Happy holidays everyone …

It's a week before Christmas and even though bowl practices have started up there's a very different feel when the football regular season comes to an end. For you Spraceballs fans, I compare it to going from ludicrous speed down to something almost normal (but not quite, because basketball continues).

So while I have a quiet moment I just wanted to wish everyone happy holidays and a prosperous new year.

There's really very little to update with the book. As I've posted before most of the manuscript was completed by July, and I had to turn it in by the end of October. Since then there's only been pockets of editing and fact-checking, and I actually have a copy highlighted with everything that has to be updated after the bowls conclude in January.

I figure it'll take about a week, give or take, depending on work and breaking news -- because like always the manuscript takes a back seat to the daily gig. I also had specific contingency plans for if Alabama won the national championship, or did not, and those were carried out a couple of weeks ago.

Regardless, we're still set for a July release.

In the meantime, I'm determined to do more reading in the coming year and have already gotten off to a good start. I just polished off Tom Clancy's Threat Vector (which, yes, was a Christmas gift last year), and now I'm really enjoying Lars Anderson's Carlisle vs. Army: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower, Pop Warner, and the Forgotten Story of Football's Great Battle.

I now leave you with this following holiday thought: Do you know where your Christmas attack moose is?

Happy Halloween everyone!

It's October 31, which in Alabama means one thing … it's Nick Saban's birthday.

That's right, the coach is 62 today, and everyone goes out of their way to celebrate, going so far as to dress up in costumes, and the university cancelled classes for the weekend.

How cool is that?

It's also the deadline for Nick Saban vs. College Football, which will coming to a bookstore near you over the summer. The book was essentially completed by mid-July and I've just been making some adds and tweaking while we've been going through the editing process. Next up I'll be giving it another read over the month of November and marking everything that needs to up updated as soon as the 2013 is complete.

That may be around the next big holiday round here -- something involving a parade or something …

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 ... )