Bama fans, prepare to be ... 'Sabanized'

By Andy Johns
Star Staff Writer

09-01-2007

Alabama freshman Garner Mills of Mobile looks at the week-old Nick Saban exhibit at the Paul W. Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa. Photo: Andy Johns/The Anniston Star

TUSCALOOSA — Rib smokers at Dreamland Bar-B-Que have been through their share of football games, but even the veterans admitted Friday to not knowing what to expect from the throng of fans, "now that they've been Sabanized."

Dreamland employee Jeannette Bishop-Hall said she expected the normally wild crowd to be "crazy" today, as Tide fans welcome the start of football season and new head coach Nick Saban.

Tailgaters began arriving in RVs as soon as the lots opened around 11 a.m. Friday. Rani Christie of Millbrook, sitting in a crimson folding chair in the shade of his RV's canopy, said this year seems different than most openers because of the new coach. "There seems to be more excitement," he said. "It's going to be interesting to see how different it is inside (the stadium)."

Fellow tailgater Tom Sanford said he planned to save his ticket stub and snapshots of the coach's first game and display them in a montage. "I think it's the start of a new era," he said.

But Christie said the fans' fervor is not unconditional. He hopes for eight wins this season, he said, and expects at least seven. "Anything less than 7 and 5, and he'll be in trouble from the get-go," he said of Saban.

If fans' expectations aren't enough pressure, Saban shouldn't have to look far to remember whose shoes he's stepping into. The Paul W. Bryant Museum put up a Saban exhibit about a week and a half ago. Assistant Curator Brad Green said fans had been asking for a Saban exhibit all summer.

Standing at the exhibit around lunchtime Friday was Nick Mazza, who drove more than 14 hours with is wife and sons from Carbondale, Pa., to be at Saban's debut.

"For the boys, they definitely had to be part of history," said Mazza, who also drove down for the spring game.

Another museum visitor, Carla Breedlove of Salisbury, N.C., noted that the exhibit, which features a video, photo, and short biography of Saban, has plenty of room for trophies.

"And we want plenty of them," she said.