hunter ford

There’s no need to hide the women and children when Alabama battles Florida tomorrow. However, Tide fans of all ages, genders, makes and models, need to bring their A-game for the tilt with the Gators.

I took my youngest son, age nine, to the Southern Miss game last weekend. It was his first game at Bryant-Denny.  One of the first things he said when we got to the stadium was “I didn’t know there would be so many women here.”

He asked if they came because their boyfriends “made them.” Of course not!  Southern women love football and Crimson Tide gals are unequaled in their passion for the game.  Outside of the beaches of the Gulf Coast, there is no better place to be a girl watcher than Bryant-Denny Stadium on game day.

Granted, some women are more genuinely interested in the game than others. Many of the women probably enjoy dressing up and going to the party more than they care about the X’s and O’s.

All of that aside, every man, woman, and child who attends the Florida contest needs to do a better job than the crowd for Southern Miss.  If Nick Saban could bench fans, and replace them with new recruits, he would demote two thirds of last week’s crowd to second or third string, myself included.  My son wanted to leave at halftime.  We need to talk about “focus stamina.”  Truth be told, I wanted to beat the traffic and listen to some of the game on the radio.  Saban would not be proud.

Saban said, earlier this week, he hopes fans will “create some atmosphere and some electricity” for the Alabama players to feed from. Last week’s crowd was more subdued than any I can remember.  The “roll tide roll” during “Sweet Home Alabama” was weak, few people clapped along with the fight song, and there was only a slight uproar when Bear Bryant’s ghost proclaimed “I ain’t never been nothing but a winner.”

The Crimson Tide, no matter who is coaching, has historically been prone to playing down to poor competition. Fans are often the same way.  Southern Miss was not very good.  But the Eagles did manage to complete a slew of passes against an Alabama defense that has been less than spectacular so far this season.  A little more “atmosphere” might help.

I saw a young couple with a baby that could not have been more than a couple of weeks old.  The baby was adorable, and very quiet.  I wonder if its name was Crymson, or Tyde, or Nicky?  No matter, bringing babies is fine.  I believe all Tide fans with infants should bring them if they want.  In fact, any Tide fans with colicky infants should be given sideline passes and allowed to stand on the Florida side with their crybabies.

My point is Alabama, especially the defense, could use some more electricity. The corners have been playing like Dumb and Dumber, and the D-lineman look like they are afraid they might hurt somebody.

So, if you go to the Florida game, whether you are rocking a jersey with “Daisy Dukes” and cowboy boots, a classic sundress, or a golf shirt and khaki shorts, or a diaper, or whatever- be sure to dress up with your best game face on.

46 thoughts on “Tide fans must wear game faces for Florida”

  2. My dead grandma would be in fed prison for whipping me with a switch I had to pick myself from the tree an don’t com back with little one….right?????

  3. ditto ditto on my dead grandma but did not leave any permanent marks so she probably escapes the pc police

  7. passing yds – so what we were dominating but up 28-21 in 3rd..mostly because of sims boneheads…

  8. boneheads….2 turnovers 14 points….rollout passes misses…5 men in backfield is on qb….2 runs come up short of first downs for no reason…bama football pays attention to details…fla aint fla st tam ok oregon …project vs elites of the elites…bear saban rolling in graves with the bonehead ball….bush league…aj had what 3 picks all yr

  9. and again and what 165 were busted or great plays by wrs and my dead grandma connects as did my 4th grade team connected on open bombs too

  10. sims goes out right when it could have got crunch time and henry explodes to bail sims coker out

  11. couple of bad rollout passes cost us….backed up throws behind first down and doesnt make it….these dog don’t hunt vs the tams of the world

    1. OK.

      It’s officially time for you to switch teams.

      It may be time to switch sports.

      Sims is Alabama’s quarterback. He’s one of many brilliant young men on a talented, passionate team. Learn to love it; it’s easier than you think. Roll Tide.

  14. just because things are correctable doesn’t mean they get corrected …drake has been fumbling forever ….go sims stop the mental errors

  15. roll tide we have 15-0 seasons because of fans like me we have 11-2 seasons because of fans like u

  16. we didn’t run the ball well b/c sims does not get us in the right play like aj mcelroy did….no checkoffs vs 7 8 in box in first half

  18. per saban…turnovers no rhythm no tempo no confidence bad communication bad play in first half was because sims was not managing the game well….and the 2nd half was better because henry bails us out

    1. Again, @hammah – you continue to embarrass yourself, and I for one am tired of your ignorant drivel. I’m not sure what’s going on with you, but you are appearing less and less knowledgable about football and more and more like a racist in your comments. No more trying to spare your feelings or give you the benefit of the doubt. Why don’t you take a little break from this site and maybe take a breath. Go watch some European soccer matches or something.
      And Hammah – no more stupid comments that the rest of us don’t know anything about football and you are the only enlightened one on here. Your comments up to this season have always marked you as someone who knew their way around a football field. I’m beginning to think you’ve gotten hit too hard in the head in a pickup game some Saturday afternoon and can no longer think straight. Give us all a break from your drunken rants. Put the computer down for a while.

      1. pete, u stupid ignorant slut…me and nick know football…it is what it is..handle the truth ….3rd qtr sims was getting a new a-hole put in …and then henry saved the team …see nick’s post game interview….listen learn …think outside the box….

  21. Somebody ban Randall this stupid mother fucker dot know shit from shinola about bama football! Enough is enough!

    1. @crimson h

      Just what exactly do you expect?

      I know, I know, incredible passing statistics and tons of touchdowns “aren’t that important” to you, but what DID you expect?

      Yes, Blake Sims made mistakes.

      Blake Sims made several costly mistakes.

      But who would slam any team the way you do for a quarterback who can count his total number of starts on one hand?

      Seriously. Did you expect complete, uncoachable perfection?

      Did you expect Blake Sims to single-handedly embarass AJ McCarron and, for example, throw for over 400 yards?

      Oh, wait. He did throw for over 400 yards.

      Look, last week you were pooping because you swore Sims couldn’t throw a ball more than five yards past the line of scrimmage but his game management was near-perfect. This week he got pressured and made management mistakes, and yes, they are fixable (if you don’t believe me, who would you rather have coaching those mistakes in all seriousness?). But nobody, and I mean nobody, is mistake-free in their fourth start ever.

      If Sims hasn’t taught you yet that he’s a fast learner, nothing will. But in the meantime, at the absolute very least, recognize that it’s not all about Sims. He’s an important cog in a team with multiple stellar running backs, an offensive line I’m humbly impressed with, a defense I think we’ve all been looking for since 2011, receivers with velcro hands, and the best coaching staff in the sport.

      I’m all for being critical, but try a little bit harder to not just recognize Sims as being a good QB, but for showing it after starting as many games as Nick Saban has national championships.

      1. @Nope: I think you and I are wasting our breath. This is obviously not the Hammah that I’ve grown used to over the last few years of reading the CR – this is some poser who has grabbed his name and posts on here to get his racist opinions published somewhere where there is no editor to cut him off. His comments should be completely banned, but, for now, I’m just going to ignore him as if he were a Barner troll.

        1. @pete

          I hear you, but I also don’t think Hammah’s alone (even if it’s not the same guy).

          I think a lot of people still don’t know about Alabama’s 2014 team, and Sims in particular.

          Truth be told, I think they don’t want to recognize the possibility that Alabama might be a great team again this year.

          The “controversy” at QB was never what the media made it out to be. Sims earned it, Kiffin improved it, and Saban controlled it all, including to Coker’s benefit. People get passionate about college football. I mean no personal offense to anyone, but that passion often makes people illogical. They actually believe inaccurate things and have a hard time accepting the reality of results against what they already believe. It’s the difference between thinking and believing. We’re already through a full third of the season in an instant. You have to enjoy it, and you have to at least try to be able to be logical about it, including with Sims breaking records as he turned the ball over several times on his own.

          I mentioned it before, but now look again at Clemson. They had real QB controversy. The decision for starting QB was splitting at their culture, their fans, and across the roster. The true freshman 5-star QB gets put in for the second drive, Clemson lost, and some fans are saying it was the coaches’ fault for not putting in the 6’4″ senior QB to run the ball from the 2 yard line instead of hiking to a QB in shotgun.

          But the shotgun is what Clemson does, and for years now. It works for them very well, something like 9/10 times on short yardage, best in the league on 3rd downs for said attempts, etc. Consequently, the run under center hasn’t worked out well for them. It’s just not their play. If Stoudt comes in under center and can’t make the conversion, then it’s a coaching error, and it’s bedlam in Death Valley. Instead, a now-unranked team nearly took down the top-ranked team in the country on their turf at night…and Clemson fans are still livid, all while the new 5-star QB is named the starter for the next weekend and Stoudt seemingly did nothing on his own to lose the job against an inferior opponent. The coaches played him because they felt like they had to, and they played Watson seemingly not because of anything Stoudt did but because of, for the lack of a better term, quarterback controversy. It wasn’t created by the media, but by the fans and the culture, and allowed to flourish at least a little bit due to the coaches.

          Dabo Swinney might be the next head coach at the University of Alabama. I wonder, would he have done the same things Saban did against Florida regarding Coker and Sims?

      2. agree but there is no time in the sec for learning on the job and turnovers are a complete nono

  23. Sims had the best day of any Alabama quarterback I can remember ever….Ironically Andrew Zow had a nice game vs Florida back in re season 1999 at Swamp… but nothing like what Sims did.

    We seem to have the best of both worlds right now

    1) A senior starter who is playing with confidence and has the respect of his coaches and teammates

    2) a more than capable back-up who also seems to have the respect of his coaches and teammates

    and both are working hard and not letting egos e a problem. Coker came of the bench cold and threw a TD pass… Sims was great what is their to complain about? Nothing

    1. Exactly Hunter.

      But yes, I have a complaint.

      I complain nobody is talking about Tony Brown enough.

      The true freshman covered receivers all day. Florida threw at him 8 times, and Demarcus Robinson grabbed two of them for 14 total yards. Brown looked great, but my lord, what has Scott Cochran done to him?! That kid has gone full-on beast-mode from head to toe. In less than a year he’s made Tony Brown evolve into a substitute for any of The Avengers. He was quick before, now he’s quick AND strong? Unreal. I can’t wait to watch what else he does this season against pass-heavy teams like TAMU and MSU.

  24. Yeah Brown did well Sabn said Brown would play a lot. The defense did much better overall agains Fla than they had ben doing…. Let’s see how they do against Bo Wallace I’m guessing will be pretty good

    1. Driskel compares well to Wallace, albeit Wallace is much more talented and has more experience.

      But Mississippi is more of a revenge game. Alabama destroyed them last year. It wasn’t pretty, but it won’t look like that this year. Freeze won’t settle for a zero, and Mississippi’s defense has a Nkemdiche-sized chip on their shoulder.

      After seeing the diversity Alabama was capable of on offense and knowing the ball control coaching they’ll get for the next two weeks, I feel confident heading to Ole Miss.

  25. not racist dumas…i will take skill sets of warren moon teddy bridgewater jameis winston and blake sims if he corrects bad game mgt but do not be deceived just because something is correctable doesnt mean it gets corrected see drake and fumbles….and no correction means loss and i demand 15-0

  29. and so is saban before after games and sometimes in – ripped sims a new anus during and ripped another in post interview…

  30. so what about 400 yds…160 was drake cooper 2 passes my 4th grade qb did that….7 points is 7 points so what if 1 play 87 yds or a 10 play 40 rush to 3 guys and 47 pass to 3 guys…aj no 400 yds but 3 int the whole yr…and where is the profit in 21 points 400 yd and u screw up and give back the 21 …u play the game to win ..and 21 21 3rd qtr vs a fla o that was dominated is not winning football champ football

    1. You kinda bury yourself being obsessed with Sims and nothing to day about Alabama’s defense.

      I don’t get it. I get being critical. You are delisional. Alabama WILL NOT WIN THE TITLE EVERY YEAR. They can’t. They won’t. They might have been the best team last year, and they didn’t win. Blame Mccarron? No. But you’ll blame a starting QB in his first year if the team doesn’t win every game, including 5 of the top 15 in the regular season and two of the top four teams in the post season?

      Nowhere but Alabama will ever come close to meeting your expectations, but they’re still just too high, sir.

      That’s why I don’t think you’re real. Roll Tide.

    1. @hammah

      But didn’t AJ deserve it that kind of grief a lot then?

      Did you have any fun ever watching AJ McCarron play football?

      Look, the 2014 season is a full third complete already. I understand being critical, I even understand some Alabama fans settling for nothing less than going undefeated AND winning a national championship, but are you able to have any fun until then?

      I don’t think Alabama wins the title this year. If they do, it will surprise me. In the meantime, I’m going to have fun and enjoy it and hopefully watch Alabama improve in the areas of defecit. It’s not that criticism isn’t merited, but everybody loses football games. It’s not accurate to expect any team never to lose, or to blame a QB for a loss that didn’t happen.

  34. yup aj drpve me crazy in games and most of the times we lost those games…and saban is more livid than me

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