Rolling with the Tide Part 2

2nd Half Stats

Beyond Gene

The team’s head coach was Mike DuBose, who was entering his first year at Alabama. They played their home games at both Bryant–Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa and in Birmingham, Alabama.

They competed in the West Division of the Southeastern Conference. Alabama would finish with a 4–7 record in suffering the program’s first losing season since the 1984 season.

The loss against Kentucky (their first to the Wildcats since 1922) marked Alabama’s first ever overtime game, as overtime rules for college football had gone into effect the previous season.

Improving their record in 1998, Coach brought us a 7-5 record and the appearance in the Music City Bowl, it also marked our first season overtime game against Ol’ Miss.

In 1999 Mike DuBose brought us great success with a 9-2 regular season record {7-1} in the SEC. A last second loss to Louisiana Tech at the start of the year and defeating Auburn at home for the first time ever were highlights of the season.

A SEC championship win over Florida lead to a meeting with Michigan in the 2000 Orange Bowl where we suffered a 35-34 loss in overtime due to a missed extra point. {Our Kickers right?}

Mike Shula took over in May of 2003 and stayed until 2007 and had a 26-23 record.

Fast Forward seven years

The Dynasty Refreshes

Exit Mike Shula after four years and welcome the much anticipated arrival of Nick Saban from the NFL’s Miami Dolphins where he landed after leaving LSU. The start of his tenure was pretty fair as we closed the regular season with a 6-6 record and a 4-4 record in the SEC.

But as we all know Nick grew us into not only a winning team but a total power house! Coach Saban believes “every minute counts” and “the little things matter.” In the same vein, Coach preached focusing on the process rather than the outcome.

Saban is known for his coaching tree. One look at that tree shows he didn’t just hire people similar to him (Exhibit A: Lane Kiffin); he hired those with strengths he didn’t have, creating a vast knowledge base aimed at one goal: winning.

Proofs in the Pudding

Under Nick Saban, Alabama spent 109 total weeks as the AP Poll’s No. 1 team — that’s over two years.
Seven national championships, the most by a Head Coach (2003, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020).
292-72-1 collegiate record as a head coach
Two Paul Bryant Coach of the Year, Five SEC Coach of the Year Awards,
Saban had more players selected in the first round of the NFL Draft (44) than he had losses with the Crimson Tide (29).
Last but not least: Every player who was recruited by Saban and played for four years at Alabama won a national title.

Out of 28 head coaches in Alabama 4 have made it into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Wade
Thomas
Braynt
Stallings

Nick Saban will undoubtably be on this list soon as he is and will be the G.O.A.T.

Pass Complete

As Alabama moves forward into the possibilities of a new realm it is unknown what we have in store. I place faith in our new coach. He has shown he has what it takes to get to the final game.

Might we be looking at a new “Tide” in Alabama, most definitely. Moving into the future I see more attention put on the offence rather than the defense by our head coach but I also see a coach that respects tradition and has both sides of the field covered.

ROLL TIDE !

until next time –