...that 7-8 wins isn’t grim at all. If we finish the regular season with 7-8 wins this year I’ll be happy given the personnel we have to work with. When we’ve been struggling with (and sometimes losing to) mediocre competition and losing to Auburn and LSU like we have lately, I don’t know why people think more is going to magically happen quickly. The likelihood of JPW becoming Matt Leinart overnight is virtually nil, we have no linebackers, and a lot of other question marks, etc. We’d need a miracle-esque ‘05 season to achieve more than 8 wins I think…and even in ‘05 we finished third in the West. I still think we’re at least two more seasons away before we can begin seriously challenging for the west. A decade of mess can’t be mopped up in a year.

8 wins right now with no complaints. its not very often or very easy a team jumps more than a game or 2 in one year in the sec.

i meant his projected sec west champion when i called it “grim.” it presupposes a loss on nov. 29. and that would suck the suck of the ages.

but overall, yes, i think he is about on target concerning the outlook for this season (i haven’t been able to get a copy of his magazine yet so i can’t comment on his detailed analysis).

my impression of his comments last night were that next year will begin to see the real payoff of saban’s efforts. given the sad state shula left things, i think that’s an accurate and realistic assessment of the situation.

i’ve gone back and edited out the three-minute segment of steele talking about Bama into a separate audio file available here.

Do not ever bet on football. Don’t. Trust me on this. When I played college football I remember realizing one day at practice that you’d have to be retarded to ever think you had a football game figured out (just because there’s so much behind the scenes stuff that no one outside of the team knows about, like injuries/sour attitudes/coaching in-fighting/etc.).

Five or six years after I graduated I started gambling a little bit and started betting on college football. I did reasonably well most of the time, but lost big a couple times on some bets before I remembered my previous attitude.

Don’t bet on football.

the booky find your new number or address? JK What is amazing about it is how well vegas can call a game. That 1/2 pt will get you evertime.

value in his magazine. Don’t get me wrong, his analysis goes way beyond the average gambling rag. But I have too many buddies who are 50K+ in debt from gambling. I’ve had several who filed for bankruptcy because of gambling debt. My wife has a friend whose boyfriend can’t propose to her because he’s still paying off gambling debts. He makes a crapload of money, too, so when he has to work seven days a week and three or four hours of overtime a day just to pay off his debts from living in Vegas, you know it’s bad.

You can do what you like, but I’m just looking out for my fellow Bammers. I’ve seen too many people I know get hurt by gambling. It’s not worth it. I know some of you might think you can control it, but it will get you. You’ll start off betting just on one or two games. Next thing you know, you’re betting the Thursday night game even though you know nothing about either team playing. Then you bet your usual game on Saturday plus four or five others. Maybe you try a massive parlay to win 100K and like me, you think that because you picked eleven of thirteen that you somehow have a secret bank of knowledge that will carry you to victory. You don’t because you were simply lucky. You could have easily only picked four of thirteen.

Next thing you know, you’re picking NFL games, too, to make up for your losses Saturday. And thank God for Sunday night’s game, because that’s a last chance, and then if you’re up or down there’s Monday Night Football to put you even or way ahead.

Don’t do it, y’all. It’s not worth it. I know Phil Steele’s magazine isn’t purely a gambling mag, but I can take you to a few of my buddies’ houses where you’ll find a sheet of numbers, pluses, minuses, and X’d out team names.