Alabama Player Suspended

The best offensive lineman in the country, Alabama's Andre Smith, was suspended for the Sugar Bowl. Coach Nick Saban didn't go into a lot of detail on which rules where broken.

“The University of Alabama, the team and the football program are more important than any individual player,” Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said in a statement Monday. “Everyone on our team depends on each other to be responsible, to make good choices and decisions relative to their actions.”

Smith is a junior and is expected to forgo his senior year. He is expected to be a high draft choice for an NFL team.

With Smith's suspension though, Alabama's chances in the Sugar Bowl have been hampered. While they are still expected to beat Utah, without Smith this could be a difficult. Alabama already averages less than a sack and a half per game, but without Smith John Parker Wilson's backside will be UN-protected.

This will be an interesting sub plot in this year's Sugar Bowl.

College Football Links

- The Spread offense turns decent quarterbacks into statistical legends (KC Star)

- UCLA showed against USC that there are better days ahead (LA Times)

- Saban accepted responsibility for Alabama's loss yesterday (Scarblog.com)

- The Willingham era is finally over in Washington (Seattle Times)

- The Final weekend winners and losers (Rivals.com)

College Football Must List

Well it is always a sprint to the end of a season in college football. And we are headed to the finish line. There will be championship games played and some hold over regular season games. But the SEC championship game and Big 12 Championship game will be the focal points of this weekend.

Who's wills will overcome the challenge: Florida's offense or the Alabama Defense: I said yesterday that I liked Alabama because of their defense. The Alabama is lead by their 3RD ranked defense that is averaging 11.5 points per game. The Florida offense is also 3RD ranked that is averaging 46.3 points per game. This will be a battle of wills and I think Nick Saban's will is stronger. His defense will pressure Tim Tebow and force him to make mistakes. When Tebow is pressured he does not make the best throws and the entire Florida offense literally runs through him. Alabama will win this game.

Will the Big 12 Championship pull another surprise: Just ask the 2003 undefeated Oklahoma team that was hammered by Kansas St. in the Big 12 Championship game. The 1996 Nebraska team also felt the wrath of the Big 12 Championship game. While Missouri has been disappointing and did loose to Kansas last week at Arrowhead Stadium, where the championship game will be played this year, they will have a home field advantage. The weather will be miserable and could slow down the up-tempo Oklahoma offense. This game will be the most interesting game of the weekend.

After the end of the weekend most of the questions will be answered. We will know who will be playing in the BCS games. So have a fun time watching the last weekend of college football.

Remember When

At this point Florida is favored to beat Alabama in the SEC championship game by 10 points on Saturday.

I just want to know why everyone is favoring Florida over Alabama at this point. I know Tim Tebow and the Gator offense looks unstoppable at this point. But has everyone forgot that Alabama has one of the best defenses in the country.

This reminds when Alabama played Miami for the national championship game at the Sugar bowl in 1993.

Miami was a huge favored over Alabama and the players reminded everyone that they were favored. Lamar Thomas, who became famous for other reasons, talk the most amount of trash. One thing though, that Alabama team had one of the best defenses in the country.

During the game Thomas caught a long ball from Gino Torretta, who famously told his teammates to carry him to Marshall Faulk to tell him the Heisman was coming with him, then was stripped of the ball from George Teague.

The Alabama defense dominated a great offensive Miami team and end up winning the game 34-13. The Crimson Tide made Miami eat their words.

While Florida hasn't been talking the smack like Miami, the media sure has. Everyone in the media has been talking about Tim Tebow and the Florida offense. They are forgetting that Alabama is ranked number one, and has Nick Saban as their coach. Alabama's defense will win this game for the Crimson Tide.

So we need to think back and remember to never turn your backs to Alabama.

Saban is a busy man

Tom Dienhart of rivals.com, has a great piece today about a normal work week for Alabama coach Nick Saban.

Say what you want about Saban, but the man is definitely one of the hardest workers today in any sport. He is driven by the sport of college football and his only happiness is winning. His single focus has turned off a lot of people, who have called him a dictator. He is who he is because of his focus.

Also in the piece Saban talked about his NFL experience,

"I love the college game," Saban says. "The NFL? It is too much about self-preservation. It's hard to get everyone on the same page. And the league is too media-driven. I enjoy the college game more. "

Isn't college football media driven? Anyway we all understand that Saban didn't enjoy his time in the NFL. The college game only fills his desire.

So everyone needs to respect the man, and appreciate what he is doing in only his second year in Alabama.