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The Final Word

The bowl season hasn't lacked for theater with Tim Tebow's annihilation of Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl and Mike Leach's ouster at Texas Tech, but the real drama, writes SI.com's Stewart Mandel, comes when Texas's Colt McCoy and Alabama's Mark Ingram lock horns

The Tide's Nick Saban and the Longhorns' Mack Brown both held their BCS national championship arrival press conferences at Disneyland last week. If you're familiar with their personalities, you can probably guess which one was happier than the other to be there. "Is this fun?" quipped Saban. "You know, what's fun for me is practice. I really enjoy practice." When asked the same question, Brown said, "We want them to enjoy Disneyland. This is one of the rewards they get for winning, to be in the last game of the year." You couldn't ask for two more diametrically opposed coaches on the sidelines. Saban views anything that takes place outside the film room or the practice field as "clutter." He's here on a business trip. Saban told his team, "It's all about how important the game is; what winning or losing the game means; the consequences of the game, positively or negatively." Brown, on the other hand, feels "it's too hard to get here not to enjoy it." McCoy feels the same way. "Our mentality is, Number 1, to have fun," said the sport's alltime winningest quarterback. "We're going to enjoy being in the national championship [game]. It's been our goal all year long to get here." Despite their differences in style, it will be highly surprising if Brown and Saban don't have their teams ready to play on Thursday night.

SI writers break down all of the latest news from the 2009 bowl season at SI.com/cfb Plus ...

• Stewart Mandel: Auburn's Walter McFadden (left) and his record breaking interception return at the Outback Bowl