athlete at quarterback and he is a freshman. A 18 YO. Kid who is use to being the big time playmaker and being the best on the field and that's not the case anymore. He has reverted these last few games If you guys remember last year when Kirby accepted the Georgia job CNS talked about the difficulties in managing. He even stated in an interview if the situation arose again he would seriously consider handling it different. Coach Kiffin has done a great job for us the past 3 years with 3 different qb's and styles. I hope he has matured and does well at FAU

Sorry we are talking about two completely different things. There is huge difference in a player clapping his hands to imitate a snap vs ttrying to take guys knees and legs out and basically ruining their career. Oh we do wrong as evidenced by the 11 penalties.

*edit*. First word of first sentence ,for as. Sorry

im leaning on agreeing with TIDEPIT77. Dora's good as our defense is I'm so worried about the offense and unfortunately I don't think the defense can score enough touchdowns. Last nights offensive performance wasn't a fluke it continued the trend of a very talented offense with a freshman quarterback who has reverted the past 5 games. I love my Tide and will ride or die no matter what and have for 40 years. Clemson is a very talented teams and are clearly worthy of being in the championship.

I must say I agree with your observation. Clemson has a more talented defense and if Hurts plays like he has the past 3 to 4 games we will be in trouble. Clemson has big play abilities from anywhere on the field and aren't afraid to take their deep shots down field. Another fumble ( while we did recover) last night is very concerning Hurts has got to do a better job of protecting the ball. It also still appears to me that his timing is still off I. The passing game, his throws are still late, refer to the opening pass to Howard, way late and should have been intercepted. He has regressed passing the ball. We didn't even take a shot down field last night, Ridley had one reception for what 6 yards. In order for us to beat Clemson again we are going to need to complete some passes down field to help the run. Clemson will stack the line to try to take the running game away. As good as our backs have been all season we can't win another national title without the playmakers getting the ball on the outside. The offensive line struggled terribly last night in pass protection and had way to many penalties. As great as our defense is, I think the best we have had maybe ever they will need some help from the offense, need to have some long time consuming drives with some quick strike big plays as well. We all know Clemson likes to go fast on offense and run a lot of plays so we need the offense to do their job so the defense is not on the field for 85 plus plays. I look for a tight game like last year but much lower scoring. Roll tide, let's go win another national championship

Well all in all the committee got it right, at least with number 1 and number 2. 3 and 4 are open to much debate. Ohio State looked shell shocked to me against Clemson. Meyer is supposedly this offensive guru, but he had no answer for Clemson's defense. I have to say I do agree with the fact that Hurts has regressed the past few games. It's kinda confusing to me especially if he hit the "freshman" wall. I would have expected it earlier in the year and not this late in the season, I'm concerned. About our offensive line in pass protection, run blocking has been terrific but Hurts was under some serious pressure against Washington. Clemson's defense, while losing some talent from last years team showed a great quickness size to side last night. I feel like the key for us against them will be running the ball between the tackles, if they load the box up which we know they will almost certainly do then it's all gonna come down to quarterback play and Clemson has a significant edge over us at that position. This should be another awesome game but I don't see 85 total points in this one, probably half would be more like it. Very proud of the entire team, I got a feeling CNS will be in a lot of offensive meetings these next 8 days. Roll Tide

Washingtons offensive line took cheap shots all night at Bama defenders. Yes the officiating in this game was horrible but what really shocked me was a Chris Peterson team playing like this. I think coach said it best in his post game on the field. " we have a lot of guys that are gonna be playing on the next level and someone taking cheap shots or going at a guys knees all Allen was doing was letting them know and defending his teammate. I have no problem with that as a fan

If you watched the game close Washington o linemen were taking cheap shots all game. Especially 72 and 57. Of you watch on the play that we were flagged on he tried to take Fitzpatricks head and then look like he threw a punch on the way down. It really surprised me that a Chris Peterson team would play this way. Pretty classless. All and all a sloppy game for us except on the defensive side which was just spectacular. Another issue was penalties, what did we end up with 14 or 16 penalties and Washington had 2. I know there is probably holding on every offensive play but 72 held on every offensive play. I'm not one to every blame a games outcome but I think this crew did a horrific job tonight but what would you expect from a Big 10 crew. Anyway the Tide once again showed its dominance even when not playing well. Great job to the entire organization and here is looking for 17. RTR

I don't know if I should give credit to washingtons defense or what but our offense looks as out of sync as it has all year. Absolutely no passing game. Give it to BO

Wow I thought we Tide fans were tough but you Georgia fans are brutal. Really sit back and take a look at your season, the youth and inexperience, a new coach learning to be a head coach and with the exception of receiver and running back your team was thin. You won 8 games won a bowl, got an extra month of practice and have a top 5 recruiting class. Before you guys declare smart a failure why not see what he does next year. But hey your administration has shown not to be the brightest firing a coach who consistently won 10 games a year, ran a clean program, and had in a position for championships. All that coach did was take a very down Miami team to a bowl win for the first time in 9 years. So good luck, if you fire Kirby I feel pretty confident that he still has a place in T Town

Wow. Did anyone see coach b comment concerning this? "Immature act by an immature individual ", really? This is a 20something entitled person who thought he could get away with it. Silly, senseless, stupid, many words can be used for this act. He is rated as the 6th highest draft eligible tight end last time I checked that was worth more than 260 bucks. I think this just scratches the surface of a team that the head coach doesn't have control of. I can just imagine before the shopping spree the team having to be instructed that their gift card has a value of 450 dollars .

Well some interesting statements but Bama by 42 come on man. I'm a bammer and I can't in any way see us winning by 42. I will take a victory by any margin but I'm thinking 14 at the most. Hey if you are right I'll be the first to give you props. RTR

Make all the excuses you would like but the truth of the matter is Arkansas collapsed right in front of our eyes. I will agree that overall VT is a better team but I don't care about that. You have a 24 point lead and you get shut out in the second half. That's the sign of a undisciplined and not well coached team. If it happens in one game you can maybe call it a fluke but how many times did Arkansas collapse in the second half this year? Just not a well coached team and it certainly lacks in other areas as well

wow did anyone other than me watch the Belk bowl? Well more of Arkansas being Arkansas. Blow a 24 point lead at half. I don't know what's worse their second half play or the fact that your starting senior tight end is arrested for shoplifting at a Belk Store, especially after being given a 450.00 gift card

Awesome. Good feel good story for the holidays. Puts things into perspective

Double edged sword. First, his college career is over because he is going for the money, right? Isn't he just a junior and did he graduate yet? Know he signed with a agent so I guess it doesn't matter. Not faulting him for going for the money of the NFL . Maybe I'm way off but I don't see him as a first round pick Maybe late second While he has proven to be a beast against inferior opponents look at his stats the last couple of years against quality defenses. Just my opinion hope he does well

You are basing your opinion on the 4 and 5 stars going to these programs under the former staffs. Sure there aren't any now and with that those staffs have been replaced. I personally don't give a lot of weight to these "star" rating services they miss as much as they hit on these kids. While I agree that it will be extremely difficult for either program to land the 5 star or 4 star player it's not impossible. Another consideration is the fact that we have all seen what a good coach can do with a 2 or3 star player. How many times have you seen or heard of a kid that wasn't even ranked or was a 1 or 2 star end up playing on Sunday's? The Sunbelt Conference just got one of if not the best offensive coordinators in college football so let's see what happens

Absolutely, if you are a top recruit and Bama comes calling then if you have the talent for the next level then Bama is the place to be

These articles get comical at times. "Kiffin" exaggerated other programs interest". Really, so called writes of these articles go to great lengths to create don't they. Let's look at this objectively, first did he overstate other teams interest in him, maybe maybe not. If so, he hasn't done anything that basically every coach and or agent has done to promote or get a raise. We see this happen constantly especially the agents representing coaches. Create a buzz and drive the price up. Just look at the past 3 to 4 weeks with Tom Herman and LSU, Texas, Coach Mac and the Oregon job, the list goes on and on. It's a part of college football when someone's name gets hot. I'm gonna defend kiffin on this one. The man wanted another shot at being a head coach period. I'm sure he didn't picture his next job to be FAU but hey he is in the middle of what is probably one of the best recruiting grounds in America. I think it's the perfect fit for him at this stage of his career. There will not be the expectations of a SEC or other Power 5 Conference. This will allow him the space and ability to put what he has learned (hopefully) from Coach Saban. If he is just moderately successful in say 2-3 years and stays out of the headlines then he will be back at a high profile program in 2018-19. Those who say "well he will only be there until a better job comes along" well look at it fairly. If you are working at a minimum wage job doing well and learning and you receive a offer from another job making double the money would you take it? All I know is for the most part he has kept his nose clean at Bama, hasn't been or created a distraction and yes I know Coach Saban wouldn't allow but at the end of the day he is a grown man. As a Tide fan all I know is he has done a hell of a job running the offense the past 3 years with 3 different quarterbacks. As far as I'm concerned I wish him nothing but success, I appreciate the fact he is staying on thru the playoffs which will hopefully mean another National Championship. Maybe he will be able to take one of our two qb's that are transferring and develop them into a NFL prospect he did recruit them so I guess we will see.

Good article. The little remark about NC I took as a compliment and moved on. One of the better articles from Mr Crist lately. All the numbers and different comparisons are fun to really sit back and try to put into perspective. Especially the scholarships. Can you imagine if nick Saban had over a hundred he could offer, lord we could field 2 teams. In all seriousness, taking into account the different eras and how different the game is now compared to Bears heydays it is very likely when it's all said and done that he will go down as the greatest coach in Alabama history and probably the best of all time period. I've been a bammer for over 40 years and I can never remember a ten year stretch in my time that has had this type of success. And finally, something that I feel gets overlooked at times has been the willingness of coach to change and adapt his scheme to his players as well as recruiting different types of players. Up until basically 3 years ago we got the biggest and baddest and not necessarily the fastest for the defense and win a lot of games by just being stronger and more physical. I saw the change kinda start after the comeback loss to auburn with scam newton, then it was johnny football. Now when you look at our roster you still see big and strong and speed. There isn't a QB, receiver, or running back who can get outside on us. It's been a lot of fun to watch our program continue to grow and adapt.

To complete my post. Will see about domination. Just be prepared should we win that your coach may need to be rushed to the hospital and have to retire.

Wow the Buckeyes came out of the woodwork. It's comical reading some of their statements. First, let's address what you refer to as dominating Bama, you won the game , but dominated not even close. Check websters for the definition of domination before making such a statement. You guys won the game so I give credit to you for that. I'm a fan that watched the game as are all of you, so what a player says that actually played in the game carries a lot more weight than anything any of us say or think. Regardless, OSU won the game and went on to the NC so congrats. Let's go back and address the domination point again, if you OSU want to know what a dominating performance looks like I'll be more that happy to provide you a list of ten to fifteen games over the past couple of years that Bama played in that we dominated. For clarity I'm not talking about cupcakes that make up 40 percent of OSU's schedule I'm talking about ranked opponents, example a team from your conference MSU, which of memory serves me correctly beat OSU LAST YEAR only to get boat raced by 38 by Bama with the second and third teams playing a majority of the 4th quarter. So in closing let's look at national championships and conference championships, it's not even close. Also, you backed into the playoff this year simply because of media and money, couldn't even win your conference or better yet your division of the conference. I'll be pulling for you guys against Clemson with the hope of a rematch in the NC and we wi