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Roll Tide, Chicago!

UA fun fact: The UA School of Law is ranked 29th in the nation in U.S. News and World Report’s 2013 edition of the annual “Best Graduate Schools” publication.

Hope everyone is enjoying the off-season for college football…I’m still in withdrawal on Saturday without Alabama football, the Houndstooth, and my Bama Alumni.  We are working on putting together some different things/activities for the rest of off-season so we can be active all year long.

Events/Activities with the Chapter in March and April

Friday February 22nd – The first activity is this Friday at the Houndstooth.  The Houndstooth Saloon is celebrating its 7^th anniversary/birthday on February 22^nd and will have happy hour from 7 till 9, which will include FREE Absolut drinks, Green Line and Miller Lite beers and shots of Fireball (cinnamon whiskey.)  Come out and celebrate the Tooth’s Birthday and we can cheer on Alabama’s #15 National Championship, since many did not know about our Championship Happy Hour earlier this month.

Saturday March 9^th – Another Round Happy Hour/Get Together on March 9^th – join us to watch some Alabama softball and Alabama Basketball.  Plus some of us city folks will be heading to the burbs to join in on the Suburban bar fun….make sure to stop by and say hello!

Game times:

Softball: Alabama vs. Tennessee 1:30pm

Basketball: Alabama vs. Georgia 3pm

Saturday April 6^th – 1st volunteer activity of 2013. We would like to get our chapter more involved in some volunteer activities, so keep watch others will be shared and if you have any thoughts on some volunteer activities for RTC and the Chicago SEC alumni please email me at rolltidechicago@gmail.com.  The 1^st volunteer activity will be helping out with the Muscular Dystrophy Associations (MDA) Muscle Walk that takes place in Solider Field.

Saturday April 20^th- A-Day Game watch party at the Houndstooth – come watch how the 2013 team is shaping up game time is at 2pm and the game this year will be shown on ESPN2.  We will have some raffle prizes so if you aren’t planning on heading to Tuscaloosa (hit me up in you are heading to T-Town – I will be there for A-day!) come to the Houndstooth for a Saturday in the spring!

These are the activities that are going on for March and April.  Stay tuned to emails and our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/groups/70751310545/ and we will share our speaker date for the summer, we are looking at holding this event in June this year – it will depend on who we are able to obtain for a speaker.  Also, stay tuned for student recruitment events this spring that Bethany might need RTCs help with.

Volunteer Opportunities with the Chapter

We’re always looking for people to help us out! If you want to volunteer for any of the following committees, please email rolltidechicago@gmail.com or contact me via our Facebook page.

• Viewing Parties: Help us set up, sell t-shirts, squares, raffle tickets, and do other game-day tasks at the Houndstooth. If we get enough volunteers, we’ll be able to set up a schedule and each volunteer only has to “work” 2-3 times. This is an important one, but not too time-consuming, so a great way to contribute your time.
• Suburban Viewing Parties: Same thing, only at Another Round. You loyal ARers know what a great job Kim and Paul do there every week. Lend them a hand!
• SEC alumni liaison: We’re looking for one person who can be our liaison among the other Chicago SEC chapters. This includes organizing our participation in the annual flag football event.
• Summer Event: Help us plan and execute our annual summer party.
• Community Outreach: One aspect of our mission is to promote the University of Alabama in the community, and we’d like to do that by organizing group volunteer outings. So if you have a favorite nonprofit that needs some help, let us know, and we’ll coordinate.
• T-shirt Designer:  Our T-shirt Designer, Ben Milam, has also been designing our T-shirts for 6 years.  We would love to add some new creative to help in designing our 2013 RTC t-shirts.

Hope to see you this Friday at the Houndstooth or at Another Round on March 9^th and Roll Tide!

Laurel

4^th & Goal

Welcome back to 4^th and Goal did you miss us? It’s been an interesting off-season so far has it not. Let’s review the story lines since we all last spoke after the National Title game.

• Notre Dame spends more time dealing with a “fake girlfriend” than they ever did in trying to field a winning team from 1988 till now.
• 4 of the dumbest Alabama players in history get kicked out of school for mugging and beating up a fellow student only to use his stolen credit card on dorm food.
• Chip Kelly goes to the NFL and Nick Saban stays in college!
• We get the best recruiting class for something like the 3^rd time in the last 4 years all the while taking a guy that had committed to Bama then to Auburn then getting an Auburn Tattoo to flip back to Alabama did you follow that?
• Ole Miss must have spiked the hottie totties and brought in one of the best recruiting classes in the country which will be good enough to finish 4^th in the SEC west.
• Our QB’s Girl (couldn’t say our girl since she’s an Auburn Grad – Laurel) Katherine Webb kept her 15 minutes of fame going by posing for the swim suit issue in an AJ McCarron jersey. I hope that ends up in the Bryant Museum someday.
• The trees at Toomers Corner are getting removed but not before they roll them one more time. (This by the way is still the darkest day for me as a Bama fan when one of our own destroyed those trees.)
• The greatest offensive player in Alabama history guides his team to their 2^nd Super Bowl (Ozzie Newsom).  I must add that Courtney Upshaw went from winning the 2011 National Championship in the Superdome to helping the Raven’s win the Super Bowl in the same stadium…what a year a national championship ring and then a Super Bowl ring…RTR!  (Laurel)
• Our basketball team scored a total of 37 points vs. Auburn who might be the worse Div. BCS conference basketball team in the country (or at least one of them.)
• Oh and I became a father for the 2^nd time.  CONGRATS from all of Roll Tide Chicago to The Brafman Family! (Laurel)

So in other words there has been a lot going on. I didn’t even mention the horrible state of SEC basketball. I am first in line to make fun of the Big Ten when it comes to football, but somehow all of the lousy boring play that we are used to watching from the Big Ten on Saturday afternoons in the fall has come onto the basketball courts across the SEC. Meanwhile the Big Ten is producing one great game after another in hoops. I think the Tide gets into the Big Dance and does next to nothing once they get there. But I’d rather get in than not at all right? But nothing is going to wash the stink of scoring 37 TOTAL points vs. Auburn.

Are you guys like me and find yourself wearing Bama gear a lot more than you used to? I on purpose wear the same Alabama polo shirt to work each Monday. I have no reason to do this I just like doing it.

I just read this morning that if you project out from last year the Tide has the easiest schedule of any SEC team next year. What does that mean on Feb. 20? Zero, but it sure doesn’t hurt. All I know about next season is that if Coach Saban can figure out the o-line we might see the best offense ever to grace Bryant Denny Stadium.

One more thing on those four guys that got kicked out of school (I’m not going to waste my time looking up their names) they will just be the four morons from now on. How did they think they were going to get away with this? And why do it in the first place? You have the world at your feet; you are playing on the best football team for the best coach in the last 20 years. Your teammates are getting drafted left and right you are going to play this year or next and continue the quest for 16. But instead you beat up a fellow student and then in a move that I will never understand use his credit card to buy DORM food. Is the Chef from Master Chef or the Girl in the Goat cooking for them? Who does this? MORONS

Switching subjects completely let’s say that Coach Saban wins one more National title before he retires. Do you think that down the road they rename the stadium after him? Bryant/Denny/Saban Stadium? Or maybe the field like they did for Bobby Bowden? I know this is almost unheard of but when do we stop bowing to Coach Bryant and start honoring Coach Saban? Wow sorry I just ducked a bolt of lightning…   I’m sorry but unless Saban coaches at Bama for 10+ years he will not surpass Bryant since he coached for 25 year at Alabama.  Sure we should honor him for all he’s done, but let’s wait till that egg hatches Marc! (Laurel)

Finally, like I mentioned I am a new Dad. Jacob Leo was born at 6:40 AM (does anyone ever have kids at say noon) or is it just me on Tuesday the 12. He is a wonderful little guy with more hair than I have. Maya is sweet big sister (at least so far) I had on my Bama sweatshirt during the birth and one of the nurses went to Iowa so we had some great Big Ten/SEC talk. So in 18 years I expect Kirby Smart to knock on my door and recruit Jake to be the next QB. Oh who am I kidding a Jewish QB at Alabama? He will be the next kicker if I am lucky…

RTR

Marc

Roll Tide Ya’ll!

What a great finish…Back to Back National Championships if you were in Miami we hope you had a great trip to everyone was here in Chicago and came out to the Houndstooth or Another Round thank you for helping make it an incredible night. I will leave the rest of the game talk to Marc in the 4^th and Goal, but wanted to share with you the press RTC did before and after the NCG.  Also, stay tuned for more volunteer actives for our chapter and other events that will take place in the off-season before we hit the road to #16.

Here are links to some of the stories RTC was part of:

This story aired on ABC 33/40 in Birmingham on 1/6/13 & is mainly about the Houndstooth, but you will see a familiar face or two: http://www.abc3340.com/video?clipId=8139815&topVideoCatNo=189741&autoStart=true

This story aired on  WGN on 1/7/13 while the championship was still going on and showed the Houndstooth and our Alabama fans cheering and a bit of our own Jeff Goode dancing!  http://wgntv.com/2013/01/07/frustrated-fans-turn-out-for-fighting-irish/

This story aired on WGN the morning of 1/7/13.  Bill Watt and his son are the ones featured in this story:  http://wgntv.com/2013/01/06/irish-fans-get-read-for-national-game

Hunter Byington (Class of ’75) and Will Byington (Class of 2000) were interviewed for a short article in the Naperville Sun about Bama grads in the land of Notre Dame. Just wish the reporter had used my whole quote about Alabama traveling well and having fans everywhere like the Cubs instead of just saying Alabama is the Cubs of college football – we all know that isn’t true! Roll Tide! http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/news/17402395-418/some-bama-support-here-in-naperville-too.html

Here is a local Chicago website that did a story on where to watch the game in the city Monday from the ND and Bama side of things.  http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130104/chicago/chicago-bars-cater-notre-dame-alabama-fans

Enjoy the articles and news stories. RTR!!  Keep watch for emails and postings on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/groups/70751310545/ and http://www.RollTideChicago.com for offseason activities.

Roll Tide!!!

Laurel

4^th & Goal

Wow!! That is all I could say when I talked to my Dad after the game. I’ve said it before but it needs to be said again. We all have to take a step back and realize the history that we are watching on the field. Three national titles in 4 years, back to back National titles! Tying the all-time record for most wins in a 4 year period (49) (to put that in perspective in my 4 years the Tide won 29 games) and if you include the 2008 season 61 wins with only 7 losses. How is that possible? How is it possible for a team to lose 7-8 players to the NFL and come back and win again? You know we all laugh at Coach Saban when he talks about each team being different and how next year’s team is 0-0 but if you think about it he is right. This isn’t like the Jordan era Bulls or the Yankees with Jeter, Mo Rivera and Bernie Williams. Heck this isn’t even Duke or Florida winning back to back titles in basketball. The turnover in college football is huge and to be this good, no this GREAT over the past 5 seasons is simply amazing. And to think that if they get the o-line figured out (the news Fluker is leaving isn’t a shock) we are going to be right back in the mix again. Take it all in everyone we might never see anything like this again down at the Capstone. And when you hear me complain next year about why the Tide isn’t running the ball more remind me of this.

Some random quotes from the game and the couple of days after Please note that these are all paraphrasing since I can’t remember all of them word for word: Pregame addition:

• Clearly no one has learned a thing, because here we are at the conclusion of the 2012 season, and the most popular college football topic for the past 38 days has been: “Does Notre Dame have any chance against Alabama?” Let’s think about that for a second. Does an undefeated team that led the nation in scoring defense stand a chance against a team that lost once at home and came within a last-minute pass-deflection of possibly missing the title game altogether? You Think..Si.writer Stu Mandell in his Colum on Monday before kickoff
• “I’m picking Notre Dame in a HUGE upset 24-21” Mike Greenberg on Mike and Mike on ESPN
• I don’t know what he said but Lee Corso dressing like the Lucky Charms mascot on the set of Game Day before the game.
• “The fact that Alabama is staying at a hotel on South Beach with one of the best night clubs in the world could hurt them.” I think that Notre Dame has the right idea staying 12 miles outside of Miami” Jessie Palmer ESPN Talking Head on Sports Center sometime last week
• I think the game is going to be close but in the end I don’t think Notre Dame has enough offense to win. Plus Alabama will wear down Notre Dame on the ground like they have everybody else the last two seasons. Alabama 24-Notre Dame 14 Marc Brafman to anyone in the Feld Entertainment office who asked me on Monday and in the last installment of 4^th & Goal.

I worked in sports radio for 5 years, I understand that you have to pump up both teams and try and make sure that the game is entertaining to get ratings but what two teams did these guys watch this year? I think all of us living here in the Midwest knew before the game that ND had a punchers chance if the Tide turned the ball over made dumb penalties or Golsen turned into Johnny Football but I think of ND as a glorified Big Ten team. And friends as we all know no Big Ten team is going to beat an SEC team that is primed for battle like the Tide was.

Quotes from the game itself:

• “Lacy bolts middle up the middle-still going ENDZONE- Eddie Lacy scores the first touchdown of the night” ESPN Brent Musburger 12:10 seconds left in first quarter
• “Jessie Williams #54 is in as a blocking back they are going to throw TOUCHDOWN The other Williams Michael Williams the TE” ESPN Brent Musburger 6:14 second left first quarter
• Right now they have two drives over 80 yards as Yeldon takes it across TOUCHDOWN Alabama! ESPN Brent Musburger 14:57 left in 2^nd quarter
• Two receivers to the left McCarron throwing all the way drops it off to Lacy in a footrace spins TOUCHDOWN Tide Rolling again! ESPN Brent Musburger :33 seconds left in 1^st half
• Heather Cox ESPN Sideline reporter to Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly at Halftime:
  • Cox: Where do the fixes come from in the 2^nd half?
  • Kelly: Well maybe if Alabama forgets to come back for the 2^nd half (this might be my favorite quote from a coach of all time)
  • Coach Saban had a slightly different take at half time: I think we played well offensively,” said Saban as he went into the locker room. “We controlled the line of scrimmage.  “We just gotta play 60 minutes. This game is not over, and our players need to understand that.” (I said the same thing to my friends who were at the game and texting me all of whom started calling me Debbie Downer.)
  • Well, I tell you, you quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women! What a beautiful woman!,” So if you’re a youngster at Alabama, start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with pops” Brent Musburger talking up AJ’s girlfriend Kathrine Webb (My favorite part of this is that Brent used the term “Pops” which I believe went out at about the same time that Miss America was must see TV.) So to recap the most talked about pre-game video was the Dad who’s son surprised him with tickets to the game and used the term “PAW” which I believe went out of style around the time of the Beverly Hillbillies and now Musburger is using the term Pops.) And yes this is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night.

• Roll TIDE! The entire back two rooms of the Houndstooth after Cooper scored the 5^th touchdown of the night which promped all of us even me to do a shot of something called wild fire.
• “And that’s it Alabama has become the first school since Nebraska to win back to back National Titles” Brent Musburger ESPN final call

Before we get into the post game quotes a couple of quick things on the game. The first half was the best half of football I think I have ever seen Alabama play. Minus the fumbled punt that was as good a half of football as a team could play. If you could bottle a half of football and roll it out all the time that is what I would choice. You know me I’m always a 3 yards and a cloud of dust guy but the numbers are striking: 265 yards rushing, 264 passing. The perfect balance (now if only they had run the ball vs. A&M…ok, ok I’ll stop)

Barret Jones will go down as one of the 4-5 best players in Bama history along with Joe Willie, Ozzie Newsome, Ingram, Dwight Stephenson, C Bennett and John Hannah) and like I’ve said before depending on how he does next year AJ might be the best of all time (college addition).

Post game quotes:

• “We were 5 yards away from not being in this game. We are going to have to work on that” Nick Saban to the ESPN game day crew after the game
• Believe it or not I am really happy right now. Nick Saban without a hint of a smile during his post game news conference
• I am going to take 2 days off and then start up again. We are behind in recruiting…Nick Saban with a straight face to the ESPN game day crew after the game while they all laughted
• “ As usual I was right” Barret Jones to the ESPN Game Day Crew and AJ talking about the shoving match they had during the 4^th quarter
• Nix:”(Bama OL) did not dominate, I hope no one uses that word. I don’t think they physically dominated us and took us out to the woodshed (I guess he was too busy sucking wind by the middle of the 2^nd quarter to realize how dumb this quote sounded.)
• “Pretty much when Lacy scored the first touchdown” When both Herbstreet and Todd Blackledge when asked by Mike and Mike on Tuesday morning thought the game was going to be a rout
• And finally the reason that the Tide could be back in the Rose Bowl next year doing it all over again: I’m already thinking about two weeks from now when I have to get back and get ready for next season,” said sophomore tackle Cyrus Kouandijo. “We’re going for it again next year. And again. And again.”

Had enough yet? Too bad theirs more!!

Stats of the game:

• 0 times Notre Dame had let up drives of 80 yards or more this season.
• 3 amount of times they let up drives or 80 yards or more to the Tide.
• 0 times Notre Dame gave up 100 yard rushers this season.
• 2 times that Alabama had rushers of over 100 yards (Both Eddie and TJ rushed for over 100 yards.)
• 0 number of times that ND had given up 100 yards to a receiver.
• 1 times Alabama had 100 yards receiving (A Cooper had over 100 yards.)
• After five offensive snaps, Alabama led 7-0. After 15 offensive snaps, it was 14-0. After 23, it was 21-0.
• 21-0 score before ND had 3 first downs.
• 7 straight SEC BCS champs.
• 4 straight years that the Title has come home to Alabama.

• 9 Most times Alabama has been ranked #1 in final AP poll (most All Time.)
• The game was the 2^nd most watched game in cable history 17,216,000 households (this does not include all the bars, clubs etc.)
• 4 titles that Coach Saban has won joining Bear (6) John McCay and Frank Leyhey with 4 each.
• Dating back to a 2010 BCS triumph over Texas and extending through last year’s 21-0 win over LSU, there was a time in this contest that ‘Bama had run off 69 unanswered points and held opponents scoreless for nearly 107 minutes across three title games.

Stats non BCS title game addition:

• N. Western of all Big Ten teams became the first Big Ten school to beat two SEC Teams in the same season
• Per USA Today, 475,200 babies were born in US since Notre Dame played (this was before Monday.)
• Big Ten is 2-13 on New Year’s Day games in past 3 years.
• 0 amount of times that the Bengals throw the ball or even looked at AJ Green in the first half of their playoff game. Any wonder why they lost?
• 0 Inductees into the baseball hall of fame this year. (For more on this rant just e-mail me) My take it’s a joke
• 12 but it could 200 at this rate the number of players leaving LSU for the draft.

Finally since this has gone on long enough

In things I didn’t know until I was a dad: Just when you think you have your kids pegged they turn the tables on you. Maya since the day she was born has always loved taking a bath or a shower. But for the last two weeks it has been hard to get her into either. If you’ve ever tried giving your child a bath when they want to be anywhere but the bath tub you will know what I am talking about.

And last but not least it’s been my pleasure writing this every week. Thanks for all the feedback and I’ll post things either to our Facebook group or on the e-mails whenever Laurel wants. Have a great offseason puff up your chests with Pride and remember It’s GREAT TO BE FROM ALABAMA!!

RTR

Marc

• Bama has scored 45 rushing TD’s this year-ND has given up 2
• Both ND and Bama average 7.3 yards per play in the first quarter of games this year
• 0.4 yards in differential in average in gain per carry in the 3rd quarter of games this year for ND and the Tide (ND 6.4 The Tide 6.0)
• ND has gotten a sack on 7.5% of opponents pass attempts this year and in a stat that shocked me our o-line has given up a sack every 7.1% of pass plays
• Since the AP poll started in 1936 the Tide have won 9 National Titles while ND has won 8 the most of any two programs.
• The Crimson Tide have won 60 games over the past five seasons, the most in league history and tied with Nebraska (1993-97) for the most in major college football history. The Tide have won 48 games over the past four seasons; they can break the SEC record they share with Florida (2006-09) and tie the NCAA record of 49 shared by Nebraska (1994-97) and Boise State (2006-09) if they defeat Notre Dame. (This is simply amazing to me!)
• In 2012, a face-value ticket for an SEC game reached $100 for the first time. Four years ago, the SEC’s priciest ticket was the Iron Bowl at $65. This season, 30 SEC games cost at least $65, including nondescript matchups such as Mississippi State-Tennessee, Ole Miss-Vanderbilt, Missouri-Vanderbilt and Missouri-Kentucky.
• The SEC continued to lead the nation at 75,444 fans per game, but that was its lowest average since 2007. SEC crowds are down 2 percent since peaking in 2008 at 76,844.
• The Big Ten averaged 70,387 fans per game in 2012, its lowest since 2008 (not the least bit surprising considering the quality of play on the field)
• With both ND and Bama getting 17,000 tickets each for the game the combined requests for tickets depending on what source you go with came close to 145,000
• Finally I think this game will CRUSH and I mean CRUSH the record for most viewed cable game/show in history. Don’t believe me check out which two teams had the highest rated games this year: CBS aired three of the top four most-watched regular-season college football telecasts of the 2012 season, including the most-watched tilt: Alabama’s defeat of Georgia in the SEC Championship on Dec. 1. That game drew 16.2 million viewers, just topping ESPN’s broadcast of Notre Dame-USC on Nov. 24 (16.1 million). CBS’ coverage of Alabama-LSU on Nov. 3 came in third (11.4 million viewers), followed by Texas A&M-Alabama on CBS on Nov. 10 (9.6 million).