TUSCALOOSA, Ala.
Wholesale Nike Free . -- Bobby Bowden never
thought hed see the day when someone would challenge Bear Bryant as Alabamas
greatest coach.But its happened. Nick Saban has bellied up to the Bear with one
of the best runs in major college football history, and hes already passed the
rest of his predecessors in the category that turns coaching greats into
coaching legends.Sabans latest Crimson Tide team seems ready-made to challenge
for the sixth national title of his career, which would match Bryants
longstanding record. The once-nomadic coach enters his 10th season in Tuscaloosa
fresh off claiming No. 4 in seven years.As the Bear might say of his successor,
he aint nothin but a winner. Like Muhammed Ali in boxing, it had long seemed
there could only be one Greatest at `Bama.Never thought it could happen, said
Bowden, a Birmingham native who was coaching at Howard (now Samford) when Bryant
hit his stride at Alabama starting in the late 1950s. Gosh, its like lightning
striking twice in the same place, which they say it doesnt do. For him to come
in there and do what he does, and now theyre comparing whos the greatest. Who
would have thought that 20 years ago?Twenty years ago, Saban was having his
second straight six-win season at Michigan State. Alabama was in the final
season of Gene Stallings tenure, easily the most successful of the seven head
coaches bridging the Bryant and Saban eras. (Mike Price was fired without
coaching a game).Saban, who also won a championship at LSU, has gone 98-12 over
the past eight seasons. Notre Dames Frank Leahy and Southern Californias John
McKay join Bryant and Saban as the only coaches with at least four national
championships in The Associated Press poll era, dating to 1936. Leahy also won
his four titles in a seven-year span but he didnt actually coach in 1944 or 1945
because of World War II.Then there was Bowden, who had a run of 14 consecutive
top-5 finishes at Florida State. Who knows if Saban will stick around long
enough to match that, but hes been nearly unbeatable with a title on the line.
Hes 11-1 in conference or national championship games, with the only loss coming
to eventual national champ Florida in the 2008 SEC title tilt his second year at
Alabama.There were runs something like this, but this may be the best of all of
them so far in the history of football, Bowden said.The Alabama coach turns 65
on Oct. 31 and shows no sign of slowing down. He continued his string of No.
1-ranked recruiting classes in February. About a month earlier, he led the Tide
to a shootout victory over Clemson in the national championship game, making the
call for a game-changing onside kick early in the fourth quarter.Steve Spurrier,
who had three straight 11-2 seasons at South Carolina after turning 65, visited
with Saban after speaking at a high school clinic over the summer. He said Saban
joked that he was starting to hear of opposing coaches telling recruits he
wouldnt be around much longer.Hes got a good six to eight years or more,
depending on what he wants, really, said Spurrier, who stepped down during the
2015 season. If he keeps winning at a high level, which he certainly can the way
they recruit. The question is if he gets to 8-4, I think he said, `All hell will
break loose around here if I go 8-4. Its really hard to go out on top. Its hard
to say youve had enough unless you start losing. Thats what happened to me, is
we started losing.Saban still takes care of himself physically. He eats a salad
daily for lunch, plays basketball with his assistants during the offseason and
tosses passes with a nice touch during drills with the defensive backs.Hes
stayed the same weight probably since he was 30 or 35, said Spurrier, fresh from
one of his own daily workouts.Plenty of other coaches have had high levels of
success after 65. Bowden won two national titles and 12 ACC championships before
stepping down not long after his 80th birthday. Penn States Joe Paterno won 169
games and had seven top-10 finishes.Bryant won championships in 1978 and 1979
and was 49-9-1 at 65-plus.Bowden said the biggest challenge in sustaining that
kind of enduring success is keeping the players as focused and motivated after
they reach the top as they were in getting there.So your biggest enemy becomes
yourself, Bowden said. Keeping your players hungry is a very key ingredient, and
I really dont know anybody that does a better job of that than Coach Saban.Enter
The Process, Sabans philosophy of focusing on the task at hand and not getting
distracted by past results or future ambitions. Saban says its the human
condition to relax and feel a sense of entitlement after great success, though
he never seems to suffer from it.Weve had to deal with this with some of our
teams in the past, Saban said. They start questioning and judging, `Why are we
practicing this hard? Why are we doing conditioning this way? Well, its the same
thing we did that helped you be successful last year.Sabans footprint on college
football and the SEC has spread to the sidelines in a big way.Former assistants
Jim McElwain, Will Muschamp and Kirby Smart are all head coaches in the SEC
East, Jimbo Fisher won a national title at Florida State and Mark Dantonio led
Michigan State to a playoff matchup with his former boss last season.I think he
can go forever, McElwain, Floridas head coach, said of Saban. Thats just the way
hes wired. And I havent seen one thing, when we were around each other that week
of the SEC Championship game, I didnt see one less bounce in his step, anything
like that. And, you know what? The guys something special.Smart took over at
Georgia this season after serving on Sabans Alabama staff for all four national
championships. Hes pretty well qualified to answer: What drives Saban?Well,
thats an easy question, Smart said. Hes driven to be the best. And I think thats
what makes him different. Because everybody is driven for their different
purpose and everybody has their `why. And for Coach Saban, I think he wants to
be the best.At Alabama, that means topping the Bear.
Nike Free Clearance
Sale . Jay Feely kicked a 41-yard field goal in overtime, and the
Cardinals edged the Tennessee Titans 37-34 in overtime after blowing a 17-point
lead late in the fourth quarter.
Cheap Nike Free Wholesale . LUCIE, Fla.
http://www.cheapnikefree.net/ . -- About a
third of the way through the regular season, the Washington Wizards are at .
Jimmy Wilde, for many Britains best ever boxer, first became world champion on
this day [Dec. 18] 100 years ago.The little Welshman, who was just 5-foot-3
tall, was known as the The Mighty Atom and The Ghost with the Hammer in his
Hand.Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, the son of a coal miner, Wilde was sent to
work in the pits from a young age. But he escaped a life underground when he
started to box aged 16 in fairground booths.He turned professional later in his
teens and went 93-0-1 before he lost his unbeaten record. He totalled 136 bouts,
though it was probably far more, with just three recorded defeats.Wilde served
as a sergeant PT instructor based at Aldershot during the First World War and in
1916 he put together a string of significant wins.Wilde had claimed a version of
the world title when he stopped Joe Symonds earlier in 1916 and also had
victories over Sid Smith and Tancy Lee, who he knocked out for the European
title.But he was not recognised as the undisputed flyweight champion until he
halted his Italian-American opponent the Young Zulu KKid -- whose real name was
Frankie di Melfi -- in the 11th round at Holborn Stadium.
Nike Free Wholesale
China. Wilde hurt Kid with a left to the jaw and the American sunk
to one knee after taking a pummelling on the ropes. Wilde seized his chance with
more heavy blows and when Kid went down again the Americans corner threw in the
towel.Despite looking frail and with long, skinny limbs, Wilde was a fearsome
champion. By the time he climbed into the ring to face Young Zulu Kid -- also
known as Fighting Newsboy -- he had suffered only one defeat to Tancy Lee, which
Wilde avenged in June 1916.The world flyweight champion toured America from
December 1919 with 11 bouts in six months. Wilde held on to his world title
until 1923, when he lost it to Filipino Pancho Villa in New York. After the
seventh round knockout defeat, Wilde announced his retirement.Wilde died aged 76
in 1969, after being mugged a few years earlier at Cardiff railway station. ' '
'