Crimson Tide expectations 2007: Roll Tide.

Alabama football fans are now happy; the collective opposition, it seems, is not. I'm amused by all the media articles that would like to rain on our parade with dismal speculation concerning Saban's future with the Tide. Some say that this chapter in our football history cannot end well--that either 1) Saban will not meet expectations and will, therefore, get the boot or 2) Saban will meet expectations and eventually leave U of A. The one variable that these naysayers do not account for, however, is the fact that Tide recruiting is off to an impressive start for Saban, and--provided that these recruits pay dividends for the program--Saban is not likely to leave a job as the winning coach of the most storied program in college football history. I agree that if Saban under-achieves he might be lynched; but were I Mal Moore (Bama's AD), I would not plan for that contingency given the present circumstances. The more likely scenario is success in terms that Tide fans can live with, and this will not likely precipitate Saban's departure. Saban has left Michigan State; Saban has left pro football: both times he left for what he perceived to be greener pastures. There is no upward mobility from a successful head-coaching position at the University of Alabama--for evidence of this, see entries on Bryant and Stallings.
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So what should Tide fans expect? Personally, I'm hoping for a 9-3 record. I will be happy with 8-4. I think that 7-5 under a new system is certainly excusable, especially given Bama's tough schedule. 10-2 wouldn't exactly shock me, but anything 10-2 and up would certainly qualify as fairy-tale status in my book. Then again, Tuscaloosa has been the land of fairy-tales over the last few months. Back in November, most non-Tide voices said a decent coach was beyond the realm of reasonable expectations, but look what happened with that.

Rain, Death, and Other Lame Cliches

It was raining the day my father died, which is the quintessential manifestation of cliched imagery if you ask me. The difference between is and was becomes so great at the point of death that I think a better illustration would have been an earthquake--a gaping crack in the ground leading from my feet in Fultondale, Alabama to my dad's dead body in Murphreesboro, Tennessee. Or perhaps a tornado--a chaotic vacuum that aimlessly roams the earth, impersonally destroying a variety of personal items and lives that are unfortunate enough to fall into its predestined, seemingly random path.
Anything but rain. I've often thought that God could have done better than rain. Perhaps God was aiming for irony. When I was a baby, my familiy lived in Okinawa, where there was only one television station that had programming in the English language. Every night the station signed off with a song whose lyrics state, "I can see clearly now that the rain is gone." According to my parents' lore, if the TV set was left on at an audible volume come 2 AM, I would always wake up, searching for the song's point of origin. My dad died, the rain came, the rain is gone, and I cannot see clearly at the moment. And I'm still not sure where this song is coming from.