Friday, March 28, 2014

Pre-orders now being accepted for Saban book

I found out late last night that pre-orders of Nick Saban vs. College Football are now being taken on both Amazon.com and the Barnes and Noble websites.

Here are the links:

Amazon.com

... and ....

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nick-saban-vs-college-football-christopher-walsh/1118877596?ean=9781600789120

As I recently posted on here I'll be taking a look at the final proofs in the very near future, and will continue to post updates.

In the meantime, here's the book description:

Overview

When coach Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2007, he boldly proclaimed “We want to be a champion in everything that we do.” Since that time, Alabama has won three national championships and become the nation’s number one destination for recruits and the top source of NFL talent while simultaneously graduating its players. No other program has won more games, captured more awards, or come close to approaching the kind of consistent success as the Crimson Tide. In Nick Saban vs. College Football, author Christopher Walsh not only explains what separates Saban from his peers and compares his accomplishments to some of the all-time legends, but tells why, if there were a Mount Rushmore of college football coaches, Saban’s face would already be on it. From his upbringing in West Virginia to his relationship with legendary coach Bill Belichick, “the process” has not only led to Saban having a statue along Alabama’s “Walk of Champions” in front of Bryant-Denny Stadium, but the establishment of a new standard that may be unparalleled in college football history

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Seems like I'm just about everywhere ...


I've been getting a lot of question about what I'm up to these days and the answer is a little bit of everything. Among them:

-- Today I was the guest host on The Chris Stewart Show on Tide 99.1 FM here in Tuscaloosa and enjoyed it immensely. Friday morning I'll be a guest co-host with Baron Huber on Houston and Huber on the same station. http://tide991.com

-- During the show I unveiled this year's Walsh college football program rankings, which for years I had used as a buildup to SEC Media Days. It's on my database site: http://www.ultimatefd.com/walsh-program-rankings/

-- I've been working on some Crimson Tide track features, including profiles on Imari Brown (http://www.rolltide.com/sports/c-xctrack/alab-c-xctrack-body.html) and Alexis Paine (http://www.rolltide.com/sports/c-xctrack/spec-rel/031014aaa.html). There are more in the works.

-- I'll also be writing a number of columns on Alabama football, with the first being on Amari Cooper: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2005627-even-with-impressive-numbers-crimson-tide-receiver-cooper-still-underrated

-- Meanwhile, I'm getting eager to see proofs of Nick Saban vs. College Football, which is due out this summer, and I also have a couple of other projects in the works and not just as a free-lancer.

Never a dull moment, huh?


Saturday, March 15, 2014

My first look at the book cover ...

For the most part, I think it looks great. I'm going to try and get a couple of things changed, but that's a cover that will jump out in a bookstore.

Here's the writeup on the Triumph Books website:

When coach Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2007, he boldly proclaimed "We want to be a champion in everything that we do." Since that time, Alabama has won three national championships and become the nation's number one destination for recruits and the top source of NFL talent while simultaneously graduating its players. No other program has won more games, captured more awards, or come close to approaching the kind of consistent success as the Crimson Tide. In Nick Saban vs. College Football, author Christopher Walsh not only explains what separates Saban from his peers and compares his accomplishments to some of the all-time legends, but tells why, if there were a Mount Rushmore of college football coaches, Saban's face would already be on it. From his upbringing in West Virginia to his relationship with legendary coach Bill Belichick, "the process" has not only led to Saban having a statue along Alabama's "Walk of Champions" in front of Bryant-Denny Stadium, but the establishment of a new standard that may be unparalleled in college football history.

Link: http://www.triumphbooks.com/nick-saban-vs--college-football-products-9781600789120.php?page_id=21

Friday, March 7, 2014

Some news and notes ….

So it's Day 3 since my contract with my former employers expired and while I'd love to tell you all how much I'm enjoying some down time, I've actually been doing free-lance work.

I'm not concerned though, because I have a whole lot of nothing scheduled for the next few days.

While you'll all see one one of the free-lance stories very soon, and I will provide a link here, I also had the honor of doing a peer review of a book that's in the works. I'll wait until it gets published to post specifics, but will give everyone a big heads up because it'll be a must-read for serious college football fans.

In the meantime, I am proud to announce a pair of awards. This year the Associated Press Sports Editors, which is the organization when it comes to newspaper sports journalism, decided to allow on-line publications to apply for membership, and BamaOnline was one of seven approved by the membership.

My hope was to help out with the judging this past week in Indianapolis, but unfortunately that didn't work out. I did, though, land top-10 finishes in two categories, projects and beat writer. The project was the elaborate 15-part "Their place in history" series from last summer, and the beat writing required five stories to be submitted (from me it was a game story, feature, explanatory story, project and a think the fifth was a column).

First through fifth places will be announced in the coming days, but if that's how I go out as a beat writer I'm pretty happy with that.

Under 30,000 circulation division
Beat writing
Dustin Dopirak, The Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.)
Stephen Fastenau, The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette
Ben Frederickson, Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune
Tom Green, Opelika-Auburn News
Brendan Meyer, Columbia Missourian
Brad Elliott Schlossman, Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald
David Sparks, Daily News Journal (Tenn.)
Aaron Suttles, The Tuscaloosa News
Mike Vorel, Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune
Christopher Walsh, BamaOnline

Projects
BamaOnline: Christopher Walsh
Daily Chronicle (DeKalb, Ill.): Ross Jacobson, Steve Nitz, John Sahly, Kate Schott
Denton (Texas) Record-Chronicle: Ben Baby
Kitsap Sun: Jeff Graham
St. Cloud (Minn.) Times: Mick Hatten
Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine): Kalle Oakes
The Tuscaloosa News: Zackary Al-Khateeb, Andrew Carroll, Tommy Deas, Jamon Smith
Times-News (Twin Falls, Idaho): Nick Ruland
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle: Jeremiah Johnke
Yakima (Wash.) Herald Republic: Scott Sandsberry, Dave Thomas, Roger Underwood

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Time's up … and time for me to move on to the rest of my life

So now that my days are officially up with BamaOnline and 247Sports, a lot of you have been asking what's next in my life, and unfortunately I'm here to tell you that I can't tell you yet.

I think I know what's going to happen, but have to let it all play out a little. My best guess at this point is that will involve a three-pronged approach, all with very different things, of which everyone already knows one:

1) TBA
2) TBA
3) Nick Saban vs. College Football will be coming to an Internet/bookstore near you in July. I should be receiving the final proofs in a couple of weeks and promise to post some specifics when they get here.

In the meantime, my wife and I plan on staying in the Tuscaloosa area, and I have a new twitter handle: @CrimsonWalsh (get it?). Hopefully I'll have some more updates over next few days while I enjoy some down time.

(By the way, the photo credit goes to the Washington Post)