By Kyle Golik
Editor’s Note: With today’s news of Coach Saban’s retirement, we felt it was appropriate to rerun this story, highlights some of the GOAT’s greatest moments at Alabama.
Nick Saban’s historic run at Alabama defies conventional performance, considering the 28 championships he has won at Alabama: six national championships, nine SEC championships, and 13 SEC West division championships. Those 28 match the total number of losses Alabama has had under Saban in 17 seasons with the Crimson Tide.
Along the way, throughout all the success Saban has achieved at Alabama, there have been times when Saban has to outwit and motivate his team to secure victory for the Crimson Tide.
We rank the Top 5 coach moments Saban has had at Alabama.
#5: 2020 Season
COVID-19 & A Full SEC slate
As the world was dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, there wasn’t a unified method to combat the disease, but at Alabama, it was when The Process was tested the most, with much hysteria running across the nation.
More Sports News
Once it was established there would be football played in the SEC, the new wrinkle for that season would be a 10-game SEC only schedule.
This was a schedule Alabama wasn’t going to miss anybody in the SEC. Their regular season schedule included the full SEC West and playing Georgia in the regular season.
Behind an offensive trio of quarterback Mac Jones, who set the NCAA record for completion percentage at 77.4%, running back Najee Harris, who won the Doak Walker Award while leading the nation with 26 touchdowns, and Heisman Trophy-winning wide receiver DeVonta Smith, who had 117 receptions for 1,856 yards, and 23 touchdowns. Together, the potent Crimson Tide offense averaged 48.5 points per game.
The Tide won every way imaginable that season, whether it was shootouts with Ole Miss and Florida in the SEC Championship Game, or sheer domination that they displayed in the College Football Playoff against Notre Dame and Ohio State.
Considering how everyone across the nation was impacted, even Saban contracted COVID-19. The Process withstood many challenges and dominated like no other team did that year.
#4: Onside Kick Against Clemson
2016 National Championship Game
Earlier in the 2015 season, Alabama lost its second consecutive game to Ole Miss in a 43-37 game that went back and forth. Alabama’s five turnovers certainly did not help, but it was a situation Saban realized that was a game they should have attempted to steal a possession from Ole Miss to get that game.
Fast forward to the 2016 National Championship Game against a nationally upstart Clemson Tigers team that would be a worthy rival for the rest of the decade against Alabama.
Clemson would outgain the Crimson Tide 550 to 473, but Saban realized this see-saw battle needed to end, and stealing a possession would be key. With the game tied at 24 in the fourth quarter with 10:34 remaining, the Crimson Tide called for the surprise onside kick. When Marlon Humphrey made the recovery, it was the momentum and possession Alabama needed to defeat Clemson 45-40.
#3: 2009 and 2023 SEC Title Games
Thwarting Potential Florida and Georgia Dynasties
Entering the 2009 season, the University of Florida was attempting to match a feat last accomplished by Nebraska from 1994 to 1997 of winning three national championships in four seasons.
The Gators core was back under coach Urban Meyer with quarterback Tim Tebow, tight end Aaron Hernandez, offensive lineman Mike & Maurkice Pouncey, defensive lineman Carlos Dunlap, linebacker Brandon Spikes, and cornerback Joe Haden. Their offense averaged 36.5 points, while the defense allowed a paltry 9.8 points per game.
Aside from one week, the Florida Gators resided at No. 1 and were poised to play for another national championship. The previous season, Alabama and Florida sparred for the SEC Championship, with the No. 1 Crimson Tide falling to Florida 31-20.
In the 2009 edition of the SEC Championship Game, it was another No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, with Saban’s Crimson Tide coming in at No. 2.
In a game where the Crimson Tide never trailed, Game MVP Greg McElroy was efficient, and eventual Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram had 113 yards and three touchdowns. The Crimson Tide shattered Tebow and Florida’s dreams of becoming a dynasty.
The 2023 edition of the Crimson Tide may become the greatest single season coaching job Saban ever had. How his staff morphed quarterback Jalen Milroe from a much-maligned starter earlier in the season, being benched against USF, to becoming the undeniable leader under center for the Crimson Tide. As a voter for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award, these reasons are why Nick Saban got my first-place vote.
Much like their 2009 counterparts, the 2023 team entered the SEC Championship Game against a Georgia team that had won two consecutive national championships and 29 games in a row.
Despite injuries that plagued tight end Brock Bowers and wide receiver Ladd McConkey’s seasons, the Bulldogs overcame and rose to the occasion. Alabama simply dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and Milroe made big plays when Alabama absolutely needed them.
After Georgia took a 7-0 lead on its opening possession, Alabama stormed back in the second quarter and never relinquished the lead again. Saban’s ability to coach up both the 2009 and 2023 squads against opponents aspiring to be dynasties will always be signature moments in his career
#2: 2018 CFP National Championship Game
Benching Hurts for Tua
Trailing 13-0 at the half against No. 4 Georgia, who was seeking their first national championship since 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia, Saban may have made arguably his gutsiest call when he decided to bench starter Jalen Hurts for the freshman phenom Tua Tagovailoa to start the second half.
In the first half, Hurts was only able to guide Alabama to a missed FG opportunity, 3 three-and-out drives, and 89 yards of total offense. Enter Tagovailoa under center, and while the first drive didn’t go to script, another three-and-out, Tagovailoa settled in and would complete 14 of 24 passing for 166 yards and three touchdowns, the last touchdown pass becoming the ultimate walk-off in college football history.
In overtime, after Georgia’s Jonathan Ledbetter sacked Tagovailoa back to the 41-yard line, it seemed Georgia was on the precipice of their first national championship. On the ensuing play, the ultimate dagger, Tagovailoa connected with DeVonta Smith for the game-winning touchdown.
“I could not believe it,” Saban said after the game. “There’s lots of highs and lows. Last year we lost on the last play of the game and this year we won on the last play of the game. These kids really responded the right way. We said last year, `Don’t waste the feeling.’ They sure didn’t, the way they played tonight.”
The courage to go a true freshman, who hadn’t seen any on-field action in several weeks, and the action he saw was pure mop-up duty, put him in the biggest situation of the season. For it to pay off is not only a top moment for Saban but any coaching decision of all time.
#1: 2012 BCS National Championship Game
Absolute Redemption Against LSU
The word absolute has many definitions; absolute can be used to prove something is universally valid or to generally emphasize an opinion.
The nature in which Alabama made the BCS National Championship Game in the 2011 season is still controversial and could be argued as controversial as the most recent Florida State omission of the College Football Playoff. Oklahoma State had one loss to Iowa State in the regular season (in defense to OSU, the deaths of two basketball coaches in a plane crash shook the Cowboy community to the core) but still managed to win the Big XII Championship.
The “virtual CFP Committee,” then known as the BCS algorithm, determined an SEC West rematch was worthy of the BCS National Championship. In the earlier matchup, it was a “Game of Century,” with No. 1 LSU winning the defensive slugfest over No. 2 Alabama in overtime 9-6.
The BCS National Championship Game rematch was arguably the greatest defensive performance in a major game I have ever seen in four decades of watching the sport.
Consider: LSU did not cross the 50 yard line until midway through the fourth quarter and only ran five total plays on Alabama’s side of the field.
“That was the message before the game: to finish,” Saban said. “In fact, it was how bad do you want to finish? We certainly didn’t play a perfect game, we got a field goal blocked, we couldn’t find the end zone for a long time, but we just kept playing.”
This defensive coaching opus, Saban’s forte, and bringing the absolute redemption that it is universally accepted now Alabama deserved to be there.
It also set the precedent that if Alabama was even remotely close to participating in a championship or playoff, the committee wouldn’t be let down by Alabama, and that committee would be vindicated in selecting the Crimson Tide because Saban would have a coaching opus for them.
For this game, Saban crafted a defense to limit an offense that had Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, Reuben Randle, Spencer Ware, and Alfred Blue to 92 yards of total offense and five total plays on Alabama’s side of the 50. Like our No. 2 moment, it was also a de facto home game for the opponent as this was in the Superdome in New Orleans, the way Alabama dominated this game. This was Saban’s best coaching moment ever.
