For Alabama Crimson Tide fans the long wait for the offseason to be over requires another week. But we enthusiastically welcome college football back in week zero.
Week zero means the long national nightmare of no college football is over. The funky 2023 season’s first step back is not filled with many games. Actually other than the novelty of watching Notre Dame beat up on Navy in Dublin, there is no marquee value.
Some Alabama Crimson Tide fans will tune into the Vanderbilt Commodores hosting the Rainbow Warriors of Hawaii. Hawaii beat Alabama Football once, back in Mike Shula’s first season. Alabama was on probation at the time and was prohibited from going to a bowl game. In an odd NCAA quirk, the Crimson Tide was allowed to schedule a 13th regular season game. The Tide traveled to the islands in late November of 2003, for the indignity of losing 37-29, its ninth loss of the season.
Some Alabama fans reflect on the 10 seasons Mike Dubose, Dennis Franchione and Shula coached the Tide as Alabama’s ‘wilderness years’. As in lost and wandering in the college football wilderness.
Good idea for Alabama Crimson Tide fans
Every SEC football fan should root for the Commodores on Saturday night. Vanderbilt has a football fanbase with little to celebrate, and the few thousand loyal fans deserve every win their team can achieve.
Also of note to football fans in the state of Alabama is Jacksonville State is hosting UTEP. Maybe the Gamecocks can pull off a win, but according to ESPN’s Bottom 10, Jax State is one of college football’s 10 worst teams. The predicted worst is, of course, UMass. Auburn opens its season with UMass in week one.
What would have been the biggest story of week zero did not happen. In week one, LSU’s star defensive lineman, Maason Smith will not play against Florida State. Smith was suspended by the NCAA for an impermissible benefit that he received not long before the NIL floodgates opened in 2021. Multiple appeals by LSU were denied.
According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports LSU tried, with not an iota of shame, to add a last-minute week zero game to serve as Smith’s suspension. Hats off to the teams that said no.
Fans seeking added entertainment during the Notre Dame vs. Navy game might make bets on how many times the Fighting Irish will be described as a Playoff contender. Desmond Howard and others are already on the Notre Dame bandwagon that never ceases to overrate the Irish.