Well…we saw Michigan win the National Championship over Washington…and they did it pretty much the old fashioned Alabama way. They ran the ball well scoring 4 rushing touchdowns and played defense and as some old guy named Bear used to say…”Defense wins championships”.

Then the middle of last week Nick Saban announced his retirement as head coach at Alabama…he’s 72 and said that neither he or Miss Terry (his wife) are ill but that health and age were catching up to him and he (a) couldn’t coach like he really wanted to and (b) more importantly, kids and their families who he was recruiting wanted to know if he would be around 3 or 4 or 5 years and he didn’t feel like he could honestly say yes to that question any more. It was quite a shock to everybody…and I’m sure he and Miss Terry discussed it extensively…and I’m also sure that she told him to do what he wanted to do. Whether she gave him her honest opinion or not I have no idea…but after 52 years I’m pretty certain she told him both her honest opinion and also that he should do what felt right to him. He hung up the phone with her 5 minutes before a scheduled team meeting and according to him at the press conference later had not made up his mind when he hung up the phone.

So…we need a new coach. The best guy possible would have been…in the view of many…Kirby Smart who was his defensive coordinator for many years. But Kirby graduated from Georgia and moved there establishing himself and his own legacy…and he still uses “the process” that Nick uses although I’m sure it’s named something different…but the do your job, move on to the next play, don’t make stupid mistakes, run the ball, play defense, don’t make mistakes, and make the other team pay for their mistakes has been adopted by a lot of current coaches. I’m pretty sure that Kirby got asked and politely declined. Next choice would be…in my opinion…Lane Kiffin who was Nick’s offensive coordinator but Lane is really too much of a free spirit say what I think guy to really be successful in Tuscaloosa and he also said that following a legend was a really dumb idea in his opinion.

So…after a couple of days the new coat is Kalen DeBoer who was the coach at Washington. He took a 4-8 team when he arrived and was 25-3 in 2 years there…so he clearly knows how to coach. At his first job in the NAIA where talent is all pretty much equal and coaching and scheme are the ways to win…he went 60something and 3 with 3 national championships. Rumor has it as of today that his offensive coordinator and some of the other staff will follow him to Alabama. Alabama’s defensive coordinator retired after the season and the offensive coordinator is young and has no head coaching experience so although he would be an in house hire it’s risky.

Will this coach pan out? Dunno…it was hard replacing the Bear when he retired and the first 2 guys that replaced him, Ray Perkins and Bill Curry didn’t do well. Gene Stalling came in and both looked like and talked like the Bear and did well…but then he retired. The next 4 guys didn’t do very well and then Saban arrived in 2007 and you know the rest…6 national championships, 7 SEC championships, 9 SEC West titles, and a 189-27 record. Lost 6 games the first year and then never more than 3 and that only once. I think it will be a long time before we see another college coach do that in 17 years and it’s really hard to disagree that he’s the GOAT (greatest of all time) in the college coaching ranks. 

I do know that the guy that replaces the guy is frequently not successful and that the guy that replaces the guy that replaced the guy is generally more successful…but the new coach has demonstrated ability and we’ll have to wait and see.

My personal guess is that more than age and health…the name, image, and likeness rules that the NCAA now runs under that allows players to essentially go to another school anytime and the associated need to pay players was a far larger factor…some of the sports gurus agree with that and some don’t…and Saban is unlikely to ever say so himself. 

So…it’s the end of an era…and the beginning of a new one. We’ll miss seeing him on the sideline but time goes on and if he wants to stop and enjoy retirement like we are…that’s just fine and dandy.

Nothing much new here…it’s been cold and rainy…in fact this winter has been far and away the coolest and wettest of any we’ve seen since our first one in 2012., Dunno why but we’ve already worn jeans more days than any 2 other year put together…but we’ll buck up…at least it isn’t like Buffalo or Kansas City where they are playing NFL games in temps of minus something.

One small political observation. I know I’ve already told you want we think about the former President and that neither he, the current President, or the current Vice President should be elected in November…so I won’t repeat that here. I also think the SCOTUS will not kick him off the ballot like CO and ME are wanting to do…but again that isn’t relevant to this part. 

What I have been seeing is a whole lot of doom and gloom predictions that it will be the end of democracy and that he’ll suspend the constitution, kill his political enemies, and a whole lot of other things that lefties and people who hate the man are want to blather on about. My observation is that …yes, he might try and do all of those things…but then again he might not…and violating the constitution (in my opinion) to kick him off the ballot because the left has universally declared him to be an insurrectionist without a conviction or anything other than their opinion is just as much a violation of the constitution as they claim he will be. Let the man run…and either defeat him at the polls…or wait until he issues some Executive Orders that are clearly unconstitutional (and which will be immediately invalidated by the courts) and then impeach him. If he really tried to overturn the constitution…he would be impeached and convicted by large majorities of both parties. But doom casting and demanding that his right to run be eliminated just because you don’t like him and have an opinion that he’s ineligible is just plain wrong.

Interesting things found on the net.

This is a mourning dress worn back in the late 1800s by Queen Victoria of England. I didn’t realize until I saw the accompanying tweet with this image that she was only 4 feet 8 inches tall…

According to
this post at snopes.com…one of the preeminent fact checkers on the internet…back in 2007 then Senator Joe Biden said

 “no great nation” can have uncontrolled borders” and proposed increased security along the U.S.-Mexico border, including a partial border fence and more Border Patrol agents.

Kinda seems like he’s changed his mind now that he’’s President and his administration basically wants an open border and just releases illegal immigrants into the US with an appointment to schedule a court date sometime in the indeterminate future (not that most of them will show up anyway, they’ll just fade into society, take low paid cash jobs, and continue to be criminals. And criminals is exactly what they are…the left likes to call them undocumented but that’s just bull crap…they’re criminals…period.

And the top 10 Senior Pickup Lines.

Cyas.