Thank You Alabama

After watching the Penn State Alabama football game last night, two things became clear to me. First off, Penn State's coaching staff knew going in that they had no chance of beating Alabama and devised a game plan that was meant to just try to keep the team from embarrasing themselves. Secondly, Alabama's coaching staff quickly realized that they could do anything they wanted to Penn State's defense and that Penn State's offensive game plan was aimed at just running clock and surviving, and in deference to Joe Paterno, they basically called off their dogs and kept the score artifically close. Can anyone who watched that game doubt that if they wanted to, Alabama could have racked up 50 plus points on Penn State's overmatched defense? It was men versus boys, and the boys were all wearing blue and white.

This engenders two emotions in me. First off I am saddened to see the once great Penn State program devolved to this state. There once was a time when this team would never just roll over and give up against any opponent. There was never a point in this game where I thought Penn State even thought about opening up their offense and trying to pull out a win. Instead they kept calling safe, vanilla screens, dumpoffs and off tackle runs. I hate seeing Penn State willing to accept second tier status like this.

The second emotion is admiration for the class shown by Alabama's coaches and fans. True sportsmanship is so rarely seen any more that when it does show up it practically leaps out at you and screams to be shared. Alabama could have easily run up the score on Penn State and taunted them into submission, which is unfortunately what most schools out there would have done in this position. Instead, they changed their offensive play calling to eat the clock and keep the score low. Alabama's fans could have chanted taunts like over rated and Penn State sucks, like you hear at many other schools during a blow out. Instead they gave Coach Paterno a standing ovation as he ran off the field at half time.

So I am writing to say thank you Alabama. You have shown that there is still some class and sportsmanship left in college football. I personally will be rooting for you to win another National Championsip.