Tag: Bear Bryant

Josh Heupel named Bear Bryant Awards National Coach of the Week

Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel named Bear Bryant Awards National Coach of the Week.

Fourth-year Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel earned national honors after a Week 4 win at Oklahoma.

The Vols were victorious, 25-15, and recorded a second top 25 win away from Neyland Stadium this season.

After the win against the Sooners. Heupel was named the Bear Bryant Awards Coach of the Week.

“The American Heart Association, a global force for healthier lives for all, presents the Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Awards annually to celebrate excellence in coaching, to honor Coach Bryant’s legacy and to raise awareness and critical funds for their mission,” Bryant Awards is described. “The coaching legend died from a heart attack in 1983, just 28 days after his final victory and retirement.”

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Trojans Wire details Bill Walton-Bear Bryant connection

An eerie connection here.

When you hear the name Bill Walton, a lot of different things come to your mind. His time as a player and a broadcaster is the most notable for a number of reasons.

However, there is a connection between Bill Walton and legendary coach Bear Bryant, as Matt Zemek of Trojans Wire pointed out shortly after Walton’s passing:

How are Walton and Bryant connected? It’s actually not as complicated as it seems. Walton’s death coming at the end of the Pac-12’s existence conveys the idea that Walton didn’t want to live in a world without the Pac-12. He died of cancer, but also of a broken heart.

Bear Bryant’s death also carried — like Walton’s — an unmistakable message with its own timing. Bryant died in January of 1983. This was one month after coaching his final game for Alabama in the 1982 Liberty Bowl versus Illinois. Bryant coached for a quarter of a century at Alabama. He coached football for nearly half a century. He was a head coach for nearly 40 years. Football coaching was his life. As soon as he retired, he died.

Bear Bryant loved football coaching the way Bill Walton loved the Pac-12. A world without their first loves was a world Bear and Bill simply couldn’t bear.

The legends will be remembered forever, and the sports community continues to mourn the loss of Bill Walton.

Bill Walton and Bear Bryant are forever linked in sports history

The timing of the death of Bill Walton offers an eerie callback to the death of Bear Bryant in 1983.

The death of Bill Walton was conspicuous for its timing. We all know Bill loved the Pac-12 Conference and was one of its biggest cheerleaders. Everyone has noticed the simple fact that Walton died right after the last Pac-12 sporting event (the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament) ended, and before any Pac-12 teams played a single game in their new conferences. Walton lived long enough to see the Pac-12 complete its final sports season from start to finish. He will not live in a world with UCLA in the Big Ten and Arizona in the Big 12. We all miss Bill, and we wish he was still with us, but one can’t deny the power and poetry of the timing of his death. In dying at a very specific point in time, Walton has become linked with another American college sports icon, Bear Bryant of Alabama.

How are Walton and Bryant connected? It’s actually not as complicated as it seems. Walton’s death coming at the end of the Pac-12’s existence conveys the idea that Walton didn’t want to live in a world without the Pac-12. He died of cancer, but also of a broken heart.

Bear Bryant’s death also carried — like Walton’s — an unmistakable message with its own timing. Bryant died in January of 1983. This was one month after coaching his final game for Alabama in the 1982 Liberty Bowl versus Illinois. Bryant coached for a quarter of a century at Alabama. He coached football for nearly half a century. He was a head coach for nearly 40 years. Football coaching was his life. As soon as he retired, he died.

Bear Bryant loved football coaching the way Bill Walton loved the Pac-12. A world without their first loves was a world Bear and Bill simply couldn’t bear.

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Nick Saban uses Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden to place emphasis on the current state of college football

What would Bear Bryant and Bobby Bowden think about the current state of college football?

Do you ever sit back and wonder what the former generations would think about the current state of college football? If so, you are not alone. On Monday night, former Alabama head football coach [autotag]Nick Saban[/autotag] referenced two of the most legendary college football coaches of all time when discussing the sport we all love.

While speaking at the 2024 Nick Saban Legacy Awards, the recently retired coach used Bear Bryant and Bobby Bowden as examples of why change is needed in college football. Not only did Saban reference the two legends, but he also pledged to do his part in working with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne to help develop a plan.

“If coach Bryant or coach Bowden could all of a sudden be with us tonight, what would they think of college football right now? That should be the very reason that we’re all very much committed to what we can do to make college football something where players can have a great quality of life, but we still have a venue where they have an opportunity to grow and learn and be successful.

“I would like to be a part of trying to help people that are working hard to make that happen like Greg Sankey. Like Greg Byrne. Like our conference commissioners are trying to do. That’s really, really important for young people, and it’s something that we’re very much committed to.”

Even though he has been retired for less than two months, Saban is proving that he wants to continue to be active in the sport he dominated for so long.

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How 12 football head coaches fared as the replacements for legends like Bill Belichick and Nick Saban

Who replaced Bear Bryant, Don Shula and John Madden and how did they do?

During one of the craziest weeks of football in recent memory, we saw the end of an era for legends like Bill Belichick and Nick Saban.

Belichick, 71, and Saban, 72, are easily two of the greatest coaches that the sport has ever seen. Next season, college football will look very different without Saban coaching Alabama. Meanwhile, the NFL will also look very different without Belichick coaching the Patriots.

Both teams will have huge decisions about how to fill these massive shoes. While there are some interesting candidates for the gig in New England and the job in Tuscaloosa, can either live up to the reputation that Belichick and Saban built?

We looked back at some of the most legendary coaches in football history, both in the NFL and in college football, to learn how these replacements have typically fared.

The results are a fairly mixed bag but if there is one thing we learned, it is that it is not easy to replace someone as accomplished as either of these two Hall of Fame-caliber coaches.

Notre Dame All-Time Bowl History

What is your favorite Notre Dame bowl memory?

Notre Dame has played in 41 bowl games all-time, a number that might seem low considering they’ve been playing football for over 130 years.  However, Notre Dame didn’t play in bowl games out of their belief in amateurism for over 40 years which means for a lot fewer bowl appearances than several other blue-blood programs.

There have been great triumphs and incredible heartbreakers both over those 41 games.

Legends were made, thrilling wins were had, and heartbreaking losses also occurred.

Check out the game-by-game history of Notre Dame in postseason bowl games below.

More Bowl Game History from the College Wire Network:

Alabama / Aub / Fla / LSU / Tenn. / UGA // Mich. / Mich St. / Ohio St. / Wisc. // Okla. / Texas // ND // USC

Former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops to receive Bear Bryant lifetime achievement award

Former Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops to be honored with the Paul “Bear” Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bob Stoops won a national championship in just his second year at the helm for the Oklahoma Sooners. 191 wins, several more national championship game appearances, and 10 Big 12 conference titles later, and the College Football Hall of Famer continues to receive accolades well after he officially retired from the Sooners back in 2017.

Stoops is set to receive the Bear Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award sponsored by the American Heart Association.

“It is an honor to receive the Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Heart Association,” said Stoops. “I have spent my career dedicated to developing players both on and off the field. To be named amongst the coaches that have come before me that have made a legacy in college football is a distinction that I do not take for granted.”

Stoops will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award as one of four national coaching honors given during the Bryant Awards Ceremony, presented this year by Marathon Oil, on January 11, 2023, in Houston, Texas.

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29 vintage college football photos that’ll make you wish it was August

See these incredible historical photos of college football teams, players and coaches from over the years. 

When you’re a college football fan, it’s hard not to get a little restless in the spring and summer months waiting for a new season to arrive. Regardless of which team or conference you root for, college football is revered as a cultural institution rooted in tradition, nostalgia and irrational hatred for anyone even remotely associated with the other team (which is part of its charm!).

We spent some time going through the USA TODAY photo archives and stumbled upon hundreds of incredible historical photos of college football teams, players and coaches from over the years.

Here are some of our favorites.

Alabama’s all-time record against Arkansas

A closer look at Alabama’s all-time record against the Arkansas Razorbacks!

Alabama will have its final home game of the 2021 season this Saturday as they take on SEC West foe Arkansas.

Arkansas has become a familiar face for the Tide since the Razorbacks joined the SEC in 1991. But the two programs faced off before Arkansas made the move.

The first-ever meeting between the Razorbacks and the Crimson Tide was back in January of 1962 in the Sugar Bowl. Alabama won a defensive struggle in New Orleans 10-3.

Their next meeting was not until the 1980 Sugar Bowl when a matchup of hall of fame coaches in Bear Bryant and Lou Holtz led their respective squads into the contest with undefeated records. Alabama once again got the best of Arkansas, defeating the Razorbacks 24-9.

Alabama and Arkansas would not meet again until the Razorbacks officially joined the SEC. In the first matchup as conference foes, Alabama traveled to Little Rock and dominated the Razorbacks 38-11.

It has been much of the same ever since. Alabama is currently on a 13-game winning streak over Arkansas and overall they own a 21-8 series advantage.

Alabama and Arkansas will meet again this Saturday inside of Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. CT on CBS.

Stay tuned to Roll Tide Wire for all the latest on the Crimson Tide!

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