<p>Have fun! I won’t be there but my D will be at the game. She is so excited to be at the LSU game. </p>
<p>Thank you to NJBama for suggesting that we try to get the football package that contained the LSU game. RTR!!</p>
<p>Glad she got the right package Cuttle. This is no doubt the toughest (ie most expensive) ticket I’ve ever seen for a regular season Bama game. I can’t imagine anyone will get one off the wait list.</p>
<p>NJ so glad to see you are coming!!! My DH and I will be there. MABama has encouraged me to try and get some scalped tickets right before the game. Not sure that’s gonna happen with an expected extra 40,000 people in Tuscaloosa in addition to the 101,000 in the stadium!!! BUT, we’re going to give it a whirl! We’re doing jambalaya and cajun boiled shrimp for Saturday. Would LOVE to meet you. Sending you a PM! ROLL TIDE!!!</p>
<p>Yes, NJ, thanks for the advice so early in the year! Wish I was headed there, but at least my husband gets to go. I’ll send you a pm. Maybe he can come by and say hi on my behalf 
Roll Tide Roll!</p>
<p>Oh, btw, the Gameday signs are made. Let me know if y’all see my girls in the crowd. Hawaii Rolls with the Tide!!!</p>
<p>also…tomorrow night on ESPNU there will be two shows, one featuring Bama and one featuring LSU…each called ESPNU All Access. </p>
<p>Each show might air twice, not sure.</p>
<p>On ESPN, the ads for this show said that LSU would be featured on Wed and Bama would be featured on Thurs…but my TV listing guide is showing Bama tomorrow. Anyway, I’m Tivo’ing them all so I won’t miss Bama’s feature. </p>
<p>Interesting Nick Saban stat…</p>
<p>*BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Les Miles got Nick Saban last year. Got him good.</p>
<p>Whether it was a fake punt, a reverse to the tight end on fourth-and-short, a long touchdown pass, a two-point conversion, or a critical long third-down conversion, the Mad Hatter coached circles around Saban in LSU’s win over Alabama.</p>
<p>Alabama fans can hang their hat on this for Saturday’s rematch: Rare is the coach who gets Saban two times in a row.</p>
<p>Ten years have passed since Saban lost in consecutive years to the same coach in college. Ever since Steve Spurrier pounded Saban’s LSU teams 41-9 in 2000 and 44-15 in 2001, Saban has won 12 straight rematch games.</p>
<p>Now three rematches potentially stand between Saban and a shot for his second national title in three years. The three teams who beat Alabama in 2010 all could pop up on the Crimson Tide’s schedule in the next month.</p>
<p>There’s LSU this week. The Tigers were 24-21 winners a year ago.</p>
<p>There’s Auburn on Nov. 26. Those Tigers beat Alabama 28-27 in 2010, and the Crimson Tide’s offseason mantra was “Never Again” because of that defeat.</p>
<p>And there could be South Carolina in the SEC Championship Game. The Gamecocks upset the Crimson Tide 35-21 last season in the game that first showed Alabama wasn’t invincible in 2010.</p>
<p>Saban’s ability to return the favor to coaches who beat him doesn’t guarantee anything, of course. But the stat can’t be ignored, either.</p>
<p>Fool Saban once, congrats to you. Fool him a second time … well, good luck with that.</p>
<p>Saban has a 13-1 record as an SEC coach in rematch games against opponents he lost to the previous season. In those 14 initial defeats, Saban lost by an average of 14.4 points; in those 14 rematches the next year, he won by an average of 14.7 points.</p>
<p>The coaches Saban has beaten one year after losing to them: Tommy Tuberville three times; Houston Nutt and Ron Zook twice (one of Zook’s was a rematch of a Saban loss to Spurrier); and once each to Mike Shula (as a rematch of a Saban loss to Dennis Franchione), Urban Meyer, Mark Richt, David Cutcliffe, Sylvester Croom and Miles.</p>
<p>By comparison, Spurrier was 13-5-1 in rematch games during his 12 seasons at Florida. He never won 12 in a row in rematch games like the streak Saban is on entering this week’s LSU game.</p>
<p>Neither has Bob Stoops, who is 11-3 in rematch games after losses during his 13-year career at Oklahoma and hasn’t won more than four rematches in a row. Urban Meyer was 8-2 while at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida in rematch games, winning his first six.</p>
<p>Saban’s rematch wins the year after a loss tend to be statements.</p>
<p>Remember Florida 31, Alabama 20 at the 2008 SEC Championship Game? Saban flipped that into Alabama 32, Florida 13 at the 2009 SEC Championship Game.</p>
<p>Remember Auburn 17, Alabama 10 in Saban’s first Iron Bowl in 2007? Saban turned that into Alabama 36, Auburn 0 the next season.</p>
<p>Remember LSU 41, Alabama 34 in 2007? Saban upset Miles 27-21 the following year in Baton Rouge.</p>
<p>In his college career, Saban is 20-8 in rematch games the next season. His early years at Michigan State put a dent in that career number, but the larger meaning of the trend has been around for a decade, even in the NFL.</p>
<p>Saban was a 15-17 coach in two forgettable seasons with the Miami Dolphins. Yet a third of his NFL victories came in rematch games. He posted a 5-2 record the next time he played a team he lost to, either later that season or the following year.</p>
<p>And these weren’t all run-of-the-mill wins. Two of the rematch wins came against the New England Patriots, including one in 2006 when the Patriots were 12-4 and headed to the AFC Championship Game while the Dolphins ended 6-10.</p>
<p>Statistical trends alone won’t allow Saban to rebound against Miles.</p>
<p>But do you really want to bet against the master of the rematch?*</p>
<p>[No</a> one handles rematches like Nick Saban | al.com](<a href=“http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/10/no_one_handles_rematches_like.html]No”>No one handles rematches like Nick Saban - al.com)</p>
<p>LEAVING INDY for T-TOWN! Yes, that was meant at a high volume! We’re all so excited. Hopefully, a few of us will be able to do a quick meet-n-greet ;)</p>
<p>NJ, thanks for the tailgate invite! ROLL TIDE!</p>
<p>So jealous. Have fun and stay warm. Roll Tide!</p>
<p>I think some Bama people got wrong directions. </p>
<p>I was walking to work in downtown NOLA, when the white University of Alabama car drove past me. I recognized the front seat passenger as a recruiter from the nice reception we attended two years ago.</p>
<p>Seems that Bama picked this week to host their nice reception in NOLA. Bet that will be a fun night.</p>
<p>Also got a Facebook message from a high school classmate who relocated to Long Island after Katrina. She and her daughter will be attending the Bama reception next week. She plans to wear Purple, though I’m sure her colors will change when she hears the wonderful offer they’ll make her daughter. </p>
<p>Everyone have a good weekend and be safe!</p>
<p>We’ll be there…north endzone, N-6. RTR!!</p>