re: 2002 Iron Bowl Highlights

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And speaking of Internet rumors, the same week of the Alabama victory over Mississippi State and the Texas A&M upset of Oklahoma, LSU beat Kentucky in Lexington with a shocking Hail Mary as time expired. All week, the Internet and all of talk radio were abuzz regarding a tirade supposedly launched into by then-LSU head coach Nick Saban, talking about how he was not going to let their SEC championship (LSU was defending SEC champion at the time) be taken away by a bunch of cheaters. The story ultimately turned out to be apocryphal -- as the events of January of 2007 would eventually show us, clearly Saban had no ill will towards the Tide -- but it nevertheless created a massive amount of tension around the game.

Making matters even more interesting, as nightfall descended upon Tiger Stadium and the Tide took the field for pre-game warm-ups, there was something in the south end zone that would definitely make an Alabama fan look twice. It was Dennis Franchione... leaning against the goal post, and I don't think I need to remind any Alabama fan of the significance and the symbolic nature of what that entails. When the game began, Alabama administered a physical beatdown of the Bayou Bengals, ending in a 31-0 victory that was probably the finest game Alabama had played in years. After the clock hit 0:00 and the band began to fire up Rammer Jammer, Franchione confronted Nick Saban at midfield with a fiery outburst and apparently some harsh words. No one ever really knew exactly what Franchione said -- and his actions became downright incomprehensible given what would occur in the following weeks -- but the thinking at the time was that Franchione was giving Saban a thorough browbeating for his supposed comments after the Kentucky game.

Sufficed to say, by this point, the Alabama fan base was absolutely head over heels for Franchione. He had quickly turned Alabama around, and we were thumping opponents left and right. We blew out Auburn last year, blew out Tennessee, blew out LSU, clinched the SEC West (meaningless thanks to probation but still), he was standing against the goalpost, shaking down opposing coaches, you name it. What more could you want? Given the despair that permeated Tuscaloosa in December of 2000, twenty-three months later the arrival of Dennis Franchione almost seemed like divine intervention from the football gods.

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