BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Really, there’s something to be said for a six-hour drive through two big-time traffic jams, one much-needed rain storm and lots of Alabama-Tennessee talk.
Life on the road usually agrees with me, even on trips like today’s. Maybe it’s because the payoff—covering my first game in one of the SEC’s storied venues --should be worth the long journey into western Alabama.
Covering the Atlantic Coast Conference the last three seasons, I’ve seen plenty of beautiful stadiums, such as Georgia Tech’s Grant Field and Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium.
(I kid you not. Duke’s football program may be lousy, but its stadium really is nice. As John Feinstein once said, it’s a beautiful place to watch bad football.)
Anyway, Alabama coach Nick Saban and I have one thing in common today—and it’s not the salary, trust me. It will be “our” first Alabama-Tennessee game.
Bryant-Denny Stadium holds 92,138 seats and is the seventh biggest on-campus facility in major college football. That just happened in the last decade, though, which is why Alabama used to play these games at Legion Field—a long punt from where I’m putting my head on the pillow.
I asked UT coach Phillip Fulmer Tuesday what the difference is between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.
“We had a number of great games in Birmingham,” Fulmer said. “But Tuscaloosa is a better college environment. It will be louder.”
It will be interesting to hear just how loud. Having worked the Virginia Tech and UT beats for our paper, it’s hard to think of two louder stadiums on a consistent basis than Lane Stadium or Neyland Stadium.
Of course, the crowd noise will depend in large part on what happens below them. That will depend on how the Alabama defense can perform against one of the SEC’s best offenses.
If Tennessee runs the ball as it has lately, it will be hard for the Tide to win this game. Give Erik Ainge a play-action game off which to work and he’ll thrive—and then some.
That can quiet a crowd down in a hurry.
Quick Kicks
1. I found no less than five different prep games in a 70-mile span between Fort Payne and Birmingham. Any doubt that high school football is king here on Friday night?
2. On at least two of those broadcasts, I heard announcers refer to the teams they cover every Friday as “we.” Can anyone say objectivity? I knew you could ...
3. Is there any doubt that Arkansas’ Houston Nutt is gone at season’s end unless his team wins out, including a bowl game? And what are the chances of that happening with a schedule which still includes trips to Tennessee and LSU?
4. It’s always fun to watch games like the Louisville-Connecticut clash Friday night, which was played in a driving rain. Let me amend that: it’s always fun to watch those games on TV.
5. Non-football observation: after ESPN’s saturation coverage of Joe Torre’s decision not to manage the Yankees next year, is there any question now that you can refer to the network as YES North?