Saturday night's clash between the #1 Louisiana State University Tigers and the #2 Alabama Crimson Tide was among the most memorable games in college football history. In the end, LSU won in Bama's house in overtime, 9-6, securing for another week its position atop the BCS standings.
No doubt about it, these are the most athletic teams in college football. Both teams are flush with huge size, brute strength and blistering speed at most every position. Each team has several first round NFL picks on their roster.
Going into the game Alabama had the nation's top ranked defense and LSU was close behind. Therefore, it was no surprise that their showdown, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, would be a bruising slugfest.
Alabama failed to cash in on several opportunities. Three missed field goals topped the list. Alabama's field goal kicking was awful, and Bama coach Nick Saban had to alternate kickers. But their kick receiving squad also came up short, literally. LSU was pinned deep in their own territory late in the game when their punter, Australian Brad Wing, boomed a 72-yard punt over the head of a hapless Tide returnman.
The play of the game came on a promising Alabama drive into LSU territory. After building some momentum running the ball against LSU's defense, Alabama tried a bit of trickery. While under pressure their star receiver, Marquis Maze, attempted a long pass toward the LSU endzone. As his off-balance throw floated toward Bama receiver Michael Williams, LSU safety Eric Reid quickly got into position.
Reid made an amazing interception that saved the day for LSU. Here's how the Alabama "Rollbamaroll" website describes it, "Michael Williams went up for the football like an 80-year old sales clerk going up to get something off the top shelf of a department store. A 6'7, 265 pound tight end simply cannot lose a jump ball to a 6'2, 210 pound safety. Period. Terrible decision, terrible execution, disastrous result."
Bama also committed too many silly penalties, like "twelve men on the field" and "blocking in the back." But when the game entered overtime Alabama seemed to lose focus and drive. A missed pass, a penalty and a disastrous sack left the Tide with a 52-yard field goal attempt, which fell short.
The Tigers got the ball on the 25-yard line, needing only a field goal to win. LSU coach Les Miles, "The Mad Hatter", called for an option play to the left that almost resulted in a touchdown. Two plays later the Tigers scored a game winning field goal that immediately quieted the disheartened Alabama home crowd.
LSU found a way to win. They were able to pull off several truly outstanding plays during the game. Their energy and enthusiasm was palpable throughout the contest. They consistently played with swagger. Inevitably, this is what separates a winner from the rest.
About 20 million viewers watched LSU's victory over Alabama, the highest rated regular season college football game in a quarter century. 101,000 fans packed the Alabama stadium while tens of thousands tailgated outside. It was the season's most highly anticipated college football match up. An enormous amount was at stake; pride, rivalry and a national title game in New Orleans this coming January. As a result of the game LSU maintained its #1 ranking but Alabama slipped to #4 in the AP poll. This means a rematch between these two titans is unlikely in the BCS championship game.
Nonetheless, the LSU-Alabama showdown will long be remembered one of the great college football games of all time.
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Remembering Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs will always be remembered as a historic figure who shaped the technological revolution of the past three decades and made it accessible to everyone in the world. Jobs inspired a whole generation of young entrepreneurs to take chances, to innovate and to pursue their dreams with relentless determination.
Jobs always conducted his life with passion, purpose, focus and daring. “It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy,” he was quoted as saying in 1982. He was a brilliant visionary. In 1985, he told Playboy magazine, “The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people––as remarkable as the telephone.” His comments came years before there was an Internet.
Jobs had an uncanny ability to create and market products so beautifully designed and powerfully functional that consumers had to own them. He once told Business Week, “For something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” And so it was with the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Jobs also applied innovation and technology to distribution. For instance, take those iconic and always crowded Apple Stores. Even more impactful, he reinvented the music business with iTunes. “It will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry,” he told Fortune in 2003. "This is landmark stuff. I can’t overestimate it!”
But in October 2003, Jobs learned he had cancer. He had not yet turned 50 years old. Jobs, a notoriously private man, did not publicly disclose his illness for several months.
In June 2005, Steve Jobs gave a powerful commencement speech at Stanford University. He told the graduates, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
On selecting a career, Jobs said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle."
Jobs spoke about his willingness to take chances, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Jobs also spoke of death, “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new."
Jobs' had stepped down as Apple's CEO this past August for health reasons. On October 4, the day before he died, Apple announced its new iPhone 4S. Did the name "4S" actually mean "for Steve"?
Jobs leaves behind a wife of twenty years and four children. At the time of his death Jobs' net worth was estimated to be $7 billion. He was one of the richest persons on earth. But money was not what drove Steve Jobs, as he told the Wall Street Journal in 1993.
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”
Jobs always conducted his life with passion, purpose, focus and daring. “It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy,” he was quoted as saying in 1982. He was a brilliant visionary. In 1985, he told Playboy magazine, “The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people––as remarkable as the telephone.” His comments came years before there was an Internet.
Jobs had an uncanny ability to create and market products so beautifully designed and powerfully functional that consumers had to own them. He once told Business Week, “For something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” And so it was with the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Jobs also applied innovation and technology to distribution. For instance, take those iconic and always crowded Apple Stores. Even more impactful, he reinvented the music business with iTunes. “It will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry,” he told Fortune in 2003. "This is landmark stuff. I can’t overestimate it!”
But in October 2003, Jobs learned he had cancer. He had not yet turned 50 years old. Jobs, a notoriously private man, did not publicly disclose his illness for several months.
In June 2005, Steve Jobs gave a powerful commencement speech at Stanford University. He told the graduates, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
On selecting a career, Jobs said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle."
Jobs spoke about his willingness to take chances, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Jobs also spoke of death, “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new."
Jobs' had stepped down as Apple's CEO this past August for health reasons. On October 4, the day before he died, Apple announced its new iPhone 4S. Did the name "4S" actually mean "for Steve"?
Jobs leaves behind a wife of twenty years and four children. At the time of his death Jobs' net worth was estimated to be $7 billion. He was one of the richest persons on earth. But money was not what drove Steve Jobs, as he told the Wall Street Journal in 1993.
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”
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