Two pieces of information came out of Tuscaloosa today; one good and one bad.

As expected cornerback Kareem Jackson has declared himself eligible for the NFL Draft.

As some had speculated, Director of Player Personnel Jeremey was promoted to fill the defensive coach position vacated by James Willis.

Lane Kiffin has departed from the state of Tennessee, and for the sake of his health, hopefully forever.  What's it all about?  Alfie?

Here are a few thoughts:

On the heels of the great news that Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart has decided to stay at Alabama, it looks as though inside linebackers coach James Willis will not. The folks at the Tuscaloosa News are reporting that he will accept the position of defensive coordinator at Texas Tech, under former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville.

In a move that surprised absolutely no one, Alabama linebacker Rolando McClain announced on Monday that he would be entering the 2010 NFL Draft. The unanimous All-American and Butkus Award winner was a permanent team captain for the 2009 National Champion Crimson Tide.

Where does Rolando stand in the history of Bama's great linebackers?

After spending about an hour and a half post game on the field at the Rose Bowl and in the Tide locker room, I took my time walking the mile or so back to my car. I puffed lightly on a cigar, and walked alone in complete silence, relishing in what had happened.

Alabama had just beaten Texas 37-21 to claim National Championship #13 in the storied history of Alabama football.

It's a damn shame Colt McCoy got hurt.  Although Nick Saban is a good head coach, and therefore like all good head coaches uses the media as a tool, not a confessional booth, I strongly suspect he was being sincere when he said that "you always hate to see a great competitor who's had a great career not be able to participate in a game that he's probably worked his entire career to be a part of." 

Nobody wanted to see that, not even Saban.  Texas fans are justified in feeling a little cheated, and in wondering privately among themselves what might have happened without McCoy's injury.  Maybe they can even channel their frustration into some kind of positive energy.

What they shouldn't do is come out publicly and say things like "If Colt McCoy hadn't gotten hurt, we would've won."  My Texas friends, nobody likes a whiner, and you ain't nothin' but a whiner when you say something like that.  It's hogwash, too, and I'll give you a few reasons.

Wow.

As I type this, I'm flying at 569 miles per hour somewhere over El Paso, watching Nick Saban's live press conference. And, I'm on the internet. To paraphrase Patton Oswalt, it's a miracle, and no one cares.

But that's not the real miracle today.

In a bowl game – and especially in a bowl game played nearly five weeks after the teams’ last game – the psych edge can really make the difference. Sometimes one team is ready and the other team isn’t (last year’s Sugar Bowl). Sometimes both teams are ready (Texas-USC BCS game). Frequently neither team is ready and they both kind of slog around until somebody wins by default (LSU vs. Penn St., Capital One Bowl).

Yesterday's Texas Game By Game article was really designed to give you a feel for what Texas did this season.  You guys probably already have a decent idea what the Tide did this season, but hopefully it will be at least a bit enlightening to look at it in the same format as yesterday's Texas article.

So let's do that.