Alabama 37 - Texas 21

What a wonderful day in Pasadena for the 2010 Citi BCS National Championship Game between #1 Alabama (13-0) and #2 Texas (13-0)!

A cloudless, warm (77˚F = 25˚C), sunny day with lots of friendly banter between the fans of the two combatants leading up to the 5:00 p.m. pre-game festivities.

Greed was the only negative vibration in attendance this fine day!

Parking was NOT cheap

One large corporation, that is the take-off point for the free shuttles from Old Town Pasadena to the Rose Bowl, even sent their workers home at noon in an effort to free up more of these parking spots for the revelers.

As I said in my last post, this was to be my fifth BCS National Championship Game. How things have changed.

In 1999, the first ever BCS National Championship Game was between Tennessee and Florida State at the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Arizona. When I arrived at the Phoenix Airport that day, there were several people trying to scalp tickets at $10-$15 over their face value of $100. . .life was so simple then! Tennessee was the big winner that day.

In 2004, we were off to the BCS National Championship Game Sugar Bowl in New Orleans to watch LSU beat Oklahoma. The ticket now had a face value of $150.

2006 brought the BCS National Chamopionship to Pasadena's Rose Bowl as Texas upset USC. The tickets now sold for $175 face value.

The 2007 BCS National Championship Game was the first one that now was now separate from the BCS's original Big-Four Bowl Games. It was held at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona a week after the tremendous Fiesta Bowl was held there when Boise State stunned Oklahoma. The price of a ticket to watch Florida dismantle Ohio State was now up to$325!

Now here was a stunner, yesterday the price of a ticket to the BCS National Championship Game was "only" $275! While the ticket's face value was down from three years ago, it must be remembered that the Rose Bowl has seats for about 30,000 more fans than the University of Phoenix Stadium.

Want a beer? $8 please. They were due to cut off sales of alcohol at the end of halftime. No problem, they just flat out ran out of beer before the end of the first half!

Pre-Game with the Bama Faithful

We had a GREAT time with these Crimson Tide fans that we met at the pre-game festivities.

On the left is Jake and his Dad Jimmy. Jake just graduated from Alabama as did his Dad many years ago. Good people, I just wish I had caught their last names.

In the middle are Tonya and John McGuire, two more die hard Bama fans and very funny people.

On the right are Ritchie and Paige Russell. Again, awesome and Crimson! Ritchie's parents, Frank and Mary secured tickets for Mark and I to the 2003 LSU at Alabama game. . .

It was a FABULOUS EXPERIENCE!!!

THERE IS NOTHING QUITE LIKE

AN SEC GAME!

Jimmy's Pants

WOW! Red pants with little Elephants embroidered all over them.

Why didn't I have a pair like these the last two years when I was coaching the Catania Elephants???

The Rose Bowl Stadium

with Mark Johnson

As predicted, Mark was in full Husky purple. I opted for subtelty when I decided to wear only my hat commemorating Washington's 1960 National Championship.

When we were asked about wearing Washington gear and not Texas or Alabama oriented clothes, I simply responded, "The Tide and Horns are both fortunate that we lost those 7 games this season or we would be here kicking both of their sorry asses!!!"

They universally laughed and suddenly we had several new friends in the South.

Jason "Lessons in Positology" are starting to rub off on me I think.

Mike Contreras trying to crash the party

Mike showed up sans a ticket and hoped to buy one from a scalper if the price was right.

It wasn't, as the cheapest ticket he could find, after the game had already started, was being offered at a "mere" $300, way too rich for his newly married blood.

For me, the fun things about college football are the passionate fans, the color, the traditions and the pagentry. I enjoy all of these things at least as much as the game itself.

For example. . .

Roll Tide!

Is that an Elephant on her head or is she just happy to see me?

What if I had one of these hats with a pair of Jimmy's pants in Catania?

New Catania Head Coach Mel Galli, are you listening???

Hook 'Em Horns!

Now she IS very cute but how often do you see a guy wearing chaps to a game?

Probably a lot in Austin, Texas I would hazard to guess.

A Texas fan taking exception to

Bama Court Jester, John McGuire

Lots of giggles here, death if it were Chelsea and Man U!

But, the Winners are. . .

The Bama Pimp and his Crimson Ho

Texas had no answer for these two suspects of interest.

Texas linemen warming up

Two old friends at another BIG Game!

Here come the Longhorns!

Bama Pride Counters!

ALABAMA LINE SURGE!

Bama's Freshman RB #3 Trent Richardson getting the Tide out of poor field position.

For the most part, this was a game about two very stout defenses, Texas' opportunistic Special Teams and one injured QB.

Texas Senior QB Colt McCoy went down with a pinched nerve on the first drive of the game, BIG ISSUE! I thought that his back-up, Freshman Garrett Gilbert, did OK given the situation he was thrust into. Unfortunately, nerves, a strange throwing motion plus several dropped passes did not help the Horns.

The key of the game for me was Texas' decision to try to put together a drive, down 17-6, deep in their own territory with about 25 seconds left in the half when their offense had been really struggling instead of sitting on it and trying to regroup at halftime.

The result of a second down Shovel Pass was that the soft toss ricocheted off the receiver into the hands of Alabama defensive lineman Marcell Dareus who rumbled 28 yards for a Crimson Tide TD with only 3 seconds left in the half. That made the score 24-6 Alabama with "Big Mo" wearing a bright red outfit.

To the Longhorn's credit, they would score the first two TDs of the second half to narrow the Alabama lead to 24-21 with 6:15 left in the contest.

I really hoped that this was not Mike

sneaking into the game.

Happy to report that it wasn't him!

Let's see now, 94,906 times $275 per ticket equals. . .

HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!

That's $26,099,150!!!

Don't forget the $6 for a Cinnabun or the $3.75 for a small bottle of water.

Crimson Tide RB Trent Richardson finishes off Texas.

This score from two yards out, with 47 seconds left in the game, iced it for Alabama and irritated some of the Longhorn fans around us.

Quit crying and play better goal line defense if you ask me.

Nobody did.

The Final Score

It's Over and It's Official!!!

Alabama wins it's 13th National Championship!

Title in hand, the Bama Crew

was pumped up to say the least!

GOOD TIMES INDEED

YET AGAIN!!!

I leave you with this bit of college pageantry.

They may have lost the game but

the Texas band was awesome!