Alabama football history includes pivots, the result of major victories. One pivot came against Clemson in ’08, will there be another this year?
Alabama football fans have long memories. A person’s age is somewhat a variable in individual Crimson Tide memory banks. Legends though are timeless and transcend personal experience. Alabama football fans of all ages relive glories going back to Wallace Wade and a train trip across the country to win a Rose Bowl.
In the long painful seasons after Bear and before Stallings and after Bebes and before Nick, all we had were memories. Alabama football had a pivot point in 1959 when Bear beat Auburn for the first time. Three national championships in six seasons soon followed. There was another pivot in September 1971, when the Bear unveiled the wishbone and shocked USC in Los Angeles. Three more national championships followed before the end of the decade.
If in advanced age, I ever fail to remember what it was like in 2007 when Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa, I will look to Rick Bragg. In an August Sports Illustrated story titled In the Nick of Time, native Alabamian Bragg described Nick’s revival,
"They have welcomed him as Caesar, as pharaoh, and paid him enough money to burn a wet dog. Now he will take them forward by taking them back to the glory of their past—the 21 Southeastern Conference championships, the 12 national championships, the Team of the 20th Century (as The Wall Street Journal called the Crimson Tide in 2000)."
Nick told the Crimson nation he didn’t believe in predictions. The faithful did not care. As Bragg so succinctly stated, “they know he will take them home.”
We did ‘know’ and Nick did ‘take us home’ sooner than anyone could imagine. After a 7-6, 2007 season the pivot came quickly. In the first Chick-fil-A Kickoff game in 2008, an unranked Alabama football team was matched against No. 9, Clemson. The Tigers were being mentioned as national championship contenders.
Alabama football exploded to a 13-0 lead and extended to 23-3 at the half. The Tigers could not block Terrance Cody and Donta Hightower recovered a fumble on the second play from scrimmage. For the game, Clemson gained zero net yards rushing.
Julio Jones caught his first college touchdown pass. In his first college game, Mark Ingram rushed for almost 100 yards. The game was a blowout. It ended 34-10 and though it would not be known until several weeks later, it also ended Tommy Bowden’s coaching career.
Bowden called Nick Saban a couple of days later and asked how to bring his team back from the beatdown. What Nick told him is immaterial but can any Alabama football fan imagine Nick Saban or Bear Bryant or Gene Stallings making that kind of call? Such a thought is absurd. History tells me it would have been the same for Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas.
Bowden did not last the season and Dabo Swinney was named the interim coach. What Dabo has done after picking up the pieces of that team is exceptional. After a losing season in 2010, Clemson has won 10 or more games every year since. In that run, Dabo’s teams have won four ACC championships, one national championship and reached the CFB Playoff three straight seasons.
Both teams are looking for program defining success in the 2017-18 CFB Playoff. Alabama football looks to reclaim a championship lost to Clemson last season. Clemson looks to claim dynasty status by winning back-to-back championships.
As Rick Bragg understood, ‘home’ for Alabama football is national championships – and nothing less. Clemson seeks to paint orange Tiger paws across the map of college football as the new King.
As Paul Bryant said in a Legion Field locker room on a night long ago, “this just makes it perfect.”
Next: Will a victory over Clemson silence Tide haters?
Just for the record, the outcome after Bear’s locker room speech was not perfect. But his admonition to attack every challenge rings just as true today.