Chris Stewart Sports

11:00 p.m. CST - Championship Game thoughts, a rough night in hoops, and Bye Bye Tubs...

As I prepare for Saturday's broadcast, I find it hard to believe that we are at the end of the season. I know there is a bowl game somewhere still to come in early January, but the "season" ends right where it started - in the Georgia Dome.

Can you believe it is already here? What's more, can you believe Alabama is playing for the SEC Championship?

I'll never forget sitting inthe press box prior to kickoff against Clemson. I was sitting next to Jim Dunaway from CBS 42 in Birmingham. During pre game warm ups, I looked at Jim and said, "Holy cow, Jim. For the first time in years, our players look as impressive as the team we are lined up against."

Little did we know that this team would not only win that game going away, but that it would be the first of 12 victories on the year.

I am a fan of Houston Nutt, but how anybody could even consider someone other than Nick Saban for coach of the year in the SEC, and nationally, is beyond me. This team, which was picked no better than third in the west, steamrolled its way to the league title, and is only one win away from a shot at a national championship.

And you know what? They CAN win this weekend.

Don't buy into this garbage about Florida being unbeatable. They are good. REALLY good. Even capable of greatness. 

But the formula for beating them is the same one that Alabama has used in virtually every game this season: protect the football, control the clock, don't give up big plays on defense, stay sound in the kicking game.

Revelotionary, huh?

It's simple. I don't care who they have at quarterback, running back, or at any other position. If the Crimson Tide is sound, as they have been most weeks, they will win. If Bama is off its game, as it has been a couple of times, it will lose.

Still three days away, but I'm excited to see what's going to happen.

Rough night on the hardwood...

I don't know if I've seen a player more disappointed after a win than Ron Steele was Tuesday night. The Tide's point guard looked as though he had just lost a game by 20. 

In the minds of many, they may as well have. 

Alabama A&M is not a good basketball team. They have a good coach in Vann Pettaway, and have a couple of decent players. But when the Crimson Tide pushed the lead to 32-16 with 4:50 to go in the first half, the game should have been over.

That's the point where good teams take a 16-point lead and turn it into a 20-to-30 point advantage at the half. Instead, Alabama let the lead slip to five, and had to fight the entire second half just to hang on.  

It never should have happened, but it did.

Here's the good part - if there is one. The Tide didn't lose. They could have. Easily. And a year ago, they would have. But down the stretch this team put the ball in the hands of veterans Steele and Alonzo Gee, and they made just enough plays down the stretch to salvage a win on an ugly night.

Here's the frustrating part. I've seen enough good things from this team to think that they have the potential to win the West and contend for the league title.

I also saw enough Tuesday night to believe this is a .500 team, at best, if that type of play continues.

A change on the Plains...

If the old coach is fired at Auburn, something tells me the new coach is hired...or has at least agreed to be.

I don't expect this to be a long, drawn out process. I think the power brokers at Auburn have their top couple of choices in line, and feel confident they will get one of them. If not, they could be in for a bigger mess than the one they already have.

Tommy Tuberville is a good football coach. He did things at Auburn that had never been done - and hopefully won't be done again. To his credit, he took advantage of a weak period in Alabama football history, and turned it into an unprecedented run on the plains.

That run, like his tenure, clearly came to an end on a beautiful, foggy, rainy Saturday in Tuscaloosa.