14 Till 14: Alabama’s 11 Can’t-Miss Stats For 2014

14 Till 2014 is a series of articles counting the days until Alabama kickoff, when we can finally watch real football instead of scrambling for every little 30-second practice video and analyzing Nick Saban’s every word, despite knowing he’s not going to give us that much information.

Just 11 more days until Alabama’s season opener, so it’s time to throw out some interesting stats and tidbits for this upcoming year.

1. Prior to 2013, last time Alabama lost back-to-back games was at the end of the 2008 season (Florida, Utah) and the last time they had a losing streak longer than two was 2007 (let’s not talk about that). Alabama hasn’t lost a season opener since 2001.

2. The Crimson Tide have reached No. 1 in the AP poll every season in the Saban era, except his first year in 2007. Alabama opened at No. 2 in the preseason poll for 2014.

3. T.J. Yeldon is 1,223 yards away from becoming Alabama’s all-time leading rusher. Shaun Alexander currently owns the record with 3,565 yards, but Yeldon has posted a better yards per carry average at 6.1, compared to Alexander’s 4.9 average.

4. After breaking a few freshman records that were famously held by Julio Jones, Amari Cooper is only four touchdowns away from the school receiving record (Dennis Homan, 18) and 1,188 receiving yards away from the school record (D.J. Hall, 2,923). Cooper only played in 11 games last season and suffered through some nagging foot injuries for most of the year.

5. Speaking of Cooper, in his 2 career games against Auburn the wide out posted 11 receptions 287 yards and 3 touchdowns. Safe to assume getting a healthy Amari Cooper the ball is a good idea this season.

6. 2010 may have been Alabama’s most stacked depth chart at RB in school history with Mark Ingram (875 yards 13 TDs), Trent Richardson (700 yards 6 TDs) and Eddie Lacy (406 yards 6 TDs). The trio combined for 1,981 yards and 25 TDs. All three backs were drafted in the 1st round over the next couple of years. Last season T.J. Yeldon (1,235 yards 14 TDs), Kenyan Drake (694 yards 8 TDs) and Derrick Henry (382 yards 3 TDs) combined for 2,311 yards and 25 TDs. All three players may not be drafted in the 1st round but they could become a historic trio this season.

7. Alabama hasn’t lost to Tennessee since 2006. I just really like this stat. The Crimson Tide also hasn’t lost to a school from the state of Mississippi since 2007.

8. There have been 54 All-Americans at Alabama, but only four players have received that honor twice (Terrence Cody, Leroy Cook, Barrett Jones, C.J. Mosley). There are no All-Americans on this year’s roster – yet.

9. Despite losing Kevin Norwood and Kenny Bell, Alabama still returns four of their top five players in receiving last season. O.J. Howard only posted 14 receptions. Just let it sink in.

10. Alabama has four preseason AP top 25 teams on their schedule. Florida and Mississippi State have a good chance of being ranked by the time their matchups come around as well. For comparison, Ohio St is currently only playing one ranked team, Florida State is playing two, and Oregon plays four.

11. Nick Saban has only lost back-to-back games to the same team once at Alabama. That would be against LSU in 2011 and 2012. Alabama would eventually defeat LSU in the national championship that same year.