Whew ... finally

I'm happy to announce that late last night I turned in the manuscript for Nick Saban vs. College Football, which will be coming out next summer (Triumph Books). The last thing I added was a chart of something that BamaOnline readers will be seeing later this week, but I'm really happy with the way the book turned out. I also like that I handily beat my deadline, which ironically was Nick Saban's birthday, Oct. 31. 

So if you're thinking I'm done, not quite. After the season ends I'll be updating the book with 2013 numbers, and trust me with this project that's a lot. I'll then get to see the book laid out and give it a final round of editing. 

I'll be really surprised if this doesn't become my best-selling book yet. 

Now, back to the 2013 season ... 

Michigan makes nice move to honor legend

Saturday night (Sept. 7), Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner was awarded a No. 98 jersey in honor of Wolverines legend Tom Harmon. Gardner will wear the number 98 for the remainder of his career. 

For those who don't know, Tom Harmon was actually known as “Ol’ 98,” and he's considered probably the best player in Michigan history.

In 1940, Harmon opened the season on his 21st birthday and scored on runs of 94 (opening kickoff), 86, 72 (punt return) and 65 yards at Cal. He even eluded a drunk fan on the field on the 86-yard score. … Harmon’s final college game was in Michigan's 40-0 victory at Ohio State. He ran for three touchdowns, passed for two, kicked four extra points, returned three kickoffs for 81 yards, intercepted three passes, and punted three times for an average of 50 yards. Consequently, the Columbus crowd gave him a standing ovation. ... As a senior, Harmon led the nation in scoring for the second consecutive year, which had never been done before, and right before he won the Heisman Trophy was on the cover of Life Magazine.

Incidentally, his son is Mark Harmon, the former UCLA quarterback who became a pretty decent actor ... 

Kind of fitting ...

Alabama came out with this poster recently and I thought it was very fitting with the book as there's a section on Saban's draft success. I wonder if my publisher would be interested in including it, or if that's even possible ...

I'm thankfully on the home stretch for finishing the manuscript, although things are pretty hectic now. Hard to believe that the 2013 season is just two weeks away. Training camp is winding down and students are arriving.

So some more trimming and making sure there are no redundancies. Death to typos ...

The reign is winding up ...

Looking forward to seeing this year's winners ...

More about the book ...

To follow up on my previous post, here are some more details about my latest book: 

- The tentative title is Nick Saban vs. College Football.
- The length of the initial draft was about 200,000 words. For a little perspective, War and Peace was 544,406 words, while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was 198.227
- I've since edited it down to about 100,000 words, which is close to the final length. That's roughly the same size as The Hobbit, and the first Hunger Games book. 
- I'm nearly done with the crucial round of editing, after which most of the changes will be style ... until the end of the 2013 season, when the book will be updated. 
- I really, really like the way it's looking.

As for the photo, I just like it, and was taken with my iPhone ... sometimes you just get lucky.

P.S. For those of you who are interested, the Ultimate Football Database http://www.ultimatefd.com as been re-designed. Hope you like it.

Time for the big reveal ...

So you've all known that I was working on a book.

There have been some hints that it had something to do with college football, and was probably Alabama-related. 

Many of you have also seen some of the charts and stories I did for BOL this summer with a 15-part "Their place in history series."

Well, to quote Randy Bachman, "You ain't seen nothing yet."

The book is about Nick Saban, and I didn't just want to write "a" book about Saban, but "the" book when it comes to putting what he's accomplished as a coach into perspective. I'll be shocked if it doesn't become my most successful book yet. 

As for when it's going to be released the target date is next summer, but it could be influenced by how Alabama does this season. Although I'm in the middle of making some major format changes the first draft of the book is done, with the manuscript due, ironically, on Saban's birthday, Oct 31. 

While you all wait, here's some food for thought on Saban's place in history as he was asked about being compared to Paul W. "Bear" Bryant during SEC Media Days on Thursday:


"I think Bear Bryant is probably the greatest coach in college football in terms of what he accomplished, what his legacy is. I think the biggest thing that impacts me is how many peoples' lives he affected in a positive way, players that played for him, because they all come back and say how he affected their life. They don't come back and say, We won a championship in '78, '79, '61, whenever it was. They come back and say how he affected their lives. There's a lot of Bear Bryant stories that I've learned a lot from, that have made me a better person. I certainly appreciate that, have a tremendous amount of respect for what he accomplished.

"There's no way that we have done anything close to what he's done in terms of his consistency over time, how he changed what he did to impact the times. They threw the ball and won. They ran the wishbone and won. I mean, he changed tremendously to do what he needed to do to be successful. I don't think that it would be fair that anyone really be compared to what he was able to accomplish, the way he did it, and how he impacted other people."

... and football season is here

Johnny Manziel drew a ton of reporters today when Texas A&M attended SEC Media Days, and it was every bit of the circus you would expect. The bad photo to the right was about 15 minutes into his session because it took me that long to get that close. 

"Off the field, there's no question he's made some mistakes,” Coach Kevin Sumlin said. “Today will be a great experience for him."

Ah, tough love.

It's been a long week, and it looks like we're making a significant change to the book (one that will make things a lot easier for me), but I'm still on target to announce the subject and tentative title on Friday ... if I survive Media Days. Thankfully there's just one day remaining (long week).

Thanks Neil (but really, get some sleep ... )

Last summer "fling" if you will ...

I headed up to Nashville with friend Jonathan Harder for a little inspiration Wednesday, to catch Neil Gaiman's final book tour and land a copy of his latest release, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. 

Actually, the idea to go was Patrick McDonald's, who three years ago wasn't able to attend Neil's visit to Tuscaloosa, so a friend snuck me into the dinner/celebration afterward and Gaiman was nice enough  to sign an autograph for him (very nice guy). However, Patrick got called away on work, so again we were left just getting him an autograph.

Neil was terrific. He normally does a reading from the beginning of the book, but said he had promised himself that if there was ever a thunderstorm he would read that part even though most of the audience would be clueless about the plot. A nasty one was rolling through town, with lightning and thunder providing some wonderful atmosphere as 1,800 people at War Memorial Auditorium listened intently, and then he had Bela Fleck join him on stage for another reading.

I'll be honest, I didn't know that Fleck's considered arguably the best banjo player in the world, but new and unique experiences turned out to be a theme for the night as we later discovered The Patterson House in Nashville and wondered why no one had told us about the wonderful place before.

Oh, and organizers did the post-reading autograph session by lottery and our row was the fourth one called. Considering the way our luck was going we went and purchased lottery tickets.

Specific to my books, a couple of things:

1) As some of you may know, yes, for years I've been working on a novel on the side, but have kept setting it aside for other projects. I'm hoping to get back into it in the spring, but who knows?

2) Unless something comes up, or my publisher says to do otherwise, next week I'll be revealing the subject of my book coming out in 2014. I'll do so, right here, because, well, I can ...

Going from one storm into another

Summer may be just getting going for most people, but it's about to end already for a lot of football writers across the country as NFL training camps start in a couple of weeks and SEC Media Days is July 16-18.

Like usual it's been a busy offseason for me.

First off, I'm happy to let everyone know that the first draft of the book is done. It ended up being more elaborate than I originally thought, just under 200,000 words, which will be trimmed down to near 150,000 and updated after the upcoming season.

Look for an announcement here in the near future about the subject and tentative title. The scheduled release is for a year from now.

Second, I pulled the reins in on the offseason projects and did only one, Lindy's Alabama preview magazine. Like last year I did the cover story, plus two more features and a roundtable discussion with Don Kausler and Andrew Gribble. Hopefully you'll like the issue, which is now hitting stores.

Finally, a quick thank you to the Alabama Sports Writers Association, as I recently took home the best feature award and was second place in the game story category in the Internet division. Always an honor and much appreciated.