The trophy room in the Mal Moore building is going to have get a little bigger.

After seeing four players named first team All-American last week (Mark Ingram, Mike Johnson, Rolando McClain, Terrence Cody), the #1 ranked Alabama football team has had another big week for honors and awards.

First came word that Alabama had seven players named to the first team AP All-SEC squad - Mark Ingram, Mike Johnson, Rolando McClain, Terrence Cody, Javier Arenas, Mark Barron, and Leigh Tiffin (Ingram, Cody, and McClain were unanimous). James Carpenter was named to the 2nd team, along with Arenas being named to the second team as an all-purpose player (which means kick returner).

Then came word that the AP had named Mark Ingram the SEC Offensive Player of the Year.... Rolando McClain the SEC Defensive Player of the year.... and Nick Saban the SEC Coach of the year.

That was followed on Monday by the announcement that the Downtown Athletic Club of Columbus (OH) had named Rolando McClain the winner of the Jack Lambert Award - given since 1991 to the nation's best linebacker. He is Alabama's first winner.

Later on Monday came word that Mark Ingram had been named a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. It looks like it's going to be a close vote between he and Toby Gerhart of Stanford.

On Tuesday, the day got kicked off with Dick Butkus walking into the media room at Alabama to present the Dick Butkus Award to Rolando McClain. This award was created by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, but is now given by the Butkus Foundation. It goes to the nation's best linebacker. Given since 1985, Rolando joins Derrick Thomas (1988) as Bama's only two recipients.

Later today, the SEC released it's coaches All-SEC teams. Bama ended up with eight first team guys - Mark Ingram, Mike Johnson, Rolando McClain, Terrence Cody, Javier Arenas, Mark Barron, Leigh Tiffin, and Arenas again as a kick returner. Ingram and McClain were unanimous selections. Julio Jones made the second team.

Then came word that Kirby Smart had been awarded the Frank Broyles Award - given to the nation's best assistant coach. Gven since 1996, he is Alabama's first winner.

Thursday should be another big day for the Tide, as the Maxwell Award, Doak Walker Award, Walter Camp Award, Bendarik Award, and Lou Groza Award will all be annouced - and the Tide has a finalist for every award.

The Maxwell Award goes to the nation's "Most Outstanding Player" - Mark Ingram is a finalist.

The Walter Camp Award goes to the "Player of the Year - again, Mark Ingram is a finalist.

The Doak Walker Award is given to the nation's best running back - Ingram again.

The Bednarik Award is given to the nation's best defensive player - Terrence Cody is a finalist.

The Lou Groza Award goes to the nation's best kicker - Leigh Tiffin is a finalist.

Ingram has a great shot at winning all three of the awards he's up for. The Bednarik Award will almost certainly go to Nebraska's Ndamokong Suh, along with Wednesday's Lombardi Award.

The Lott Award, given to the nation's best "defensive impact player" will be announced on Sunday, and should be a battle between Suh and Rolando McClain.

And, of course, the Heisman Trophy will be given on Saturday night.

On a different topic altogether, the University of Alabama announced that they are canceling classes on January 6, 7, and 8. School was set to begin on the 6th, but the school has delayed that until the 11th. I think if you're reading this, you can probably figure out why this was done.

Comments (15)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment