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What were Alabama's best teams that didn't win a national championship? Your top 5?

81usaf92

81usaf92

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crimsonaudio said:
Hard to not consider 2010 - that team was just stacked with crazy talent, but they lost their fire after reaching the mountaintop in 2009.
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I just didn’t want to say 2010 because it sparks the endless debate of that being Saban’s Worst team since 2008. I personally think it’s one of his better and probably even a better team than the one that won the National Championship the year prior.
 
BamaNation

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I agree with Selma on the 89 team. That was a fun team to watch and had some of my favorite players who have played during my lifetime and were incredibly talented. However, I wouldn't put it in the top 5 of Bama teams not having won a championship. I was a freshman at Bama that year so this may have skewed my views over the last 30 years :D
 
selmaborntidefan

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81usaf92 said:
It’s more that we lost to Auburn in a game played anywhere else we probably win and got jobbed against Miami.
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But that still fails to take the entire season into account.

We struggled against Vandy, ULL, and Kentucky.
We fell into a pit against Ole Miss.
We were just plain lucky to beat 8-3-1 Penn State.

I'm guessing the whole "if that game was played anywhere else" nonsense comes from the fact that every single opponent that we and Auburn both played - we beat by more points.

The fact is, Auburn led that game, 27-10, with 9:36 remaining. There's no amount of excuses, oh buts, or anything else that justifies that - not even "oh, but Auburn had 12 men on the field in the first quarter."


Now....let me clarify something.......if you put a BETTER HEAD COACH on the sidelines......we could potentially be there. I'll go that far.

Curry's inept coaching - a fake FG early against Auburn, not taking the points at the end of the first half against Penn St (nearly cost us the game) - he got bailed out by some good players.


It was a GOOD team, and Gary Hollingsworth 1989 is one of my favorite all-time Tide players. In fact - it was a good enough team that if Derrick Thomas was on it......and a different coach.....it IS a national championship team.


But they didn't underachieve on the basis of what they were, either. They were just about right.
 
selmaborntidefan

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crimsonaudio said:
Hard to not consider 2010 - that team was just stacked with crazy talent, but they lost their fire after reaching the mountaintop in 2009.
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I don't know if I totally agree with the claim they "lost their fire," although that's an argument that could realistically be made.

I think it was:
a) facing all those foes who had an extra week to prepare
b) getting everyone's best shot because we were the defending champs
c) peaking too early in the year
d) injuries (Ingram missed early games and Barron's and McElroy's didn't help in the Auburn game)

I guess I'd concur with what you're saying, but I'd rank it below all of those other factors.

2010 was a good team that got handed too many mountains.
 
NationalTitles18

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BamaNation said:
I agree with Selma on the 89 team. That was a fun team to watch and had some of my favorite players who have played during my lifetime and were incredibly talented. However, I wouldn't put it in the top 5 of Bama teams not having won a championship. I was a freshman at Bama that year so this may have skewed my views over the last 30 years :D
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That was my "first" freshman year. (long story) I wish I had enjoyed it more.

selmaborntidefan said:
But that still fails to take the entire season into account.

We struggled against Vandy, ULL, and Kentucky.
We fell into a pit against Ole Miss.
We were just plain lucky to beat 8-3-1 Penn State.

I'm guessing the whole "if that game was played anywhere else" nonsense comes from the fact that every single opponent that we and Auburn both played - we beat by more points.

The fact is, Auburn led that game, 27-10, with 9:36 remaining. There's no amount of excuses, oh buts, or anything else that justifies that - not even "oh, but Auburn had 12 men on the field in the first quarter."


Now....let me clarify something.......if you put a BETTER HEAD COACH on the sidelines......we could potentially be there. I'll go that far.

Curry's inept coaching - a fake FG early against Auburn, not taking the points at the end of the first half against Penn St (nearly cost us the game) - he got bailed out by some good players.


It was a GOOD team, and Gary Hollingsworth 1989 is one of my favorite all-time Tide players. In fact - it was a good enough team that if Derrick Thomas was on it......and a different coach.....it IS a national championship team.


But they didn't underachieve on the basis of what they were, either. They were just about right.
Click to expand...
I didn't appreciate at the time how good that team was, despite its shortcomings. To be fair, the original question was not about underachievement.

selmaborntidefan said:
I don't know if I totally agree with the claim they "lost their fire," although that's an argument that could realistically be made.

I think it was:
a) facing all those foes who had an extra week to prepare
b) getting everyone's best shot because we were the defending champs
c) peaking too early in the year
d) injuries (Ingram missed early games and Barron's and McElroy's didn't help in the Auburn game)

I guess I'd concur with what you're saying, but I'd rank it below all of those other factors.

2010 was a good team that got handed too many mountains.
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The biggest mountain was believing their own press (rat poison).
 
81usaf92

81usaf92

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2010 is the 2nd best Saban team not to win a title and it mostly has to do with the scardy cat SEC having bye weeks before playing us. Only Arkansas was man enough to change their bye week. This is one of a million good reasons that I say “screw the SEC”.
 
GP for Bama

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1945... 10-0
1962... 10-1
1966... 11-0
1974... 11-1
1975... 11-1
1977... 11-1
1994... 12-1
2016... 14-1
2018...14-1

Sorry... I couldn't stop at just 5.

3 more honorable mentions... 1989, 2010, 2013.
 
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Crimson1967

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Just to throw out another year, we led Florida in the fourth quarter in the SEC championship.


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teamplayer

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I think Mac Jones is pretty solid. It seems that some do not have much confidence in him and expect one of the freshmen to pass him, but I will still be surprised if Jones isn't our number two guy.
 
Lovthablues

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1966 Best team in the country, 1945 Bama vs Army would have been a great game, 1973 the best team barely lost, 1977 Bama got screwed by the polls, 2016 don't even want to talk about it, had it in our grasp! …. 2018 no way, getting beat 44-16 they shouldn't even be in this conversation!
 
bamaga

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Tide Rev said:
Add 1977 team that beat Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl and got jumped in polls by ND.
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First year that came to mind, oh and ‘66. How can the 2 time defending champion go undefeated and not win the title! Nevermind, Notre Dame.
 
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I don't know about a top 5 but one team that gets no recognition is the 1975 team that lost it's opener to Missouri 7-20 but then reeled off 11 wins beating Penn State 13-6 in the Sugar Bowl. that defense gave up 72 points for a 6 point per game average but after the Missouri game they averaged giving up only 4.72 points per game.
 
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hollisx4

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I know the 2010 Team lost 3 games but they're my pick.

I was there when Bama beat Michigan State in the Bowl game in Orlando.

That was the most dominating performance from a Bama team I've personally ever witnessed and MSU was a really good team that year. We could have easily scored 100 if CNS had wanted to.

If memory serves correctly, MSU was Big 10 Co-Champs and Kirk Cousins was the MSU QB that year.
 
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