re: I am in awe of Saban's courage

I agree - certainly still had freshman moments and poor decisions - what i was going for when I said "we don't know where he was at that point". Tua has the arm and has always had it and will continue to improve. I always thought it would be this offseason when he took the lead.

Also, Tua did very well in one half against a team not at all ready for that attack. Hard to say what the outcome would have been if he had taken over in the regular season where teams had film and time to gameplan for him and he was the lead man.

Saban handled it great and Bama came home with the N.C. despite a brutal year injury wise after losing tons of talent to the draft. Lots of young people stepped up - again not sure where they were before the bowl practice - but Saban often goes with a known commodity at the skill positions who are familiar with the blocking / blitz pickups and are known to hold on to the football.