T-Town Times Three

As mentioned before, the NIT is "The Victory Lap," but I can't recall ever doing the same site three times. The games were Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday, and I went home in between each time. So that's three round trips to Tuscaloosa. I was in-and-out on each trip, so there weren't a whole lot of highlights. Here's the Top Five:

1) Alabama hired a new Athletic Director. Mal Moore resigned due to health concerns, but they moved quickly to replace a man who's had a part in 10 Alabama football national championships. They hired Bill Battle, who once played for Bear Bryant and later coached Tennessee. His first game on the job as AD was our Saturday game vs Stanford.

2) Five. It never disappoints. Between the din of a lively bar & grill, and the (limited) gourmet menu, it is one of the top dinner joints in the SEC. Too bad we never stay anywhere near downtown.

3. Too bad we never stay anywhere near downtown (didn't I just say that?). The Yellowhammer Inn was a castle in the hinterlands. It's more of a hunting and golfing retreat with very little to remind you of Alabama football - except for the huge oil painting of Nick Saban in the lobby.

4. The NIT Quarterfinal game between Alabama and Maryland was one of the most dramatic games of the season, with Alabama falling 58-57 after Trevor Lacey's shot at the buzzer didn't go. More importantly it was a good telecast with some entertaining storylines. Did you know that Bear Bryant's first job as a college head coach was at Maryland?

If you don't have another game for 8 months, that's a good one to go out on.

5.  Superior Cuts. When you've been scrambling around on the road for a week and the sides of your head looks like a ChiaPet, it's probably a good idea to get tightened-up. So I returned from lunch hour 12 bucks and about a tenth of a pound lighter. I looked and felt better, but nobody on the crew noticed.

It was a quality African-American barbershop experience. They told me the Alabama hoops coach Anthony Grant and his family get their hair cut there as well.

So that's it Tuscaloosa. See you in September when it will be much warmer (it was really cold all week) and it will be a zoo. The NIT might be just the right speed for me there, just cruising like a Victory Lap.

Not Outta The Woods Yet

In what is likely my last basketball game of the season, our crew found itself in rather unusual digs. I've been on SEC sports for about 3-4 years now, and never stayed in a place like the Yellowhammer Inn in Tuscaloosa.

The NIT isn't a planned event, at least on college campuses. It's not on the schedule, so when we're assigned to Stanford vs Alabama the same weekend as the Alabama Relays (several major college track and cross-country squads), the Cardinal basketball traveling party was forced to stay in Birmingham. And our smaller group was forced about 15 minutes off the beaten path.

I called the Yellowhammer Inn "rustic," a term a more jaded colleague called a euphemism (for something crappy). I can honestly say I've never stayed in a hotel that featured eight bucks heads in the lobby beside an oil painting rendering of Nick Saban.

It is a hunters/golfers retreat, and I imagine it's where the high rollers stay for football. It is without business amenities or room service, which can be inconvenient for people used to life working on the road.

I'm sure some of them never actually used an actual hotel room key - until now.

Personally, it gives me a Tuscaloosa flavor I haven't felt before. This is the town that displays the BCS Championship trophy at Wal-Mart, so anything a little different is good.

Just so long as I don't see Scatman Crothers roaming the halls, I won't worry about being the main dish in a Stephen King movie adaptation.

The Right Team Won (It All)

The SEC title game was the real championship. The BCS championship was a 3+hour coronation. But the same formula won both games.

In an era with spread offenses and dual-threat quarterbacks, Nick Saban's team doesn't do wrinkles or tricks. They set you up with a power running game, which puts a smart QB in position to find NFL-caliber receivers downfield. And the offensive line does their job brilliantly as well.

Let's examine Alabama's four 1st Half drives to go up 28-0 at intermission:

1. 5 plays, 82 yards (Lacy 3 runs for 31 yards, 20 yard TD)

2. 10 plays, 61 yards (alternated 5 runs and 5 passes)

3. 8 plays, 80 yards (5 Yeldon runs, McCarron: 3-3, 63 yards)

4. 9 plays, 71 yards (5 runs, Lacy catch-and-run-and-spin for TD)

The game was effectively over at that point. AJ McCarron's numbers were gaudy at the end of the night: 20-28, 264 yards, 4 TD. And you have to give him his due. He's got two championships now, and is much more than a game manager. He's a weapon.

But there's no question the MVP of the game was Eddie Lacy. As he ran over, through, and around Notre Dame's vaunted defense, he sucked their will as well as all of their attention, which opened up everything else.

And here's a tip when Lacy goes pro and skips his senior season: take him on your fantasy team. He is obviously a guy who can carry the load and catch it out of the backfield. But also, he doesn't have the wear-and-tear that an every down back (think Marcus Lattimore) has endured. He hasn't needed to.

Lacy's career high for carries came in both the SEC and BCS championship games: 20.

Again it bears repeating, in an era when coaches a re-inventing the wheel each year in college football, Nick Saban sticks to the system. Repeating indeed.

Now Taking Volunteers

Haven't we been here before? How does a program like Tennessee so steeped in tradition, so loyally followed, so well funded, have such a hard time finding a football coach?

In January of 2010, there was a chain of events that led to this mess. Pete Carroll left USC (jumped ship before probation as it turned out) for the Seattle Seahawks. That's how slick guys are, one step ahead of the mess. Speaking of which, Lane Kiffin, who had been the Vols' coach for only one season, abruptly filled the void at USC.

This is the 21st century, and college coaching vacancies are now almost exclusively filled in December and not January. Kiffin left Tennessee in a lurch. They scrambled and three days later came up with Derek Dooley, the Head Coach & Athletic Director at Louisiana Tech. As the son of Vince Dooley and Nick Saban's former recruiting coordinator, Tennessee seemed to do well under the circumstance. He was a college administrator who said all the right things and carried himself the right way. But his team lost a lot of games, and now Tennessee starts over again.

Today, the CBSSports.com blog reported that the search at Tennessee was down to three: Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy, Louisville's Charlie Strong, and North Carolina's Larry Fedora.

Oklahoma State announced that Gundy is staying, a surprise to no one. Anyone who has seen the new Boone Pickens-funded OSU facilities (and jaw dropped immediately to the ground), knows that the place is a recruiting machine. Gundy even had a say in the design of the stadium to accommodate his staff's families. He's an alum and a lifer.

I think Charlie Strong is staying. Louisville will match any offer, and Strong has a young team and a great QB back next year. He may leave Louisville soon, but not this offseason and certainly not before he leads his team into The Sugar Bowl with a big chip on their shoulder. The Vols will want to move faster than that.

I can't speak to Larry Fedora. I know he's only had one year at North Carolina. But after Arkansas hit a home run with Bret Bielema, Tennessee may go off the board. Here are some thoughts:

1) Nick Saban. Why the hell not? What does Nick Saban have left to prove except he's the greatest coach of all-time? He doesn't seem like a guy who thrives on dynasties, but on being all-important. He'll beat your team with his, and beat his team with yours. Tennessee's got to at least pick up the phone.

2) Todd Graham. In 5 years, he's gone from Rice to Tulsa to Pitt to Arizona State. This would be a natural progression. No way, right? Well...

3) Mack Brown. Oh yeah. The Tennessee native is reportedly growing frustrated with the Frankenstein's Monster of The Longhorn Network. If he left for Tennessee, it would actually be less of a demand on his time and energy. Think he's too old to start over? Did you know he's only two months older than Saban?

But seriously Vol Nation, look at Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald, will you? He'll be your coach for ten years. It's not a reach and he might just want the job.

Backtime Dissects The Freeh Report

When a fishing boat veers off into dangerous waters, it can change course and/or seek help.

When an aircraft carrier finds itself in dangerous waters, it has no turning radius. It is the danger. It keeps charging forward and you'd better get out of the way.

Welcome to the USS Penn State.

Sixteen days ago, Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 criminal counts and will spend the rest of his life in prison. That was not the beginning, middle, or end of the story.

The 267-page Freeh Report really begins in earnest on page 11, titled: INDEPENDENCE OF THE INVESTIGATION. And it gets right to the FINDINGS on p. 14:

"The most saddening finding by the Special Investigative Counsel is the total and consistent disregard at Penn State for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims."

"Four of the most powerful people at The Pennsylvania State University (Spanier, Schultz, Curley, Paterno) failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade. These men concealed Sandusky's activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and authorities."

"These individuals, unchecked by the Board of Trustees that did not perform its oversight duties, empowered Sandusky to attract potential victims to the campus and football events by allowing him to have continued, unrestricted, and unsupervised access..."

On October 29, 2011, Jerry Sandusky sat in his normal club suite at Beaver Stadium and hobnobbed with University officials as Joe Paterno collected his record-setting 409th career victory. It was 7 months after the Harrisburg Patriot-News reported that Sandusky was the subject of a Grand Jury investigation. More importantly, it was 10 years after Assistant Coach Mike McQueary witnessed Sandusky and a young boy in the shower.

It was also two days after Penn State attorney Cynthia Baldwin learned that Sr. VP Gary Schultz and AD Tim Curley would be included in the Grand Jury presentment.

Curley had tried to remove Sandusky from the season ticket list in July 2011 (p.105), but when Mrs. Sandusky inquired about it, the access was reissued.

Steve Garban, then the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, was "astounded" (p.91) by Sandusky's attendance in the Nittany Lion Club, and just assumed that the Attorney General's office didn't have a case.

The Board of Trustees first heard of the investigation on May 12, 2011, when President Graham Spanier "downplayed" (p. 89) the Grand Jury situation, saying that it did not "involve" (p.88) Penn State.

"Some Trustees reported that their meetings felt "scripted" or that they were "rubber stamping" major decisions already made by Spanier." (p.101)

After the Trustees were briefed on the Sandusky investigation at the May meeting, it was not revisited in subsequent meetings in July or September. Spanier may not have known the depths of Sandusky's crimes, but he probably assumed it would just be more water under the deck of the Penn State aircraft carrier.

"There are 76,460 undergraduate students and 9,745 graduate students that currently attend the University. The University's annual operating budget is approximately $4.1 billion..." (p.32)

Insignificant efforts were made in the past. After the 2001 McQueary/shower incident, the Gang Of Four - Spanier, Schultz, Curley, and Paterno - agreed (conspired) on a "humane and reasonable way to proceed." (p.75) This would involve three things: informing the Second Mile (Sandusky's charitable organization), the Department of Welfare, and telling Sandusky himself to stop brining children around Penn State football facilities.

How the information was relayed to the Second Mile is murky since that organization ultimately viewed it as a "non-incident" (p.64). The Dept. of Welfare was not informed. And how would barring Sandusky from the football program be enforced? Especially if Sandusky, a Penn State professor emeritus defied the order (request). Who was going to stop him?

"there is an over-emphasis on "The Penn State Way" as an aprroach to decision-making, a resistance to seeking outside perspective, and an excessive focus on athletics..." (p.129)

Only 4 people knew the plan. There were no legal grounds to keep him away unless the authorities were informed, and that would involve expanding the circle of knowledge, and that would mean exposure. That would mean smearing the pristine Penn State image, tarnishing Paterno's legacy, and bringing down the whole house of cards.

It was considered "very rare" (p.49) for a situation like this not to be reported the the Office of Human Resources.

It's not surprising that The Second Mile didn't act. Several months after "the plan," Penn State sold a tract of land to The Second Mile in September 2001 for $168,500 (p.79).

So please excuse the awful analogy, but Penn State University, Penn State Football, and The Second Mile were all in bed together. Could we say that they were all married to one another? A spouse can't be compelled to testify against another. If corporations are people, can they marry? How does this polygamous situation fall under the Defense Of Marriage Act?

It's like how the American economy is intertwined with the big banks. We may be furious with them but without them the whole system crumbles, and thus they are untouchable. And nobody has yet been held criminally accountable for the 2008 financial crisis.

What exactly Joe Paterno knew died with him. He was an old-school football coach who never touched a cell phone or used e-mail. He is referred to as "Joe" or "Coach" in various Tim Curley e-mails, but his level of complicity can only be assumed.

The transfer of Paterno's home in the summer of 2011 to his wife in exchange for $1 is thought to be a protection of his family should he ever have been a target in a civil suit.

The discussion now is whether Penn State should suffer the NCAA "death penalty," whether the Paterno statue should be removed, and what should happen to the three remaining obstructors of justice.   People call for NCAA sanctions based on a "lack of institutional control," when it was more akin to TOTAL institutional control.

I have no idea. I merely followed the case and read the report. I have faith in the system, especially having seen the swift and exact punishment that was handed down to Sandusky once authorities were able to investigate. (Though DA Ray Gricar failed to do so in 1998 - he later disappeared and is presumed dead in another twist to this case)

The Freeh Report recommends sweeping changes in Penn State policy and hierarchy.

I know that universities are beholden to their athletic programs. Especially football, and especially when icons are involved. This situation could have taken place in previous eras at Nebraska or Alabama.

Today, the University of Alabama's NCAA Compliance coordinator makes approximately $45,000 while Nick Saban makes more than $6 Million. There is no way to reasonably keep college football programs in line when the universities and entire states involved are so co-dependant.

The only way to try to reign it in is to make it all transparent. Each school needs independent auditors to have unlimited access to paper trails, phone records, travel logs, etc. But how is that to be implemented? By the school itself? By the NCAA? By the Federal Government? And what happens if they encounter obstruction? What's the recourse?

Backtime's ultimate diagnosis: College Football is too big to fail.

Death, Taxes, and T-Town's One-Track Mind

It was a long week full of travel delays, dying laptops, and a long-ass road trip with the kids through the snow (SNOW?) in Alabama. But there's one thing you know you can count on at the end of the road: Tuscaloosa's year-long football season.

For example, the "A" Club Football BBQ Cook-Off at Bryant-Denny Stadium, featuring such exhilarating celebs from the Crimson Tide's past as Ray Perkins and Siran Stacy, had an attendance of 4,500...about half of the Alabama/Arkansas basketball game just down the street at Coleman Coliseum (the reason I was there).

I paid my respects at Coach Bear Bryant's statue, half-hoping he'd make me run some suicides. But he just stared back at me, grumbling "Yankee" under his breath.

Wonder when the Nick Saban statue goes up? They've got the spot for it (not kidding), just a few feet away. And it will be up by next football season.

The obsession with Alabama football has got to end. I married a Crimsonette (there's an old expression that Crimsonettes make beautiful babies, but lousy wives) and married into an Alabama football family. After my Tuscaloosa assignment ended, I went to pick up the kids at the in-laws, and I made sure the kids shouted "War Eagle!" instead of goodbye.

As of Valentine's Day 2010, we are an Auburn family. We're going to end this unhealthy obsession one family at a time.

Oh, It's On

College Football. Where passions begin at such a young age, and lines are drawn in the sand.

In this case, it's the McElroys against the McCoys. Son sports the colors of his mom's alma mater while I choose the colors of my adopted one. Or at least one of them - you can include Kansas, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Clemson, and even Auburn (yes I said it!) as great places where I've logged enough work and play hours to put towards an honorary degree.

But we'll put the family battle aside. My wife will be at work, and my son will be asleep. This is about validation for both the 2008 and 2009 Longhorns.

Last year's team was denied the opportunity to represent the Big 12 South in the conference title game despite a win over Oklahoma and a loss on the last play to Texas Tech. It's the only blemish in 2 years against Colt McCoy's 25-1 record as a starter.

McCoy lost out on the Heisman this year to Alabama's Mark Ingram, mostly because he was made to look very mediocre against a Nebraska defense that validated itself by shutting out one of the Pac-10's top offenses in a 33-0 rout of Arizona in the Holiday Bowl.

Alabama's real difference-maker won't be Ingram in this game, but rather QB Greg McElroy. The kid form Southlake Carroll threw only 4 INTs and was sacked only 13 times in 13 games in his first year as a starter.

And Alabama has (sigh) the best coach in college football, there's really no doubt about it. But that's kind of the point. Nick Saban, known in some TV production circles as "The Nicktator" has coached B+ talent onto an A+ season. Texas has the A+ talent. McElroy couldn't go to Texas because he wouldn't play there.

But coaching is overrated, right? Just a few years ago, Mack Brown couldn't win the big one. Now he's looking at a twin for the Texas trophy case.

Texas 30, Alabama 20. As they say in Texas, "Sorry son."

An Alabama Hit and Run

How was your weekend?

Mine was spent behind the wheel. Took my 5-year old to Grandma's in Cullman on Saturday, then made an about face on Sunday.

First stop, truck stop. Meet the family business.

You can spend an entire day and a lot of money at Jack's Western Wear. My son must think that Crocs grow on trees. I considered buying him one of these T-shirts:

A cursory check yielded no such Christmas requests to play for Gene Chizik at Auburn. Not yet anyway.

When I spent the night at my father-in-law's lakeside estate (more on this in a later post), I found a familiar looking statue waiting for me.

And much like the Savannah version, she guards headstones - in his front yard.

Swung by Talladega Super Speedway on the way back.







If fictional race car driver Ricky Bobby ever enjoyed any Talladega Nights, that would be a fictional account too. If there's any nightlife in this sleepy town, it would be a major upset.

Despite being almost constantly on the road, my XM radio kept me connected with my Yankees. Heard both weekend games in their entirety. Got to watch Federer make quick work and history on Sunday morning. Got home in time to see a vintage Tiger Woods Sunday finish.