Great article Larry. I think we as Alabama fans may finally be able to step a little further out of the shadow that was left by Coach Bryant. That doesn't in anyway mean to forget him or give him second billing. That will never happen nor should it ever happen, but we can finally enjoy the success of a coach that is a success all of it's own.
What I mean by that is when CGS won it all in 92 we loved him for it, we celebrated him and we held him up as we rightfully should have, but he was still connected to Coach Bryant. We all loved the fact that one of the Coach Bryant's boys who played for him, coached for him, sounded like him, coached like him, dressed like him, etc... won a championship at Alabama because if one closed their eyes to enjoy the moment you could almost hear Coach Bryant speaking every time Bebes opened his mouth. We loved CGS, but we really loved the connection to CPB. What I think many fail to realize is that deep down there is another reason that championship meant so much when CGS won it. I think deep down the fact that CGS won a national championship at Alabama many felt it was another victory for Coach Bryant. That made him an even greater coach on another level as one of his disciples came back home to BAMA and won it with everything Coach Bryant had taught him. It validated Coach Bryant in our minds even more.
My other point is that we have something to celebrate now and that's important. I remember back when all the pregame hype and intro videos became such a big deal. We had all this footage from the Bryant days and a few clips from CGS time and not much else. There was little other than Prothro's catch to really get excited about. Now we have highlight moments in the present that we can enjoy. It doesn't make the past any less important, but I think it's interesting how we used to just celebrate our past and now we celebrate the present. The feeling of celebrating the present wasn't this strong when CGS was the coach because he had such a strong tie to the past.