COLLEGE FOOTBALL / BOWL REPORT : CITRUS: ALABAMA vs. OHIO STATE, Monday : No Award for This Screenplay

Screengate, the non-controversy over why Ohio State’s practice facility has a screen around it and Alabama’s doesn’t, concluded its first week with both coaches taking shots at each other.

Ohio State practices at Thunder Field, a remnant of Orlando’s World League team, across the street from the Citrus Bowl. Alabama practices at a community park complex about a mile away. The complex also plays host to several baseball camps. Both teams dress at the Citrus Bowl.

Buckeye Coach John Cooper said the tarp was around his temporary practice field two years ago when Ohio State played Georgia. “We just asked them to put it up and they did,” Cooper said.

“I asked them to put one up and they said $3.50 a foot,” responded Gene Stallings, Alabama’s head coach. “So I said, ‘Take it down.’ ”

Cooper: “With the money I saved on the tarp, I was able to send my nephew to the baseball camp.”

Cooper continued: “When we played Georgia, their team would walk to practice, but you (Stallings) eased up on your players by getting a bus (to shuttle back and forth).”

Stallings: “You don’t know what’s happening in the real world if you want us to walk. You’ll see why we rode the bus.”

The Citrus Bowl isn’t located in one of the safer parts of Orlando.

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Tommy Johnson, Alabama’s senior cornerback from Niceville, Fla.: “I came down here during the Florida-Georgia high school game and I knew what Orlando had to offer,” Johnson said. “All New Orleans has is Bourbon Street. I love (Orlando’s tourist attractions) to death. When I see Mickey (Mouse) we have to hug.”