Bama needs this win to get one step closer to a bowl birth. If the Tide can beat the eagles and the dawgs Bama is almost assured a meaningless bowl bid. Would it be meaningless? In some ways, YES! In others, NO! You can always argue it would help recruiting and the mind set of the team that's coming back next season, which is almost all of the starters. I think it would be helpful, and it gives Shula more "on the jo training" along with a little extra practice time, which never hurts.

Rabid, i'm not sure about the USM game but the game against MSU i'm sure Bama will send my dogs home with their tail between their legs.

RMUN you folks have had some tough times, and still have some to follow. We have had our share of them over the past decade, but I don't think we've ever been as low on talent as the Dawgs are this year. Heck, I believe Bama has some of the best young talent in the league right now. They just need some experience and a little more depth. The depth is actually not nearly as bad as I thought it would be this season, but there are positions that Bama isn't more than two deep. It's hard to compete with the USC's and Oklahoma's of College football when you don't have enough depth. One guy gets hurt this year, and we can actually replace him with someone without falling off very bad, (with the exception of Croyle) that's a lot better than last season, but it's not where you need to be to win SECC's and NC's. The only thing I can give Mike shula a "thumbs up" on, is recruiting. He has done very well in that department. Then again, we always get the cream of the crop in Alabama no matter who the coach is. Look at Dumbose, he even had top five classes a couple of years. Don't worry, it will get better in time, it's just hard to be patient. I know JWS done a lot of good things over there, and one was getting the MSU folks use to winning football games. Now that they have come to expect to win, they will not settle for losing seasons for long. Good Luck!