Alabama 24, Texas 13

Tonight, Alabama running back Mark Ingram will become the second player in college football history to win the Heisman Trophy and the Bowl Championship Series title game in the same season. (USC quarterback Matt Leinart was the first.)

Ingram and his teammates are on the cusp of the Crimson Tide’s first national championship in 17 years.

The victory will be history-making and bittersweet for the Ingram family.

History-making because Ingram’s father, also named Mark, won a Super Bowl as a New York Giants wide receiver 19 years ago.

Bittersweet because the father won’t be in Pasadena, CA, to watch his son, nor will he be able to watch the game as a free man.

If Mark Ingram Sr. is allowed to watch at all, he will do so as an inmate in a Queens, NY prison, having been convicted of money laundering.

Mark Jr., a speedy sophomore, is 5-10 and 215 pounds and runs even bigger.

To his credit, he hasn’t succumbed to the pressure of playing big games while knowing he’ll be asked afterward about his father’s incarceration.

Heisman Trophy winners have struggled in national title games. They’re only 1-6 in such games, but Ingram will improve that record to 2-6.

The Texas Longhorns, his opponent in the national championship game, will do their utmost to stop Ingram.

The ’Horns may slow him down. But they won’t shut him down.

Two of Ingram’s teammates could be bigger factors in the game: Javier Arenas, a cornerback and superb kick returner; and Rolando McClain, a linebacker who will become an NFL star.

Just like Ingram.

Surely, you have noticed the man in the houndstooth hat that appears alongside this column.

That’s Paul “Bear” Bryant, the greatest coach in Alabama history, and one of the greatest football coaches ever.

The Tide won six national championships and 13 Southeastern Conference titles while The Bear prowled the sidelines, and they were title contenders virtually every year.

Every coach that has followed Bryant at Alabama has ridden in the back seat.

Gene Stallings coached Alabama to its last national title.

Nick Saban coaches Alabama now.

Each took the job after cutting his teeth as an NFL assistant specializing in defense—Stallings with the Cowboys, Saban with the Browns.

(Saban later became an NFL head coach, but he ran out on the Dolphins in season—after denying he would—to take the Alabama job.)

Stallings was very good. Saban is very good.

Both pale in comparison to The Bear.

Notice the crowd shots at the Rose Bowl tonight. You’ll see Alabama fans in houndstooth hats, paying homage to The Bear.

No other football coach has as tight a hold on the consciousness of his former team and its fan base as Bryant at Alabama.

Bryant coached during an era of enormous social upheaval in America. While he was not exactly a staunch supporter of civil rights, Bryant devised a cunning plan to convince segregationist Alabamans it was time for Crimson Tide football to integrate.

Bryant invited USC coach John McKay to bring his integrated squad to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to play the all-white Tide in 1971.

Bryant wanted Alabamans to see firsthand the speed, quickness, skill and athleticism of African-American players like USC running back Sam “Bam” Cunningham, who led the Trojans to an easy victory.

Bryant also wanted to keep winning big football games.

Since players like Cunningham were putting an indelible stamp on major-college football from coast to coast, The Bear essentially told Alabama: If we don’t get with the program, we’ll never compete for another national title.

Because of Bryant, I have always had an affinity for Alabama football.

The Tide lost their way for many years after his retirement, but Saban has rebuilt them into a national power.

And Ingram will help make them champions again.