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Question: 1971 Alabama vs USC rematch

sanjosecrimson

sanjosecrimson

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I watched the " Against The Tide " documentary the other day. As we all know the historical backdrop and significance of the 1970 game was to change Southern football forever. USC went on to defeat Alabama 42-21.

But my question is how did Alabama's defense managed to hold USC to only 10 points in Los Angeles in the rematch??
Did the newly installed wishbone keep the Trojan offense on the sidelines?
Did our young defense grow up?

Sam Cunningham was a returning sophomore.

Old timers please shed some light...
 
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jabcmb

jabcmb

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Bama ate a lot of clock. Southern Cal was shell shocked and couldn't recover offensively. SC had a good defense and actually adjusted to the wishbone pretty well as the game progressed.
 
selmaborntidefan

selmaborntidefan

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sanjosecrimson said:
I watched the " Against The Tide " documentary the other day. As we all know the historical backdrop and significance of the 1970 game was to change Southern football forever. USC went on to defeat Alabama 42-21.

But my question is how did Alabama's defense managed to hold USC to only 10 points in Los Angeles in the rematch??
Did the newly installed wishbone keep the Trojan offense on the sidelines?
Did our young defense grow up?

Sam Cunningham was a returning sophomore.

Old timers please shed some light...
Click to expand...
You might want to PM Keith Dunnavant, who sometimes posts here for firsthand info.

However:

1) Cunningham was a junior, not a sophomore. Freshmen were not allowed to play until (IIRC) 1971. I say IIRC because I was 2 years old and have no personal recollection of it.

2) It wasn't "just" our defense; USC's offense was not as good in 1971 as it was in 1970 while our defense was also better than the prior year. Go look at the point totals for USC for 1970: 42 on us, 48 on Iowa, 45 on Oregon St, 70 on Washington State, and 38 on a 10-1 Notre Dame team. The 1971 USC offense was not so great - they only topped 28 points once, and they got 30 that time. This is somewhat bizarre since the 1972 team (Cunningham's senior year) was national champs. Keep in mind that in both 1970 and 1971, USC was a 6-4-1 team that played VERY tough schedules.

And in 1971 our defense was MUCH, MUCH better. Until the Nebraska debacle in the Orange Bowl, only 2 teams (Tennessee, 15, and Houston, 20) scored more than ten points against us. SEVEN opponents out of 11 scored in the single digits.

3) We rushed for 302 yards and held them to 287 (they got 405 in 1970).

4) Three notes for history:
a) USC was in the midst of a 22-game unbeaten streak in 1970
b) The 1971 game was actually played on Fri night
c) it was Coach Bryant's 200th career victory and came the night before his 58th birthday.
 
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C

CoastGhost

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I was there! But all I remember clearly was us running the ball all night and my Dad really enjoying himself amongst a blue million USC fans. I also remember all the big cocky talk from the USC fans who fell strangely silent as the night progressed. I was 14 at the time.
 
4

4Q Basket Case

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I was 12, and listening on the radio from the television from a house in Glendale Gardens in Tuscaloosa. You could get WUOA-FM audio on the Tuscaloosa TV cable system back then.

USC was way more talented, but the wishbone caught them off guard. Plus, at the time, the wishbone hadn't been analyzed to the extent it was in later years. So adjustments weren't so obvious. Think about what Georgia Southern's triple option did to one of the best Alabama defenses ever, then subtract 40 years of interim analysis. Now throw in Coach.

Anyway, we jumped out to a 17-0 lead, and hung on. USC's talent was definitely telling on us as the game wore on. So the wishbone's clock-eating properties were as valuable to us then as they are to outmanned teams today. If the game had been another quarter, we probably couldn't have pulled it out.

But a game was then and still is 60 minutes. We ate up a lot of clock ourselves, and offenses in general (and USC's in particular) weren't as sophisticated regarding time management as they are today.

Alabama's D held off a late onslaught by their fingernails, and a historic run was begun.

I was too young to appreciate what I was witnessing. Then came the 1982 - 1990 and 1995- 2007 eras (errors?).

That's why I enjoy today's success so much. It's a taste of my youth. I know it can't last. Nothing like this ever does. But, Lord, it is sweet now.
 
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edwd58

edwd58

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Ah, the memories, I was a freshly turned 13. Two buddies and I had a treehouse and we spent the night up there. We listened to the game on a transistor radio - complete with the crackle and hiss of nighttime AM radio - trying to figure out what the heck a wishbone offense was supposed to be and look like. John Forney seldom sounded better...
 
TIDE-HSV

TIDE-HSV

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4Q Basket Case said:
I was 12, and listening on the radio from the television from a house in Glendale Gardens in Tuscaloosa. You could get WUOA-FM audio on the Tuscaloosa TV cable system back then.

USC was way more talented, but the wishbone caught them off guard. Plus, at the time, the wishbone hadn't been analyzed to the extent it was in later years. So adjustments weren't so obvious. Think about what Georgia Southern's triple option did to one of the best Alabama defenses ever, then subtract 40 years of interim analysis. Now throw in Coach.

Anyway, we jumped out to a 17-0 lead, and hung on. USC's talent was definitely telling on us as the game wore on. So the wishbone's clock-eating properties were as valuable to us then as they are to outmanned teams today. If the game had been another quarter, we probably couldn't have pulled it out.

But a game was then and still is 60 minutes. We ate up a lot of clock ourselves, and offenses in general (and USC's in particular) weren't as sophisticated regarding time management as they are today.

Alabama's D held off a late onslaught by their fingernails, and a historic run was begun.

I was too young to appreciate what I was witnessing. Then came the 1982 - 1990 and 1995- 2007 eras (errors?).

That's why I enjoy today's success so much. It's a taste of my youth. I know it can't last. Nothing like this ever does. But, Lord, it is sweet now.
Click to expand...
Because of my age, I appreciate it more than most, having matriculated at UA in the depths of the "Ears Whitworth" regime. In the middle of the Dubacle, I had a conversation with Billy Neighbors. He said, in effect, that he and I were too old (he was about two weeks younger than I), and we didn't have enough time to see Bama come back. God bless his soul, he lived long enough to see two more. I think those of us who are old enough to experience the prosperity before feel it more than those who are young enough to be experiencing it firsthand for the first time. And, I hope they live long enough to experience it again. I somehow think I'll know...
 
C

CrimsonEyeshade

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TIDE-HSV said:
Because of my age, I appreciate it more than most, having matriculated at UA in the depths of the "Ears Whitworth" regime. In the middle of the Dubacle, I had a conversation with Billy Neighbors. He said, in effect, that he and I were too old (he was about two weeks younger than I), and we didn't have enough time to see Bama come back. God bless his soul, he lived long enough to see two more. I think those of us who are old enough to experience the prosperity before feel it more than those who are young enough to be experiencing it firsthand for the first time. And, I hope they live long enough to experience it again. I somehow think I'll know...
Click to expand...
A couple things about the 1970 game: Clarence Davis told me years ago that a lot of the USC players packed weapons. They had also undergone cultural training ahead of time. Remember, this was the first truly integrated opponent Alabama had ever played at home. Remember, too, that full-fledged school integration opened only a few days before, and in Mobile and other places, it had led to near rioting and hundreds of fights. While Bryant may not have brought Cunningham into our locker-room, Davis, a Birmingham native, said he did come into USC's and made the famous comment, "None of y'all are getting away again."

In 1971, we were hanging in the second half, and I'm trying to remember who made the desperate, shoe-string tackle to stop Lynn Swann on what would have been the tying punt return. That was a few days after the start of my freshman year, and nobody who was lucky enough to be on campus will ever forget the celebration that night.
 
selmaborntidefan

selmaborntidefan

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CrimsonEyeshade said:
In 1971, we were hanging in the second half, and I'm trying to remember who made the desperate, shoe-string tackle to stop Lynn Swann on what would have been the tying punt return. That was a few days after the start of my freshman year, and nobody who was lucky enough to be on campus will ever forget the celebration that night.
Click to expand...
David Bailey
 
selmaborntidefan

selmaborntidefan

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CullmanTide said:
Selma, I think freshmen were first allowed to play in '72.
Click to expand...
You may be right. The reason I was thinking 1971 was because the Marshall plane crash was in 1970 (my Mom's birthday, in fact), and they petitioned the NCAA for freshmen for some rather obvious reasons. But I don't know for certain - I know they were playing when I began watching in 1978 :)
 
C

Chinacat

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I was a freshman in T'town in 1971, and remember it well. Celebrating students poured Tide laundry detergent into the fountain in front of the
Roe Administration Building and the bubbles rose twelve feet into the air. It was in the air that things were gonna change after that game. It was electric. It still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I remember that night. When Saban was announced as coach, I had a similar feeling.
 
TexasBama

TexasBama

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The first team that really changed their defense for the wishbone in 71 was LSU. They covered the pitch and fullback and made Terry Davis keep.
 
D

deliveryman35

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selmaborntidefan said:
David Bailey
Click to expand...

Having watched the highlight program of that game put out by the University 20 yrs ago or so and narrated by Tom Roberts many times, seems that I recall Jeff Rouzie and Robin Parkhouse were seemingly in on almost every defensive play in that game in some form or fashion and were standout performers that night. But overall, the D as a unit was simply great that year, of course until they ran into Johnny Rodgers and Jerry Tagge and got shredded(like everyone else the huskers played that season) in the Orange Bowl.

It really is hard to believe that we are coming up on 30 yrs since our two programs have met.
 
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