Alabama’s surprising rout of Clemson rocks college football landscape
Over the years, the three most overused words in the lexicon of Alabama football have been “Bama is back!”
Alabama was back under Mike DuBose, only to see the train run off the track. The same was true under Dennis Franchione, only to see him jump on the track and take the Midnight Train to College Station. Even Sports Illustrated dug up the phrase on a now infamous cover following Alabama’s shredding of Florida in 2005.
As a result of countless false alarms, the national media has belittled the Tide faithful as a collection of hopeless fools, willing to grasp at any straw and blindly follow any new and improved leader. For long-time chroniclers of college football, it has been agonizing to witness the devastation of the Alabama dynasty — once among the proudest in the lore of the sport.
Don’t look now but the phrase has been uttered again — about 18 million times since the Tide’s laser-like evisceration of Clemson Saturday night. Only this time, the college football world isn’t snickering or sneering at Alabama. Instead, the sense being picked up is more like a tremor, a twitch, an uneasy and uncomfortable pit at the bottom of their collective gut.
al.com
9/2/08
Magnolia Tribune
