It’s very light on news today, so this will be a panoply of discussion topics.
And, let’s begin with a 2025 Alabama Crimson Tide that is beginning to resemble some of those vintage Saban teams. Hear me out,
before you register your disagreements.
- For starters, the Tide has a new coach in the early stages of his career, coming off a few bad losses, but with his patchwork roster overachieving in Year Two.
- For the first time in seven seasons, the Tide does not have a Campbell Finalist, given to:
College football’s premier scholar-athlete award that annually recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance, and exemplary leadership.
- We have a nose tackle of dubious scholastic impact:
- An outside linebacker who genuinely hates other people sharing his oxygen:
- And several other, less-polite parallels…
I’m not sure I totally see it. But I do understand how the comparisons are being drawn: History does not always repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.
LSU FYIs:
The kick time for LSU has been set:
Alabama’s next game, November 8, against LSU will kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT and air on ABC, the SEC announced Monday.
The SEC had previously announced in June that the game in Bryant-Denny Stadium would be held at night, the sixth consecutive season the two former SEC West opponents have met after dark.
As has the preliminary point spread, which I will be taking care of for you this week.
- Alabama re-opened Tuesday as a 12.5-point favorite over LSU on FanDuel sports book for their November 8 game in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
- The Tide had been between a 5.5- and seven-point favorite in summer betting on the game, but the spread widened after LSU began this season with a 5-3 record. The Tigers fired coach Brian Kelly on Sunday, with Frank Wilson serving as interim coach.
I will not be in attendance for that annual hate-fest (mercifully, now replaced with Alabama’s oldest historical rival). Instead, I will be elsewhere, watching a living legend with top notch style sense notch another win.
When compared to his illustrious predecessors, has DeBoer fared almost two dozen games into his tenure? We see those bad losses in 2024, but he’s actually done quite well for himself:
Kalen DeBoer (27), now at Alabama, won 89.3% of his games in two seasons at Washington—a healthy 27.6% above program history. DeBoer currently is 16–5 with the Crimson Tide, which puts him behind Saban, Bryant, Frank Thomas, Wallace Wade, Gene Stallings and J.W.H. Pollard. There is a long history of winning big with the Tide.
DeBoer’s .762 winning percentage is just a tick above Alabama’s .744 as a whole, which is the best in college football history. The only others above .700 are Ohio State (.739), Notre Dame (.735), Michigan (.733), Oklahoma (.724) and Texas (.705)
Forde’s stats are a bit misleading there.
When compared to Saban and Bear, sure 16-5 is behind their winning percentages. But 21 games into their tenure? DeBoer’s 76% beats Saban’s start, as does is 8-1 vs. ranked teams with the Tide (15-6, 4-4 versus ranked teams); Bear’s (12-6-3, 9-3 vs. ranked teams). And his 19-3 record vs. the Top 25 for his career is the best ever. Not just for ‘Bama coaches, for all coaches, in the history of the sport.
Returns are early, but DeBoer is tracking to be every bit as good as previous Tide greats.
Interim LSU coach, Frank Wilson, held his introductory press conference yesterday. And he sounds like a solid dude holding everything together. But, more importantly, he somewhat tipped his hand on what we can expect to see from the Tigers next Saturday:
Wilson shared that he and his players were together when the news of Kelly’s firing broke on Sunday. He acknowledged that it’s been hard and they’ve gone through “an array emotions,” but said he told his players, “Here we are in this moment. We live in real time. We live in this moment, and so we have a responsibilities to ourselves, you have a responsibility to the man that’s next to you, to be a great teammate, to individually continue to develop yourself to be the best version of you.”
Though it is currently the Tigers’ bye week, they held practice on Tuesday and Wilson emphasized the importance of the team “staying together.”
On the field, Wilson has made it clear that running the ball will be a priority for the Tigers going forward. Though LSU’s top two running backs have each averaged over four yards per carry, there have been four games this season where neither back saw at least 10 carries. The Tigers rank last in the SEC in rushing offense, a key area Wilson wants to improve upon and believes will help balance the overall offense.
Obviously, you would want to target the Tide’s miserable rushing defense. But I don’t know that LSU has the line to do it…then again, we said the same thing about South Carolina, huh? FML.
Over the course of almost two decades, we lived through the meme of “Saban to School X, Pawwwwwl.” Sadly, Pawwwwwwl is at it again. The would-be junior Senator has played his most ridiculous card of this deck to date:
Finebaum, who joined The Rich Eisen Show, was asked about Saban’s interest in LSU, a place he coached from 2000 to 2004 and won a national championship.
“I don’t think Nick Saban would take it,” Finebaum said. “Nick Saban wouldn’t talk to Penn State. He wouldn’t talk to Florida, but I think he would talk to LSU at least to see what they have to offer.”
Never mind that Saban has said he enjoys be retired, for a decade he always told us he could happily walk away, he genuinely enjoys broadcasting, and he detests the current landscape, what earthly reason would Nick have for going back to Baton Rouge? He doesn’t need to reputational cherry on top. He has made a quarter of a billion dollars off coaching, and owns not one Mercedes dealership — but co-owns two others as part of a consortium: total value? $700 million dollars. Throw in the oodles of sponsorships, talent fees, and speaking honoraria, and Saban is very close to (if not actually) a billionaire.
You think $15 million is tempting to a literal billionaire? Son, that’s not even a rounding error. (And, despite how much the sports media have already packed Lane Kiffin’s bags, I honestly don’t think he’s going…)
I guess we have to talk about gambling for a sec. Despite fierce pushback from coaches, the NCAA decided to legalize sports wagering for athletes on pro events. But since that fateful decision, a whole lot of stank has come down the pipe:
- The NBA has become embroiled in a mafia-tied point shaving scandal
- The SEC has sounded a five-alarm klaxon about needing to roll this back
“We are equally concerned about the vulnerability of our student-athletes. The combination of accessible mobile betting, financial pressuress, and social influence makes the possibility of personal gambling losses — and the potential for exploitation — very real,
“It’s absolutely one of the stupidest decisions I’ve ever seen,” Narduzzi said. “First of all, it’s a habit. It’s no different than smoking, drinking, doing drugs, it’s a bad habit. I don’t think anyone here encourages you guys to go out drinking and getting smashed on a Friday or Saturday night, or at a ball game.
“It’s a disease. I mean, you saw the same day that comes out, there’s a disease in the NBA with what’s going on over there.”
- And, just today, On3 published their in-depth piece showing how coaches are manipulating the availability reports, with conferences doing absolutely nothing to punish violations of this, the most basic of anti-gambling transparency measures.
Fortunately, some good sense seems to finally have prevailed. Not complete good sense, but at least a modicum as the NCAA has announced they are delaying the implementation of this on-ramp to problem gambling and broader corruption in college athletics. Wrote Greg Sankey:
On behalf of our universities, I write to urge action by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors to rescind this change and reaffirm the Association’s commitment to maintaining strong national standards that keep collegiate participants separated from sports wagering activity at every level,” Sankey wrote. “If there are legal or practical concerns about the prior policy, those should be addressed through careful refinement — not through wholesale removal of the guardrails that have long supported the integrity of games and
We’ll see if this finally has some effect. But, at least for now, possibly the worst idea ever leveled by an NCAA administrator lays in abeyance.
For now. I have no doubt Charlie Baker will come back with a new way to complete uckfay the sport.
Finally, as our moment of levity, let’s take a moment to laugh at Little Bro, already crashing out before the game is even played…
Pre-whining about a Vanderbilt game is a cry-for-help, man.
We’ll be back later this afternoon with some Giving Away Money, and I’ve made you very prosperous this year. You’re welcome. Have a great morning. Row Tahd.
Let this be an open thread for the day. Go nuts, kids. Have fun.
