I don't post much but I read often and appreciate all the conversations and nuggets you guys put here concerning the Tide.
I had a thought today and was interested to see how you guys responded. We've been on a historical run the past 10 seasons and may never see anything like this again once coach Saban retires. Now, with all the success and glory we've experienced, if you could go back 9 seasons ago as you're watching Saban and Ingram and Julio lift that national championship trophy above their heads, how many of you guys would have ever guessed that would be our last undefeated champion for the next 9 seasons?? This thought blows my mind when you consider how dominant we've been the past decade.
This is the wrong way to look at it, though. Not to sound mean but it's anachronism.
If you had told any of us on January 3, 2007 -
"Over the next 12 years, you're going to win 5 national championships, 7 SEC titles, have 2 Heisman winners, and play for the national championship SEVEN times....."
there ain't a Tide fan in the entire history of the world who would have said, "Oh, but how many times are we going to go undefeated?"
Go look at the records of the national champions during that time of unprecedented SEC dominance (2006-12). Florida's 2008 team was an all-time great squad, but they lost to Ole Miss. Alabama's 2011 team was the greatest CFB defense ever assembled.....and still lost to LSU at home. In fact, only 2009 Alabama and 2010 Auburn ran the gauntlet undefeated. And both VERY easily could have lost. We needed a miracle you never get to beat Tennessee (yes, FGs are blocked but TWO IN ONE QUARTER????), and Auburn hung from a thread seven times that year. It's VERY difficult to run that gauntlet.
Coach Bryant had only 3 unbeaten teams, only 2 of which actually won the national title. And part of what solidified our reputation with some folks is that almost every single year he had a single loss, it was to a team that was by far the toughest on the schedule that year (1964 Texas, 1971 Nebraska, 1973 Notre Dame, 1978 USC).
Saban has had only one, but Bryant (in the early years) had 10-game seasons where the bowls didn't apply while Saban has a 15-game season with a playoff and TWO solid foes to beat.
So........no, I didn't and don't worry about how many unbeaten seasons we've had. Sure, I'd like to win every game. The only two utterly devastating losses were 2011 LSU (and that was because the tornado had kind of galvanized everything and it was one of those healing things) and 2013 Auburn because of who it was and the circumstances. (If Auburn had lost to UGA, we'd have lost the IB and moved on and won a three-peat).