The Goat Pen

There are so many substantive aspects of this game worth discussing, e.g. The experience of senior Deshaun Watson vs. the true freshman Jalen Hurts; the ability of Clemson's OL to withstand Bama's ferocious front seven; Clemson's front seven's ability to slow down Bama's RB's. In what might be a very tight game, the kicking games of both teams which might be the difference, etc.

There has been very little discussion like that on this thread all season. Mostly, it's been AA yelling, "Get off my lawn!"

You are not a good person. I loathe to post here and see your petty, passive-aggressive, off-target, mean-spirited, and ignorant commentaries.

Since I cannot make you leave this thread by asking nicely or doling out a few acerbic barbs, I am unfortunately left with but one option: letting you have it. Congrats. It's yours. You win. I will do my best to avoid posting here on the Bama thread.

Bammer!

Yes, bammer.

Nick Saban doesn't tolerate quitters.

No, definitely not Bammer....

Good game. Nice pick.

Congrats to Clemson. They proved Bama is human after all.

Great game. Clemson just wore them down. Holy crap does Bama have speed though.

My favorite part was Dabo's post game interview when he said "I know Terry Don Phillips is sittin' at home... Terry Don, I'm not here without you, brother, 'preciate ya! And all the other people who couldn't be here tonight because the tickets were too much!" Terry Don. What a name. 'Preciate ya! And also the priceless detail of the people who couldn't go b/c the tickets were too high. Terry Don!!

You can't help but like Dabo Swinney, he's so emotional. No doubt Saban is one of the greatest (if not the greatest) CFB coaches of all time, but he seems so bloodless about the whole thing. There's no doubt that you don't get to that level (or hell, even coaching high school or middle school) without the love of winning, but Saban always seems like he's already thinking about next year even in the moments immediately following a national championship. I'm not saying that as a knock on Saban, it's just who he is, but it's just a lot more fun for the average fan to see somebody like Dabo after a big win (or loss, for that matter). Of course, I'm sure no Bama fan cares what the average non-Bama thinks is more fun to watch and they wouldn't trade Saban for anybody, and who can blame them. But still, you gotta love Dabo...

The next question is, if and when Saban retires, would Dabo take the Bama job (if they came calling) or does he feel like he's building his own legacy at Clemson and wouldn't want to leave, even for the Bama job? I wish Prof hadn't run AA off of his own thread, I'd like to hear his thoughts on this...

A great game and grats to Clemson and their fans. The last critical mistake Bammer made was Hurts not tripping at the 5 yard line or letting someone tackle him short of the endzone on his TD run. 2 minutes was too much time to leave on the clock for that gassed defense against Watson.

hedge wrote:You can't help but like Dabo Swinney, he's so emotional. No doubt Saban is one of the greatest (if not the greatest) CFB coaches of all time, but he seems so bloodless about the whole thing. There's no doubt that you don't get to that level (or hell, even coaching high school or middle school) without the love of winning, but Saban always seems like he's already thinking about next year even in the moments immediately following a national championship. I'm not saying that as a knock on Saban, it's just who he is, but it's just a lot more fun for the average fan to see somebody like Dabo after a big win (or loss, for that matter). Of course, I'm sure no Bama fan cares what the average non-Bama thinks is more fun to watch and they wouldn't trade Saban for anybody, and who can blame them. But still, you gotta love Dabo...

The next question is, if and when Saban retires, would Dabo take the Bama job (if they came calling) or does he feel like he's building his own legacy at Clemson and wouldn't want to leave, even for the Bama job? I wish Prof hadn't run AA off of his own thread, I'd like to hear his thoughts on this...

Well said.

I used to think Dabo was a joke, especially after we beat them 51-7 in their house in 2013 and he said if the two teams played 10 times, "we’d probably win five, they’d probably win five" (sorry coach, that '13 FSU team is the best I've ever seen). But he's really grown on me since...he's a quality man who really loves his players and is an excellent representative for college football. I don't think he'd take the Bama job just as I never really thought Fisher would take the LSU job - there is a mutual love between Clemson and Swinney and I don't think his relatively short time at Bama can overcome that. Of course there is a strong chance Clemson will take a step backward without DW4, just as FSU took a step back without Winston, so who knows what will happen 3-5 years from now if Saban stays that much longer.

I live in the Gainesville GA region, home of Blake Sims and Deshaun Watson, and they've been talking about naming a street after Watson . He's a good kid - my Facebook timeline has been filled with pictures of him and friends' kids from peewee and flag football 8-12 years ago. My eldest is a HS senior so he missed DW but people knew he was special since he was little.

In the end, I just don't think Bama had the right QB for this particular team. I like Hurts and I think he's going to be outstanding, but it's too damn hard to put an 18 year old kid in this position and expect him to rise to the occasion against a guy like Watson. A few more completed passes to keep the ball away from DW in the 4th quarter and Bama gets 5 in 8.

hedge wrote:You can't help but like Dabo Swinney, he's so emotional. No doubt Saban is one of the greatest (if not the greatest) CFB coaches of all time, but he seems so bloodless about the whole thing. There's no doubt that you don't get to that level (or hell, even coaching high school or middle school) without the love of winning, but Saban always seems like he's already thinking about next year even in the moments immediately following a national championship. I'm not saying that as a knock on Saban, it's just who he is, but it's just a lot more fun for the average fan to see somebody like Dabo after a big win (or loss, for that matter). Of course, I'm sure no Bama fan cares what the average non-Bama thinks is more fun to watch and they wouldn't trade Saban for anybody, and who can blame them. But still, you gotta love Dabo...

A rare sage post by hedge.

But if Saban ever retires, Dabo or any other coach would be out of their minds to take that job. Saban has built a program with such ridiculously high expectations that only another Saban could satisfy them. And there aren't too many Saban's out there. Some poor coach will replace Saban, and lose two games a season for three years, and then get fired. Maybe even tarred and feathered.

And I didn't run AA off his own thread. He ran away from his own thread. You, hedge, are always doing your "I wish you were _____" to me, but it never occurred to me to launch into a rage and take my ball and storm off.

Professor Tiger wrote: But if Saban ever retires, Dabo or any other coach would be out of their minds to take that job. Saban has built a program with such ridiculously high expectations that only another Saban could satisfy them. And there aren't too many Saban's out there. Some poor coach will replace Saban, and lose two games a season for three years, and then get fired. Maybe even tarred and feathered.

Hello Ray Perkins and Bill Curry.

AA will be back, a few Mike Price posts is all it takes.

AA will be back, a few Mike Price posts is all it takes.

There's a whole thread devoted to that subject.

And Saban is so utterly consumed with football, retirement would kill him almost as quickly as it did Bear Bryant. He needs to be in football well into his '80's. I just wish he would do that someplace other than Alabama.

Fuck clemson

Dabo is a phony

The officials fucked Bama

I wanted to learn more about the Bear, so I picked up The Last Coach. I'm about halfway through in short order. It's a fairly quick but interesting read.

Bear was a great one, no doubt. The greatest in my lifetime.

Saban is the second, and closing in on #1.

Dammit.

Top to bottom, Saban is a better coach than Bear. As a pure football coach, maybe/maybe not. But as administrator of a football program from soup to nuts, nobody has even come close really (though Bear did a good job of bending the rules when it came to scholarship management).

The officials fucked Bama

Heh - Bama should have been down at least two more players for targeting but the refs kept the whistles in their pockets for some reason. The pick play on the last touchdown was completely legal, the one before it was definitely questionable but well executed.

Scholarship rules at the time really helped Bear. I went to a Bama-GA Tech game back in the 'late 70's, and the number of Bama players standing their sideline doubled or tripled the number of Tech players standing on their sideline.

Can you imagine what Saban's recruiting classes would have looked like with scholarship rules during the Bear era?

::shudders::

The CF world has evolved enough to make comparing Bear and Saban an apples and oranges equation.

Bear could recruit tons of players to keep them off opposing teams rosters though for the first half of his tenure the 'whites only' rosters limited the quality. Saban has advances in technology, added staff, facilities and bling that didn't exist in the Bear era. How each would have managed in the other's era is speculation one can argue in any direction.