From: guy@mspe5.b11.ingr.com (Guy D. McConnell)
Subject: Sugar Bowl and Candy Canes
Reply-To: guy@mspe5.b11.ingr.com (Guy McConnell)
Organization: Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, AL
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 17:44:40 GMT

    Well, you were all right.  The Sugar Bowl was a blowout.  The best team in
the nation did indeed manhandle the pretender.  It was ugly to watch, unless
you were a fan of the best team in the nation.  That same team has beaten the
previous year's co-national champion in two consecutive bowl games and this
year took the "mythical" out of the MNC.  Alabama dominated and systematically
dismantled the "unbeatable" canes.  And some of you had the gall to say that
no college team could give them a game and that they should be playing a pro
team in a bowl.  A century of championship tradition met a young upstart and
capped off the centennial season with an undisputed, unanimous national title.
They did it one game at a time, winning the first conference title ever decided
in a playoff.  They beat an unprecidented 9 SEC teams to win that crown.  Then
they took on the consensus #1 team in the nation and blew them out.  A great
many things were settled over the New Year's holiday.  The best team in the
country is Alabama.  The toughest conference in the country is the SEC which
went 4 - 1 in their bowl games.  Alabama beat all of these SEC bowl teams 
except the one that we didn't play, Georgia.  Texas A&M was shown to be over
rated, in spite of claims to the contrary, and that they couldn't handle the
"lesser" team they got in the Cotton Bowl.  Corky Simpson, the Arizona
sportswriter who cast the sole #1 vote for Alabama from the preseason all the
way to the Sugar Bowl, was shown to have great foresight.  He was the only 
person, aside from Alabama fans, who knew The Truth.  Now, everyone knows and
everyone is on the bandwagon voting Alabama #1.  The Heisman trophy was shown
to have been awarded based on career achievements by an entire team rather than
the individual achievements of the awardee.  And finally, Gene Stallings has
settled the issue of whether he is a winning coach or not.  What an incredible
dose of humility all around.  And that Sugar Bowl, sweetest of the sweet.

    The National weather service has, with egg on its face, issued a retraction
of the hurricane forecast so boldly put out.  The Tide rose and totally wiped
out the hurricane before it even caught sight of land.  In the aftermath of
the High Tide, not even a zephyr remained of that once windy tropical 
depression.  It was shown that, while the winds made a lot of noise, they had
no teeth, no weapons potent enough to overcome The Tide.

    The trash talking, strut-walking canes were put in their place.  The back,
whose name escapes me now (I wonder why) who brashly stated that he would run
for 100 yards against Alabama's defense, got only a fraction of that amount.
In fact, the whole team could only manage 48 yards rushing.  Awe inspiring.
The Heisman trophy awardee, who stated that he had "many times" played against
players the caliber of Copeland and Curry and that he wasn't worried about them
was reduced to an inept, ineffective, terrified mess playing on a true freshman
level.  The defense, that thought (along with many others) that they were
better than Alabama's and could stop the running game, had Alabama's line
blowing them off of the line of scrimmage while the backs, led by Derrick "I'm
coming Elizabeth" Lassic, ran at will through the gaping holes.  They were 
going to shut down the run and make Alabama pass.  Alabama only needed 18 yards
passing in the blowout.  The wide receivers were jammed, jolted, and punished
all night and reduced to non-factors.  As Keith Jackson put it, they weren't
used to being treated like that.  Ah yes, Lamar Thomas.  The self-proclaimed
"best player in the nation".  The one who stood in front of the Alabama fans 
before the game preening, strutting, and blowing kisses.  The one who said that,
in the second half, Alabama would still be out there busting their butts while
he sat on the sideline sipping his Gatorade.  He was right about that.  First,
Tommy "T.P." Johnson slapped his hand like an errant schoolboy and knocked the
ball loose for an Alabama recovery down near our goal line.  And then, the play
of the evening.  The one that symbolized concisely the thrashing that Alabama
administered to the unbelieving canes.  Thomas had our true freshman cornerback
Willie Gaston beaten by two steps down the left sideline.  Gino "Jelly-Roll"
Toretta again lofted one up on a wing and a prayer, self-preservation utmost in
his mind, and Thomas was able to run under it.  Oh no, Thomas is a speedster
and no one can catch him, right?  Wrong!  Like a crimson and white streak,
number 13 George Teague runs him down like a Cheetah running down a lame
Gazelle and robs him in front of everybody.  He snatches the ball away from
Thomas like taking candy from a baby and turns back upfield leaving the totally
humilated mouth of the team eating astro-turf.  Of course, as happened all
night, the officials stepped in feeling pity for the fallen heroes and called
it back.  Even though it didn't officially count, you can bet that Lamar 
Thomas will carry that one to his grave.  Yes, that "high-powered" cane offense
could_not_manage_even_one_touchdown against Alabama's dominating defense.  Not
even late when we were playing everybody on the depth chart and Curry and
Copeland were leading cheers on the sideline while Miami's first string was
trying desperately to score just one TD.  It was during this time that miami
got half of its total 48 yards rushing.  Yes, Alabama gave the canes a good
scare in the 1990 Sugar Bowl and set them up for this one.  There are a lot of
people around the nation choking down their words over this one.  This was, by
far, the best and most enjoyable game I have ever seen.  Thanks to Miami and
their blowhard fans (they know who they are) for setting this one up so that
the fall from glory could be so complete and so total.  Hell, I hear Erickson
didn't even show up for his weekly TV show this weekend.

    Oh yeah, Gino Who?!

--
Guy McConnell  guy@mspe5.b11.ingr.com  or  ...uunet!ingr!b11!mspe5!guy
   *** A hurricane is a seasonal thing, The Tide is forever ***

Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college