Max
Member
Why play Alabama? For the challenge and, yes, the money. But mostly for the experience of going up against the greatest in game.
MACON, Ga. â When Bobby Lamb told his wife his football team was playing Alabama, she told him, âYouâre crazy.â
This November, Lamb will serve as a modern-day shepherd boy when his Mercer University Bears step onto battle lines to face a Gath-like team and their Goliath, who stands 5-foot-8. Because on Nov. 18, when Lamb patrols the sideline, he wonât be facing another coach from the SoCon.
Heâll gaze across the field and see Nick Saban.
On a blistering summer morning, Lamb is nuzzled into a swivel chair inside his U-shaped office desk, the 10,200-seat Five Star Stadium looming beyond the windows. Behind Lamb are a series of wooden trophies, miniature helmets and books â pigskin studies and playbooks by famous coaches, including Vince Lombardi. The folksy, aw-shucks leader of the fledgling Mercer program, Lamb is a day removed from a satellite camp that welcomed 122 coaches â including Dan Mullen and Lane Kiffin â to campus. The satellite camps are just one of the clever ways Lamb markets his program (he does it because he has to), and on Nov. 18, heâll usher his men to face the Greatest Show in the South.
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In November 2015, Alabama faced Charleston Southern, an FCS program then-led by head coach Jamey Chadwell, now an assistant at Coastal Carolina. The week before the game, Saban went on one of his famous Coke-bottle-on-podium, several â au-ightsâ rants, and used bathroom descriptors to remind journalists of the day Georgia Southern ran through his tin-horn-like defense. Saban also tried, unsuccessfully, to convince columnists of CSU quarterback Austin Brownâs propensity to morph into Dan Fouts. It was clear from the histrionics that Saban takes every game seriously.
As for the game itself, Chadwell described the experience like âgoing into a gunfight with a dart,â and by halftime, it was already 49-0 (not in favor of CSU). Although the Tide won 56-6, a half-a-million-dollar payday helped Chadwellâs program to upgrade their stadium and field turf. âItâs huge,â Chadwell says. âThose games are necessary to operate and survive in todayâs football market. In the four years at CSU we got a new weight room, field turf, and upgrade in the stadium, and an upgrade in graphics on buildings. And all that was based on those guarantee games. Itâs a win everywhere except in the win column.â
Rick Stockstill, a former quarterback at Florida State under Bobby Bowden who has been the head coach at MTSU since 2006, echoes that monetary sentiment. In 2015, the Blue Raiders went to Tuscaloosa and lost 37-10, but walked away with a fat check. âWe need the money,â Stockstill says. âItâs not so much for getting your name out there, but for the paycheck. For paying the bills in the athletic department.â
MACON, Ga. â When Bobby Lamb told his wife his football team was playing Alabama, she told him, âYouâre crazy.â
This November, Lamb will serve as a modern-day shepherd boy when his Mercer University Bears step onto battle lines to face a Gath-like team and their Goliath, who stands 5-foot-8. Because on Nov. 18, when Lamb patrols the sideline, he wonât be facing another coach from the SoCon.
Heâll gaze across the field and see Nick Saban.
On a blistering summer morning, Lamb is nuzzled into a swivel chair inside his U-shaped office desk, the 10,200-seat Five Star Stadium looming beyond the windows. Behind Lamb are a series of wooden trophies, miniature helmets and books â pigskin studies and playbooks by famous coaches, including Vince Lombardi. The folksy, aw-shucks leader of the fledgling Mercer program, Lamb is a day removed from a satellite camp that welcomed 122 coaches â including Dan Mullen and Lane Kiffin â to campus. The satellite camps are just one of the clever ways Lamb markets his program (he does it because he has to), and on Nov. 18, heâll usher his men to face the Greatest Show in the South.
--
In November 2015, Alabama faced Charleston Southern, an FCS program then-led by head coach Jamey Chadwell, now an assistant at Coastal Carolina. The week before the game, Saban went on one of his famous Coke-bottle-on-podium, several â au-ightsâ rants, and used bathroom descriptors to remind journalists of the day Georgia Southern ran through his tin-horn-like defense. Saban also tried, unsuccessfully, to convince columnists of CSU quarterback Austin Brownâs propensity to morph into Dan Fouts. It was clear from the histrionics that Saban takes every game seriously.
As for the game itself, Chadwell described the experience like âgoing into a gunfight with a dart,â and by halftime, it was already 49-0 (not in favor of CSU). Although the Tide won 56-6, a half-a-million-dollar payday helped Chadwellâs program to upgrade their stadium and field turf. âItâs huge,â Chadwell says. âThose games are necessary to operate and survive in todayâs football market. In the four years at CSU we got a new weight room, field turf, and upgrade in the stadium, and an upgrade in graphics on buildings. And all that was based on those guarantee games. Itâs a win everywhere except in the win column.â
Rick Stockstill, a former quarterback at Florida State under Bobby Bowden who has been the head coach at MTSU since 2006, echoes that monetary sentiment. In 2015, the Blue Raiders went to Tuscaloosa and lost 37-10, but walked away with a fat check. âWe need the money,â Stockstill says. âItâs not so much for getting your name out there, but for the paycheck. For paying the bills in the athletic department.â
