Corey, Gip, The 1966 season, did have a lot to do with that attitude in respect to Notre Dame. And I wasn't trying to argue with anyone, I was just letting you know how I (and I think most Alabama fans) feel about the national media in general. Notre Dame is just the lightning rod for us. The New York, Chicago, and LA based media always looked down their nose at us or at least that is how we perceived the coverage. Oh yeah and Coach Bryant was 0-4 against Notre Dame, Ray Perkins coached Bama to a win over Notre Dame in '83, I believe. Corey, On your other point, I enjoy coming here and discussing college sports and football in particular. I have no animosity against any other program. I also refuse to get into politics or religion. Some people are very emotionally wrapped up in those two subjects so I just avoid them altogether. If either of those two areas enter into the sports discussions then I usually try to back out those threads as well. It has happened on here a couple of times and I have quickly exited the discussion. I sense this thread may be headed there so if I fail to respond at some point that is probably the reason.
Our theory is that Miles is still an option for Michigan. I don't know about other interviews, but in the press conference right before the SEC game, he said stuff like 'I am the LSU coach' and 'I "plan" to be the LSU coach next year'. He used words and phrases that sounded definitive, but left wiggle room, and as someone already said, technically could still say he wasn't lying. We figure his $$ value will go up for Michigan if/when he shows that he can beat Ohio State.
KP I never could understand how Alabama fans could year in and year out cry about how the media favored ND over their team and yet every time they played, they got beaten. Seems kind of paranoid to keep believing that you're losing in the polls because of bias when every time you had a chance to make a statement on the field you came in second. Oh well, I guess it beats facing the truth.
Gipper, In 1966 I don't think we had met before had we? And while Notre Dame has won the vast majority of the games we have played they haven't won them all. But it's okay I guess your perceptions are valid and mine aren't. :roll:
I was talking about the perceptions in the 60's and 70's. I don't recall any controversial poll results by the 80's. As to 66 I still think that that was the best ND team I ever saw. 2 of their road wins were against OK and USC who they beat by a combined score of 79-0. Taking away ND's All-American RB by injury before the game started and having the QB and other RB go down in the first half was enough of a handicap to allow MSU to eeke out a tie. No other team was close to them when they were at or even near full strength. Hell they beat USC 51-0 with a QB who was making his first start.
kp, I feel the pain of AL fans relating to the 1966 season. We went through something similar in 1993 but not like your 1966 situation because we had lost a game and you hadn't. You did everything you needed to do by going undefeated. I really don't know the reasons why AL was not a serious challenger for the NC that year because I was not aware of the relative strength of the SEC at that time. As I recall, ND and MSU were the consensus strongest teams in the country, and the game was billed as the top game of the year. Gip's comments are accurate regarding the Irish having one arm tied behind their back due to key injuries. I am pretty certain that the clincher was our 51-0 pasting of USC the following week. It's history, and it can't be reversed, but I can see where the frustration has lingered all these years.
Sid, Gipper, Yeah, it would be a great year to have had a playoff. If I remember correctly (and I was a teenager at the time) ND and MSU were #1 and 2 and Alabama was #3. Alabama had won/shared the NC in '64 and '65. So we at least had a claim that we were the defending champs and were the only undefeated/untied team how could we not be the champs. You are absolutely right about it being (ancient!) history, but I think that is the seed of the perception (mine anyways) of Notre Dame being the national favorite at the expense of Alabama. It didn't help that when we did meet we couldn't beat ND. That just pissed us off more! :wink:
I read you post about the Tide never having a Heisman winner. Joe Nameth would have been the most obvious to me. He and the Heisman winner Huart ended up on the Jets. Huart got the hardware, Broadway Joe got all the money, women and fame.
Yeah we had a few. Namath, Stabler, Johnny Musso, Ray Perkins, Ozzie Newsome, Wilbur Jackson, Tony Nathan just to mention a few. Coach Bryant used to use 3 and 4 RB's in a rotation and use them throughout the game no matter the score. Didn't do much for individual stats but it did ensure that you had experienced runners coming back every year. Also a lot of our greatest players were offensive linemen that were never going to win the Heisman like John Hand, Wes Neighbors, John Hannah, and Dwight Stephenson. We also have had some great OLB/DE's but never the the right guy at the right time.
I like this guy. He's injured right now, but he had been a steady presence on a not-so-good Niner OL. He's a team player and great with the fans.