2020 Alabama Football the greatest team of all time

After the Tide’s recent College Football Playoff National Championship win, the debate began as to whether 2019 LSU Tigers or 2020 Alabama Football was the “greatest team of all time.”

Alabama football fans will agree, what LSU accomplished last year was impressive. The Tigers had an undefeated season, Heisman Trophy winner, SEC Championship, and impressive wins in their CFB Playoff semi-final and National Championship games. After these impressive feats, many considered the Tigers to be the greatest college football team ever… that is until 2020 rolled around.

The Alabama Football team put together a similar resume in 2020 with an undefeated season, Heisman Trophy winner, SEC Championship, and dominating College Football Playoff semi-final and National Championship victories. Thus, the debate began, which team is the greatest college football team of all time- 2019 LSU or 2020 Alabama?

The team’s had eerily similar characteristics… a quarterback who was counted out and doubted with an unexpected rise to fame, a dual-threat running back who could beat you with his legs or hands as a receiver, a remarkable wide-receiver putting up video-game stats, a stout offensive line, a defense who steadily improved as the season progressed, a breakout freshman defensive back, among others.

It seems unusual to have two, story-book years, from two different teams in consecutive years. The teams’ stats were remarkably similar as well.

While the Tigers had the edge in Top 25 wins and yards-per-game, the Tide came out on top in average margin of victory, points-per-game, and player awards.

The similarities continue with Mac Jones breaking Joe Burrow’s record for passing yards in a national championship game by one yard and edging out Burrow with the highest-graded season.

LSU’s Ja’Marr Chase had the advantage over DeVonta Smith for the receiving yards record for a national title game… although Chase’s 221 yards came in the entire game, while Smith racked up his 215 yards in just a half.

Despite the similarities and considering the context of the season, the Tide’s accomplishments seem a little more impressive.

As a result of playing in a global pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, the Tide dealt with many obstacles the Tigers did not… daily COVID-19 testing for players, coaches, and staff, improvised bubble environments, minimal visits with family and friends outside the football team, losing key players and coaches for games due to exposure or illness, virtually empty stadiums, last-minute game cancellations, and an all-SEC schedule.

Accomplishing what the Tide did among these challenging circumstances is far more impressive than a “normal” season. The buy-in and commitment from the players to make this season a reality was remarkable.

In 2019, LSU edged out the Alabama Football team by five points. However, 2019 Alabama and 2020 Alabama were very different teams. In 2019 against LSU, the Tide had a quarterback fighting through an injury and a much weaker offensive line and a terribly inexperienced defense… and they only lost by 5 points.

After seeing what 2020 Alabama had with an unstoppable offense and a much-improved defense, 2020 Alabama would get the best of 2019 LSU in what would be an absolute shootout, first-to-100 type game. Vegas would stand to agree that the Tide would come out on top. We can all add that to the list of impossible things we would like to see.

The fact that the SEC, in consecutive seasons, has produced two teams that could vie for the title “greatest team of all time” is unbelievable. Given the evidence, it is clear that 2020 Alabama Football is truly college football’s GOAT.