THANK GOD WE'RE LEAVING SHREVEPORT....
The season was over, and the year had but 25 or so hours remaining. Alabama, the once great lion, er, elephant of Southern college football had now spent 25 seasons wandering aimlessly in a post-Coach Bryant wilderness. True, there had been a national championship in 1992, but it was an upset over a then dynasty. The name Alabama no longer struck fear and admiration in the hearts of most college fans. Since the old man's passing, Alabama had won all of three Southeastern Conference football championships and a grand total of ONE Sugar Bowl in two appearances. Bryant's record just in the tiny span of 1977-79 was more impressive than the entire period afterwards - 3 SEC titles, 2 national titles, 3 Sugar Bowl wins. As shocking as it is to believe, Alabama had actually appeared in (and won) more mid-level Independence Bowls since 2001 than they had Sugar Bowls or national titles since 1981. Bryant had never had a losing season at the Capstone, but the Tide had three in the four years preceding Nick Saban's hiring. Something had to be done and fast.
About 24 hours after Alabama left the field with their second Independence Bowl triumph over a Big 12 team in the last seven seasons, arch rival Auburn squared off in the Chick-fil-A Bowl under the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and eked out a 23-20 overtime victory over ACC foe Clemson. One week later, Saban watched his old team with some of his old recruits score LSU's second national championship in five years with a walloping of Ohio State in New Orleans. But Saban and Alabama were hardly sitting still as the bowl season unfolded. Three days before the BCS title game, in fact, Alabama and Clemson reached an agreement to open the 2008 season against one another at the Georgia Dome in what the city of Atlanta hoped would become an annual season opening classic. When offensive coordinator Major Applewhite left to become the running backs coach at his alma mater Texas, Saban hired Fresno State OC Jim McElwain to run the offense. And then Saban set out to obtain some weapons for McElwain to use, netting the biggest fish in the proverbial pond on National Signing Day when Foley High School and #1 Rivals ranked wide receiver Julio Jones suddenly announced he was going to be playing for Alabama. Alabama netted the nation's top recruiting class and Saban went about getting ready for what promised to be a challenging season ahead. As it turned out, there were several off the field challenges long before the game with Clemson.
TESTS AND TRIALS IN T-TOWN
On February 17, freshman defensive lineman Jeremy Elder was arrested for robbing two UA students at gunpoint, suspended indefinitely, and ultimately dismissed from the team.* Elder redshirted in 2007 and as it turned out never played a down for the Tide. Less than a week later, safety Rashad Johnson was arrested on disorderly conduct charges after he allegedly pushed a security guard to the ground at a bar on the Strip. Around the same time, linebacker Prince Hall was suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules. By this point Saban had been the coach for 14 months and had seen eight players arrested. Few fans blamed Saban for the incidents but they served as a reminder of the lack of discipline the Shula program had patented during his four-year reign. Saban acknowledged at a press conference on February 26 that such arrests demonstrated a lack of discipline in the program and both bought himself some time and laid down the gauntlet by musing, "We cannot tolerate poor judgment." Fans from other programs took delight in mocking the Tide for winning the Internet parody trophy known as the Fulmer Cup, but Saban pressed on. The only noise surrounding the program for the next few months were the mockings of radio blowhard Paul Finebaum, who took daily shots at Saban in his newspaper column. In fact, it was right around this time that several former players and current coaches took shots at both Saban and the Alabama program, their words filled with irony as a decade has passed.
The first to unload was former Auburn quarterback Jason Campbell, who in an extended March interview declared, "You didn't see anyone at Auburn getting in trouble, get DUI's or fighting in the clubs. One rule we always had was don't make the school name look bad or make your family look bad."
On March 29, Finebaum projected Auburn as an 8-4 rebuilding team that would lose to Alabama, 20-17. On April 1, Finebaum declared that Saban had made crystal clear that Tuscaloosa was his last coaching stop ever, noting that it was NOT an April Fool's Day joke. A Day brought out another large crowd that saw the first stirrings of what appeared to be an exciting season. An announced crowd of over 78,000 saw the newly remade John Parker Wilson throw for 265 yards and 3 TDs to lead the Crimson to a 24-14 win over the White. Saban's star was on the rise, and he even used it (for one of the rare times) to announce his public support for Tide radio analyst Kenny Stabler after "the Snake" had been arrested for drunken driving. And then on June 25, Saban laid down the gauntlet by immediately dismissing linebacker Jimmy Johns from the team on the same day Johns was arrested for felony cocaine possession. Johns, who had been a running back before moving to linebacker for the 2007 season, was gone the moment Saban heard of it. Things managed to stay relatively quiet for awhile, although Saban did announce on July 16 that senior linebacker Zeke Knight had been medically disqualified. On the same day came a report that all six Alabama home games had sold out before the season even began. And then the SEC Media Day gave Alabama all the motivation they would need when the pre-season vote revealed the Auburn Tigers were the overwhelming favorite to win the West, garnering 48 of 70 votes. LSU, the defending national champions, were second with 21 first-place votes...and Alabama had no first-place votes at all and were the consensus pick to finish third in the division. The players reported on Thursday, July 31, and there was an immediate story when Saban suspended linebacker Prince Hall for the first three games of the season due to a team rules violation. Rumors abounded that the 2008 version of the Tide was going to rely heavily upon the newly recruited incoming freshmen. Although there had been substantial trouble earlier in the year, things had toned down considerably. A surge of interest in this new edition of the Tide was creating an aura of excitement around the program combined with the nervousness of the mostly forgettable years of the previous decade. On the Wednesday before the Clemson opener, Saban addressed the media and listed Glen Coffee as his starting running back, with Terry Grant and Mark Ingram vying for the number two spot ahead of Roy Upchurch. The same day, however, brought even more motivation in the form of a joke told by Clemson defensive coordinator Vic Koennig, who said that he was familiar with hot new Tide recruits Julio Jones and Burton Scott because he'd seen both drive off from their meetings with him in Cadillac Escalades. Koennig then spent much of the week on the defensive (if you'll pardon the pun) from what his jokes were supposed to imply about Saban's recruiting tactics. Repeatedly, he emphasized he was kidding, and Clemson Coach Tommy Bowden emphasized his lack of concern given that Clemson had not even tried to recruit Jones. The big day was just about here, and the Tide would start the year ranked #24 in the polls. One article that received prominent mention on the day of the big game was a musing about how Clemson Coach Tommy Bowden was no longer on the hot seat he had occupied for much of the previous two seasons. Clemson was the favorite and ranked #9 as the two teams headed into the new campaign in the Georgia Dome.
AP PRESEASON RANKINGS
1) Georgia
2) Ohio St
3) USC
4) Oklahoma
5) Florida
MORNING HAS BROKEN
As the two teams gathered in the Georgia Dome to open the football season, there was not a soul watching this game that could have even imagined that a decade later it would be the launching pad into national prominence for both programs or that Alabama, in particular, would wind up with Atlanta as basically a second home. The consensus was that Alabama was too young, lacked depth, and was still a year away while Clemson had finally gained some stability and would wear down and eventually beat the overmatched Tide utilizing two excellent running backs, CJ Spiller and James , who could make life miserable for any defense. It was also one of the last times Alabama would enter the game as an underdog over the next 11 seasons.
Alabama took the field to receive the season's opening kickoff with a show of both the old and the new. Solid returner Javier Arenas was joined deep by newcomer Julio Jones. Arenas took the kick at his own four and gave the Tide good field position by taking it out to around the 35-yard line. John Parker Wilson, the senior quarterback, led the Tide out of the huddle and hoped to erase the bitter memory of 2007 with a solid year. His backfield included fullback Baron Huber and tailback Glen Coffee. The Tide then began what would become their style of offense during the Jim McElwain years. Three straight handoffs to Coffee generated 11 yards and a first down. Just as quickly, however, Alabama's old bug-a-boo returned when Mike Johnson jumped on a false start that put the Tide in first and 15. It was Coffee again for six yards, a short 8-yard toss to Julio Jones (for his first career reception), and a handoff to Mark Ingram that netted a first down on his first college carry at the Clemson 41. The pass to Jones was a short out where Julio earned the yardage mostly on his own. Wilson then got Clemson's attention with a play action bomb to the end zone to Jones that was overthrown. Another stupid penalty - this one for delay of game - cost Alabama five yards and revived worries that fans had seen this same team for too many years now. Ingram got the yards back on his first carry to make it 3rd and ten. Yet another false start - by Antoine Caldwell - revived both shrieks of frustration at the offensive line and anger at referee Tom Ritter, for one of his repetitively "ticky tack" calls that Tide fans had come to expect. After a short completion to Coffee, Alabama attempted a 54-yard field goal that kicker Leigh Tiffin booted through the uprights to end Alabama's first offensive possession of 2008 with a field goal that gave the Tide a 3-0 lead. It had looked a lot like Alabama drives during the Mike Shula era: drive down field with short runs and passes, miss the deep ball more often than not, hurt yourself with stupid penalties, and then hope you made the field goal. It was more of the same, and yet it was completely different.
Spiller took it to the 30 for Clemson to begin their offensive possession. Quarterback Colin Harper went play action deep on the first play that was nearly intercepted by Rashad Johnson. Clemson then decided to do what Alabama had done with Ingram and get a freshman who had never played his first carry. The handoff to Jamie Harper was good, but upon contact with Corey Reamer he fumbled the ball and another freshman - Donta Hightower - recovered to set up Alabama's next drive at the Clemson 31. A six-yard rush by Coffee and a 14-yard toss from Wilson to Nick Walker put Alabama in the red zone with a first down. Two rushes and an incomplete pass later, and Alabama was again settling for a field goal. After holding Clemson to a three and out, Arenas returned the ball to midfield and an illegal formation penalty set Alabama up at the Clemson 46 with a 6-0 lead. Running a vanilla offense that mixed timely passes with short runs mostly by Ingram, Alabama drove down and Wilson snuck over from the one to give the Tide a 13-0 lead with less than 3 minutes left in the first quarter.
Clemson responded as expected, a methodical drive that covered 56 yards in eight plays and resulted in a field goal that cut Alabama's lead to 13-3. But if perhaps any one drive indicated this was not the Mike Shula era Crimson Tide, Alabama responded with a phenomenal 14-play drive that removed nearly nine minutes of the second quarter and ended with a short TD toss from Wilson to Walker and a Tiffin PAT. Alabama even went 3 for 3 on third down conversions and with 6:01 left in the half they now held a 20-3 lead with a tenacious defense. After holding Clemson to a three and out that netted the Tigers minus 12 yards - thanks mostly to an offensive personal foul penalty - the game was as good as over. Tiffin missed a long field goal and Marquis Johnson intercepted a pass that ended with a Tiffin field goal to send the two teams in at the half, one with momentum and the other struggling to stay in the game. Trailing 23-3, Clemson attempted to seize momentum by returning the second half kickoff for a touchdown that cut the deficit to 23-10, but it was as close as they would get. The second half was largely a carbon copy of the first, Alabama putting together two fourteen play drives that netted ten points, killed the clock, and left Clemson for dead. The 34-10 beating would later become the signature game of college football, the game that propelled one team to the status of national champion, and the other to the status of dynasty. As fans of both teams awakened on the final morning of August 2008, however, nobody could have known this.
On that morning, in fact, Tommy Bowden called Nick Saban to ask what precisely Saban had figured out about Clemson that helped the Tide turn a hyped preseason showdown into a one-sided debacle. Whatever advice Saban gave Bowden didn't help, as he was fired on Columbus Day after Clemson sank to a 3-3 record. Assistant Dabo Swinney was elevated to interim head coach, and to say he made the most of his opportunity is an understatement of biblical proportions.
Saban also discovered how the "other half" lives, as he had to calm down a media clamoring to wonder how Alabama had played so well. Saban appeared aloof in comparison to his future engagement of the media, likely still smarting from, well, pretty much his entire press coverage since the day he had said, "I'm not gonna be the Alabama coach" and right through his unfortunate comparison of the ULM loss with the September 11 terrorist attacks. Looking as though he was reciting a prepared script uncomfortably, Saban simply noted this was "just one game" and that there was still plenty of season left. His seeming pessimism was justified a week later as Alabama struggled through a 20-6 win over Tulane in the home opener that looked quite a bit like the Tide of the previous decade. Tulane had 18 first downs to Alabama's 11, outgained them in total yardage by a nearly 2-1 margin (318-172), and won the turnover battle, 1-0. How did Alabama win such a game? In the first quarter, Javier Arenas returned Tulane's first punt 87 yards for a touchdown and then Chris Rogers scooped up a blocked punt on Tulane's third punting attempt and scampered 17 yards for a touchdown that put Alabama ahead, 13-0. Slogging through the rest of the game, Mark Ingram's 15-yard touchdown was the lone offensive bright spot on a team still part of the pack. One week later, Alabama put together a complete game, holding Western Kentucky to 7 points and 158 yards while punching in 41 points. Wilson had a solid game, throwing for over 200 yards, but it was hard for anyone to get overly excited about a punching bag like WKU. Could the new Alabama enthusiasm carry over to SEC play? It only took one drive to learn the answer.
Starting at their own 29, Coffee darted 17 yards on the first play from scrimmage to put the Tide at midfield. The Razorbacks held the Tide on the next sequence, only to surrender the momentum with a roughing the kicker penalty that gave Alabama the ball and a new set of downs. Mixing runs with Coffee and Ingram with short passes, Wilson capitalized on the break and the Tide led, 7-0. After Arkansas interrupted their response with a penalty, the Hawgs punted Alabama deep on the Tide 13. It wasn't deep enough, Coffee off to the races with a scintillating 87-yard TD run. Two drives, two touchdowns, and a 14-0 lead only eight minutes into the game. After the teams exchanged punts, Arkansas QB Casey Dick led a productive drive that went up in smoke when Javier Arenas picked off a pass and set sail 63 yards for a devastating touchdown that made it 21-0 still only in the first quarter. It was all Alabama, offense and defense getting into the end zone, with Justin Woodall returning a second pick six 74 yards for a touchdown and a Wilson toss to Julio Jones. Alabama pumped in 35 points.
Then they went in for halftime.
The second half saw another Coffee touchdown and even Roy Upchurch got into the end zone with a 62-yard dash that closed the scoring in a 49-14 thumping that served as a rude welcoming to the SEC for new coach Bobby Petrino. (Amazingly enough, his departure four years later would make this welcome seem rather tame by comparison). Alabama was up to number eight.
48 HOURS THAT CHANGE THE SPORT
College football tends to be a sport of dominant teams. While a team might win only one - or in rare cases no - national championships, the sport tends to have a team that spends several years being "the hunted" or considered "the best team" even when the ultimate result does not net a championship. For example, Alabama bagged three national titles in five years from 1961-65 and were considered the cream of the crop (we won't mention an unbeaten 1966 for fear of causing anxiety to Tide fans). There were then overlapping power teams of various rep - USC and Nebraska between 1967 and 1978 (with various peaks) and Alabama and Oklahoma from 1973-1981. Miami then ascended to the throne and stayed for nearly an entire decade. rivaled only by Notre Dame in the late stages of dynasty and Florida State as probation loomed. It was then time for the Noles and revived Huskers to share top billing for several years until Bob Stoops moved Oklahoma back into the picture in 2000. Entering week four of the 2008 season, the Pete Carroll's USC Trojans were heralded annually as the team to beat. In fact, after starting the season at #3, they had ascended to #1 following a win over Virginia and solidified the claim with a 35-3 pasting of two-time national title game participant Ohio State. USC was a dynasty that generally got the benefit of the doubt when they lost. This was a team that had won 34 consecutive games, two national titles, three Heisman trophies, and were the recognized symbol of college football excellence as well as was later discovered, "the best team money could buy." And while Georgia began the season as a favorite to win it all, USC's rout of Ohio State had vaulted the Trojans back to the familiar number one spot. But during an unbelievable forty-eight hour span in late September of 2008, one dynasty crumbled while the replacement came forth.
On the night of September 25, 2008, the USC dynasty crumbled in spectacular fashion before a national television audience and some 45,000 souls who packed Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon to watch Jacquizz Rogers run over, around, and through the USC defense while registering a 27-21 upset that knocked USC out of the title hunt and was the first snowball in the avalanche that upended their program. Oregon State was led by one of the many names that came up during the 2002 Alabama football coaching search, Mike Riley, who had played his college ball in Tuscaloosa. Although nobody knew it yet, the USC dynasty had just died before our very eyes. Who would take their place?
The odds on favorite, in all probability, was the #4 Florida Gators, led by Urban Meyer. All he'd managed to do was win a national championship his second year and coach the first sophomore to ever win the Heisman Trophy, the devout Christian Tim Tebow. Florida had played three foes thus far and mauled all three of them. But a funny thing happened on the way to the dynasty: they ran into college football's version of Bozo the Clown, Ole Miss Coach Houston Nutt. The Gators were merely 22-point home favorites facing a team recruited largely by the now departed Ed Orgeron. And it was a typical Houston Nutt coached affair, with his team only getting ten first downs, getting flagged for twice as many penalties, getting outgained by over 100 yards....and winning the damn ballgame on a special teams miscue involving the opposing kicker. Despite that good fortune, Ole Miss still had to stop Florida again, and they were up to the task of stopping Tebow's fourth down attempt to keep the drive going. Florida had lost to Ole Miss, and while the Gators would recover after Tebow did his best impersonation of Florida State's infamous Matt Cryer (real name: Matt Frier) who begged voters for "another chance," the loss ensured no unbeaten season and would seriously impact how good the Gators dynasty was viewed in the coming years. Clemson's upset loss to Maryland about the same time called into question just how good Alabama's win over the Tigers really was. Two top four teams down with a third facing Alabama between the hedges at Sanford Stadium. And an entire nation of football fans awakened to the rumblings of a new dynasty.
Georgia had conceived the idea of a "blackout" game, fans wearing dark and somewhat intimidating black colors as opposed to the usual dominant red. A deafening roar greeted the teams as they took the field. Georgia kicked off with such adrenaline that the ball easily made it into the end zone for a touchback. The Tide began their first drive with a typically conservative off tackle to Coffee. A short toss to BJ Scott from a 5 WR put the Tide in a 3rd and 1 that became a first with another base handoff to Coffee. The Tide moved methodically downfield, chewing up 80 yards in 11 plays that ended with a seven-yard Ingram dash for a 7-0 lead that took 6:28 off the clock. The touchdown lowered the crowd decibels just a bit.
The Alabama special teams set the tone for what was about to follow with a tough but legal tackle on the kickoff, fervor showing but discipline maintained. Georgia's apparently superior offensive weapons (Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno) got the Dawgs to midfield before they punted. Arenas put Alabama at their own 35 and yet another methodical mix of short runs and short passes took Alabama down to another score, a field goal, that gave the Tide a 10-0 lead. Georgia had also kept both Alabama drives going with the kind of penalties - stupid - that exemplified the Mark Richt era in Athens. Georgia took over at their own 28 and three plays netted only one yard, with Stafford throwing two incompletions. Another Georgia punt and a third Alabama drive netted a second touchdown, the gem being a 31-yard toss from Wilson to Julio Jones that put the Tide at the five-yard line. Coffee cruised to another touchdown that gave the underdog Tide a 17-0 lead. And then came the play that launched a dynasty.
Alabama at this point looked a solid, sequential football team. Nothing spectacular, no drama, just solid play. With a third and two at his own 30-yard line, Stafford fired a pass to his best receiver, A.J. Green, that was good enough for a first down. As he turned to run upfield, Justin Woodall barely touched him, but it was enough to disrupt Green's path. The ball flipped out of Green's hands and into the awaiting arms of Donta Hightower, who took it to the Georgia 33. The same type of play sequence - short passes, short runs - had worked three times so McElwain continued the same play calls. This time receiver Mike McCoy and running back Roy Upchurch starred, with the latter going in from the four with a touchdown that made it 24-0 Alabama midway through the second quarter. After a first down, Stafford got called for intentional grounding that put Georgia in yet another punt situation. Arenas's punt return put Alabama at their own 37-yard line. Mixing Glen Coffee runs with John Parker Wilson throws, Alabama scored yet another touchdown to take a 31-0 lead with 85 seconds left in the first half. Stafford's last toss of the half was intercepted by Woodall at the four-yard line, and Alabama went in at halftime with an impossible to believe 31-0 lead over a team that entered the game the likely new number one in college ball. There was not much else Alabama could do except win the game.
And this they did. Georgia punched in ten hard-earned points in the third quarter, and a 92-yard Prince Miller punt return TD to start the fourth brought the Georgia crowd back to life as it closed the margin to 31-17. Needing a solid drive, the Tide compiled one that took 51 yards and almost five minutes off the clock before Leigh Tiffin's 32-yard field goal made it 34-17. Georgia got to the Alabama 35 before an Eryk Anders sack of Stafford on third down - with a fumble Stafford recovered - left Georgia in 4th and 28. Needing 17 points in less than eight minutes, Georgia went for it and failed. Alabama calmly responded with another methodical drive that clinched the victory as the Tide was now up, 41-17. Alabama surrendered two garbage time TDs in the final four minutes to make the score a respectable 41-30, but there was no denying it: Alabama, with zero national titles in 16 years and only one SEC championship in that time frame, was in the hunt. The only question at this point was whether the voters would move the Tide all the way up to the top spot or at #2 behind Oklahoma, who had four blowout wins on their resume. The Sooners took the top, but no Tide fans complained. After all, in the BCS era, #2 was just as good as #1 until the game was actually played.
Perhaps never has a regular season win brought as much joy to a blue blood fanbase as the 2008 Georgia thumping brought to the fans of the Crimson Nation. Only nine months after the humiliating loss to ULM, Alabama was on the minds of most college football pundits. The key now was to avoid the typical college football letdown that often follows a big victory, particularly since their opponent was an unbeaten Kentucky team with exactly one win over the Tide in the previous 83 years.
Alabama showed up in lackadaisical form on offense. After a three and out, the Tide defense was up to its old tricks, holding Kentucky to -3 yards on the first possession. After a short Coffee run and an ineligible receiver penalty, Coffeee dashed 78 yards for a touchdown that electrified the Bryant-Denny crowd and gave Alabama a 7-0 lead less than 5 minutes into the game. After forcing a second Kentucky punt, the Tide drove 12 plays and 80 yards only to see Tiffin miss a 34-yard field goal. The Tide defense that got into the scoring when Rolando McClain picked up Mike Hartline's fumble deep in Kentucky territory and scored a TD that made it 14-7. UK had three more first half drives, only one of which lasted longer than three plays. Wilson went deep for the kill on the first Tide play of the second half, but Marcus McClinton intercepted it to give UK the ball at their own 15. The teams then swapped competing good defense, the Wildcats giving the ball back to Alabama after a failed fourth down in Tide territory. Mike Hartline then threw three passes: incomplete, 36 yards to Locke, and a 26-yard TD toss to Dicky Lyons Jr that cut Alabama's lead to 14-7. Feeling emboldened by his passing success, Hartline then did what would become a constant theme for teams that cut through the Tide defense with passing: he went to the well once too often and Kareem Jackson intercepted his pass to kill the rally. Alabama burned more time but Tiffin missed a second kick. When Tiffin scored the field goal with 2:21 left, however, Alabama was home clear, although the Cats did score a cosmetic touchdown. Despite a lackluster showing from the offense and special teams, Alabama was 6-0 with an off week to follow.
The off week had one game with major ramifications as number five Texas beat #1 Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry and vaulted Texas into the number one spot, Alabama holding at two. The Tide was getting ready for a showdown with the team that just weeks earlier had upset Florida, the Ole Miss Rebels. And it is likely this was one of those games that disturbed fans far more than it did coaches, who could simply use the Florida game as proof that Ole Miss was no slouch. Houston Nutt had a particularly nasty habit of winning games where he was coaching an outmanned and out-talented team that the superior opposition refused to put away. Nutt had had more than one of these triumphs against Alabama, winning the 2000 and 2004 Arkansas-Alabama games with some help from the officials and getting bailed out in 2006 thanks to the worst day of Leigh Tiffin's college career. Just one year earlier, in fact, Nutt appeared to have Alabama dead to rights before a final minute touchdown. It would be just like Nutt to beat Florida and Alabama and then lose every other game on his schedule.
Alabama took the opening kickoff and after going three yards backwards, they punted to the Rebs. Ole Miss wasn't much better, so the Tide got a second possession that yielded a first down but nothing more. A punt put the Rebels at their own 20 where they went to work. Led by former Texas recruit Jevan Snead - and with virtually all of the offense coming on one 62-yard dash by Enrique Davis - the Rebels kicked a field goal that put Alabama behind an opponent for the first time the entire season. It only took the Tide 75 seconds to answer, Wilson hitting Jones for 25 yards, Coffee rushing for 12, ten yards tacked on for a defensive hold, and a TD toss to Marquis Maze from 26 that put Alabama in the lead, 7-3. Defense dominated for both teams, three possessions ending in three punts, two for Ole Miss. Wilson then took his offense on a textbook 60 yard drive that consumed eleven plays and five minutes of clock and ended with an Ingram 2-yard TD run that pushed the Tide lead out to 14-3. On the very next scrimmage play, Justin Woodall picked off Jevan Snead and returned it to the Ole Miss 32 to set the Tide up to take control of the game. Four plays netted but eight yards, so the field goal unit game through again, and the Tide led, 17-3. Channeling his inner Bozo, Nutt then called for an inexplicable pass from running back Dexter McCluster out of the Ole Miss version of the Wildcat. Naturally, the ball was overthrown and picked off by Rashad Johnson, who took it all the way back to the Ole Miss 26. The Tide had the Rebels reeling, and Wilson's 30-yard TD toss to Mike McCoy appeared to be the coupe de grace, as the Tide stretched the lead out to 24-3 with two minutes left in the half.
As it turned out, the game was just beginning.
Ole Miss returned after half-time adjustments and put together an excellent 10-play drive that culminated with a TD dash on fourth and nine - the second successful fourth down conversion on the drive - and Ole Miss was alive and well, trailing 24-10, with plenty of time left. In fact, this game was starting to resemble the Rebs' upset of Florida just three weeks earlier. Wilson drove the Tide to the Ole Miss 29. On second and eight, Wilson went for the kill, but there was nothing except two Ole Miss defenders covering McCoy. Kendrick Lewis picked it off at the two and took it back to the 13, and Ole Miss was now in business. But the Tide defense rose to the challenge, forcing a punt after a three and out that gained but five yards. Defense was owning the day as the teams switched sides to begin the fourth quarter. Ole Miss began at its own seven, and Snead hit Shay Hodge for a 33-yard gain. On the very next play, McCluster got seven yards but fumbled the ball, and Kareem Jackson recovered. Two plays later, however, Coffee fumbled it away, and Ole Miss was at the Tide 34 with plenty of time left. Five plays later, Snead hit Hodge for a 17-yard touchdown that drew the score to 24-17, and the sound of yet another Alabama fourth quarter collapse echoed in the minds of fans who had endured the last decade. After holding the Tide to a three and out, Ole Miss got P. J. Fitzgerald's punt at their own 48. Seven plays later, with plenty of time left, Ole Miss got the field goal that made it a four-point game, and after burning the clock down to 2:14, Alabama relinquished the ball to Ole Miss seventy-six yards from a Rebels win. Alabama had lost to this coach multiple times in similar situations, even though Saban proved up to the task in 2007.
Snead began the drive with an attempt to toss to his left. Batted by the defender, the ball went right back into Snead's hands, and he actually turned it into a five-yard gain. On second down, Snead avoided two rushers and took off up the middle for a ten-yard gain and a new set of downs. On the next play, Snead again avoided pressure and then took off for a nine-yard gain that put the ball at the Rebs' 48. Brandon Bolden's four-yard rush gave Ole Miss a first down in Tide territory with 1:50 left when they called timeout. Kevin Steele sent the house on the next play, blitzing Snead and taking him down for a five-yard loss courtesy of Brandon Deaderick. After an incompletion, Snead hit McCluster for a ten-yard game that put Ole Miss' hopes on yet another successful fourth and conversion, this one from five yards. Alabama blitzed again and forced a hurried throw that was nowhere close to McCluster, and the Tide had succeeded where Florida had failed, edging the Rebels, 24-20. The Tide held at number two, behind Texas, who was beating some solid competition in a four-week obstacle course against four consecutive top 15 teams. Alabama, meanwhile, got ready for the annual Third Saturday in October that this year would be on the fourth Saturday instead. Heading up the highway to Knoxville, Alabama was about to begin a decade of exacting serious vengeance against everyone and everything possible, a destruction that would eventually see their tormentors of the previous decade reduced (in many cases) to laughingstocks, end longtime droughts (against Texas and Notre Dame, as well as bagging the Heisman) and nowhere was this feeling of vindictiveness more pronounced than in the visceral hatred Alabama fans had gained towards Volunteers head coach Phillip Fulmer.
Fulmer had played a key role in Alabama's fifteen-year battle with the NCAA, particularly as a secret witness in the case against his rival. To say Tide fans hated Fulmer is like saying Clay Travis is a tad bit obnoxious sometimes. The words do not even begin to express the contempt. Judgment had been handed down already in the previous year's 41-17 pasting in Saban's first year. Fulmer was already on a very hot seat with an abysmal 3-4 record following a contract extension. Prior to 2007, Fulmer had tormented the Tide with a 10-2 record and some serious NCAA sanctions (that no doubt helped him compile that record).
Playing the kind of ball that 2008 Tide fans had seen all season, Alabama went into a methodical drie from the opening kickoff, 11 plays for 50 yards that took almost five minutes and ended with a Tiffin field goal. After the defense held the Vols to a three and out, disaster struck when Javier Arenas fumbled the ball at his own five, and the Volunteers recovered. Tennessee injured their cause with a false start that pushed them back to the nine, and the defense was up to the task, holding Tennessee to a field goal and seizing momentum. Defense again dominated until the Tide took possession just inside Tennessee territory and put together enough of a drive for a field goal that put them back out in front, 6-3. After a series of possessions, disaster again struck the Tide when Fitzgerald's attempted punt out of his own end zone was blocked, and the Vols took over at the Tide 32. Four plays lost two yards, so Tennessee tried a Daniel Lincoln 51-yard field goal that missed. And on the next play, the Tide stopped fooling around and began playing solid football again.
Wilson led yet another methodical touchdown drive, 66 yards in only six plays that took 3:03 off the clock and ended with short run by Coffee that put Alabama ahead, 13-3. The ensuing drive saw Lincoln miss a second field goal from 43, and the teams went in with Alabama up by ten.
Tennessee had a quick three and out to start the second half, Javier Arenas sacking Nick Stephens for a nine-yard loss. Arenas then struck from the return game, setting Alabama up at the Vols 33-yard line with a solid return. Six plays later, a Tiffin field goal gave the Tide a 16-3 lead. Another three and out, and Alabama put together the drive that pretty much ended the Fulmer era at Knoxville. Twelve plays, 79 yards and over 6 minutes removed, Wilson sneaking over from the one to extend the lead to 22-3. Another quick out by the Vols and another good drive that ended with an Upchurch rush from the four and a solid 29-3 lead halfway through the fourth. The Vols scored a garbage touchdown, but it didn't matter. Alabama ended the game with a phenomenal 13 play drive that chewed the final 7:26 off the clock without humiliating the Vols or making a mistake, and Alabama entered November at number two in the polls. It would be the last time Alabama played a game the week prior to LSU for at least the next decade.
The Tide made mincemeat of their next opponents, the Arkansas State Red Wolves, running up over 200 yards rushing and Rashad Johnson pick six en route to a 35-0 easy blowout win. Alabama had not been ranked #1 during the regular season in exactly 28 years, their reign ended by the stunning 6-3 loss to MSU that ended a 28-game winning streak. When Graham Harrell hit Michael Crabtree for a win in the final second at Lubbock, the Longhorns fell from the top, and Alabama was the new number one. It was almost fitting that Alabama would waltz into Baton Rouge ranked #1 with the Tigers's former coach to face the defending national champion LSU Tigers. And a great game followed that allowed Alabama to justify their new ranking.
The season was over, and the year had but 25 or so hours remaining. Alabama, the once great lion, er, elephant of Southern college football had now spent 25 seasons wandering aimlessly in a post-Coach Bryant wilderness. True, there had been a national championship in 1992, but it was an upset over a then dynasty. The name Alabama no longer struck fear and admiration in the hearts of most college fans. Since the old man's passing, Alabama had won all of three Southeastern Conference football championships and a grand total of ONE Sugar Bowl in two appearances. Bryant's record just in the tiny span of 1977-79 was more impressive than the entire period afterwards - 3 SEC titles, 2 national titles, 3 Sugar Bowl wins. As shocking as it is to believe, Alabama had actually appeared in (and won) more mid-level Independence Bowls since 2001 than they had Sugar Bowls or national titles since 1981. Bryant had never had a losing season at the Capstone, but the Tide had three in the four years preceding Nick Saban's hiring. Something had to be done and fast.
About 24 hours after Alabama left the field with their second Independence Bowl triumph over a Big 12 team in the last seven seasons, arch rival Auburn squared off in the Chick-fil-A Bowl under the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and eked out a 23-20 overtime victory over ACC foe Clemson. One week later, Saban watched his old team with some of his old recruits score LSU's second national championship in five years with a walloping of Ohio State in New Orleans. But Saban and Alabama were hardly sitting still as the bowl season unfolded. Three days before the BCS title game, in fact, Alabama and Clemson reached an agreement to open the 2008 season against one another at the Georgia Dome in what the city of Atlanta hoped would become an annual season opening classic. When offensive coordinator Major Applewhite left to become the running backs coach at his alma mater Texas, Saban hired Fresno State OC Jim McElwain to run the offense. And then Saban set out to obtain some weapons for McElwain to use, netting the biggest fish in the proverbial pond on National Signing Day when Foley High School and #1 Rivals ranked wide receiver Julio Jones suddenly announced he was going to be playing for Alabama. Alabama netted the nation's top recruiting class and Saban went about getting ready for what promised to be a challenging season ahead. As it turned out, there were several off the field challenges long before the game with Clemson.
TESTS AND TRIALS IN T-TOWN
On February 17, freshman defensive lineman Jeremy Elder was arrested for robbing two UA students at gunpoint, suspended indefinitely, and ultimately dismissed from the team.* Elder redshirted in 2007 and as it turned out never played a down for the Tide. Less than a week later, safety Rashad Johnson was arrested on disorderly conduct charges after he allegedly pushed a security guard to the ground at a bar on the Strip. Around the same time, linebacker Prince Hall was suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules. By this point Saban had been the coach for 14 months and had seen eight players arrested. Few fans blamed Saban for the incidents but they served as a reminder of the lack of discipline the Shula program had patented during his four-year reign. Saban acknowledged at a press conference on February 26 that such arrests demonstrated a lack of discipline in the program and both bought himself some time and laid down the gauntlet by musing, "We cannot tolerate poor judgment." Fans from other programs took delight in mocking the Tide for winning the Internet parody trophy known as the Fulmer Cup, but Saban pressed on. The only noise surrounding the program for the next few months were the mockings of radio blowhard Paul Finebaum, who took daily shots at Saban in his newspaper column. In fact, it was right around this time that several former players and current coaches took shots at both Saban and the Alabama program, their words filled with irony as a decade has passed.
The first to unload was former Auburn quarterback Jason Campbell, who in an extended March interview declared, "You didn't see anyone at Auburn getting in trouble, get DUI's or fighting in the clubs. One rule we always had was don't make the school name look bad or make your family look bad."
On March 29, Finebaum projected Auburn as an 8-4 rebuilding team that would lose to Alabama, 20-17. On April 1, Finebaum declared that Saban had made crystal clear that Tuscaloosa was his last coaching stop ever, noting that it was NOT an April Fool's Day joke. A Day brought out another large crowd that saw the first stirrings of what appeared to be an exciting season. An announced crowd of over 78,000 saw the newly remade John Parker Wilson throw for 265 yards and 3 TDs to lead the Crimson to a 24-14 win over the White. Saban's star was on the rise, and he even used it (for one of the rare times) to announce his public support for Tide radio analyst Kenny Stabler after "the Snake" had been arrested for drunken driving. And then on June 25, Saban laid down the gauntlet by immediately dismissing linebacker Jimmy Johns from the team on the same day Johns was arrested for felony cocaine possession. Johns, who had been a running back before moving to linebacker for the 2007 season, was gone the moment Saban heard of it. Things managed to stay relatively quiet for awhile, although Saban did announce on July 16 that senior linebacker Zeke Knight had been medically disqualified. On the same day came a report that all six Alabama home games had sold out before the season even began. And then the SEC Media Day gave Alabama all the motivation they would need when the pre-season vote revealed the Auburn Tigers were the overwhelming favorite to win the West, garnering 48 of 70 votes. LSU, the defending national champions, were second with 21 first-place votes...and Alabama had no first-place votes at all and were the consensus pick to finish third in the division. The players reported on Thursday, July 31, and there was an immediate story when Saban suspended linebacker Prince Hall for the first three games of the season due to a team rules violation. Rumors abounded that the 2008 version of the Tide was going to rely heavily upon the newly recruited incoming freshmen. Although there had been substantial trouble earlier in the year, things had toned down considerably. A surge of interest in this new edition of the Tide was creating an aura of excitement around the program combined with the nervousness of the mostly forgettable years of the previous decade. On the Wednesday before the Clemson opener, Saban addressed the media and listed Glen Coffee as his starting running back, with Terry Grant and Mark Ingram vying for the number two spot ahead of Roy Upchurch. The same day, however, brought even more motivation in the form of a joke told by Clemson defensive coordinator Vic Koennig, who said that he was familiar with hot new Tide recruits Julio Jones and Burton Scott because he'd seen both drive off from their meetings with him in Cadillac Escalades. Koennig then spent much of the week on the defensive (if you'll pardon the pun) from what his jokes were supposed to imply about Saban's recruiting tactics. Repeatedly, he emphasized he was kidding, and Clemson Coach Tommy Bowden emphasized his lack of concern given that Clemson had not even tried to recruit Jones. The big day was just about here, and the Tide would start the year ranked #24 in the polls. One article that received prominent mention on the day of the big game was a musing about how Clemson Coach Tommy Bowden was no longer on the hot seat he had occupied for much of the previous two seasons. Clemson was the favorite and ranked #9 as the two teams headed into the new campaign in the Georgia Dome.
AP PRESEASON RANKINGS
1) Georgia
2) Ohio St
3) USC
4) Oklahoma
5) Florida
MORNING HAS BROKEN
As the two teams gathered in the Georgia Dome to open the football season, there was not a soul watching this game that could have even imagined that a decade later it would be the launching pad into national prominence for both programs or that Alabama, in particular, would wind up with Atlanta as basically a second home. The consensus was that Alabama was too young, lacked depth, and was still a year away while Clemson had finally gained some stability and would wear down and eventually beat the overmatched Tide utilizing two excellent running backs, CJ Spiller and James , who could make life miserable for any defense. It was also one of the last times Alabama would enter the game as an underdog over the next 11 seasons.
Alabama took the field to receive the season's opening kickoff with a show of both the old and the new. Solid returner Javier Arenas was joined deep by newcomer Julio Jones. Arenas took the kick at his own four and gave the Tide good field position by taking it out to around the 35-yard line. John Parker Wilson, the senior quarterback, led the Tide out of the huddle and hoped to erase the bitter memory of 2007 with a solid year. His backfield included fullback Baron Huber and tailback Glen Coffee. The Tide then began what would become their style of offense during the Jim McElwain years. Three straight handoffs to Coffee generated 11 yards and a first down. Just as quickly, however, Alabama's old bug-a-boo returned when Mike Johnson jumped on a false start that put the Tide in first and 15. It was Coffee again for six yards, a short 8-yard toss to Julio Jones (for his first career reception), and a handoff to Mark Ingram that netted a first down on his first college carry at the Clemson 41. The pass to Jones was a short out where Julio earned the yardage mostly on his own. Wilson then got Clemson's attention with a play action bomb to the end zone to Jones that was overthrown. Another stupid penalty - this one for delay of game - cost Alabama five yards and revived worries that fans had seen this same team for too many years now. Ingram got the yards back on his first carry to make it 3rd and ten. Yet another false start - by Antoine Caldwell - revived both shrieks of frustration at the offensive line and anger at referee Tom Ritter, for one of his repetitively "ticky tack" calls that Tide fans had come to expect. After a short completion to Coffee, Alabama attempted a 54-yard field goal that kicker Leigh Tiffin booted through the uprights to end Alabama's first offensive possession of 2008 with a field goal that gave the Tide a 3-0 lead. It had looked a lot like Alabama drives during the Mike Shula era: drive down field with short runs and passes, miss the deep ball more often than not, hurt yourself with stupid penalties, and then hope you made the field goal. It was more of the same, and yet it was completely different.
Spiller took it to the 30 for Clemson to begin their offensive possession. Quarterback Colin Harper went play action deep on the first play that was nearly intercepted by Rashad Johnson. Clemson then decided to do what Alabama had done with Ingram and get a freshman who had never played his first carry. The handoff to Jamie Harper was good, but upon contact with Corey Reamer he fumbled the ball and another freshman - Donta Hightower - recovered to set up Alabama's next drive at the Clemson 31. A six-yard rush by Coffee and a 14-yard toss from Wilson to Nick Walker put Alabama in the red zone with a first down. Two rushes and an incomplete pass later, and Alabama was again settling for a field goal. After holding Clemson to a three and out, Arenas returned the ball to midfield and an illegal formation penalty set Alabama up at the Clemson 46 with a 6-0 lead. Running a vanilla offense that mixed timely passes with short runs mostly by Ingram, Alabama drove down and Wilson snuck over from the one to give the Tide a 13-0 lead with less than 3 minutes left in the first quarter.
Clemson responded as expected, a methodical drive that covered 56 yards in eight plays and resulted in a field goal that cut Alabama's lead to 13-3. But if perhaps any one drive indicated this was not the Mike Shula era Crimson Tide, Alabama responded with a phenomenal 14-play drive that removed nearly nine minutes of the second quarter and ended with a short TD toss from Wilson to Walker and a Tiffin PAT. Alabama even went 3 for 3 on third down conversions and with 6:01 left in the half they now held a 20-3 lead with a tenacious defense. After holding Clemson to a three and out that netted the Tigers minus 12 yards - thanks mostly to an offensive personal foul penalty - the game was as good as over. Tiffin missed a long field goal and Marquis Johnson intercepted a pass that ended with a Tiffin field goal to send the two teams in at the half, one with momentum and the other struggling to stay in the game. Trailing 23-3, Clemson attempted to seize momentum by returning the second half kickoff for a touchdown that cut the deficit to 23-10, but it was as close as they would get. The second half was largely a carbon copy of the first, Alabama putting together two fourteen play drives that netted ten points, killed the clock, and left Clemson for dead. The 34-10 beating would later become the signature game of college football, the game that propelled one team to the status of national champion, and the other to the status of dynasty. As fans of both teams awakened on the final morning of August 2008, however, nobody could have known this.
On that morning, in fact, Tommy Bowden called Nick Saban to ask what precisely Saban had figured out about Clemson that helped the Tide turn a hyped preseason showdown into a one-sided debacle. Whatever advice Saban gave Bowden didn't help, as he was fired on Columbus Day after Clemson sank to a 3-3 record. Assistant Dabo Swinney was elevated to interim head coach, and to say he made the most of his opportunity is an understatement of biblical proportions.
Saban also discovered how the "other half" lives, as he had to calm down a media clamoring to wonder how Alabama had played so well. Saban appeared aloof in comparison to his future engagement of the media, likely still smarting from, well, pretty much his entire press coverage since the day he had said, "I'm not gonna be the Alabama coach" and right through his unfortunate comparison of the ULM loss with the September 11 terrorist attacks. Looking as though he was reciting a prepared script uncomfortably, Saban simply noted this was "just one game" and that there was still plenty of season left. His seeming pessimism was justified a week later as Alabama struggled through a 20-6 win over Tulane in the home opener that looked quite a bit like the Tide of the previous decade. Tulane had 18 first downs to Alabama's 11, outgained them in total yardage by a nearly 2-1 margin (318-172), and won the turnover battle, 1-0. How did Alabama win such a game? In the first quarter, Javier Arenas returned Tulane's first punt 87 yards for a touchdown and then Chris Rogers scooped up a blocked punt on Tulane's third punting attempt and scampered 17 yards for a touchdown that put Alabama ahead, 13-0. Slogging through the rest of the game, Mark Ingram's 15-yard touchdown was the lone offensive bright spot on a team still part of the pack. One week later, Alabama put together a complete game, holding Western Kentucky to 7 points and 158 yards while punching in 41 points. Wilson had a solid game, throwing for over 200 yards, but it was hard for anyone to get overly excited about a punching bag like WKU. Could the new Alabama enthusiasm carry over to SEC play? It only took one drive to learn the answer.
Starting at their own 29, Coffee darted 17 yards on the first play from scrimmage to put the Tide at midfield. The Razorbacks held the Tide on the next sequence, only to surrender the momentum with a roughing the kicker penalty that gave Alabama the ball and a new set of downs. Mixing runs with Coffee and Ingram with short passes, Wilson capitalized on the break and the Tide led, 7-0. After Arkansas interrupted their response with a penalty, the Hawgs punted Alabama deep on the Tide 13. It wasn't deep enough, Coffee off to the races with a scintillating 87-yard TD run. Two drives, two touchdowns, and a 14-0 lead only eight minutes into the game. After the teams exchanged punts, Arkansas QB Casey Dick led a productive drive that went up in smoke when Javier Arenas picked off a pass and set sail 63 yards for a devastating touchdown that made it 21-0 still only in the first quarter. It was all Alabama, offense and defense getting into the end zone, with Justin Woodall returning a second pick six 74 yards for a touchdown and a Wilson toss to Julio Jones. Alabama pumped in 35 points.
Then they went in for halftime.
The second half saw another Coffee touchdown and even Roy Upchurch got into the end zone with a 62-yard dash that closed the scoring in a 49-14 thumping that served as a rude welcoming to the SEC for new coach Bobby Petrino. (Amazingly enough, his departure four years later would make this welcome seem rather tame by comparison). Alabama was up to number eight.
48 HOURS THAT CHANGE THE SPORT
College football tends to be a sport of dominant teams. While a team might win only one - or in rare cases no - national championships, the sport tends to have a team that spends several years being "the hunted" or considered "the best team" even when the ultimate result does not net a championship. For example, Alabama bagged three national titles in five years from 1961-65 and were considered the cream of the crop (we won't mention an unbeaten 1966 for fear of causing anxiety to Tide fans). There were then overlapping power teams of various rep - USC and Nebraska between 1967 and 1978 (with various peaks) and Alabama and Oklahoma from 1973-1981. Miami then ascended to the throne and stayed for nearly an entire decade. rivaled only by Notre Dame in the late stages of dynasty and Florida State as probation loomed. It was then time for the Noles and revived Huskers to share top billing for several years until Bob Stoops moved Oklahoma back into the picture in 2000. Entering week four of the 2008 season, the Pete Carroll's USC Trojans were heralded annually as the team to beat. In fact, after starting the season at #3, they had ascended to #1 following a win over Virginia and solidified the claim with a 35-3 pasting of two-time national title game participant Ohio State. USC was a dynasty that generally got the benefit of the doubt when they lost. This was a team that had won 34 consecutive games, two national titles, three Heisman trophies, and were the recognized symbol of college football excellence as well as was later discovered, "the best team money could buy." And while Georgia began the season as a favorite to win it all, USC's rout of Ohio State had vaulted the Trojans back to the familiar number one spot. But during an unbelievable forty-eight hour span in late September of 2008, one dynasty crumbled while the replacement came forth.
On the night of September 25, 2008, the USC dynasty crumbled in spectacular fashion before a national television audience and some 45,000 souls who packed Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon to watch Jacquizz Rogers run over, around, and through the USC defense while registering a 27-21 upset that knocked USC out of the title hunt and was the first snowball in the avalanche that upended their program. Oregon State was led by one of the many names that came up during the 2002 Alabama football coaching search, Mike Riley, who had played his college ball in Tuscaloosa. Although nobody knew it yet, the USC dynasty had just died before our very eyes. Who would take their place?
The odds on favorite, in all probability, was the #4 Florida Gators, led by Urban Meyer. All he'd managed to do was win a national championship his second year and coach the first sophomore to ever win the Heisman Trophy, the devout Christian Tim Tebow. Florida had played three foes thus far and mauled all three of them. But a funny thing happened on the way to the dynasty: they ran into college football's version of Bozo the Clown, Ole Miss Coach Houston Nutt. The Gators were merely 22-point home favorites facing a team recruited largely by the now departed Ed Orgeron. And it was a typical Houston Nutt coached affair, with his team only getting ten first downs, getting flagged for twice as many penalties, getting outgained by over 100 yards....and winning the damn ballgame on a special teams miscue involving the opposing kicker. Despite that good fortune, Ole Miss still had to stop Florida again, and they were up to the task of stopping Tebow's fourth down attempt to keep the drive going. Florida had lost to Ole Miss, and while the Gators would recover after Tebow did his best impersonation of Florida State's infamous Matt Cryer (real name: Matt Frier) who begged voters for "another chance," the loss ensured no unbeaten season and would seriously impact how good the Gators dynasty was viewed in the coming years. Clemson's upset loss to Maryland about the same time called into question just how good Alabama's win over the Tigers really was. Two top four teams down with a third facing Alabama between the hedges at Sanford Stadium. And an entire nation of football fans awakened to the rumblings of a new dynasty.
Georgia had conceived the idea of a "blackout" game, fans wearing dark and somewhat intimidating black colors as opposed to the usual dominant red. A deafening roar greeted the teams as they took the field. Georgia kicked off with such adrenaline that the ball easily made it into the end zone for a touchback. The Tide began their first drive with a typically conservative off tackle to Coffee. A short toss to BJ Scott from a 5 WR put the Tide in a 3rd and 1 that became a first with another base handoff to Coffee. The Tide moved methodically downfield, chewing up 80 yards in 11 plays that ended with a seven-yard Ingram dash for a 7-0 lead that took 6:28 off the clock. The touchdown lowered the crowd decibels just a bit.
The Alabama special teams set the tone for what was about to follow with a tough but legal tackle on the kickoff, fervor showing but discipline maintained. Georgia's apparently superior offensive weapons (Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno) got the Dawgs to midfield before they punted. Arenas put Alabama at their own 35 and yet another methodical mix of short runs and short passes took Alabama down to another score, a field goal, that gave the Tide a 10-0 lead. Georgia had also kept both Alabama drives going with the kind of penalties - stupid - that exemplified the Mark Richt era in Athens. Georgia took over at their own 28 and three plays netted only one yard, with Stafford throwing two incompletions. Another Georgia punt and a third Alabama drive netted a second touchdown, the gem being a 31-yard toss from Wilson to Julio Jones that put the Tide at the five-yard line. Coffee cruised to another touchdown that gave the underdog Tide a 17-0 lead. And then came the play that launched a dynasty.
Alabama at this point looked a solid, sequential football team. Nothing spectacular, no drama, just solid play. With a third and two at his own 30-yard line, Stafford fired a pass to his best receiver, A.J. Green, that was good enough for a first down. As he turned to run upfield, Justin Woodall barely touched him, but it was enough to disrupt Green's path. The ball flipped out of Green's hands and into the awaiting arms of Donta Hightower, who took it to the Georgia 33. The same type of play sequence - short passes, short runs - had worked three times so McElwain continued the same play calls. This time receiver Mike McCoy and running back Roy Upchurch starred, with the latter going in from the four with a touchdown that made it 24-0 Alabama midway through the second quarter. After a first down, Stafford got called for intentional grounding that put Georgia in yet another punt situation. Arenas's punt return put Alabama at their own 37-yard line. Mixing Glen Coffee runs with John Parker Wilson throws, Alabama scored yet another touchdown to take a 31-0 lead with 85 seconds left in the first half. Stafford's last toss of the half was intercepted by Woodall at the four-yard line, and Alabama went in at halftime with an impossible to believe 31-0 lead over a team that entered the game the likely new number one in college ball. There was not much else Alabama could do except win the game.
And this they did. Georgia punched in ten hard-earned points in the third quarter, and a 92-yard Prince Miller punt return TD to start the fourth brought the Georgia crowd back to life as it closed the margin to 31-17. Needing a solid drive, the Tide compiled one that took 51 yards and almost five minutes off the clock before Leigh Tiffin's 32-yard field goal made it 34-17. Georgia got to the Alabama 35 before an Eryk Anders sack of Stafford on third down - with a fumble Stafford recovered - left Georgia in 4th and 28. Needing 17 points in less than eight minutes, Georgia went for it and failed. Alabama calmly responded with another methodical drive that clinched the victory as the Tide was now up, 41-17. Alabama surrendered two garbage time TDs in the final four minutes to make the score a respectable 41-30, but there was no denying it: Alabama, with zero national titles in 16 years and only one SEC championship in that time frame, was in the hunt. The only question at this point was whether the voters would move the Tide all the way up to the top spot or at #2 behind Oklahoma, who had four blowout wins on their resume. The Sooners took the top, but no Tide fans complained. After all, in the BCS era, #2 was just as good as #1 until the game was actually played.
Perhaps never has a regular season win brought as much joy to a blue blood fanbase as the 2008 Georgia thumping brought to the fans of the Crimson Nation. Only nine months after the humiliating loss to ULM, Alabama was on the minds of most college football pundits. The key now was to avoid the typical college football letdown that often follows a big victory, particularly since their opponent was an unbeaten Kentucky team with exactly one win over the Tide in the previous 83 years.
Alabama showed up in lackadaisical form on offense. After a three and out, the Tide defense was up to its old tricks, holding Kentucky to -3 yards on the first possession. After a short Coffee run and an ineligible receiver penalty, Coffeee dashed 78 yards for a touchdown that electrified the Bryant-Denny crowd and gave Alabama a 7-0 lead less than 5 minutes into the game. After forcing a second Kentucky punt, the Tide drove 12 plays and 80 yards only to see Tiffin miss a 34-yard field goal. The Tide defense that got into the scoring when Rolando McClain picked up Mike Hartline's fumble deep in Kentucky territory and scored a TD that made it 14-7. UK had three more first half drives, only one of which lasted longer than three plays. Wilson went deep for the kill on the first Tide play of the second half, but Marcus McClinton intercepted it to give UK the ball at their own 15. The teams then swapped competing good defense, the Wildcats giving the ball back to Alabama after a failed fourth down in Tide territory. Mike Hartline then threw three passes: incomplete, 36 yards to Locke, and a 26-yard TD toss to Dicky Lyons Jr that cut Alabama's lead to 14-7. Feeling emboldened by his passing success, Hartline then did what would become a constant theme for teams that cut through the Tide defense with passing: he went to the well once too often and Kareem Jackson intercepted his pass to kill the rally. Alabama burned more time but Tiffin missed a second kick. When Tiffin scored the field goal with 2:21 left, however, Alabama was home clear, although the Cats did score a cosmetic touchdown. Despite a lackluster showing from the offense and special teams, Alabama was 6-0 with an off week to follow.
The off week had one game with major ramifications as number five Texas beat #1 Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry and vaulted Texas into the number one spot, Alabama holding at two. The Tide was getting ready for a showdown with the team that just weeks earlier had upset Florida, the Ole Miss Rebels. And it is likely this was one of those games that disturbed fans far more than it did coaches, who could simply use the Florida game as proof that Ole Miss was no slouch. Houston Nutt had a particularly nasty habit of winning games where he was coaching an outmanned and out-talented team that the superior opposition refused to put away. Nutt had had more than one of these triumphs against Alabama, winning the 2000 and 2004 Arkansas-Alabama games with some help from the officials and getting bailed out in 2006 thanks to the worst day of Leigh Tiffin's college career. Just one year earlier, in fact, Nutt appeared to have Alabama dead to rights before a final minute touchdown. It would be just like Nutt to beat Florida and Alabama and then lose every other game on his schedule.
Alabama took the opening kickoff and after going three yards backwards, they punted to the Rebs. Ole Miss wasn't much better, so the Tide got a second possession that yielded a first down but nothing more. A punt put the Rebels at their own 20 where they went to work. Led by former Texas recruit Jevan Snead - and with virtually all of the offense coming on one 62-yard dash by Enrique Davis - the Rebels kicked a field goal that put Alabama behind an opponent for the first time the entire season. It only took the Tide 75 seconds to answer, Wilson hitting Jones for 25 yards, Coffee rushing for 12, ten yards tacked on for a defensive hold, and a TD toss to Marquis Maze from 26 that put Alabama in the lead, 7-3. Defense dominated for both teams, three possessions ending in three punts, two for Ole Miss. Wilson then took his offense on a textbook 60 yard drive that consumed eleven plays and five minutes of clock and ended with an Ingram 2-yard TD run that pushed the Tide lead out to 14-3. On the very next scrimmage play, Justin Woodall picked off Jevan Snead and returned it to the Ole Miss 32 to set the Tide up to take control of the game. Four plays netted but eight yards, so the field goal unit game through again, and the Tide led, 17-3. Channeling his inner Bozo, Nutt then called for an inexplicable pass from running back Dexter McCluster out of the Ole Miss version of the Wildcat. Naturally, the ball was overthrown and picked off by Rashad Johnson, who took it all the way back to the Ole Miss 26. The Tide had the Rebels reeling, and Wilson's 30-yard TD toss to Mike McCoy appeared to be the coupe de grace, as the Tide stretched the lead out to 24-3 with two minutes left in the half.
As it turned out, the game was just beginning.
Ole Miss returned after half-time adjustments and put together an excellent 10-play drive that culminated with a TD dash on fourth and nine - the second successful fourth down conversion on the drive - and Ole Miss was alive and well, trailing 24-10, with plenty of time left. In fact, this game was starting to resemble the Rebs' upset of Florida just three weeks earlier. Wilson drove the Tide to the Ole Miss 29. On second and eight, Wilson went for the kill, but there was nothing except two Ole Miss defenders covering McCoy. Kendrick Lewis picked it off at the two and took it back to the 13, and Ole Miss was now in business. But the Tide defense rose to the challenge, forcing a punt after a three and out that gained but five yards. Defense was owning the day as the teams switched sides to begin the fourth quarter. Ole Miss began at its own seven, and Snead hit Shay Hodge for a 33-yard gain. On the very next play, McCluster got seven yards but fumbled the ball, and Kareem Jackson recovered. Two plays later, however, Coffee fumbled it away, and Ole Miss was at the Tide 34 with plenty of time left. Five plays later, Snead hit Hodge for a 17-yard touchdown that drew the score to 24-17, and the sound of yet another Alabama fourth quarter collapse echoed in the minds of fans who had endured the last decade. After holding the Tide to a three and out, Ole Miss got P. J. Fitzgerald's punt at their own 48. Seven plays later, with plenty of time left, Ole Miss got the field goal that made it a four-point game, and after burning the clock down to 2:14, Alabama relinquished the ball to Ole Miss seventy-six yards from a Rebels win. Alabama had lost to this coach multiple times in similar situations, even though Saban proved up to the task in 2007.
Snead began the drive with an attempt to toss to his left. Batted by the defender, the ball went right back into Snead's hands, and he actually turned it into a five-yard gain. On second down, Snead avoided two rushers and took off up the middle for a ten-yard gain and a new set of downs. On the next play, Snead again avoided pressure and then took off for a nine-yard gain that put the ball at the Rebs' 48. Brandon Bolden's four-yard rush gave Ole Miss a first down in Tide territory with 1:50 left when they called timeout. Kevin Steele sent the house on the next play, blitzing Snead and taking him down for a five-yard loss courtesy of Brandon Deaderick. After an incompletion, Snead hit McCluster for a ten-yard game that put Ole Miss' hopes on yet another successful fourth and conversion, this one from five yards. Alabama blitzed again and forced a hurried throw that was nowhere close to McCluster, and the Tide had succeeded where Florida had failed, edging the Rebels, 24-20. The Tide held at number two, behind Texas, who was beating some solid competition in a four-week obstacle course against four consecutive top 15 teams. Alabama, meanwhile, got ready for the annual Third Saturday in October that this year would be on the fourth Saturday instead. Heading up the highway to Knoxville, Alabama was about to begin a decade of exacting serious vengeance against everyone and everything possible, a destruction that would eventually see their tormentors of the previous decade reduced (in many cases) to laughingstocks, end longtime droughts (against Texas and Notre Dame, as well as bagging the Heisman) and nowhere was this feeling of vindictiveness more pronounced than in the visceral hatred Alabama fans had gained towards Volunteers head coach Phillip Fulmer.
Fulmer had played a key role in Alabama's fifteen-year battle with the NCAA, particularly as a secret witness in the case against his rival. To say Tide fans hated Fulmer is like saying Clay Travis is a tad bit obnoxious sometimes. The words do not even begin to express the contempt. Judgment had been handed down already in the previous year's 41-17 pasting in Saban's first year. Fulmer was already on a very hot seat with an abysmal 3-4 record following a contract extension. Prior to 2007, Fulmer had tormented the Tide with a 10-2 record and some serious NCAA sanctions (that no doubt helped him compile that record).
Playing the kind of ball that 2008 Tide fans had seen all season, Alabama went into a methodical drie from the opening kickoff, 11 plays for 50 yards that took almost five minutes and ended with a Tiffin field goal. After the defense held the Vols to a three and out, disaster struck when Javier Arenas fumbled the ball at his own five, and the Volunteers recovered. Tennessee injured their cause with a false start that pushed them back to the nine, and the defense was up to the task, holding Tennessee to a field goal and seizing momentum. Defense again dominated until the Tide took possession just inside Tennessee territory and put together enough of a drive for a field goal that put them back out in front, 6-3. After a series of possessions, disaster again struck the Tide when Fitzgerald's attempted punt out of his own end zone was blocked, and the Vols took over at the Tide 32. Four plays lost two yards, so Tennessee tried a Daniel Lincoln 51-yard field goal that missed. And on the next play, the Tide stopped fooling around and began playing solid football again.
Wilson led yet another methodical touchdown drive, 66 yards in only six plays that took 3:03 off the clock and ended with short run by Coffee that put Alabama ahead, 13-3. The ensuing drive saw Lincoln miss a second field goal from 43, and the teams went in with Alabama up by ten.
Tennessee had a quick three and out to start the second half, Javier Arenas sacking Nick Stephens for a nine-yard loss. Arenas then struck from the return game, setting Alabama up at the Vols 33-yard line with a solid return. Six plays later, a Tiffin field goal gave the Tide a 16-3 lead. Another three and out, and Alabama put together the drive that pretty much ended the Fulmer era at Knoxville. Twelve plays, 79 yards and over 6 minutes removed, Wilson sneaking over from the one to extend the lead to 22-3. Another quick out by the Vols and another good drive that ended with an Upchurch rush from the four and a solid 29-3 lead halfway through the fourth. The Vols scored a garbage touchdown, but it didn't matter. Alabama ended the game with a phenomenal 13 play drive that chewed the final 7:26 off the clock without humiliating the Vols or making a mistake, and Alabama entered November at number two in the polls. It would be the last time Alabama played a game the week prior to LSU for at least the next decade.
The Tide made mincemeat of their next opponents, the Arkansas State Red Wolves, running up over 200 yards rushing and Rashad Johnson pick six en route to a 35-0 easy blowout win. Alabama had not been ranked #1 during the regular season in exactly 28 years, their reign ended by the stunning 6-3 loss to MSU that ended a 28-game winning streak. When Graham Harrell hit Michael Crabtree for a win in the final second at Lubbock, the Longhorns fell from the top, and Alabama was the new number one. It was almost fitting that Alabama would waltz into Baton Rouge ranked #1 with the Tigers's former coach to face the defending national champion LSU Tigers. And a great game followed that allowed Alabama to justify their new ranking.
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