This is Nick Saban‘s interview with ESPN after the BCS National Championship Game win over Notre Dame:
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This is the video of Katherine Webb‘s Today Show interview, which is 3 minutes, 42 seconds.
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Alabama right guard Anthony Steen has joined two other Crimsoon Tide starters in announcing he will return for his senior season.
Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron and linebacker C.J. Mosley announced last month they will stick around for one more year.
“After sitting down with my family and Coach (Nick) Saban, I have decided it is in my best interest to return for my senior season,” Steen said in a release by the university. “Getting my degree was one of my goals when I came to the University of Alabama, and I am on schedule to graduate this spring.
“I also think returning in 2013 will give me a chance to improve my draft status while also providing the opportunity to enjoy another season with my teammates, coaches and our fans. I enjoy Tuscaloosa and our fans way too much to leave early. We are also losing two great seniors this year and this will give me the chance to help get players ready for their new roles in 2013.”
Steen has played in 40 games at Alabama, starting 25, including all 13 games this season.
“We are glad that Anthony has decided to return and he’ll be one of the senior leaders of our offense,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said in a release by the university. “He’s done an outstanding job for us as a starter at guard on the last two championships teams and I think he can become an even better player and improve his status for next year’s draft with another season here.
“We always want to help our players make an informed decision when it comes to what is best for their future. One of our goals at Alabama is to help our guys develop a career off the field by graduating, which Anthony is on track to do this spring. We also want them to become the best football players they can be during their time here while working to win a championship and preparing them for the possibility of playing in the NFL. I think Anthony has made a very good decision in deciding to return and he has done it in the right way in terms of talking to all of the appropriate people, most importantly his family.”
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The University of Alabama announced today the hiring of former Colorado defensive coordinator Greg Brown as the Crimson Tide’s secondary coach.
Brown will take over for Jeremy Pruitt, who is heading to Florida State as defensive coordinator.
Greg Brown
“I’m extremely happy to add a coach the caliber of Greg Brown to our staff,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said in a statement released by the university. “Greg has a tremendous amount of college and NFL experience, and his knowledge in the secondary really made him the perfect fit for this position. He will be an outstanding addition to our coaching staff and we look forward to Greg and his family joining our staff at the University of Alabama.”
Brown served as the defensive coordinator at the University of Colorado over the last two seasons, his third stint with the Buffaloes. He spent the 2010 season as the co-defensive coordinator at Arizona. From 2006-09, Brown was the secondary coach at Colorado.
“It is an honor and an unbelievable opportunity to join the staff at the University of Alabama,” Brown said in a statement. “I’ve known and respected Coach Saban for many years and he is the best in the country at what he does. It is the dream of any defensive coach to learn from Coach Saban, especially at a place with Alabama’s great tradition and history. I look forward to doing my part to help continue the success with the top college football program in the nation.”
Brown’s coaching experience
Colorado, defensive coordinator, 2011-12
Arizona, co-defensive coordinator, 2010
Colorado, secondary, 2006-09
New Orleans Saints, defensive assistant, 2002-05
Atlanta Falcons, defensive backs, 2000-01
San Francisco 49ers, defensive backs, 1999
Tennessee Oilers, secondary, 1997-98
San Diego Chargers, secondary, 1995-96
Atlanta Falcons, defensive backs, 1994
Colorado, secondary, 1991-93
Purdue, defensive backs, 1989-90
Wyoming, defensive backs, 1987-88
Tampa Bay Bucs, offensive assistant, 1985-86
Tampa Bay Bucs, defensive assistant, 1984
Denver Gold (USFL), secondary 1983-84
Green Mountain (Colo.) High, defensive coach, 1982
Texas-El Paso, graduate assistant, 1981
Playing career
Texas-El Paso, two-year letterman at cornerback
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Alabama’s AJ McCarron holds the coaches poll trophy after the BCS National Championship Game win. (AP photo by John Bazemore)
Alabama’s AJ McCarron finished the season as the nation’s leader in passing efficiency, making him the first Crimson Tide player to do so since Steve Sloan in 1965.
McCarron completed 67.2 percent of his passes and threw for 30 touchdowns with only three interceptions. His rating of 175.28 topped second-place Aaron Murray of Georgia, whose rating was 174.82. San Jose State’s David Fales had a 170.76.
Defensively, Alabama didn’t lead all four major categories as it did last year, but it came close. The Tide ranked first in rushing defense (76.36 yards), scoring defense (10.93 points) and total defense (250.0 yards). Florida State led in pass defense, while Alabama placed seventh.
Last year, the Crimson Tide was the second team to lead all four categories since the NCAA began keeping national statistics in 1937. Oklahoma also did it in 1986.
Notre Dame ended the regular season as the nation’s leader in scoring defense, but had a little bit of a problem in its bowl. After giving up 10 touchdowns in 12 regular-season games, the Irish allowed six in a 42-14 loss to Alabama. Notre Dame completed the year at No. 2 in scoring defense with 12.77 points a game.
Also, Tide safety HaHa Clinton-Dix finished with five interceptions and ranked 30th nationally with .36 interceptions a game. Dee Milliner defended 22 passes, and his average of 1.69 a game ranked second nationally. Ohio State’s Bradley Roby (1.73) was first.
Offensively, Alabama ranked 12th in scoring with 38.71 points a game and 16th in rushing with 227.50 yards.
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Derrick Henry (2) is headed to Alabama next season. (AP photo by Will Dickey of the Florida Times-Union)
MaxPreps has named Alabama commitment Derrick Henry as its national player of the year.
The running back from Yulee (Fla.) High leads the MaxPreps 2012 All-America football team.
Here’s what MaxPreps wrote in Henry’s listing on the team: “All Henry did as a senior was break the career rushing record held for nearly 50 years by Ken Hall. The Alabama commit rushed 462 times for 4,261 yards and 55 touchdowns, finishing with 12,124 yards.”
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Katherine Webb, shown in the Miss USA pagents June 3, 2012, says she first connected with AJ McCarron on Twitter. (AP file photo by Julie Jacobson)
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (AP) — A day after ESPN cameras lingered on her, announcers piled on compliments and at least one pro athlete made an online pass at her, Twitter was still abuzz Tuesday about former Miss Alabama USA Katherine Webb, who is dating Crimson Tide championship quarterback AJ McCarron.
Webb gained tens of thousands of Twitter followers during and after Alabama’s 42-14 win over Notre Dame on Monday to claim its third national championship in four seasons. For her part, the surprised beauty pageant queen isn’t taking it too seriously.
“It’s been actually kind of fun,” the 23-year-old model and Miss Alabama USA 2012 told The Associated Press.
She said at the time it all started, she was oblivious in the stands, sitting near McCarron’s mother. Her iPhone had died so she didn’t know about the attention until friends seated nearby showed her what was happening on Twitter and pointed out that her picture was on TV.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” said Webb, who, according to her pageant biography, graduated with a business degree from Alabama rival Auburn University in 2011. “I was just in complete surprise.”
Dee Dee Bonner, McCarron’s mother, said the two laughed as Webb’s Twitter count grew.
“We were like, ‘Oh my God,’ ” Bonner said. “She said, ‘All I want to do is date your son.’ We’ve been laughing about it. It’s quite shocking.”
ESPN announcer Brent Musburger remarked that Webb was a beautiful woman as the cameras revisited her. “Wow, I’m telling you quarterbacks: You get all the good-looking women,” he said.
Some found the remarks from the 73-year-old Musburger out of line. On Tuesday, ESPN released this statement: “We always try to capture interesting storylines and the relationship between an Auburn grad who is Miss Alabama and the current Alabama quarterback certainly met that test. However, we apologize that the commentary in this instance went too far and Brent understands that.”
But Webb said Musburger’s comments didn’t bother her.
“It was kind of nice,” she said. “I didn’t look at it as creepy at all. For a woman to be called beautiful, I don’t see how that’s an issue.”
As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, Webb had topped 175,000 Twitter followers, trumping McCarron’s 114,000. Before the game, she reportedly had about 2,000.
Webb told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer that she first encountered McCarron on Twitter, and they met in early December when he attended the Miss Alabama USA pageant in Montgomery. Her biography says she was born in Montgomery and grew up in Phenix City, but now lives in Los Angeles — though Bonner said she is considering moving back to Alabama to be with McCarron.
Before Monday’s game, Webb tweeted a photo of herself wearing a jersey with McCarron’s number, her arms wrapped around him.
Early Tuesday, Webb posted her first tweet to her new followers: “So extremely blessed… (at)10AJMcCarron. Congrats to Alabama and making history! (hash)BCSChamps.”
Webb later said she doesn’t think McCarron minds the attention on her.
But when Arizona Cardinals defensive end Darnell Dockett tweeted Webb his telephone number and suggested they meet after the game, McCarron responded, telling Dockett, “(hash)betterkeepdreaming like the rest of these dudes.”
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Alabama lost at Missouri last night. Here’s the story, which is provided by The Associated Press:
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Growing up in Kansas City, there was a chance Trevor Releford would attend Missouri after being recruited by then-coach Mike Anderson.
Ending up at Alabama, he finally got the opportunity to play near family and friends on Tuesday night at his home-state school, which he says he wasn’t close to attending. About 30 supporters watched Releford score a career-high 26 points and top 1,000 points for his career in an 84-68 loss to the 10th-ranked Tigers.
“I think it was a good opportunity to come back and play close to home and have my family come out and see me play,” he said. “But I treated this game like any other SEC game. I just wanted to come in, get a win and worry about the next game after that.”
Releford scored 19 points in the first half to top his average of 15.6. But he took just one shot over the first 8½ minutes of the second half. The junior is the 46th player in school history to score 1,000 points but just the seventh with 1,000 points and 140 steals.
“I think they just played great discipline defense,” Releford said of Missouri. “They helped each other, they talked, they communicated well. And I wasn’t able to hit a couple shots I hit in the first half. I give it up to their ‘D’, they did a good job.”
Missouri’s Alex Oriakhi couldn’t remember Releford’s name afterward but said the guard, and his three 3-pointers, exploited a hole in the Tigers’ perimeter defense.
Rodney Cooper scored 11 points and Devonta Pollard added 10 for Alabama (8-6, 0-1 Southeastern Conference), which has lost six of eight. Coach Anthony Grant lost for the first time in seven career conference openers, three at VCU and four at Alabama.
The Crimson Tide managed to become just the second team this season to outrebound Missouri (12-2, 1-0), which leads the country with 46.7 per game. Alabama used its 16-12 advantage on the boards and an early 12-0 run to stay within four points at halftime, but the team couldn’t keep up in the closing half, shooting only 39.3 percent.
“We couldn’t get stops,” Grant said. “To me that was the story of the second half. We needed our defense to hold for us tonight, and whether it was the press, transition, half-court, we did not defend the way we would need to defend to be able to come on the road against an opponent like Missouri and get a win.”
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Officers arrested NFL player Rolando McClain on a charge of giving a false name to law enforcement Tuesday after he signed a citation for overly dark window tint as “(Expletive) y’all,” Decatur police said.
When a patrol supervisor asked McClain to put his real name on the ticket, McClain told the sergeant, “That is my name,” said police spokesman Lt. John Crouch.
Click here to read the rest of the story in The Decatur Daily. The website allows readers to see one complete article a day, so you won’t need a subscription to read this.
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Mal Moore, left, and Nick Saban with Alabama’s national championship trophies. (Copyright photo by Gary Cosby Jr. of The Decatur Daily)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — It was a small moment, and even with more than 100 reporters in the room, most of them might’ve missed it.
The morning after every BCS National Championship Game, the winning coach appears at one last news conference, but before he takes any questions, he officially accepts each of the four major national championship trophies.
The Associated Press trophy comes first, followed by the National Football Foundation, the Football Writers Association and then the coaches trophy, which is the one with the crystal football on top. But Tuesday morning, about 10 hours after beating Notre Dame 42-14 in the BCS game, Alabama coach Nick Saban broke protocol.
He quietly asked if the Crimson Tide athletics director Mal Moore could join him on the little stage.
Saban coached the team, but Moore provided the setting for him to succeed. Since accepting the Alabama athletics director’s job in 1999, Moore has struck out in some of his moves, but he hit a grand slam not only in hiring Saban but making sure he had the resources he needed to produce national champions.
Some people say it’s easy to win at a place like Alabama, but that’s not completely true.
I’m not saying it’s just as hard to win football games at Alabama as it is at some place like Vanderbilt, Kentucky or Mississippi State. You wouldn’t believe me anyway if I tried to float that past you. But if it’s so easy to win at Alabama, why was Mike Shula 26-23 in four years leading the Tide?
To win big, you not only need a good coach, but you have to have the kind of commitment Moore has given Alabama and the type of support he has galvanized among university leaders and alumni. And in most cases, before you even can get somebody like Saban on board, you need what Moore has done.
When Moore succeeded Bob Bockrath as athletics director, his primary objective was to improve the facilities. He’s done that and then some. In the arms race of athletic facilities, Alabama has the best of everything now.
It hasn’t stopped, either, as Alabama is finishing up a new training center that other schools will envy and try to match.
Sure, Saban can evaluate talent and recruit his rear end off, but Moore has given him a top-notch place to show these prospects.
Also, consider how Saban manages a program. He has a clear idea of what a football program needs to succeed, and it’s not just a nice weight room. Even back in 1990 when he coached Toledo’s team, he had clear ideas of what the school needed to provide his program regarding academics, health and nutrition, guidance, high school outreach, and, of course, training and conditioning.
How much of that do you think Toledo gave him? Or Michigan State in his next head coaching job? Or LSU, where he won a national championship?
Moore didn’t have the power to OK all of what Saban wanted, but he used his considerable support to give his coach every advantage he could. Saban has succeeded so wildly at Alabama because it’s the first school to give him just about everything he believes he needs.
When Moore left coaching in 1994 and became Alabama’s assistant athletics director of external affairs, the joke was he was in charge of going around speaking to alumni groups. The joke was on us, however, because Moore is smart and knowledgeable about what a coach needs to win, which makes sense since he coached for 30 years, including for six Alabama national championship teams.
But he’s personable and knows how to gather support. All those stories he told on the speaking trail really did have a purpose in the end.
When it came time to remake all of Alabama’s facilities, he had a grand design and got the support to raise money and make it happen. In 2007, he got the support within his administration to give Saban what was a startling contract at the time — eight years for $32 million, all of which was guaranteed.
Again, Moore doesn’t homer every time. He hired Dennis Franchione, Mike Price and Mike Shula to coach Alabama’s football team, too. But today, those are mouse’s whispers compared to the lion’s roar of Saban’s record with the Crimson Tide.
Moore, 73, whose contract runs through June 30, 2014, found a way to make Alabama football relevant nationally again.
Heck yes, Moore deserved to step up Tuesday morning for photos with the national championship trophies. And it’s good of Saban to realize that.
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