Rosenbush Cafe

By Henry B. Rosenbush

ATLANTA, Ga–The top ranked Crimson Tide lost 31-24 to the Florida Gators after a turn around season for Nick Saban from 7-6 to the brink of a national championship. On the neutral field where it started Alabama went from 24th to 1st before the run ended where it began in Atlanta.

Credit goes to Florida 12-1, would ended Alabama’s 2008 streak at 12 games to end the SEC Title Game 12-1 and falling out of first place and a chance to go undefeated and play in the big game in January.

In quite a year for the Tide they could not have ended better except for a win, but credit both teams for a one that stayed close until the 4th quarter and the first turnover of the game was a John Parker Wilson interception to seal the Gator’s win. Alabama will fall in the polls maybe five spots or more depending on the outcome of several more weekend games.

A 27 yarder for a three point lead by Leigh Tiffin at beginning of the 4th Quarter but Florida reclaimed the lead for good in on a Jeffery Demps 1 yard rush, 24-20. A face mark penalty, Alabama’s second penalty of the game, both personal fouls kept two drives alive for Florida both resulting in scores lead to another TD. A 5 yard pass to Riley Cooper with 2:50 left in the game sealed the come from behind game.

Alabama trailing Florida at the half, 17-10 and in all there were 4 lead changes but Tim Tebow’s two touchdowns to Carl Moore and David Nelson of, respectively 3 and 5 yards. Last years’ Heisman winner is 8/13 109 yards and 2 scores propelled Florida in the first half and they held off Alabama in the late stages of the game. They will play for the chance at a second national championship in three years.

Wilson ended the game is 12/25 187 yards and 1 INT while his counter part 14/21 for 216 and 3 TDs.
The Tide trailed early and after the Gator’s engineered their first drive for a 9 play 59 yard scoring drive the Crimson Tide scored on two plays, a long pass to Julio Jones set up a 18 yard run by Glen Coffee ended the game 21 carries for 122 yards one 1 TD, Julio Jones caught 124 yards on 5 catches.

Demps ended the game 54 yards on 14 runs for the final score of the game.

Alabama falls to 2-4 against Florida in SEC Championship play since 1992.

The game remained close until midway through the 4th Quarter and final stats show a close game that in the end was affected greatly by two Alabama penalties that kept drives alive for 14 points and being outrushed 143 to 136 yards and outpassed 216 to 183, but the end result was a close game where Alabama never let Florida jump to a big lead, infact the final 10 points scored was the biggest lead Florida had in the game and it paid off for the Gators in the end.

Congratulations to Florida but also to Alabama for a great season. There is still another game to play and Alabama has much improved beyond the critics and expectations of experts so kepp focused and congratulations again for getting so close in 2008.

later tonight…

By Henry B. Rosenbush
BCS Standings, AP, USATODAY Polls included

Twelve wins in a row and eight wins in a row and the wait is nearly over for Number 1 Alabama (12-0, 8-0) and Number 2 (AP; 4th, USAToday) Florida (11-1, 7-1) when they meet Saturday, for the SEC title game with the BCS National Championship Game as both team’s ultimate goal.

Could there be more at stake than Alabama going from a 7-6 team in 2007 to the top ranked team in America in one year when most everyone who follows college football predicted another mediocre season?

Perhaps after the over-hyped pre-season analysis from sports experts and basement bloggers of where Alabama would fit into the always unpredictable SEC was hatred, jealousy or ignorance, Coach Nick Saban took a 24th ranked team and guided them through a season of growth and maturity that rekindled the glory years of Crimson Tide football when Alabama was feared, respected and taken seriously.

Many of these same experts either have continuously ignored or downplayed the Crimson Tide’s resurgence as a power in the Southeastern Conference all season. Even as the Tide broke the November losing streak and defeated last year’s national champions LSU, broke the offensive touchdown drought against Mississippi State and ended six years of bragging rights with Auburn the televised games have had one unsettling scenario replayed ad nauseum:

Florida is the hottest team in America; Florida 60 points, they scored 70m points, last year’s Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Tim Tebow is the best quarterback. While they made deserve all these accolades and Tebow is a great QB and will probably draft higher in the than Alabama’s John Parker Wilson Florida was expected to be powerful and started the season ranked 5th in AP and USAToday’s polls with Alabama at 24 in AP and unranked in the coaches rankings.

This would also be a year where Alabama defeated three teams, and perhaps for if Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville’s tenure ends after their 5-7 season, whose coaches were replaced; Clemson’s Bobby Bowden was let go, Tennessee’ Phil Fulmer - the coach so reviled by many Alabama fans and alumni as the man who brought attention to the NCAA that led to the football program being in the death zone - retired - maybe resigned if he gets a job at South Carolina. Isn’t that where Steve Spurrier coaches? Mississippi State’s Sylvester Croom resigned less than 24 hours after the embarrassing season ending loss to in-state rival Ole Miss, who blanked them 45-0 on Friday.

While it is not the opinion of this writer that these coaches jobs ended because Alabama defeated their teams, there were problems at these schools already, but in a year when one team returned to prominence after a decade of being the SEC whipping post for a number of teams that tide turned.

After last night’s game I listened to a dozen conversations between Alabama and Auburn fans I joined for tailgating to hear “I never dreamed it would be like that,” from an Alabama fan to a young former Auburn student, now in anothe school - not Alabama - who congratulated me, saying, “That is the best team I have ever seen and Auburn knew it.”

A number of fans swooned, trying to recall a year, since the l992 championship season when Alabama was not only undefeated but left them all smiling for all home games! It was actually profound to see a number of fans for both teams still acting like civilized people rather than the more drunken chanting heard in the campus housing zones nearby.

As a University of Southern Mississippi alumni I’m glad the Golden Eagles ended 6-6, especially after the unceremonious and embarrassing end to Coach Jeff Bowers’ career. He coached Brett Farve and everyone knows how he turned out. Too bad they lost to Auburn when was ranked 9th in week two of the season.

A breakdown of Alabama and Florida with the seemingly endless statistics of college football games and seasons:

Starting with Alabama, team leaders were: Quarterback John Parker Wilson who completed 157 of 268 passes for 1909 yards 9 TDs 5 INTs, and breaking all the major QB records; Glen Coffee rushed 199 times for 1,235 yards and a 6.2 average with 9 TDs; Mark Ingram (127 rushes, 681 yards, 5.4, 11 TDs); leading receiver first year player Julio Jones had 46 receptions for 723 yards, a 15.7 yard average and 4 TDs followed by Nick Walker (26/262, 10.1, 2 TDs).

The Tide offense averaged 201.5 rushing and 169.3 passing per game for an average of 370.8 while the team averaged 32.1 points per game while allowing 11.5 and winning by 20.6 points.

Florida’s team leaders were:

QB Tim Tebow (246/160, 2,299 yds, 25 TDs); rushing, Chris Rainey (82 rushes 654, 8.0, 4 TDs) and Percy Harvin (61/538, 8.8, 9 TDs); receivers, P. Harvin (35/595, 17.0, 7 TDs) and Louis Murphy (32/525, 16.4, 6 TDs).

Florida’s offsence averaged 237.1 rushing, 212.3 passing for 449.4 per game average and scored an average of 46.3 points per game, allowed a 12.3-point average and margin of victor, 34.1 points.

CONFERENCE
8-0 ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE
7-1 FLORIDA GATORS

OVERALL
12-0
11-1

POINTS SCORED
385
556

POINTS ALLOWED
138
147

HOME RECORD
7-0
6-1

ROAD RECORD
5-0
5-0

Alabama’s 2008 Schedule and Results
8/30 @ No. 9 Clemson 1-0 (0-0) W 34-10
9/06 Tulane 2-0 (0-0) W 20-6
9/13 Western Kentucky 3-0 (0-0) W 41-7
9/20 @ Arkansas 4-0 (1-0) W 49-14
9/27 @ No. 3 Georgia 5-0 (2-0) W 41-30
10/04 Kentucky 6-0 (3-0) W 17-14
10/18 Mississippi 7-0 (4-0) W 24-20
10/25 @ Tennessee 8-0 (5-0) W 29-9
11/01 Arkansas State 9-0 (5-0) W 35-0
11/08 @ No. 16 LSU 10-0 (6-0) W 27-21 OT
11/15 Mississippi State 11-0 (7-0) W 32-7
11/29 Auburn 12-0 (8-0) W 36-0

Florida’s 2008 Schedule and Results
8/30 Hawaii 1-0 (0-0) W 56-10
9/06 Miami (FL) 2-0 (0-0) W 26-3
9/20 @ Tennessee 3-0 (1-0) W 30-6
9/27 Mississippi 3-1 (1-1) L 31-30
10/04 @ Arkansas 4-1 (2-1) W 38-7
10/11 No. 4 LSU 5-1 (3-1) W 51-21
10/25 Kentucky 6-1 (4-1) W 63-5
11/01 @ No. 6 Georgia 7-1 (5-1) W 49-10
11/08 @ Vanderbilt 8-1 (6-1) W 42-14
11/15 No. 25 So Carolina 9-1 (7-1) W 56-6
11/22 Citadel 10-1 (7-1) W 70-19
11/29 @ No. 20 FSU 11-1 (7-1) W 45-15

AP Top 25
1. Alabama (62) 12-0 1,620
2. Florida (3) 11-1 1,516
3. Texas 11-1 1,488
4. Oklahoma 11-1 1,480
5. USC 10-1 1,355
6. Penn State 11-1 1,257
7. Utah 12-0 1,216
8. Texas Tech 11-1 1,197
9. Boise State 12-0 1,103
10. Ohio State 10-2 1,069
11. TCU 10-2 885
12. Ball State 12-0 834
13. Cincinnati 10-2 824
14. Oklahoma State 9-3 798
15. Georgia Tech 8-3 708
16. Oregon 9-3 630
17. Georgia 9-3 495
18. Boston College 9-3 482
19. Missouri 9-3 479
20. Brigham Young 10-2 385
21. Michigan State 9-3 312
22. Mississippi 8-4 280
23. Pittsburgh 8-3 241
24. Northwestern 9-3 190
25. Oregon State 8-4 122
Others Receiving Votes: Iowa 66, Virginia Tech 47, Tulsa 13, Florida State 12, California 7, West Virginia 4, Rice 3, Connecticut 3, Nebraska 3, North Carolina 1. Dropped From Rankings: Florida State 23.

USA Today Poll
1. Alabama (58) 12-0 1,521
2. Oklahoma (2) 11-1 1,397
3. Texas 11-1 1,396
4. Florida (1) 11-1 1,385
5. USC 10-1 1,298
6. Penn State 11-1 1,176
7. Utah 12-0 1,153
8. Texas Tech 11-1 1,116
9. Boise State 12-0 1,044
10. Ohio State 10-2 999
11. TCU 10-2 836
12. Cincinnati 10-2 770
13. Ball State 12-0 765
14. Oregon 9-3 658
15. Oklahoma State 9-3 613
16. Georgia Tech 8-3 590
17. Missouri 9-3 470
18. Brigham Young 10-2 461
19. Georgia 9-3 440
20. Boston College 9-3 435
21. Michigan State 9-3 414
22. Northwestern 9-3 333
23. Pittsburgh 8-3 154
24. Oregon State 8-4 127
25. Mississippi 8-4 126
Others Receiving Votes: Virginia Tech 41, Iowa 31, Tulsa 21, Florida State 15, Nebraska 11, Kansas 10, Connecticut 5, North Carolina 5, Rice 5, California 4. Dropped From Rankings: Florida State 24, West Virginia 25.

BCS Standings
1. Alabama 12-0
2. Oklahoma 11-1
3. Texas 11-1
4. Florida 11-1
5. USC 10-1
6. Utah 12-0
7. Texas Tech 11-1
8. Penn State 11-1
9. Boise State 12-0
10. Ohio State 10-2
11. TCU 10-2
12. Ball State 12-0
13. Cincinnati 10-2
14. Oklahoma State 9-3
15. Georgia Tech 8-3
16. Georgia 9-3
17. Boston College 9-3
18. BYU 10-2
19. Oregon 9-3
20. Missouri 9-3
21. Michigan State 9-3
22. Northwestern 9-3
23. Pitt 8-3