Hugh Freeze Spills the Secret of How to Beat Alabama

Theoretically, I know how to climb Mt Everest.

Doing it is a whole 'nother story.

Last I looked Ole Sis hasn't had a banner year, and Their secret for beating Alabama didn't work for them.

Freeze only beat Alabama on years that we beat ourselves.
If we play our game, we generally win. (That's our real secret)

Did he mention offensive linemen downfield and balls bouncing off helmets into his players hands? I won't take the time to read anything he says, other than what he may say to the NCAA.

If the Bama defense can clamp down on Washington at a decent point in the game, it will almost be a certain Win, barring too many mistakes. That sums it up.

He's right that our opponents need a good QB to beat us but fluke plays and turnovers are the main reason Ole Miss beat us twice.

PA Tide Fan said:

He's right that our opponents need a good QB to beat us but fluke plays and turnovers are the main reason Ole Miss beat us twice.

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It is true!!!

Beating Alabama is as simple as it has been since day one of the invention of football:


1) Run the ball
2) STOP the run
3) Win the turnover battle


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2008
Florida (outrushes Alabama, 142-136, wins TO battle 1-0, wins 31-20)

2010
South Carolina (outrushes Alabama, 110-36, TO tied at 1, wins 35-21)
LSU (outrushes Alabma, 225-102, wins TO battle 2-0, wins 24-21)
Auburn (outrushes Alabama, 108-69, wins TO battle 2-1, wins 28-27)

2011
LSU (outrushes Alabama, 148-96, TO tied at 2, wins 9-6)

2012
Texas A/M (outrushes Alabama, 165-122, wins TO battle 3-0, wins 29-24)

2013
Auburn (outrushes Alabama, 296-218, LOSES TO battle 1-0, wins 34-28)
Oklahoma (LOSES rushing game to Alabama, 129-81, wins TO battle 5-1, wins 45-31)

2014
Ole Miss (LOSES rushing game to Alabama, 168-76, wins TO battle 2-1, wins 23-17)
Ohio State (outrushes Alabama, 281-170, wins TO battle 3-2, wins 42-35)
2015
Ole Miss (LOSES rushing game to Alabama, 215-92, wins TO battle 5-0, wins 43-37)
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With the exceptions of South Carolina in 2010 and LSU in 2011 - pretty much NOBODY has stopped Alabama's running game the last nine seasons. Right now, we probably have fewer CURRENT STARS in the backfield (sans Hurts) than at any time since 2008 (e.g. there's no Ingram, Richardson, Lacy, Yeldon, Drake, or Henry) - so it SHOULD be easier to stop our run game, but it isn't.

Look at the TURNOVERS - THREE of our 11 defeats came when teams did NOT stop our running game.....but the total turnover count for those games is utterly shocking: Alabama 12 Opponents 2.

To give you some idea how shocking that turnover number is - that's 12 in three games. We had THIRTEEN in the entire 2009 season.

Those turnovers are why those rushing deficits didn't matter. Teams got short fields and converted points. Just look at the scoring in those three games:

2013 Oklahoma
1) McCarron interception leads to 7 points on very next play
2) Yeldon fumble leads to 7 OU points on next drive
3) McCarron pick is returned to 13-yard line and they score TD on very next play
4) McCarron fumble recovered for TD for seven points

Turnovers equals 28 points in a game we lose by 14

2014 Ole Miss
Christon Jones fumble leads to 7 points, we lose by six

2015 Ole Miss
1) Ardarius Stewart fumbles opening kickoff, Ole Miss gets FG
2) Cooper Bateman interception, TD the next drive for seven
3) Kenyan Drake fumbles kickoff, Ole Miss scores TD on next drive
4) Coker interception is converted to TD two plays later from 31 yards out

Turnovers equals 24 points in a game lost by six


You MUST do at least two of the three to beat Alabama. It's been next to impossible to stop our run - nobody has really done it since that NFL level 2011 LSU defense. So you have to RUN against us and win the turnover battle.

No disrespect in any way intended to the OP but - Hugh Freeze isn't some sort of genius in this Pat Forde puff piece. He's beaten us the old-fashioned way (complete with bought players).

ONE TEAM - ONE - has managed to lose the turnover battle to Alabama and still beat us: Auburn in 2013. And Auburn DID run the ball quite well against us (it set up the game tying pass play to Coates) and they DID stop us when they HAD to (the Yeldon stop in the red zone in the fourth quarter).


You beat Alabama the old-fashioned way - there isn't another way to do it.


FTR - Clemson OUTRUSHED Alabama, 145-138 back in January. They LOST the turnover battle, 1-0...and technically one could argue the daring onsides kick had the net effect of a turnover.

So Clemson pretty much stopped our run (remember - 50 of those 138 yards came on a Derrick Henry dash on the second drive in the first quarter; we had 70 yards rushing on the first two drives and only 68 for the last 3 1/2 quarters). AND they ran against us.

But they lost the turnover battle - and lost the game, though they put up as much an effort as you'll ever see.

Thx for posting that Selma. That TO margin is insane. Most teams would lose by 30+ with a 5/0 turnover ratio. The fact that Bama remained competitive is insane. Think about this, CNS has never been blown out at Bama. That's a decade of achievement indeed. Even the best coaches get rolled every once in while. Not him here!


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Did he mention hiring good players?

It is very easy to take shots at Coach Freeze and Ole Miss but over the last three seasons (2014-2016), Bama's record is 39-3 . Two of the three losses are to Freeze and Ole Miss so there is a reason that they interview him for this article. He has had more success than anyone else against a Saban led Bama team except for maybe Urban Meyer. They also gave us our closest game this season. The list is short on teams that have beaten Bama while Saban has been here so it's not like they had a huge list of coaches to choose from.

bamacon said:

Thx for posting that Selma. That TO margin is insane. Most teams would lose by 30+ with a 5/0 turnover ratio. The fact that Bama remained competitive is insane. Think about this, CNS has never been blown out at Bama. That's a decade of achievement indeed. Even the best coaches get rolled every once in while. Not him here!


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Coach Bryant
1968 - 10-35 Mizzou
1969 - 14-41 Tennesse
1969 - 26-49 Auburn
1971 - 6-38 Nebraska
1976 - 0-21 Georgia

Woody Hayes
1958 - 0-21 Northwestern
1960 - 12-35 Iowa
1964 - 0-27 Penn St
1965 - 7-32 Mich St
1972 - 17-42 USC
1976 - 0-22 Michigan
1977 - 6-35 Alabama

Knute Rockne
1925 - 0-27 Army
1925 - 0-17 Nebraska
1926 - 0-19 Carnegie Tech
1927 - 0-18 Army
1928 - 7-27 Carnegie Tech

John McKay
1965 - 7-28 Notre Dame
1966 - 0-51 Notre Dame
1970 - 20-45 UCLA
1973 - 21-42 Ohio State

Tom Osborne
1973 - 0-27 OU
1975 - 10-35 OU
1977 - 7-38 OU
1989 - 17-41 FSU
1990 - 10-45 OU
1990 - 21-45 Ga Tech
1991 - 0-22 Miami

(He didn't really get blown out once he built champions - save for perhaps the 0-19 loss to Arizona State in 1996).

Nick Saban (at LSU)
2000 - 9-41 Florida
2001 - 15-44 Florida
2002 - 7-31 Auburn
2002 - 0-31 Alabama
2004 - 16-45 Georgia

(The last one came with his defending championship team).

selmaborntidefan said:

Coach Bryant
1968 - 10-35 Mizzou
1969 - 14-41 Tennesse
1969 - 26-49 Auburn
1971 - 6-38 Nebraska
1976 - 0-21 Georgia

Woody Hayes
1958 - 0-21 Northwestern
1960 - 12-35 Iowa
1964 - 0-27 Penn St
1965 - 7-32 Mich St
1972 - 17-42 USC
1976 - 0-22 Michigan
1977 - 6-35 Alabama

Knute Rockne
1925 - 0-27 Army
1925 - 0-17 Nebraska
1926 - 0-19 Carnegie Tech
1927 - 0-18 Army
1928 - 7-27 Carnegie Tech

John McKay
1965 - 7-28 Notre Dame
1966 - 0-51 Notre Dame
1970 - 20-45 UCLA
1973 - 21-42 Ohio State

Tom Osborne
1973 - 0-27 OU
1975 - 10-35 OU
1977 - 7-38 OU
1989 - 17-41 FSU
1990 - 10-45 OU
1990 - 21-45 Ga Tech
1991 - 0-22 Miami

(He didn't really get blown out once he built champions - save for perhaps the 0-19 loss to Arizona State in 1996).

Nick Saban (at LSU)
2000 - 9-41 Florida
2001 - 15-44 Florida
2002 - 7-31 Auburn
2002 - 0-31 Alabama
2004 - 16-45 Georgia

(The last one came with his defending championship team).

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The Utah game almost qualifies as a blowout since CNS got here.Yeah the score is a 14 point difference, but Alabama was never really in the game. We outrushed them 31-13, lost turnover battle 2-4. Basically they did 2/3 of your formula as well, but I think they are the only one that can claim that their 300+ passing attack meant something in the end.

81usaf92 said:

The Utah game almost qualifies as a blowout since CNS got here.Yeah the score is a 14 point difference, but Alabama was never really in the game. We outrushed them 31-13, lost turnover battle 2-4. Basically they did 2/3 of your formula as well, but I think they are the only one that can claim that their 300+ passing attack meant something in the end.

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I know it sure felt that way at the time but......we turned 0-21 into 17-21, too.

And about 1/3 of their passing yards was in the first ten minutes of the game. The critical moment of that whole game was the JP Wilson interception two plays into our drive after they scored - followed by their immediate TD. That put a team that had never really trailed much all year long into a 14-0 hole, and it was pretty much over.

We never seized momentum in that game. We did against ATM in 2012 - we owned most of the rest of the game post-first quarter. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.

But if we call 14 a blowout (and that's iffy), then SCAR in 2010 never really felt like we were in it, either.

selmaborntidefan said:

I know it sure felt that way at the time but......we turned 0-21 into 17-21, too.

And about 1/3 of their passing yards was in the first ten minutes of the game. The critical moment of that whole game was the JP Wilson interception two plays into our drive after they scored - followed by their immediate TD. That put a team that had never really trailed much all year long into a 14-0 hole, and it was pretty much over.

We never seized momentum in that game. We did against ATM in 2012 - we owned most of the rest of the game post-first quarter. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.

But if we call 14 a blowout (and that's iffy), then SCAR in 2010 never really felt like we were in it, either.

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I'm willing to say both are the games that are the closest we had to blowouts mostly because of how we couldn't ever seize the momentum, and everytime we were close either Paul Kruger sacks JP or Jeffrey breaks open for USCe. It was the two times that I think we were hit in the mouth and the other team wouldn't let us get back in the game. The Ole Miss 2015 and the aTm 2012 game we just lost the final drive and a quarter.

Maybe the word dominated describes the Utah game, but then again we got heartbroken after the SECCG is the common excuse for why. But it's hard not to see that they were clearly the better team that night.

crimsonaudio said:

Of course - Utah beat Alabama fair and square, outplayed them that night. But play that game 10 times, Bama wins it eight or nine - maybe all 10 if the game wasn't a consolation prize.

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Other than the two semifinal games, it seems that`s pretty much what all the bowls have become. If (when ) the playoff field is expanded, perhaps then the bowls will regain some of their importance and luster (?).

There's no formula other than catching Bama on a bad day. THAT'S IT!


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