There are a few certainties in life: Taxes suck, we all die, Alabama will always play defense and run the ball, and, so long as Sarah Patterson has blood in her veins, the gymnastics team will advance to the NCAAs.

As Aaron Suttles (rightly) states:

Not one time since 1983 has the Crimson Tide failed to make it to the Championships. Not one time has Alabama slipped up. Not once has it fell short. Not once has UA not been competing for it all at the end of the season. *** That, my friends, is remarkable. Patterson doesn’t need me to extol her coaching legacy. That has been set for a long time. Her accomplishments as the coach of the Crimson Tide speak for themselves

(ed. Besides 28 straight appearances in the NCAA championships, Patterson has won 4 NCs at the helm of the Bama squad, AND single-handedly exposed Suzanne Yoculan for the hydra-headed Shelob she truly was, thus hastening her departure to Tartarus*) .

Hats off to Patterson and good luck to the #3-seed Alabama Crimson Tide in Gainesville on Thursday as they try to bring home our 5th title.

*I despise that woman: She was like the old-school Steve Spurrier of collegiate gymnastics. Check this out "(Patterson) gets all my quotes and blows them up," Yoculan said. "She spends so much time worrying about me. She needs to worry about her. Maybe then she'll beat us."...Hell, she even got reprimanded by the Conference for this quote, when Patterson complained about the Dawgs not using the new bars, thus screwing up our shorter girls, " Losers make excuses; winners make adjustments,"