University football at 150: how the South has been defined and shaped by the game

BELOW THE MASON-DIXON LINE – At 57, Herschel Walker is as torn as Georgia's 20-year-old man-child, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1982. It's a physical miracle.

Walker played professional football for 15 years. Meanwhile, he competed in the Olympics with the US bobsled team and went into ballet. Since then, he has engaged in mixed martial arts, setting a record 2-0 for Strikeforce in his last game in 2011.

The perfect son of the South remains the perfect symbol of the South and the sport he loves in this 150th anniversary of college football. The collisions, the fame, the expectations, even the football itself have not diminished. On the contrary: Walker is the accomplished human monument in the region that produced it.

And everything depended on a coin.

"Many people did not know I was going to the Marines," Walker told a crowd of reporters excited last month at SEC Press Days. "I ended up throwing a coin, that's how I ended up going to the University of Georgia."

Wait what?

One of the best athletes of the 20th century – or any other century – recounted how he had slowly played his signature with Georgia in April, so the Marines were still an option.

"On Easter Sunday, my mother said," Do not you think it's time for you to decide what you want to do? "Http://www.cbssports.com/" has been remembered by Walker "http://www.cbssports.com/" As long as your mind and your heart are pure with Lord Jesus, no matter your decision. " Http://www.cbssports.com/ "

Thus, the first draw took place between the army and the college. It has come to the university.

"Shit," Walker said.

Then it was Georgia vs Clemson. Georgia won.

The Bulldogs then faced USC in another decisive flip for their career. Walker has always loved California. He went back to Georgia again.

"Sometimes," Walker concludes, "… God will take care of you."

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Immortality is not always that simple. We now know that one of the pillars of Southern football is hanging on fortune. But a century and a half after its existence, the roots of university football are not only implanted in the South, the identity of the game resides there.

Herschel or not.

Ask some of the participants.

"In the SEC, [opposing fans] do not lower your thumbs; you receive salvation at a finger wherever you go, "said South Carolina coach Will Muschamp, who played for Georgia, worked in four of the 14 SEC schools and directed them two (in Florida).

"I have lived in Alabama, it has always been pushed back," said Paul Finebaum, host of ESPN, a long-time voice of Southern football. "He was forced to sometimes defend the indefensible in terms of history.It was 49th or 50th in all imaginable categories.It was first in football.This gave the citizens from the state a sense of pride, when they were hit and spit in the head by people from the north. "

"What is the difference between the SEC network and the Big Ten network?" asked "Mr. College Football," Atlanta-based sports journalist Tony Barnhart. "It is very simple. If you live in the Big Ten footprint and you do not get the network, you call your cable provider. But if you live in the SEC footprint and you do not get the SEC network, someone's home will be burned down. That's the difference. "

"He gets up on me [college football] is beyond rationality, "said Diane Roberts, a Florida State professor whose family roots date back to 1799." That makes no sense. "

University football is the pride of the South in a 90,000-seat stadium. It's just different in the South than in any other part of the country. It's a pride that worships the other pillars of football in the South. They call themselves Bear Bryant, Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, Eddie Robinson, Bo Jackson and Tim Tebow.

It's a pride celebrated by the greatest silversmiths of the South. Former Atlanta Journal Sports writer Lewis Grizzard has already been syndicated in 450 newspapers. Willie Morris has already written 452 pages on recruiting Marcus Dupree.

Football in the South is a currency, a way to define your social status. Football as a way to define your existence.

This status could qualify you as "old t-shirt", someone who has never approached the university but who pulls on behalf of the U.S. local. This could mean that you are paying all your available income in a campervan that arrives on campus on Thursday to serve as a Saturday night game.

This means that you wear shorts, skinny jeans, a summer dress or a bow tie, you will fall well. As long as there is a place to hide the balloon.

In the South, it means never losing a half-time if you are one of the legendary fanfares of the historically black universities of the region. That means lives revolving around Friday night, Saturday afternoon and NFL lights on Sunday.

This means an NFL quarters assembly line in the Manning household alone.

"Other than the father," said patriarch Archie Manning's family, "the high school football coach has done more than anyone to turn boys into men."

That means a question that could become eternal: Who is the best Bear Bryant or Nick Saban?

Joe Burrow, an Ohio national who was transferred from the state of Ohio last year, discovered: "I always tell the story during the camp. I went for a salad and everyone started making fun of me. to eat salad. The people of Louisiana do not like to eat salad. "

Native of Louisiana, Jacob Hester played at the back of the 2007 LSU National Championship team. It is said that a poor man can cross the tailgate of an LSU and have enough to eat and drink without spending a dime.

"We'll do anything," says Hester. "If you're using it at a hatchback, it's better if it's okay." When leaving an LSU hatchback, you can barely walk and the size of your pants increases in two sizes.

This Southern pride has never been so strong. Starting in 2006, the SEC has won seven consecutive national championships. Teams from the Southern states have won 12 of the last 13 elections, Clemson, the state of Florida and Texas joining their SEC brethren. You should not have to tell you that Saban has won five titles in Alabama since 2009. It's unprecedented.

The same is true of the domination of the South in almost all areas of football these days. The last three winners of the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, awarded to the defensive players of the year, come from the South. Eight of the last 14 quarterfinals in the NFL draft each year came from schools in the South.

Brazil produces the best football strikers. Canada exports the best hockey players. The Southeast is the world leader in the production of defensive linemen. Clemson last year, his entire starting line was drawn in the first four rounds.

Who is the next Dabo Swinney? A rarity for beginners. Just find the last receiver coach promoted to head coach who becomes head coach, gets a mediocre start, then posts eight consecutive double digit wins and wins two national championships before the age of 50. a former Alabama receiver from Birmingham, Alabama.

It is only in the south that there are two valleys of death. One (at LSU) is a living being that breathes at night. The other (in Clemson) was a nightmare to visit well before it housed the national champions.

No surprise, the best college football in the country is played in the picturesque town of north-central South Carolina. Clemson was 20 years old from his founding (1889) when Princeton and Rutgers played for the first time at the game.

This is the first college degree program in 121 years in 15-0.

"Obviously, the level at which we can play, I think no one is there right now," said Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

There is a reason why Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany would have liked to add a combination of North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia Tech to his conference during his expansion. In 2005, the Census Bureau reported that 88% of US population growth would occur in the Sun Belt.

More population means more potential looks on TVs. Delany has not managed to disembark these teams from VAC. (The CAC is capitalizing this week on this surge in Sun Belt's population by launching its own network this year.)

Let 's not forget the great Roy Kramer who made all this possible in the modern era. The former SEC commissioner had the idea of ​​launching a conference league match in 1992. That year, the SEC split into two divisions and played the first major match conference title.

Steve Spurrier led Phil Fulmer, who then headed Urban Meyer, who led Saban. These four coaches won 14 of the 26 SEC Championship games.

"The South is a way of life," Spurrier said. "For some reason, football, the winner and the loser, it really means something for each side … You have the right to brag about the year.This is a sport in which the players , the coaches and their fans, if you win, you feel a little smarter than the other guys and you're a little stronger than the other guys. "

Even if feeling so does not make sense. In the South, football is part of the population's esteem, self-esteem and self-examination.

"Having grown up in the South, you have to understand how we have evolved since the Civil War," Barnhart said. "We were the agrarian South, and the industrialized North looked down on us, we always thought," We can not beat them in the industry, but we can beat them in football. "Http: // www .cbssports.com /"

After the civil war, the South had to rebuild physically and mentally.

The Rose Bowl of 1926 could have been a turning point. Barely 60 years after the American Civil War, Alabama traveled to Pasadena, California, for its first bowling game. The Tide defeated a foreign team from Pacific Northwest (Washington) 20-19. It was the first of 17 national championships claimed by Alabama.

Do not believe our word. The result of this game is written in the fight song of Alabama.

"I'm not surprised by any of that," Roberts said. "I taught in Alabama, my first real job.I loved Tuscaloosa.I thought I knew football so crazy.I did not know it.It was so extreme.They go to the store. alcohol at 7 in the morning. "

This is the human condition pushed to the extreme. Harvey Updyke, a fan of Alabama, became a national story in 2011 when he poisoned the legendary Auburn Oaks. The trees at the corner of College and Magnolia are "wrapped" with toilet paper after every victory of the Tigers.

"They cried these trees as if it was a death," Finebaum said. "I do not know how you explain this to people." People from the Northeast Corridor said, "Are you crazy?" Yes, that's part of it. Your life is not just trees, it's the cornerstones of people's memory. "

University football has not started in the South. In fact, it spread from north-east to west-central in the west before settling in the southeast. The Big Ten was founded in 1896. The SEC arrived 37 years later. ACC only started in 1953.

En route, Georgia Tech beat Cumberland 222-0 in 1916 on the same field as Grant Field, which is part of the oldest stadium (Bobby Dodd Stadium) of the match.

Let's not forget Eddie Robinson of Grambling or Jake Gaither of Florida A & M Before and after the integration, they are both part of the best university football coaches. The 408 victories of Robinson are the third most marked of all time. Bobby Bowden at Florida State (377) is number 4. In their own way, they have all revolutionized the game.

Bowden literally gave the FSU its academic identity. The folkloric Saint Bobby took the road of a former college of teachers to confront all newcomers. The list of "victims" is still buried in the "grass cemetery" of the school.

"My heroes were college coaches," said former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville.

Today, the 64-year-old native of Arkansas is a candidate for the Senate in Alabama. The challenge could be beyond his victory against Crimson Tide six times in a row as an Auburn coach. As a senator, the former Tigers coach would be responsible for uniting a divided state at birth between Alabama and Auburn.

"What it meant for the people of this state and the South was nothing but college football," said Tuberville, who has won 159 games at Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati. . "After leaving Auburn, it was hard to go beyond the magnitude of the game's importance."

When asked if he would go by "senator" or "coach" if he was to win, Tuberville replied, "I have won [it] 40 years as a coach. I do not think I will be known in any other way. "

Football in the south was also a place where water was optional, as scandalous as it may seem today.

"One of my assertions is that I was in the first class to which coach Bryant sent some water," said Major Ogilvie, who played in the triangle Bryant between 1977 and 1980, winning two national championships. "Until then, it was all about mental resistance."

"Coach Bryant used to say that his own experience was that football was a way out of the farm," said Ogilvie, who is currently responsible for performance management in Birmingham. , 60 years old. "I think a lot of that remains a motivator, people want a better life."

In this sense, little has changed in the South. Ogilvie saw his first Iron Bowl with his brother in 1969.

"We were told to walk to door 7 to meet our parents," he said. "Along the way, a fight broke out between us fans in Alabama and Auburn – it was an indoctrination."

Football in the south is also a tradition. When Georgia defeated Notre Dame at the Sugar Bowl in 1981, Barnhart said, "These feelings, I promise you, go back to 1865."

"It was not a big problem for Georgia to win the national championship, it was a big problem to beat Notre Dame, symbol of the supremacy of the North," he added.

It's about shame. The episode of Arety's Angels cost Alabama's job to Mike Price before he was a coach.

It's a matter of survival.

"A SEC football game is like a knife fight in a ditch," Barnhart said. "You have a knife, it has a knife and you have nowhere to go."

It is these pillars, still standing today.

Muschamp grew up as a big fan of Herschel Walker in Rome, Georgia. His father then moved to Gainesville, Florida, where Muschamp started shooting for the Gators.

In 1980, Walker covered 1,616 yards as a freshman, including 238 yards in a 26-21 win over Georgia this season.

Whenever the game is replayed on the SEC network, Muschamp makes his kids watch just for pure story.

"I cried that day, the Gators lost, I was devastated," Muschamp said.

Walker continued to run – in the story.

Football in the south has never slowed down.