Alabama's unquestionably the #1 all-time cfb program. Your #2 through #5?

TideEngineer08

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Beautiful Cullman, AL
Did the players on the 61 team still play both ways or had they started platooning by then?

If they played both ways, wouldn't it be fair only if the 2017 team did the same which begs the question, would you want the 2017 offense playing defense or the 2017 defense playing offense?
Mostly both ways. I can't remember the rules on substitutions. But I know Lee Roy Jordan played offense and defense.
 

selmaborntidefan

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Did the players on the 61 team still play both ways or had they started platooning by then?

If they played both ways, wouldn't it be fair only if the 2017 team did the same which begs the question, would you want the 2017 offense playing defense or the 2017 defense playing offense?
The problem with this is that there are a LOT of things different from 1961 to 2017.

Freshmen didn't play
It was entirely a regional affair
It was primarily a running contest (the leading yardage passer in 1961 was Ron Miller....with 1,487, or Tua's total for 5 games last year, none of which he played in the fourth quarter)
Running means you play fewer plays (because the clock keeps running)
And there wasn't a single black player on either Alabama or their opponents


I surmise that if the 2017 team had to play both ways, they'd be far better at it.

In no way am I knocking the 1961 team, but the advances in medicine, training, and knowledge would make this a mismatch. It's not just CFB - it's this way in every single sport. There were Olympic records set in the early days that are easily attained by high school athletes today. Of course, that doesn't mean that every single player in 2017 is better than every single on in 1961, either.
 

selmaborntidefan

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Selma, I had no idea what our overall record was in the 80s. I knew it was decent but figured it was worse than you've listed for some reason. But knowing that its probably Auburn's greatest decade in their history, and then seeing our records were nearly identical, I'm quite surprised. Maybe Auburn views their recent run from about 2010 until now as better than the 80s. But at least until 2010, I would think that was their best decade overall. And we look at it as one of our worst, outside of 1997-2006.
It felt worse because Auburn was ranked #1 (1985), ranked higher than us most years, won 4 SEC titles right after Bryant passed away (and would have had yet another Sugar Bowl if Pat Dye hadn't outsmarted himself in the 84 Iron Bowl), and in all honesty should have won the 1983 title.

And I was obviously tired because I would rate us even lower than 11th after looking at it closer, probably as low as 15th.

From 1982-1989, Auburn beat us 6 out of 8, and the other two were Dye outsmarting himself and Tiffin hitting a miracle kick.


We were two plays from losing eight straight games to Auburn.
 

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