Miami, Alabama Face Off First on Bourbon St.

NEW ORLEANS â€”  The Sugar Bowl is still several days away, but Miami and Alabama have already met.

In a bar. In the French Quarter. Late at night.

“We gave them some hard stares, and they gave us some. I think everybody was waiting for us to start throwing bottles,� Miami’s Mike Sullivan said. “But there’s not going to be any of that.�

There was, however, some serious razzing on Bourbon Street early Wednesday. It happened when about 30 Miami players ran into a slightly smaller group of Alabama players.

“We were yapping at each other, and words were exchanged,� Miami wide receiver Dale Dawkins said. “Things like, ‘Dale Dawkins, you better not come over the middle against us.’ I told them I’d been doing it all year.�

The Alabama types responded with tomahawk signs. Those represent the war cry of Florida State, the only team to beat Miami this season.

The Hurricanes countered, Dawkins said, by “growling like tigers.� The Auburn Tigers were the only team to stop Alabama this year.

“They’re doing a lot of talking,� Alabama star running back Siran Stacy said. “That’s their style.�

“But they usually back up what they say,� Stacy admitted. “It’s their way of trying to intimidate you. And if you listen too much, you might start to believe them and be intimidated.�

Both teams are 10-1, although the second-ranked Hurricanes are nine-point favorites, the biggest spread in any major bowl. While Miami hopes to win its third national championship of the decade, the seventh-ranked Crimson Tide has no chance of taking the title.

“I think we should be in the picture, but probably we’re not,� Alabama quarterback Gary Hollingsworth said. “But we lost late in the season, and that hurts.�

Neither team was feeling much pain after touring New Orleans on Tuesday night. Big-city kids and country boys alike were surprised by the things that show up around New Year’s time.

“People kept warning us to be careful, to stay away from the riffraff,� said Sullivan, originally from Chicago. “But I kind of went looking for riffraff. I wanted to see it.�

Teammate Russell Maryland, another Chicago native, liked what he saw.

“It was a lot wilder than I expected,� he said. “Especially all of those strip joints.�

Alabama’s Lamonde Russell wanted to see the sights, especially the ones they don’t have back home in Oneonta, Ala.

“We don’t have any buildings over two stories tall in my hometown. I live in a county that’s dry,� he said. “So you know we definitely saw some things that you wouldn’t want your kids to see.�

Even though the talking between the Miami and Alabama players got a little nasty, later on the groups got together and chatted amicably. Well, almost everyone did.

“I don’t talk to them,� Bernard Clark, Miami’s fired-up linebacker, said. “I ain’t going to be a friend of theirs. I ain’t going to hold a socialization.�