Greetings Tide Fans

AJDawg

New Member
Dec 7, 2016
9
0
0
Well - here we are. UW vs Alabama. Husky vs. Crimson Tide.

As a life-long Dawgfan and a devoted Follower of College Football I just want to Echo Huskylawyer's comments.

I am absolutely thrilled that we have the chance to play a program as rich in tradition, honors, and prestige as Alabama. After the early 1990's and the Don James years, I didn't think I'd see this day again. If there's ever a team to aspire to in this country as the pinnacle of achievement there are only a few besides the Tide - tOSU, Penn St. maybe Texas and, occasionally Notre Dame.

Growing up I followed the great players coming out of your program --- Joe Namath, Johnny Musso and many others too numerous to list.etc. But over all of them was the guiding hand of Bear Bryant. (I even remember watching one political convention where Bear got one vote from the Alabama deligation). He must've been a great person and terrific teacher of young men.

Make no mistake: UW is in really tough against Alabama. In order to have any chance at all we'll have to play near perfectly.
With that in mind I'd like to ask these questions:

1.) Why did Alabama decide to part ways with Gene Stallings? Seems like he won most of his games and was a decent fit for the program. The whole situation struck me like when Earl Bruce followed Woody Hayes at tOSU. The guy won but they still canned him.

2.) What did you think of Michigan State last year ---- you guys shut them out, I think, 35-0.

3.) Is Auburn your biggest rival? Georgia? Florida?

Thanks much.

AJD
 

rgw

Suspended
Sep 15, 2003
20,852
1,351
232
Tuscaloosa
I've heard some stories about Stallings retiring in 1996 but I think some wiser users than I are more qualified to talk on it. Basically, it came down to a bad relationship with the administration.

Michigan State? I respected their run defense but I figured they'd struggle on offense.

It is Auburn and Tennessee. Florida and LSU are "competitive" rivals.
 

TrampLineman

Hall of Fame
Jul 21, 2010
7,287
6
57
Alabama
Well - here we are. UW vs Alabama. Husky vs. Crimson Tide.

As a life-long Dawgfan and a devoted Follower of College Football I just want to Echo Huskylawyer's comments.

I am absolutely thrilled that we have the chance to play a program as rich in tradition, honors, and prestige as Alabama. After the early 1990's and the Don James years, I didn't think I'd see this day again. If there's ever a team to aspire to in this country as the pinnacle of achievement there are only a few besides the Tide - tOSU, Penn St. maybe Texas and, occasionally Notre Dame.

Growing up I followed the great players coming out of your program --- Joe Namath, Johnny Musso and many others too numerous to list.etc. But over all of them was the guiding hand of Bear Bryant. (I even remember watching one political convention where Bear got one vote from the Alabama deligation). He must've been a great person and terrific teacher of young men.

Make no mistake: UW is in really tough against Alabama. In order to have any chance at all we'll have to play near perfectly.
With that in mind I'd like to ask these questions:

1.) Why did Alabama decide to part ways with Gene Stallings? Seems like he won most of his games and was a decent fit for the program. The whole situation struck me like when Earl Bruce followed Woody Hayes at tOSU. The guy won but they still canned him.

2.) What did you think of Michigan State last year ---- you guys shut them out, I think, 35-0.

3.) Is Auburn your biggest rival? Georgia? Florida?

Thanks much.

AJD
1. I was young then, but I was always under the impression that Coach Stallings didn't like the "guiding hand" of administrators. Of course I could be very wrong there. But make no mistake, Coach Stallings is still DEARLY LOVED by Bama fans today. Matter of fact he still makes regular visits to Bama and does a lot of speeches here. He came to a nearby church a few years ago and it filled up quickly.

2. Michigan State is respected here, but teams like that stand no chance against us. You have to have more threats on offense to beat us.

3. I consider them our biggest rival, but many here and a lot of the old guard (I guess you can say that) think Tennessee is our biggest rival. They are definitely our biggest two rivals period if you took a consensus between us younger fans and the older fans.

Looking forward to the game!
 
Last edited:

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
Staff member
Oct 13, 1999
84,528
39,618
437
Huntsville, AL,USA
Well - here we are. UW vs Alabama. Husky vs. Crimson Tide.

As a life-long Dawgfan and a devoted Follower of College Football I just want to Echo Huskylawyer's comments.

I am absolutely thrilled that we have the chance to play a program as rich in tradition, honors, and prestige as Alabama. After the early 1990's and the Don James years, I didn't think I'd see this day again. If there's ever a team to aspire to in this country as the pinnacle of achievement there are only a few besides the Tide - tOSU, Penn St. maybe Texas and, occasionally Notre Dame.

Growing up I followed the great players coming out of your program --- Joe Namath, Johnny Musso and many others too numerous to list.etc. But over all of them was the guiding hand of Bear Bryant. (I even remember watching one political convention where Bear got one vote from the Alabama deligation). He must've been a great person and terrific teacher of young men.

Make no mistake: UW is in really tough against Alabama. In order to have any chance at all we'll have to play near perfectly.
With that in mind I'd like to ask these questions:

1.) Why did Alabama decide to part ways with Gene Stallings? Seems like he won most of his games and was a decent fit for the program. The whole situation struck me like when Earl Bruce followed Woody Hayes at tOSU. The guy won but they still canned him.

2.) What did you think of Michigan State last year ---- you guys shut them out, I think, 35-0.

3.) Is Auburn your biggest rival? Georgia? Florida?

Thanks much.

AJD
The other points are adequately answered. Stallings is a bit deeper and harder to get at. He was, and is, an immensely stubborn man. He was renowned for a quote, which, paraphrased was that, if you listened to the fans, you'd soon be sitting in the stands with them. His definition of "fans" pretty much included the whole world except his team and staff. It certainly included his boss and the rest of the administration. Also, he was firmly wedded to an offense which would make Miles' look wildly creative, and there was no way he would consider changing it. Finally, the elbows got too sharp and he was invited to retire. Over the next decade and a half or so, many Bama fans wished to have that conservative attack and regular ten win seasons back...
 

PitMaster

Suspended
Aug 24, 2015
2,281
1
0
To me, our biggest rival and I think certainly are most historical and successful one is Tennessee

I hate those people
 

B1GTide

TideFans Legend
Apr 13, 2012
45,499
46,842
187
For the longest time, my wife and her family considered TN to be Alabama's biggest rival. She didn't want them to win a game in any sport. Now that Fulmer is well in the rear view mirror and Alabama has won so many years in a row on the football field, their blood has cooled a bit. Auburn now ranks higher with them because they have actually been a threat in recent years.

They look forward to the TN games because of the history. They dread the Auburn games because of the luck and craziness that happens in those games.
 

Intl.Aperture

All-American
Aug 12, 2015
3,681
23
57
Chesapeake, Virginia
I always grew up with Auburn being the biggest rival. May depend where you live in the state. I lived down south in the Mobile/Gulf Shores/Bay Minette region and that put me nearer to Lee County than was comfortable. Also, being a bit younger, there was more parity between the programs during my rearing. The beatings of the early 00's as a high school student weigh on my mind and the smug faces of all my tool Auburn fan classmates. I can vividly see the face of one particular guy right now as though he is right in front of me and I just want to hit him. Roll Tide.
 

capnfrog

All-American
Aug 17, 2002
3,556
0
155
Pell city, Al. U.S.A.
1. As with most Crimson Tide fans, if I knew anything (which I don't), on Coach Stallings I would keep it to myself. As is also true with Coach Saban, Coach Stallings is a person of high moral character. Also, everyone loved John Mark. John Mark Stallings was a great Bama fan and also a great fan of Coach Saban.
2. We got Michigan State out of their game plan early and they were doomed from there on.
3. To me Tennessee is Bama's biggest rival and will never be forgiven for what they tried to pull. All barn runs a real close second.
 

RWBTide

1st Team
Dec 8, 2013
828
67
47
Blue Half of Glasgow Scotland
Ok, I'm a Brit (Glasgow, Scotland) so my qualification on this subject is < 0^0.5.

I do however have an impression,

I joined here shortly after seeing 'Roll Tide/War Eagle' on ESPN UK and the 2013 Iron Bowl.

It was the rivalry/hatred portrayed in that film that drew me in. As the posters above have mentioned some see Tennessee and some see Auburn as the biggest rivalry.

I see more dislike, mistrust, hatred even venom in the reactions/responses when it comes to Tennessee.
 

tattooguy21

Suspended
Aug 14, 2012
3,615
612
132
I respect your cheerleading program, if nothing else. Apparently this was pulled after many snowflakes were offended, but I respect the original effort.


 

4Q Basket Case

FB|BB Moderator
Staff member
Nov 8, 2004
9,568
12,865
237
Tuscaloosa
Well - here we are. UW vs Alabama. Husky vs. Crimson Tide.

As a life-long Dawgfan and a devoted Follower of College Football I just want to Echo Huskylawyer's comments.

I am absolutely thrilled that we have the chance to play a program as rich in tradition, honors, and prestige as Alabama. After the early 1990's and the Don James years, I didn't think I'd see this day again. If there's ever a team to aspire to in this country as the pinnacle of achievement there are only a few besides the Tide - tOSU, Penn St. maybe Texas and, occasionally Notre Dame.

Growing up I followed the great players coming out of your program --- Joe Namath, Johnny Musso and many others too numerous to list.etc. But over all of them was the guiding hand of Bear Bryant. (I even remember watching one political convention where Bear got one vote from the Alabama deligation). He must've been a great person and terrific teacher of young men.

Make no mistake: UW is in really tough against Alabama. In order to have any chance at all we'll have to play near perfectly.
With that in mind I'd like to ask these questions:

1.) Why did Alabama decide to part ways with Gene Stallings? Seems like he won most of his games and was a decent fit for the program. The whole situation struck me like when Earl Bruce followed Woody Hayes at tOSU. The guy won but they still canned him.

2.) What did you think of Michigan State last year ---- you guys shut them out, I think, 35-0.

3.) Is Auburn your biggest rival? Georgia? Florida?

Thanks much.

AJD
Good to have you here. Some years ago, I visited the UDub campus (April / May time of year), and the campus was beautiful. The library looks like something from a European cathedral, and the view of Puget Sound from the stadium would distract me from the game.

Anyway, my 2 cents on your questions:

Others have given a good rendition of the lead up to him retiring. I was a bit conflicted at the time, but with the benefit of hindsight, I now think it was the exact right time.

Stallings has a lot of great qualities. But flexibility is not one of them. Further, the more questions he he is asked, the more personal offense he takes, and the more he digs in, straps on a metal helmet, and starts shooting.

In 1996, the game was beginning to pass him by. In subsequent years, it would only have gotten worse. Had he stayed, we would have been LSU under Les Miles -- monstrous defenses, but unable to move the ball, and unwilling (or unable) to adapt.

We would have been perennially somewhere between 7-4 and 9-2, with a bunch of woulda / coulda / shouldas, but never a truly serious threat for a championship of anything other than the SEC West. Pretty soon the fanbase would have gotten fed up, and the divorce would have been ugly. As it was, we still have the warm fuzzy memories of glory years, an oasis in the desert between Bryant and Saban, and what most fans perceive as a grandfatherly friend of the institution.

2015 Michigan State was a good team, but played directly into our strengths. Plus, they'd never seen that combination of speed and physicality on defense. They just got shell-shocked, it snowballed, and they gave up.

Biggest rival is either Auburn (a/k/a "the barn," or "the boogs") or Tennessee (a/k/a "the arnge" or a lot of other things that would violate TideFans' ban on profanity).

When I was growing up in the 1970s, the biggest hated rival was Auburn. Back then, Tennessee was somebody we really, really wanted to beat because it was a measure of where we were as a team that year. More grudging respect than hate.

That changed in the late 1990s when their coach Phil Fulmer, with no small amount of help from the Exec Director of the SEC (Roy Kramer) and the NCAA violating its own bylaws, tried to put the Alabama program out of business. And I do not exaggerate. That is a literal truth.

So now, for me anyway, I want to beat Auburn every year, but want them to be good enough to be worth beating. I hope that Tennessee loses every game in every sport, that all of its graduates become sterile and therefore cannot reproduce, and that it rains only urine in Knoxville so that even the heavens .... on them.
 

TrampLineman

Hall of Fame
Jul 21, 2010
7,287
6
57
Alabama
I want to beat Auburn every year, but want them to be good enough to be worth beating. I hope that Tennessee loses every game in every sport, that all of its graduates become sterile and therefore cannot reproduce, and that it rains only urine in Knoxville so that even the heavens .... on them.
I don't even want the barn good enough to beat. I wouldn't mind them being 0-11 every year that we play them along with UcheaT. Then I hope they tie after playing 20 overtimes and everyone gives up when they actually play each after the stadium falls in.
 

GeorgiaTider

All-SEC
Oct 30, 2005
1,565
24
57
62
1. I was young then, but I was always under the impression that Coach Stallings didn't like the "guiding hand" of administrators. Of course I could be very wrong there. But make no mistake, Coach Stallings is still DEARLY LOVED by Bama fans today. Matter of fact he still makes regular visits to Bama and does a lot of speeches here. He came to a nearby church a few years ago and it filled up quickly.

2. Michigan State is respected here, but teams like that stand no chance against us. You have to have more threats on offense to beat us.

3. I consider them our biggest rival, but many here and a lot of the old guard (I guess you can say that) think Tennessee is our biggest rival. They are definitely our biggest two rivals period if you took a consensus between us younger fans and the older fans.

Looking forward to the game!
I lived the Bear days and Auburn was\is the biggest rival and Tennessee was a close 2d. Until Phat Phil, the UT game was a game between respected opponents. Not so much now. For me, Tennessee is the team I love to beat, and Auburn the team I hate to lose to.
 

4Q Basket Case

FB|BB Moderator
Staff member
Nov 8, 2004
9,568
12,865
237
Tuscaloosa
I lived the Bear days and Auburn was\is the biggest rival and Tennessee was a close 2d. Until Phat Phil, the UT game was a game between respected opponents. Not so much now. For me, Tennessee is the team I love to beat, and Auburn the team I hate to lose to.
Nailed it. Love the phrasing!
 

selmaborntidefan

TideFans Legend
Mar 31, 2000
36,432
29,735
287
54
1.) Why did Alabama decide to part ways with Gene Stallings? Seems like he won most of his games and was a decent fit for the program. The whole situation struck me like when Earl Bruce followed Woody Hayes at tOSU. The guy won but they still canned him.
Well, we didn't 'can' him, he retired. Now...that might possibly be a difference in semantics. I've heard multiple stories over the years, and they actually all are possible, but I'm not 'connected' so it has the misfortune of blind speculation. Stallings was rumored to have been considering retiring at the end of the 1995 season. You may recall we got socked with our first real probation prior to that year. He then lost a winnable game against Arkansas, got blown out by Peyton Manning (I think that loss was somewhat expected, and he wasn't overly judged for it), and the officials helped cost us the Iron Bowl that year. On the flip side, he barely etched out wins that year against Vandy and USM, winning both in the final minute (Vandy, I believe, was on a fourth and long bomb on the final play - not sure, the game wasn't telecast where I was).

Our best offense back in the day was when we had the late Homer Smith as our OC. In 1989, Bill Curry hired him, and he lit up the scoreboard with a backup QB who won SEC offensive player of the year, Gary Hollingsworth. But Smith left when Curry did. In 1994, Stallings brought him back, but if you go look at the points totals it's clear the was not given free reign with the offense. We won eight games that year when trailing in the fourth quarter - it's almost like Stallings would not let Smith call the offense but then expected him to unleash bombs on a moment's notice at crunch time.

Stallings also got by with the lackluster offense because the defense was winning games. And then you have to remember...he didn't recruit the defense that won the national championship, Bill Curry actually recruited most of those guys. There was also ALLEGEDLY some internal politics that involved the AD and President at the time...and Stallings didn't need the hassle so he bailed.


2.) What did you think of Michigan State last year ---- you guys shut them out, I think, 35-0.
38-0 and we weren't really overly surprised. Most folks forget that was still a game until right before halftime. A scoreless first quarter, we were up 10-0 and Michigan St began a hurry up drive. The play that determined the game was when Cook thought he had a guy open for the touchdown and Cyrus Jones picked it off inside the five.

Had they gotten even three there, the momentum is different. I don't think the outcome is substantially different. Let's face it, anyone looked at Saban's record when he has a bunch of time to get ready? Starting at LSU as he came into his own, he's 9-5, and look at his three losses: one was after he'd announced he was going to the NFL (he lost on the final play) and two more were games our guys didn't even really seem to want to play (Utah and Oklahoma) because of the letdown from an earlier loss.

I don't think anyone here was impressed Mich State, but they were very deserving last year just as Washington is this year.

3.) Is Auburn your biggest rival? Georgia? Florida?

Thanks much.

AJD
Our REAL biggest rival is Tennessee. We don't play Georgia very often. That goes back - in part - to the false allegations of Coach Bryant and former UGA Coach Butts 'fixing' the 1962 Alabama-UGA game. A cooling off period was needed from all the bad feelings so the teams got to where they met about twice every eight years. (Vince Dooley owes his 'legendary' status - in large part - to not having to play Alabama every year). Florida was a door mat in the SEC prior to 1984, when they won and were then stripped of their first-ever SEC title. Spurrier made them a monster, but if we play them it almost always seems to be in the SEC title game.

Auburn. Well, that's the rivalry that gets all the ink, but the teams didn't even play for a forty-year period in an argument over per diem (IIRC). The teams resumed playing in 1948. But it's a one-sided rivalry. If Auburn beats Alabama then they've had a 'great season' by their view. We are indeed the measuring rod for greatness in the SEC and that's long before Saban ever came. The flip side is that Alabama is more afraid of LOSING to Auburn than we actually enjoy beating them.

At one time, I would have argued the Tennessee rivalry was the most exemplary in the country. But when Phil Fulmer - with the full backing of SEC commissioner Roy Kramer - helped deep six us because they were old chums, that era ended. It once was two brothers having a clean boxing match and the loser raising the hand of the winner.

Now? We could score 100 points on them and it wouldn't be enough for some of us. They cost us 15 years, and we can't get that back. I hope they're enjoying their status as irrelevant because it came about in large part as a RESULT of what Fulmer pulled. In trying to destroy Alabama, he ruined his own program, a program that for a long period of time was the second best in the SEC.

Hope this helps.
 

AJDawg

New Member
Dec 7, 2016
9
0
0
1. As with most Crimson Tide fans, if I knew anything (which I don't), on Coach Stallings I would keep it to myself. As is also true with Coach Saban, Coach Stallings is a person of high moral character. Also, everyone loved John Mark. John Mark Stallings was a great Bama fan and also a great fan of Coach Saban.
2. We got Michigan State out of their game plan early and they were doomed from there on.
3. To me Tennessee is Bama's biggest rival and will never be forgiven for what they tried to pull. All barn runs a real close second.
Hi -> can you explain the last statement? Was there some circumstance where UT was over the top with something? Thanks.
 

Latest threads

TideFans.shop : 2024 Madness!

TideFans.shop - Get YOUR Bama Gear HERE!”></a>
<br />

<!--/ END TideFans.shop & item link \-->
<p style= Purchases made through our TideFans.shop and Amazon.com links may result in a commission being paid to TideFans.