COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Crimson Tide Fans Find Team Lacks a Spirit

Bear Bryant died in 1983, but his legend lives on in Alabama.

With the Crimson Tide off to a miserable 1-3 start under Gene Stallings, Alabama fans have been yearning for the good old days when Bryant won five national championships. A Montgomery radio producer has even written a song called “Diggin’ Up Bear,” which talks about bringing Bryant back from the grave.

The song, a parody of the Randy Travis hit “Diggin’ Up Bones,” includes the following lyrics: “I’m diggin’ up Bear, I’m diggin’ up Bear, you Bama bashers better just beware. I’m resurrecting victories for a team that’s dead and gone. Tonight I’m diggin’ up Bear, bringing him home.”

Four Pac-10 teams are in the Top 25, but none of them are leading the league. Fifteenth-ranked USC, No. 17 Washington, No. 22 Oregon and No. 25 Arizona all trail unranked UCLA, which is setting the pace with a 2-0 conference record. The Bruins were trounced by Oklahoma and Michigan, but they’ve won their only two league games against Stanford and Washington State.

Just how bad is Eastern football this season? This bad: Penn State, which has lost two of its first three games, is the leading vote-getter this week for the Lambert Trophy, awarded each year to the top team in the region. Of the nine teams in the poll, Army (2-1) is the only one with a winning record.