Talk » Saban.But Alabama embarrassed LSU 21-0

Amid the sea of delighted Western Bulldogs faces in the rooms, from the chairman Peter Gordon and the club legends Chris Grant and Tony Liberatore, a more sober face in Hawthorn colours emerged to mark the significance of the occasion.Alastair Clarkson, for the first time in four years a coach thwarted in September, marched into the heart of the Bulldogs kennel to congratulate his former assistant Luke Beveridge and wish him well for the remainder of the AFL finals. As is often the way for great teams and athletes, Clarksons Hawks had been undone by opponents who had long admired them.Speaking within a few minutes of each other on Thursday morning, Beveridge and Clarkson were a study in contrasts. By Friday night, so too were their clubs. Hawthorn had expected, the Western Bulldogs had hoped. This turned out to be a night for the dreamers.Beveridge had spoken expansively about history and hope, while also revealing he, as a former Hawks assistant, would feel a little regretful if his team were responsible for ending Hawthorns tilt at four consecutive premierships. Clarkson took the path of the punchy, bristling his way through pre-match commentary in a way that betrayed the ruthlessness at the core of his football being.The wistfulness Beveridge carried with him helped draw a mighty crowd of Bulldogs optimists to the MCG - 87,823 was among the greatest gatherings ever to see the club once known as Footscray play any match in their history. It was this wave of optimism and hope that carried the night, even as the Hawks players tried their best to be feisty after Clarksons preferred fashion.So it was that a team with one premiership in all their VFL/AFL years dethroned another trying for a fourth flag in a row. So too was a team trying to hang onto their hegemony through a gradually diminishing arsenal of personnel and tactical options undone by opponents firing on far more varied and effective cylinders.It had been eight matches over six years since the Bulldogs last beat the Hawks, so long ago that Beveridge was a junior assistant with Collingwood, before he found his way to Whitten Oval via a spell in Clarksons coaching box. He has not lost the sense of gratitude.Him and I have shared some unbelievable times together in 2012-14 and he was the one who sent out the olive branch to me to come work at the Hawthorn football club so I owe him a lot, Beveridge said. I have a very strong emotional connection to the Hawks. That of course doesnt trump my emotional connection to our football club.But it is a little bit different beating the Hawks. I have so much admiration and respect for everyone over there. But you can imagine how I feel about my football club and how much I admire what everyones done. Especially the players but also all our staff whove held their nerve and pulled things together when its been tough.In pressure nights and games like tonight we dont have a great deal of experience in these situations but everyones been ice cold and managed themselves superbly.Evident on the night was a sharp example of a trend building all year. Skilful and brutal as they had been and still were, the Hawks lacked both the industry in the middle of the ground to win a decent share of the contested ball, and the tall marking target up forward to provide a circuit-breaker when precise disposal wasnt possible. As Clarkson put it, his team would happily finish 18th if it meant Jarryd Roughead could return to full health and the Hawks forward line.Of course Clarkson is so skilful a coach and Hawthorn so proud an organisation that their decreased means were still enough to earn a top four spot. But Isaac Smiths kick drifted wide after the siren against Geelong, exposing the defending premiers to a Bulldogs side both refreshed by the pre-finals bye and enlivened by an unexpected overthrow of West Coast in Perth. According to Clarkson, they were also advantaged by generous holding the ball interpretations that will necessitate another tweak to Hawthorns style.No good this losing caper is it? Clarkson said. Weve seen the Bulldogs play some good footy but I dont think Ive seen them play as well as tonight. Theyre deserved preliminary finalists and hopefully theyll really serve it up to GWS next week.Anyone still wondering at the effect of the bye and a Thursday start to the finals needs only to watch how the Dogs played without any evidence of a cross-country trip in their legs or their minds. This ran contrary to the vast majority of semi-finals since the final eight entered its present iteration more than a decade ago.Oddly enough the first big lead of the game was staked by the Hawks, a 23-point break in the second quarter. But it had arrived more through the Bulldogs early profligacy in front of goal and in field kicking, in a wider version of their start against the Eagles. Now, as then, the Dogs found their range with time, looking to have won the game on general play by halftime even as the Hawks nursed a one point lead at the break. That did not last long.The reward for unseating Hawthorn and rewarding the fans who turned up in such vast numbers at the MCG, the Bulldogs must travel to face the formidable but inexperienced Greater Western Sydney. They will not be favoured to win, but then after West Coast and now the Hawks, anything will seem possible.As for the Hawks, moves to replenish the club are already afoot, as far as such a thing is possible in the ever more equalised AFL petrie dish. Clarkson has signed on to continue on until 2019, and now finds himself with the difficult task of refocusing on a summit now a season and three games distant. But over the next two weeks even this most hard-nosed competitor will send some positive thoughts in the direction of Beveridges Bulldogs.Nike Air Max 97 Canada . Woodson said during a radio interview Thursday that the Knicks Carmelo Anthony doesnt get the same calls as other superstars. Nike Air Max Flair Canada . William Carrier opened the scoring for Cape Breton (6-4-2), but Andrew Ryan tied the game and Brent Andrews put the Mooseheads (8-6-0) in front for good with a short-handed goal at 13:49 of the second period. http://www.clearanceairmaxcanada.com/air-max-dlx-canada-sale.html . Patrice Bergeron and Daniel Paille scored 20 seconds apart a few minutes after Stamkos was taken off the ice on a stretcher with a broken right leg, and the Bruins beat the Lightning 3-0 on Monday afternoon. Air Max 270 Sale Canada .Y. -- Syracuse has turned up the defence at the right time all season, and when High Point threatened to pull off a monumental upset the second-ranked Orange did what they do best with their quick hands and savvy play. Air Max 95 Sale Canada .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable.He ate grass, for heavens sake. He ate grass, and we laughed.We came to love his idiosyncrasies, from that toddler clap to his play-calling guts to -- thanks, George and Ira Gershwin -- the way he wore his hat.No, they cant take that away from us. We loved it all because Les Miles could wink at us and keep winning. He came into LSU and produced a level of success never achieved by any of his 29 predecessors in Baton Rouge, and somehow, thats not enough.It is not something that Walter Camp decreed when he came up with the line of scrimmage and the center snap. It is not written in the 216 pages of the 2016 and 2017 NCAA Football Rules and Interpretations. Only in the state of Louisiana is it carved into stone tablets and handed down from on high that LSU must win 10 games a season.No, check that. Miles won 114 games in 11? seasons and hes down at the Baton Rouge U-Haul buying boxes.On the very weekend that Miami, under new head coach Mark Richt, rose to No. 14 as Georgia, which fired Richt after he averaged a 10-3 record for 15 seasons, got humiliated at Ole Miss and fell out of the polls, LSU fired Miles so that it could hire someone more successful.Miles had a record of 114-34 (.770) with the Tigers. If youre looking for context of how good that is, consider that a career record of .600 makes a coach eligible for the College Football Hall of Fame. Consider that its better than the record of his predecessor, Nick Saban (48-16, .750). Or just consider this: Miles began this season as one of five active head coaches who had won a national championship.And then there were four, which include Saban, Urban Meyer of Ohio State and Jimbo Fisher of Florida State. Bob Stoops of 1-2 Oklahoma? Youre on the clock.On the very weekend that Tennessee extracted itself from the eight-year sinkhole it fell into after firing Phillip Fulmer, LSU decided that five losses in nine games is untenable. Think about that for just a minute, Tigers fans.Fulmer went 5-7 in 2008, one year after his ninth 10-win season in Knoxville, and Tennessee fired him. In 91 games since Tennessee fired Fulmer, the Vols are 48-43. That includes being 4-0 as we speak, after those 38 consecutive points against Florida that exorcised every ghost of the Derek Dooley era and the Lane Kiffin year.There is no guarantee that firing someone as successful as Miles will result in a better program. Its just as possible that LSU wont be able to hire a coach as successful as Miles. Theres a long list of schools that got rid of someone who was winning and got worse.Nebraska has gone 19 years since its national championship. More to this point, it has gone 17 years without a conference championship.Michigan, whichh has won more football games than any program anywhere, hasnt won the Big Ten championship in 12 years.ddddddddddddSyracuse fired Paul Pasqualoni in 2004 after he had one losing record in 14 seasons. The Orange have had nine losing seasons since.That could neevvvvver happen at LSU. Ask head coaches about the best jobs in America, and the head-coaching job at LSU is second only to the guy who signs the Powerball checks. LSU is the only Power 5 school in a talent-rich state. Miles built upon Sabans strategy of laying a foundation at home. For more than a decade, it has taken a court order and a crowbar to convince a five-star Louisiana recruit to cross state lines. The state has served Miles well. Its the vice versa that LSU doesnt remember.When did the state of Louisiana fall in love with Saban? Not when he won the national championship in 2003. No, it was two years earlier, when Saban brought home the SEC title, the Tigers first since 1988. Trust me, no one is making documentaries about LSU football in the 1990s.If you dig at the root of this issue, thats who you will find: Saban, the man who broke Tiger hearts when he landed at Alabama only two years after leaving LSU. Miles has matched the one national championship and two SEC championships that Saban won in Baton Rouge. But since Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa, he has won four national championships and four SEC championships.No matter how much Miles won in Death Valley, LSU fans still looked over their shoulder at Saban. Wherever Miles took the Tigers, he would have to go through Saban once a year to get there. And through the 2011 regular season, Miles gave as good as he got. When LSU won that 9-6 overtime fistfight that season, Miles held a 3-2 edge on Saban.But Alabama embarrassed LSU 21-0 in the BCS National Championship rematch two months later, and something seemed to shift. Sabans teams beat Miles teams the next four seasons, twice by double figures, twice by late-game scores. You decide which hurt the most.The LSU offense is stuck these days, and Miles has been too slow to fix it. Anyone who can read game scores can understand that. Miles had the chance to kick offensive coordinator Cam Cameron to the curb after last season and he didnt do it. When the offense continued to sputter this season, Cameron got kicked to the curb, all right. Where he landed on Miles.My guess is Miles would have fixed it by the end of this season, if not before. No one at LSU wanted to wait. Instead, dont be surprised if Tigers fans wait a long time to return to where Miles had taken them. ' ' '