A lot of fallout yesterday from Coach Bower “leaving” Southern Miss. I’ve always loved Bower, though his coaching decisions have left something to be desired over the last 3 years. I appreciate all that he has done for the football program of Southern Miss.
Instead of rambling on, I’ll present the best side I’ve seen yet. It’s written by Sunday Morning Quarterback who is a longtime Southern Miss fan:
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“…Bower’s greatest success is a decade behind him, and the coaching reaper has loomed larger with every new disappointment. Bigger schools have not called in years, not because everybody just knew he was so unwilling to go, but because Southern Miss football dropped off the map. The schemes never changed, the offense never rose from the bottom third of the national rankings; never five wins, true, but never ten, either. Three Conference USA titles in the league’s first four seasons were met with just one over the last eight, and the “winning record” streak consistently hinged on salvaging unfulfilling, 7-5 records against UAB, East Carolina or Arkansas State at the end of the year, even as Louisville and TCU bolted for greener pastures and a respectable league rapidly deteriorated into a midweek distraction, the MAC of the South, with no teams anywhere near the polls. His teams are 16-36 this decade against teams that finished with winning records, any teams, and of the big wins over BCS teams in that span – over Alabama and Oklahoma State in 2000, Ok. State again in 2001, Illinois in 2002, Nebraska in 2004, N.C. State in 2006 – only that Nebraska team (final record: 5-6 in Bill Callahan’s first season) even finished within a game of .500. The biggest victory of the last three seasons was an ordinary home win last year against Houston, which later avenged the loss in the conference championship.
“…in the long run, Southern Miss is just Southern Miss,I don’t know that anyone can do a better job with that over an extended period of time than Jeff Bower.”
No coach loved Southern Miss more than Coach Bower, but no one was more naive about the state of the program either.
As my good buddy Pettus said yesterday, I’m “cautiously optimistic.”
Unless you’re blind in your right eye, you’ve probably already noticed the permanent Christmas links at the top of the blog.This is here for your convenience throughout the Christmas season. Some of my fondest memories are from watching Christmas movies or specials on television ’round a fire with the fam. This appears to be a pretty dang good link containing everything worth viewing. Just shuffled co-workers to the blog when they turn from the office water cooler, tilt their head and say, “I wonder if there are any Christmas movies on tonight.”
Listen to Christmas music all day at work, or from your home computer courtesy of Seattle’s Warm 106.9.
Browse the Christmas movie list, and send me angry emails (like everyone else on the internet) when I forget to add your crappy 80′s TV special that nobody remembers.
Enjoy.
For those of you who were actually at the Alabama-Auburn game over the weekend, you missed killer song which was played just prior to kick-off. The sing is titled: ‘Saturday In DIxie’ and it was written by Lance Brown. Who? Exaclty.
To hear the track, just visit SaturdayInDixie.com. You can actually buy yourself a copy (Distributed by Hotcakes Publishing, no less!)
Here all the lyrics in all their… ummm… glory:
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I’m from Alabama where football is king
There’s 4 million people, but only 2 teams
We all bleed crimson, ‘round here that ain’t true
‘Cause some folks in Bama bleed orange and blue
In the shadow of Bear Bryant, Shug Jordan, and Pat Dye
Auburn’s got the Heismans, the Tide’s got all those banners flying
It’s the fans in Bryant Denny and down on The Plains
And once you’ve seen that you’ll never be the same
‘Cause it’s…
Saturday in Dixie, football is on
It’s Jim Fyffe and Eli Gold coming through your radio
It’s War Damn Eagle and Roll, Tide, Roll
And the only game that matters is the Iron Bowl
It’s Saturday in Dixie, football is on
It’s Namath and Musso, Pat Sullivan and Bo
Cornelius and Carnell and a thousand more heroes
It’s ole Van Tiffin and Damon Duval
When it comes September let’s play some ball
‘Cause it’s…
*Chorus
It’s the Auburn Tigers, the Crimson Tide
‘Round here you gotta choose your side
‘Cause it’s War Eagle, fly down the field
Ever to conquer, never to yield
It’s Rammer Jammer, Yellowhammer
Give ‘em hell, Alabama
‘Cause football is on
(What you see pictured above is the famous Seattle gum wall. Yes… those are thousands of little pieces of gum, and we added to the collection.)
Raise your hand if you’re feeling a little pudgy.
Ok, now raise your hand if you were probably a bit pudgy before the weekend began.
We spent our Thanksgiving lunch at Ray’s, situated at the edge of the Puget Sound with a view that you couldn’t beat with a stick. I think this marks the first time that any member of the Howell family has consumed turkey, salmon, and pumpkin flavored cheesecake all in one sitting. In what is normally our rainy season (which we’re quite thankful for, ‘cuz it gives us our snow to ski on) God blessed us with two of the clearest days I’ve seen in 2 months.
With Thanksgiving past us, it can only mean one thing: Christmas. Prepare for the posts.
World Record House of Cards Stands Up to Leafblower
…I’m not using the Lord’s name in vain… I really, really, really love that game of football.
Rumor has it that Alabama paid the dog $333,000 to bite the Auburn player.
This will be the first year of my life that I will be spending Thanksgiving away from Jasper. With my brother Aaron in China, mom and dad decided to spend this week in Seattle.
I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you fill up your tummies with as much turkey, dressing, cranberry goo, tofurkey, and turducken as possible.
Like most of you, we’ll be taking a couple of days off from the grind. I’ll be spending Thursday doing the obvious, and Friday through Sunday I’ll partake in football-goodness with a trip downtown to watch the madness at the malls (I enjoy the madness). Christmastime is here, and you know what that means: C.E.D.
Enjoy the parade, everybody. See you on Monday.
It’s been a rough week for Alabama: A loss to cupcake team. Nick Saban then compared the loss to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. And to top it off… the basketball team lost to Belmont.
With all that said: it doesn’t really matter come Saturday.
The rivalry between Alabama and Auburn is something that stretches far beyond the playing field. Blog reader Drew Thornley ever-so-often tells the story of walking down a street in Brugge, Belgium while wearing an ‘Alabama Swimming’ t-shirt when a man walked up behind him and whispered in his ear: “War Eagle”. Whenever I get into discussions with Seattleites where my home state becomes part of the discussion, they always ask: “So are you Alabama or are you Auburn?” It’s a question that each one of us faced once upon a time… the answer was crucial, because it would be the same answer we would repeat for the rest of our lives.
People around the world know of this rivalry… and people around the world are paying attention to the outcome.
In the Iron Bowl, the agony of losing seems almost greater than the joy of actually winning. This is a game whose outcome is remembered and repeated year round in the state of Alabama. It’s winner used as ammunition which fuel arguments between friends and family… it’s players and coaches are used as punchlines for jokes that will never grow old… it’s plays become immortalized in paintings which will decorate the hallways long after we leave this earth. It’s sold out before tickets are even for sale. It’s the most passionate display of tradition in all college football… and it’s the greatest rivalry in all of sports.
So I ask you: Are you Alabama… or are you Auburn?
Run, Carnell, Run:
Honk If You Sacked Brodie Croyle:
Fear The Thumb:
Mom & Dad are in town for the week… kinda. They arrived this weekend and the four of us toured the city Saturday and Sunday. Right now they’re galavanting around Victoria, Canada, though they will be back to Seattle for Thanksgiving.
