Tide Tidbits - December 7, 2008

Meyer/Tebow: Post-Game Quotes
COACH MEYER: “Thank you very much, and we're awful proud and humbled to represent the Southeastern Conference as a champion. I think you give credit where credit is due. That's one of the best college football games I know I've ever been a part of. I know Alabama and Coach Saban and their staff, that was a dog fight. That was toughness. TIM TEBOW: I think they're a really good team. I think they had a great game plan. Defensively they had a lot of good players, a lot of players that could match up and play man-to-man coverage and do that very well, and a very good front seven, two really big linebackers that were very physical, and they just weren't going to let you go out there and make a lot of plays.

First SEC playoff game did not disappoint
It was supposed to have everything, and it just about had everything. The first SEC playoff game played out like an NFL December classic between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders. The first No. 1 versus No. 2 pairing in the history of Southeastern Conference was exactly that. It was a down year in the SEC overall, but the SEC Championship Game lived up to all of its billing as No. 2 Florida outlasted No. 1 Alabama 31-20 Saturday afternoon at the Georgia Dome.

Alabama coach Nick Saban says he wishes he could have done more to give his team a chance at victory
The disappointment Nick Saban was feeling was visible in his face. His No. 1-ranked and previously unbeaten Alabama team had just lost the SEC championship game to Florida, 31-20, on Saturday and with it lost a chance to play for the national championship. "I'm very proud of what our football team was able to accomplish this year," he said. "The only team that plays in a real BCS conference that went 12-0, which is very difficult to do, and I'm so very proud of the way our players played, with consistency all year, the way they competed.

Southern football rises to the top
The South is dominating college football like never before, but its ascent isn’t just a matter of good coaching. How a population boom and a growing economy have helped turn a regional obsession into a national juggernaut. College football has been conquered, in nearly every respect, by the Deep South.

Roll Tide!