🏈 Crimson Chapters: An oral history of Alabama's 2014 season

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TideSports.com has collected all the stories and re-lived the key moments of Alabama's 2014 season. In a 12-part series, we'll take you from the preseason to the battle for the starting quarterback job to Ole Miss, the run to the SEC Championship and more.

Chapter 1: 110 degrees (preseason)

Tommy Deas

The University of Alabama football team entered the 2014 season coming off back-to-back losses - to rival Auburn in crushing fashion on the game's last play and to Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl - to end the previous season.

There were so many questions: Who would start at quarterback? How would the Crimson Tide replace so many departed starters? What aftereffects would linger from the collapse at the end of the previous season? And what kind of impact would new offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin have?

There was one sure thing as UA started fall camp in August: It was going to be like every other Alabama summer.

Austin Shepherd, senior offensive tackle:
Hot. Alabama heat.

Reggie Ragland, junior linebacker:
Out there in the heat, everybody's tired, but then you see guys like Jarran Reed, Xzavier Dickson, and you see them getting everybody together: All right, yeah, we know it's hot but we've got to fight through it because that's the type of team we want to be. We've got to be able to fight through things. With the Alabama heat, you've got to fight through the heat. And Coach Saban.

Nick Saban, head coach:
Content people are not the kind of people we want on our team or in our organization. We want competitive people who want to compete every day.

Butch Davis, former college and NFL coach:
I was in Tuscaloosa in August to see Alabama practice. Obviously I had heard a lot about Nick Saban's organization, attention to detail and all those kinds of things before I had gotten there. It was fun because everything I had heard about the way in which they practice and the way things were organized absolutely was exactly what it had been perceived to be.

The hot preseason had even more buzz with Lane Kiffin taking the reins
Shepherd:
I always knew this team was going to be good because of how we worked in camp. Everybody was always hard working, nobody was complaining even when it was 110 outside. Everyone was still trying to grind. You could tell that they were going to fight and never quit.

Davis:
Prior to being there we had gone to Auburn and we'd gone to Florida State, and they were playing music and rap music during preps and stretch. Nick was a little bit more old school, more of a traditional just focusing on football.

Jonathan Allen, sophomore defensive lineman:
Hot, 110 degrees hot. Camp's a grind. It really tests your love for football. Camp is hard, but it's not supposed to be easy.

Xzavier Dickson, senior linebacker:
Very hot. Hot and long. Of course, that helps. It'll get you built. Other teams aren't prepared for it. It makes you mentally tough. And physically tough, too.

Davis:
I liked the fact that they were physical in practice. Some of the practices we saw (at other schools), they were not very physical. The energy level, they were just professional. They just went about their business and the work at hand. The kids were upbeat. You could tell that the culture and the environment was a by-product of an awful lot of years of success.

Fall camp is also a time when talent emerges. A key position for Alabama was left tackle, where the Crimson Tide had to replace Cyrus Kouandjio, who had departed for the National Football League. Cam Robinson, a raw 6-foot-6, 323-pound freshman, would lock down the position and start every game.

DeAndrew White, senior receiver:
Wow, just wow. He's a big athlete. I haven't seen a lineman like him that's that young, ever.

Shepherd:
Big ol' boy. We recruited him for a reason, obviously to come in and play, so I knew he was going to be good.

Arie Kouandjio, senior guard:
He had a lot of physical similarities to my brother (Cyrus) and I thought he was a cool guy. Left tackle's one of the money positions, right? It's one of the hardest positions at least on the offensive line, and all the offense. For him to do that as a freshman is awesome.

White:
Cam's a different breed, man. He's a different kind.

Shepherd:
I don't think I could have done that from day one. It just shows how good he is. Most people can't come into the SEC and do that.

The hiring of Kiffin to run Alabama's offense raised eyebrows across the college football landscape. He became a lightning rod in the SEC for brash comments he made during his one season as head coach at Tennessee, and was unceremoniously fired midway through his fourth year at Southern Cal. UA players, however, warmed to him immediately.

Blake Sims, senior quarterback:
I was very happy. I got recruited by him (when Kiffin was at Tennessee). I knew some things about him that other people didn't, and I knew he was going to come to the University of Alabama and help us right away.

Amari Cooper, junior receiver:
I didn't know much about Coach Kiffin except that he threw the ball a lot. You get really excited as a receiver. Any position - receiver, running back - you want the ball in your hands.

Lane Kiffin, offensive coordinator:
The phone wasn't ringing a lot. That's the reality. Regardless of (how) we all see ourselves in a different view a lot of times than others, I thought, well, OK, probably not going to get a head coaching job, but it will be easy to get an offensive coordinator job because of what we've done before and places we've been.

Davis:
I asked some questions on the sideline, "Did Lane Kiffin just completely bring in his entire offensive stuff?" And they said, "Oh, no, no, no, no." It was pretty much everything that they had been doing previously, prior to Lane being there, as far as terminology, protections, all the numbering system and that kind of stuff, especially in the running game. It completely stayed the same.

Sims:
His personality, he interacts with his players very well. He's a hard worker. I know a lot of people doubt him (at) certain places he has been (but) I knew he was going to come in and do the right thing.

Davis:
They said Lane's biggest addition at that particular time was that he was able to incorporate some of the passing concepts, bringing in some of the West Coast (offense) concepts of moving people around, which obviously manifested itself over the course of the season where Amari Cooper was never in exactly the same place - a lot of the things creatively that they did to keep people from taking him away.

Kiffin:
(Saban) called. He took a chance. I know he thought a lot about it.

Saban:
Look, there's no doubt, there hasn't ever been any doubt, about how good a coach Lane Kiffin is when it comes to coaching players, being an offensive coordinator, being a play-caller.

Alabama was ranked No. 2 going into the season by the Associated Press and in the coaches' poll. As they worked their way through preseason practices, Alabama coaches and players began to get an idea of what kind of team they had on both sides of the ball.

Saban:
Our situation is a lot different this year than it's been the last couple of years when we were coming off successful seasons, championship seasons. Having lost our last two games last year, I think it's a little different mind set with our players.

Kirby Smart, defensive coordinator:
To be honest with you, I thought we were going to be pretty good. We had more depth up front. If we didn't lose any linebackers I thought we'd be OK because we don't have much depth there. I really thought we'd play better in the secondary.

White:
I had faith in the offense. Man, I knew we would come together. We just at first had to find our identity.

Davis:
My first impression when I watched guys walk out of the locker room and stuff was that this was a team on the hoof that completely passed the eye test. You went around to each of the individual groups and you said, gosh, great looking defensive linemen, a terrific group of running backs, and so on.

Saban:
We have to establish our identity as a team at Alabama. It's going to take every player to have a tremendous amount of buy-in for us to do that.

Nick Perry, senior safety:
This group here, not a lot of us came in starting right away. We all had to work to get our spots on the field and a lot of us were on the third team, second team and scout team together. So we just formed that bond.

Sean Landry and Kelly Ward contributed to this report.

- See more at: https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=885&CID=1723808#sthash.TfB0EmHU.dpuf

 

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Chapter 2 - West Virginia: Uneven Opener

Tommy Deas

The University of Alabama won its season opener, defeating West Virginia 33-23 in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
But it wasn't pretty.

The Crimson Tide gave up 365 passing yards and looked confused at times with inside linebacker Trey DePriest, the team's defensive play-caller, sitting out due to a suspension. UA, however, gave up just one touchdown to West Virginia's hurry-up, no-huddle offense, with the other points coming on a kickoff return and field goals.

Blake Sims made his first start at quarterback and played every snap. He passed for 250 yards, but threw an interception and didn't complete a touchdown pass. T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry each topped the 100-yard rushing mark.

Alabama didn't play with the polish one might expect of a team ranked No. 2 in the preseason, but it was a start.

Blake Sims, senior quarterback:
The first game just trying to get the feel, the first college game, I'm trying to convince my players that Coach Saban made the right decision and I can go out there and play, and just let them know that I can be a great leader for this team.

Nick Saban, head coach: :
He called a couple formations wrong in the huddle, he called a couple plays wrong. There was some confusion on the field.

Sims:
It wasn't my best game. That's the best game I can go back and look on and see what I could get better on.

Lane Kiffin, offensive coordinator:
Really I think we probably did a poorer job at times early from a coaching standpoint of calling the game best for him.

T.J. Yeldon, junior running back:
He came out with a lot of doubters and stuff and it was the Chick-fil-A (Kickoff Game), it was a big stage for him, and I feel like he did a great job of doing that and handling the quarterback situation.

Saban:
For him to throw for 250 yards, he did a pretty good job of executing all in all and I'm happy with his progress.

Kiffin:
I do believe our system is very quarterback-friendly. It's a system that does not take a long time to learn. And so guys can in the first year of it perform well, or if they're young players that you bring in can play really well.

AJ McCarron, former UA quarterback:
Awesome, unbelievable game for him. I'm Blake's biggest fan.

Most of Sims' completions were on short throws. Amari Cooper caught 12 passes for 130 yards to kick off a campaign that would see him finish third in Heisman Trophy balloting, with much of his production coming on quick-toss screen passes. Sims threw a wobbly ball on a deep pass that fell incomplete with Cooper wide open on a fourth-down play.

Sims:
I knew that was an opportunity for one of my teammates to get a touchdown. I know I could make that throw.

Amari Cooper, junior wide receiver:
In the beginning of the season a lot of corners played back, so the screen's already built into the run (play call), so if Blake sees it open he'll just throw it. That's how that went.

Alabama's defense looked chaotic at times with Reggie Ragland making the start in DePriest's place, taking on the responsibility of making the play calls.

Reggie Ragland, junior linebacker:
It was my first game really getting to play and seeing how it feels out there. West Virginia put a good pace on us, it was very fast at first.

Kirby Smart, defensive coordinator:
It was kind of thrust upon him in the first game.

Ragland:
Looking up, trying to see where you had to cut to and seeing the receivers moving fast and me not moving as fast, I was kind of slow and sluggish. I was doing so much thinking, it was hurting me at first.

Smart:
I thought we could have made it simpler for them. I could have made it simpler for them.

Trey DePriest, senior linebacker:
It was upsetting. I never watched a game (instead of playing), but I apologized to my teammates before it and after that just moved on. I was thinking that, man, it could be taken away. I knew I wasn't done playing, but sitting out that one game just really did make me appreciate it a lot.

Smart:
I kind of knew West Virginia we would struggle with Trey being out and this guy's first start in that kind of atmosphere away from home in the dome. We struggled a little bit, which I thought it would be that way.

Dana Holgorsen, West Virginia coach:
It's frustrating. You play against a really good team and you're in position in the fourth quarter to be able to win the game. I mean you don't have those opportunities very often.

Clint Trickett, West Virginia quarterback:
We really had the confidence that we were going to compete.

Saban:
I thought this game was going to go exactly like it went.

https://www.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=885&CID=1723812

 

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Chapter 3: Quarterback Competition

Tommy Deas

The biggest mystery coming into the University of Alabama's 2014 football season was who would play quarterback. With the departure of three-year starter AJ McCarron for the National Football League after a collegiate career that saw him win two national championships, the Crimson Tide faced a void under center. No clear leader emerged during spring practice, and Jake Coker entered the mix after transferring from Florida State, where he had backed up Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston during FSU's run to the national championship. Coker came to UA with a lot of hype and was practically anointed as the starter in media reports before fall practice even began. It came down to Blake Sims and Coker competing for the starting nod. Many were surprised when Sims played every snap in UA's season-opening victory over West Virginia, but the two candidates split snaps in early-September games against Florida Atlantic and Southern Miss before Sims finally settled as the clear winner.

Nick Saban, head coach:
I would like to see somebody take the bull by the horns from a leadership standpoint, a consistency standpoint and win the job here sometime. But we're not going to make a decision until somebody does that.

Lane Kiffin, offensive coordinator:
From the first day we got here there were a lot of questions about Blake, how he would perform, whether he was even a quarterback. Brought in a transfer that the assumption was that the transfer, Jake, would be the starting quarterback.
And never once did Blake bring that up. Never once did he question that. All he did was go to work.

Jake Coker, junior quarterback:
Blake's always been really good to me. He was the first guy to come up to me and welcome me to the program and introduce himself on my visits. He's a special guy.

Blake Sims, senior quarterback:
Even when that stuff was going on, we just stayed as mutual friends. We're very good friends. We didn't stop talking to each other when (the competition) was going on, we helped each other out.

Former college and NFL coach Butch Davis visited Alabama practice in August in his role as an ESPN analyst, and kept a close eye on the quarterback play. Davis:
At the time, just in throwing the ball and doing seven-on-seven (drills) - nothing to do with any kind of pressure or blitz periods or those kinds of things - I actually went there expecting to see a team that maybe had no idea or maybe didn't even have a quarterback. I left thinking that they had two potential really good quarterbacks.

Nick Perry, senior safety:
We made our mission to go out there and make each quarterback, put him in the worst position possible and make their day miserable. That's what they're going to get on Saturdays, so we didn't take it easy on anybody.

DeAndrew White, senior wide receiver:
Before Jake got here I didn't know what he could do or what all he was capable of. I'd heard of him. When he got here it was a great competition, both of them competed very good.

Davis:
That particular day I thought Jacob Coker really threw the ball extraordinarily well. His deep balls and a lot of things that he did, he probably that day maybe outperformed or looked like he had a little bit better day than Blake Sims did.

Perry:
We didn't pick sides (in practice), we just wanted to go out and make plays on the ball. If Blake was throwing the ball, I'm trying to intercept it or I'm trying to sack Blake. If Jake Coker's throwing throwing the ball, I'm trying to pick it off. We were doing the same thing to both of them. As a defense we're all playing our best and trying to see which one is truly the best quarterback.

Coker got the majority of repetitions in fall camp by design, to give coaches a feel for what he could do. Sims impressed his peers and the staff with his attitude.

Kiffin:
It was interesting because obviously we didn't have Jake right away. It's almost like being in the NFL and having some veterans and then having a draft pick that's not there yet, or someone that you trade for. So it wasn't really a battle right away. Really, Blake got his opportunity in the spring, Jake got more of an opportunity in the fall.

Coker:
I came in there in May and I was working on getting that playbook down from the beginning. Really until you start practicing and going full speed, it's nothing like staring at plays (on paper) and looking at film.

Kiffin:
There were times when (Sims) was getting less reps than Jake was, which is very difficult for a quarterback to accept after having been here for four years, going on his fifth year. All Blake did was respond by practicing, preparing like the starting quarterback and worrying about what he could control.

Davis:
You don't know behind the scenes leadership and familiarity with the offense and all the things that come with that. You stay and watch 15 days (of practice) and you may come away with a different perception.

Sims:
How I looked at it was take my weakness and try to turn it into my strengths, and how can I better myself and my teammates.

Coker:
I just went out and practiced the same as I did at Florida State. It's just part of it. When it comes down to it, it's just football.

Sims emerged as the starter for the season opener. His stronger performance in the final preseason scrimmage might have been the deciding factor.

White:
Blake had a pretty good scrimmage. Coker kind of had a couple of errors here or there.

Kiffin:
Coach (Saban) obviously is very hands-on. Every day there is communication about reps and what we're doing. Ultimately it was his decision as head coach, like all the positions, to go with Blake.

Coker:
I guess you learn patience. That's one of the biggest things you can learn, and I guess just staying focused. You can't lose the focus because you never know when you're going to get called to go in there.

Davis:
When they started the season and Blake was the quarterback, you made the assumption that Blake got it because of he's been here for the longer period of time, the other players he's probably popular in the locker room, guys like him, he's got a little bit more mobility than Jacob Coker that allows him to extend plays and stuff.

You just assume in week one, from an analyst's standpoint, this is why they chose him.

The competition, however, wasn't over yet. Each quarterback got his chance in the Florida Atlantic and Southern Miss games. Sims completed 24 of 31 attempts for 396 yards and four touchdowns over the two games, while Coker completed 20 of 31 passes for 248 yards and a touchdown. Neither threw an interception.

Kiffin:
The plan was to play both guys whether it was that (West Virginia) game or the first couple of games. We were going to play them both almost as if it was like you would in the NFL in preseason, not that we were playing lesser opponents but that we want to see both play.

Coker:
It was a new experience trying to get comfortable with everybody and plays and timing and everything like that, getting a lot thrown on you, but I feel like I got pretty comfortable.

Sims:
I just got a lot of confidence and tried to change some things up and tried to be more calm in the pocket.

Kiffin:
Blake really just took off and ran with it.

Perry:
He's one of the most liked guys on the team. He's definitely one of my favorite teammates out there. He's a team player.

Coker:
There was obviously a lot of hype during the offseason, and you can't help but pull for the guy: one of the best dudes, it's his fifth year, last year, you just can't help pulling for the guy.

Arie Kouandjio, senior offensive lineman:
He's had to go against a bunch of naysayers and a bunch of negativity. Those kind of things are sometimes hard to deal with as a player when everybody in the world is talking down on you for no reason.

Coker:
I got every opportunity.

Davis:
As the season went along you saw him get better and better and performing under pressure - and the season that they ended up having - you could clearly say that they made the right decision.

White:
I think the coaches made the best choice for the team.

Coker didn't win the starting job, but he got another opportunity when Sims was shaken up in Alabama's victory over Florida in the fourth game of the season. Coker came off the bench to finish an important touchdown drive late in the third quarter, throwing a 4-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper for his only completion.

Coker:
It meant a lot to me, but it's pretty easy handing off to T.J. (Yeldon) and Derrick (Henry) a lot of that drive. It's nice having two guys who can run the ball and you've got guys up front who can block the way they block. Then I just toss it up to an All-American.

Sims:
I think he's a great guy and I think he's going to be a great quarterback. He's going to get even better for going through this whole year in the system.

Saban:
I thought Jake did a great job when Blake got hurt and he went in there. He finished the drive and ended up scoring a touchdown on that drive, which was at a critical time in the game as well.

Coker:
It was fun, it was definitely an experience. It was really important to the team, it was important to me. It was a special moment.

https://www.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=885&CID=1723814

 

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Chapter 4 - Florida: The perfect play

Tommy Deas

Chapter 4 The perfect play If Blake Sims stepped into a starring role as the University of Alabama's quarterback against Florida in the fourth game of the 2014 season, Lane Kiffin was the director.
Sims passed for 445 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-21 victory at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and his breakout performance - the second-best passing game in Crimson Tide history - was epitomized on Alabama's first offensive snap.

Sims hit running back Kenyan Drake, who had lined up at wide receiver, for an 87-yard touchdown to set the stage for the offensive outburst. It was a play drawn up by Kiffin, UA's first-year offensive coordinator, and it showed just how creative and compelling his impact on Alabama's attack could be.

This is a look at how that play unfolded.

Blake Sims, senior quarterback:
The Florida game was just a game that I was on and Coach Kiffin was calling the right plays.

Lane Kiffin, offensive coordinator:
Sometimes those things work perfect like that.

Kenyan Drake, junior running back:
When I first went out there, it was a cornerback (in coverage). But then the linebacker, they switched spots. At that moment I already know what was coming.

Will Muschamp, Florida head coach:
The first play of the game we had a man situation outside, but it was good execution on their part.

The big play was a result of meticulous film study. Kiffin must have had a crystal ball. He called the result before game day had even arrived.

Drake:
We scouted that every time (the offense) put a running back out wide in five-wide, they put a linebacker out there on him.

Sims:
During our Friday walk-through, Coach Kiffin said, "Hey, this is what's going to happen, I promise you this is going to happen, and when you see it you give Kenyan the signal and I promise it's going to be a touchdown."

Drake:
At first we were just going to put that in the game plan, eventually or whatever, and then Coach Kiffin told me near the end of the week that it was going to be the first play in the game when we go down the script. I was like, OK, that's cool.

With Alabama starting at its own 13-yard line after a Florida punt, Drake split out near the right sideline like a wideout. Florida linebacker Antonio Morrison lined up across from him in coverage, giving a 10-yard cushion. Sims was in the shotgun, with no other back in the backfield. The key to the play was recognition by Sims and Drake, and a signal called "sluggo."

Kiffin:
We were in an empty set, Kenyan was outside. If they didn't leave a corner outside and the corner came inside, you knew that it was man-to-man.

Didn't think they would play man-to-man on the first play of the game with Kenyan in the game because Kenyan's kind of a Reggie Bush factor. When you have a guy like that you see a lot of zone coverages.

Drake:
So the play is for a slant (route), but when the linebacker comes out there I do a slant-and-go.

Sims:
Before I snapped I looked out there and saw Kenyan had a linebacker on him, gave him the signal and the rest was how it was.

Kiffin:
Whistled to Blake and gave him a "sluggo" signal and I was just hoping he didn't overthrow the ball. "Sluggo" is slant-and-go.

The primary option on the play as designed was a quick screen pass to All-American receiver Amari Cooper, who was lined up wide to the other side, but if Florida was tricked into treating the speedy Drake as a normal running back and covering him with a linebacker, the signal would change the call. Drake would start his route to the inside, then break out and sprint down the field, which is exactly what happened.

Kiffin:
It was supposed to be a slant, so it's a screen to the left to Amari and if it's man-to-man you've got double slants to the right side. If there was a linebacker out there and he was off, you run a slant-and-go. The guy would play inside and bite the slant, and (you) go.

Drake:
He gives me a little signal that signifies that he wants to go to a slant-and-go. Honestly, if he didn't even give me the signal I was going to run it anyway. I already know what the deal is.

Kiffin:
At the end of the day, the guy's got to make the play. You can draw up all you want, you can make the perfect call but they've got to make the plays.

Sims took the snap and released the ball on a high arc from around the 4-yard line. By the time Drake caught the ball, he was at midfield and had an 8-yard lead on Morrison, the linebacker. Safety Jabari Gorman angled over to try to catch Drake but was lost in his dust.

Drake:
Once I got past him I already knew the ball was coming, so I was already looking for it. And my main thing was just keep on running because most people will go and kind of slow down and try to catch the ball, but you've got to run through the ball. That's the main thing for a receiver to do when the ball is thrown like that. That was the only thing going through my head, and Blake put it right where it was supposed to be.

Sims:
When you do something like that, your confidence goes up so high that you start letting the ball go without thinking.

Drake:
Blake gave me a perfect throw. He had the hard part. I just had to catch the ball.

Through the first three weeks of the season, Sims had heard the whispers of doubters who believed that he did not have the arm to throw the long ball. No one would ever question his ability to pass downfield after the Florida game. He also hit Cooper for a 79-yard score on a day when the receiver would catch 10 balls for 201 yards and three touchdowns. Alabama's 672 yards in total offense was the most ever gained on a Florida team.

Nick Saban, head coach:
People have to respect him as a passer. He has made too many plays and too many good throws for them not to respect him as a passer.

Sims:
It was the best feeling. I think it gave Coach Kiffin more confidence in me to throw the deep ball more.

Saban:
We got the looks and we made big plays, including the first play of the game and Cooper's long pass in the first half.

Kiffin:
That's just an example of what happened all year long, Blake making the play and the receiver making the play as well.

DeAndrew White, senior wide receiver:
I knew what we were capable of. That was really our first big game, so I just believed it would come together for us.

https://www.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=885&CID=1723816

 

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Chapter 5 - Ole Miss: Low Tide

Unfamiliarity would be the theme of Alabama's trip to Oxford, Miss. It was the first true road start for its quarterback Blake Sims. It was the first time new offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin would be sending plays into this team in a hostile environment. And in the end, it was a loss, an unfamiliar feeling for the program in the first week of October. It was the earliest loss for a Nick Saban-coached Alabama team since his 7-6 campaign in 2007. Alabama took a 14-3 lead, but two fourth-quarter turnovers and defensive lapses in the final eight minutes would prove too much to overcome. With ESPN's College Gameday in town, the postgame scene was raucous as the goalposts were carried out of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Landon Collins, safety:
Bad things happened. We didn't make key plays, and we just didn't stay sound. We didn't play all four quarters.

Nick Perry, safety:
I think we were just going through the motions because you know sometimes you can be overconfident. I think that was very humbling to us and we just found out, yeah, we can be beat. You know, teams aren't scared of us. We're going to get every team's best shot.

Saban:
This was our first game on the road, and it affected us. And we did not play as well as what we have been playing and we didn't continue to improve. I didn't know if it was the atmosphere, the, bye week, i don't know specifically what created it, probably that they played really well.

It was an ugly effort - seven penalties and a fumbled kickoff in crunch time - but Alabama still put itself in position to win with the ball down 23-17 and driving in Ole Miss territory. The comeback was thwarted when Blake Sims' endzone pass to O.J. Howard was intercepted in the waning seconds. The ball floated to the wrong shoulder of Howard and into the hands of Ole Miss' Senquez Golson.

Sims:
I made a mistake. ... I made the wrong decision, and O.J. did the best he could do.

Howard:
I went up to go for the ball and ward (Prewitt) off and catch it, but I didn't see (Golson) behind me, and he bumped me down, and I slipped and didn't get to make a good play on the ball.

Golson:
I had just blew that coverage probably the series before. My coach came down and he said 'you gave up one so you owe me one.'

Brian Vogler, tight end:
I think going into the last drive, we all knew we had a chance. We were all confident. It just didn't shake up the way we expected it.

It wasn't the only big loss in Oxford. Running back Kenyan Drake, one of the team's most dynamic players, suffered a gruesome leg injury early in the second quarter.

Drake:
I've never been hurt like that before in my life.

Jonathan Allen, defensive end:
I couldn't hear him screaming from the field, but it didn't look too good from the sideline.

Drake:
I didn't know what to think to be honest with you. I kind of went into shock, the trainers came out there, took real good care of me instantly on the field and after that I really didn't feel it anymore.

Drake was immediately flown back to Birmingham for surgery. Many wondered what kind of impact seeing an injury like that could have on Drake's teammates in the midst of its first road game.

Jalston Fowler, fullback:
Everybody was just sad because they knew how hard Kenyan worked during the week and we also know that he's a big part of our offense.

How big a part? According to statistics compiled by TideSports.com, In the 51 offensive snaps Drake played this season - about 13 percent of Alabama's overall snaps before the injury - Alabama accrued 481 yards of offense, an average of 9.4 yards per play, a significant boost to the 6.8 yards per play the offense averaged without Drake in the game.

Lane Kiffin, offensive coordinator:
You really just become kind of normal. I look at it as there aren't that many Reggie Bush, Kenyan Drakes in the world. So when you do have one, now you can do things that you don't normally do.

T.J. Yeldon, running back:
It would be a lot different. We use him out wide, we use his speed, a lot of different plays.

Kiffin:
There aren't many running backs that run 4.3 that can catch the ball and run routes. Well, Kenyan can and Reggie could, so you can run slant and go's with the running back. Most tailbacks can't do that. So losing him, it was tough.

With no true replacement, Drake's injury shelved a chunk of the Kiffin playbook. So Alabama had to make adjustments.

Kiffin:
I think it also made more balls go to Coop because now there wasn't a running back you could do that with that you just don't usually have. There are probably four or five of them in all the NFL that do that. But on a bright side, too, I don't think he would be here next year if he wouldn't have gotten hurt. I think that way that he was preforming in the system and the things we were doing with him, I think he would have probably went to the NFL.

But at 0-1 in conference play, there was no time to worry about smarting losses and key injuries.

Fowler:
Everybody was just mad, everybody was just saying we should have played better and worked our tail off, we shouldn't have been bull-stuffing all week like that.

Austin Shepherd, offensive tackle:
Everyone was down, wished we could have done more. But we pulled together. We were reminded every day by those guys who have been here awhile that we have won national championships with one loss. We told them to 'Practice your hardest and it will work out,' and it did."

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Chapter 6 - Arkansas & TAMU: Turning point

D.C. Reeves

Who would have thought an ugly performance in nasty weather against the SEC West's last-place team could become Alabama's tipping point?

The setting, Fayetteville, Ark., was unlikely for such inspiration, but a game-clinching interception by safety Landon Collins sealed a 14-13 win for Alabama at Arkansas, helped the Crimson Tide overcome a road loss at Ole Miss and set up a run to the conference title. It lit the fuse for Alabama's 59-0 drubbing of Texas A&M the next week, a victory so lopsided that it propelled Alabama back into the national title discussion just 14 days after a loss.

Starting with Collins' big play, here's how two weeks swung Alabama's season in the right direction:

Collins:
It was a spectacular moment in my life.

T.J. Yeldon, running back:
It was a tough spot. Eventually someone had to make a play, and Landon made a play and sealed the game for us.

With the defense buoying what would be the Crimson Tide's worst offensive performance of the season - just 271 total yards - Collins' signature play came with Arkansas facing a third-and-10 from its own 28 with two minutes left on a deep throw from Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen.

Collins:
It was on a play when I had the running back so when I saw he was wider than usual, that means he's coming out (as a receiver). So I was like 'let's be on your P's and Q's and make sure you do what you're supposed to do.'

Head coach Nick Saban:
We had really good pressure on the quarterback, Landon had the back man-to-man, he picked him up, the quarterback scrambled all the way to the other side of the field and tried to throw the ball way back across.

Collins:
So the running back chipped our defensive end and then tried to make it look like he was going to block. When he popped out, I just chased him and he was wide open and no one else in sight. I looked up was just floating in the air gradually. I just went up and came down with it.

Saban:
Landon lost him for a second because he thought the quarterback was running, but when you throw the ball across like that it's in the air a long, long time.

When Collins intercepted the pass, the Alabama sideline erupted and Collins was mobbed before he could even get to the sideline.
The play put a glimmer on an otherwise ugly game, but the victory changed the team for good. On the exterior, a large contingent of the Alabama fanbase was concerned with two subpar performances in a row. Inside the locker room, however, there was a much different feeling.

Nick Perry, safety:
I've been here for 5 years so the years in the past, beating Arkansas, it's not like a huge excitement. It's not like we just won a national championship. But if you were to go in the locker room after the game, you would have thought we won the National Championship game.

Shepherd:
I think that set the tone for the rest of the season. I've never seen the fight in our team like that up to that point. It proved what we wanted in the long run.

Perry:
That was probably the hardest fought game since I've been here. We bonded. We all clicked and it just all came together at that time. I think that game changed our season and changed the way we feel about each other.

Alabama coach Nick Saban:
We had a lot more enthusiasm and energy out there than we did (against Ole Miss). That's what won the game I think we played a lot harder in this game than we did (at Ole Miss).

Collins:
"We just went out there and enjoyed the game. Just go out there and have fun, not worry about the circumstances, not worrying about what the outcome is, because if we're having fun and balling out there, that's what we're going to get."

Saban defended the value of the Arkansas win in the days after the game. As for the new-found emotion? It came in spades as Alabama crushed Texas A&M the next week. Denzell Devall, linebacker:
I remember coming in at halftime and a lot of guys just smiling, laughing and everybody was just having fun and I can remember Trey DePriest making the statement 'Every game can be like this, you just got to go out there and have fun.' I remember that statement well. That's the main thing I remember from that game.

There was also a change in music - more current hip hop and C-Murder, less classic rock - at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The players noticed and responded, showing more energy on the sidelines than any other game this season.

Devall:
I remember them playing 'Jump, Jump' and everyone on the sideline went ballistic. And then from that day forward, it was just 'play the music and let them go'. I just remember that game being full of energy.

Defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson:
"We're already a fired up team. So, when you play music we like that we just jam out to it and get fired up.

Defensive end Ryan Anderson:
It was good feeling to see everybody with all that energy and intensity out there. You could definitely tell it means something to everybody.

Devall:
That's probably the best I've seen us play. Everything came together, offense defense special teams, it was amazing.

Saban downplayed the impact of the music in the days after. But make no mistake, this was a different team than the one that took the field in Oxford.

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Chapter 7 - Tennessee: Back to Rocky Top

D.C. Reeves

In mere hours after Alabama's new offensive coordinator hire became public, the talk that surrounded the polarizing Lane Kiffin was his eventual return to Knoxville. Kiffin coached one promising season as head coach at Tennessee, going 7-6 in 2009 before leaving abruptly to take the head coaching job at Southern Cal. On Oct. 25 he returned to face a fanbase scorned. Kiffin stepped off the bus and entered Gate 7 of Neyland Stadium to much attention and fanfare. Knowing the kind of attention Kiffin would receive, Alabama head coach Nick Saban asked his team to not focus on the distraction. Turns out the Crimson Tide wouldn't let a hostile environment fester. Kiffin's offense scored on the first play from scrimmage as Amari Cooper took a short pass from quarterback Blake Sims and rumbled 80 yards for a touchdown, setting the tone in Alabama's 34-20 win. Here is how it went down:

Amari Cooper, junior receiver.
We knew we were going to run that play first. We always have a first 10 (scripted plays). I didn't know it would be such a big play, I thought we would get a first down or something like that. It was just the perfect play call.

The play was designed to get Tennessee's defense moving the wrong way. Two pass catchers lined up to each side of the line - Cooper was on the left - as quarterback Blake Sims took the snap from under center. He faked a toss left to running back T.J. Yeldon and rolled to his right. As the defense reacted to the fake toss, Cooper sprinted behind the line of scrimmage to his right with only a linebacker on his scent.

Blake Sims, quarterback:
I believe the coaching staff had good preparation this game. That's what Coach Kiffin kept saying (during the week), if we run this play right and they give us the right look, we're going to be successful.

Lane Kiffin, offensive coordinator:
We figured Coop would get the ball in the flat and make a first down. Didn't know he would go and score a touchdown. It was exciting to start the game that way.

Sims:
We saw the look that we thought we were going to get at the beginning of the game, I just had to give a good fake and get the ball to Coop.

Butch Jones, Tennessee head coach:
They do a great job schematically of moving (Cooper) around so you can't match up personnel.

The box score will never tell the secret, but the play call wasn't so perfect in its execution. Senior receiver Christion Jones practiced all week but injured his hamstring in pre-game warmups causing confusion about personnel.

Kiffin:
So we're still trying to figure out if (Jones) is going to go, communicating with the trainers and everything. Well at the last minute, he can't go. In the communication process, I guess we didn't get that to his backup, so there are actually 10 guys on the field at the beginning of the play.

Chris Black runs on the field late in Jones' place.

Kiffin:
We see the formation and I'm like 'Where's the H (receiver)? Where's the third receiver? So we run Chris Black on, and actually, as he's running on to go get set, (Tennessee) tries to make a coverage adjustment and then they are late in the coverage adjustment and it opens up for Coop. So I'd like to say it was the perfect play drawn up or that we threw the 11th guy in there late, but it really was by accident.

Butch Jones:
They ran a late substitution in, and this is a matching personnel game, and we felt the play should have been held up a little bit.

Cam Sutton, Tennessee cornerback:
Just poor communication. We didn't line up right in the formation. We should have had guys in different spots than what they were. (Cooper) makes great plays with the ball in his hands, and he got loose.

The key to the play going 80 instead of 15 or 20 was a pair of downfield blocks thrown by DeAndrew White and Black. Once Cooper was in the clear, Kiffin began to sprint down the sideline behind Cooper with one arm in the air.

Cooper:
(Kiffin) told me after that he almost beat me to the touchdown.

Sims, who didn't see Kiffin sprinting:
I was running myself because I was so excited. It was just good to see the first play happen like that.

Cooper:
I think it meant a lot to (Kiffin). I think he had a lot of anxiousness for the offense to play good, and for that to happen on the first play, I think that meant a lot to him.

In the end, a quick strike, a big lead and a comfortable win would do most of the talking.

Ryan Kelly, center:
As an offense, we weren't looking for redemption (for Kiffin) or whatever you want to call it. We were looking to come out every play, play physical as an offense, run the ball, pass the ball, make them quit in the fourth quarter. ... He was just regular Coach Kiffin honestly, it wasn't like he was trying to come back and do something special.

Nick Saban, head coach:
I don't think (the attention on Kiffin) affected any of us. I really don't. Lane has done a really good job for us all year, the players like and respond well to him. He's a really a good coach. And I think all the people are Tennessee are pissed off at him is because he knows he's a good coach and they were upset when we left. ... I can understand why they would get upset, I understood why they burnt me at the stake in Baton Rouge the first time I went back there after going to the Miami Dolphins and then coming back to Alabama. So I get it.

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Chapter 8: 50 Seconds and Counting

Aaron Suttles



The University of Alabama entered its Nov. 8 date with LSU fresh off a bye week and prepared to enter the gauntlet that was the final third of its regular-season schedule, which included three key SEC West showdowns. First up was LSU in Tiger Stadium.

Things looked dire when Alabama fumbled inside its own 10-yard line with 1:13 remaining in the game. Instead of allowing a touchdown, the UA defense held LSU to a field goal.

T.J. Yeldon, junior running back:
My teammates picked me up a lot. I didn't expect to fumble the ball, but it happened. I just had to move on from that.

Brian Vogler, senior tight end:
A lot of us thought just for a second there right when we fumbled the ball that it might be over.

Jalston Fowler, senior fullback:
At the moment that T.J. fumbled I was like, "Oh man."

Blake Sims, senior quarterback:
I went up to him and told him to keep his head up and that we're going to win this game.

Xzavier Dickson, senior outside linebacker:
We have a saying that we say on defense and the whole team says it. We're going to die about it. It means every time we step out on the field we're going to give it our all and leave everything on the field.

Vogler:
The first thing that came to my mind was what if we block this kick and run it back. It never even crossed our mind that we could get the ball back with no timeouts and potentially pull it off.

Trailing 13-10 with no timeouts left and 50 seconds remaining and starting at its own 35, the Alabama offense set out on a drive to remember.

Austin Shepherd, senior offensive lineman:
We practiced that situation literally every week. So I think we had a good deal of confidence.

Vogler:
We actually work that exact situation every week during the season.

Fowler:
I was on the sideline thinking, "I can't believe they're doing this right now."

Leon Brown, senior right guard:
Every Thursday we practice our two-minute drill. If we can score a touchdown in two minutes against our defense, we could score a touchdown against any defense in the country.

Vogler:
We could've gone out there with our heads down, but people on the sideline were saying we could actually do this.

Sims:
There was no doubt at all.

Geno Smith, junior defensive back:
I was on the sideline with Jonathan Cook, and we watched the whole drive.

Trey DePriest, senior middle linebacker:
I definitely watched. Coach (Kirby) Smart wasn't going over any adjustments then because it wasn't guaranteed that we were going to see the field again. I was standing there watching.

Bill Napier, wide receivers coach:
It was a testament to the type of team that we have. Staying in the moment. Keep competing. Keep chopping wood.

Shepherd:
I don't think anybody was really sure what was going to happen.

Fowler:
I was like, What's going on? I can't take this. This is heartache. This is scary right here. I'm about to catch a heart attack up there.'

DePriest:
I was anxious to see if they were going to do it.

Napier:
Our critical players made critical plays.

Shepherd:
You don't really think about much when you're out there. You just kind of get up to the ball because you're in such a rush because you have no timeouts. You've got to get up there and do your thing.

DePriest:
It sucks. It's terrible. When you can't do anything about it and it's up to somebody else it does suck. At the same time, though, I really wasn't worried about it. Be cool, they're going to handle it.

Alabama drove 55 yards in nine plays, with Sims twice hitting tight end O.J. Howard for completions and UA moving into field goal range on passes to Christion Jones and DeAndrew White. Adam Griffith kicked a 27-yard field goal with 3 seconds to go to tie the game, sending it into overtime.

Shepherd:
You kind of look up after D-White or Christion Jones or whoever it was caught that pass and you're like, "Dang, we just did this."

Fowler:
We got it back and drove it down the field, kicked the field goal. I was happy. I even started yelling, "This is why you come to Bama."

Smith:
That was amazing. There was 50 seconds. That was the greatest game I've been apart of.

Shepherd:
: I'm always confident in (Adam Griffith). I knew he'd make it, so when he did I was just ecstatic.

DePriest:
They got it done and gave us another shot to go out there and hold it down.

Napier:
I think it's a testament to the kind of character our players have.

Shepherd:
It's just you come down to the end of it and once you finish and you realize you just did it.

A big hit on the kickoff to end regulation gave Alabama further momentum.

Fowler:
Then the next thing you know Reuben (Foster) goes down and knocks the guy out on the kickoff. I think the momentum shifted right there.

Reuben Foster, sophomore linebacker:
The coaches were telling me, "Reuben, we need another one."

Shepherd:
I told him I think that's why we won, for real. I feel like that really was the reason because it brought energy. We really didn't have energy all game. I feel like that's what brought the energy and we kind of finished the game with that.

Foster:
I just lined up on the kickoff ready for the kick, heart racing, and I'm like, I'm about to sell out. I went full throttle. Once I hit him it was amazing. I said I was going to do it, and I did it.

In overtime, Alabama took the ball first and scored, led by a pass to tight end Brandon Greene, a converted offensive lineman who usually only enters the game to block. Then the defense held on four straight plays for the victory.

Shepherd:
We didn't even know we were going to run it for real. We practiced it all year. I figured it was to just have fun in practice, but he called it and we ran it and executed like we wanted.

Brown:
We practiced that play. When Coach Kiffin called the play we knew we had a big play. I was kind of sad because they called a (personal foul) penalty on me.

Shepherd:
They were in the coverage we wanted. We were just trying to finish the play.

Brown:
I didn't hear the whistle. I was just blessed that we still won.

The touchdown came on a 6-yard Sims-to-White pass.

Sims:
We ran that play over and over in practice. (White) jumped very high. It surprised me how high he jumped.

Napier:
That play, there's no telling how many reps we dedicated to getting it exactly right.

Sims:
When the ball was in the air my heart stopped beating. He caught the ball and we won the game.

Napier:
Those are the ones you'll always remember.

Amari Cooper, junior wide receiver:
We believed. That's what our program is all about.

Landon Collins, junior safety:
I always say that's my Super Bowl. Not to lose to them was fantastic. Always beat your home team and they can never say any mess to you.

Shepherd:
I think I was with Ryan and I was like, Wow, we just did that. That's unreal. That place is probably the hardest place I've ever played. It was just so loud you can't hear anything.

Sims:
When Coach (Nick) Saban's smiling, you know we did a good job.

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Chapter 9: Resurgence

Aaron Suttles

The University of Alabama enjoyed a bye week after the LSU game, a contest that took an emotional and physical toll, before welcoming the No. 1 team in the country into Bryant-Denny Stadium. That top-ranked team was Mississippi State, a surprise national championship contender that had amassed an impressive resume that included victories over LSU, Texas A&M and Auburn. After racing out to a 19-point lead, Alabama held on for a 25-20 victory that vaulted the Crimson Tide in the top spot in all the polls and in the middle of the national title picture.

Leon Brown, senior offensive guard:
Them being No. 1 in the country put a bigger sense of urgency on us. We felt like we're not playing Mississippi State, we're playing the No. 1 team in the country. We had to come out there and play ball.

Trey DePriest, senior linebacker
Before the game I get a little bit of nervousness. Once I get a play in that goes away. Whatever happens is going to happen.

Reggie Ragland, junior linebacker:
It was a very intense, high-intensity game. They were coming into our house. We had to buckle down. We don't lose in our house. That was our mind set. We can't lose in our house.

DePriest
It was challenge. They had a good team, a solid quarterback and a real good player. They had a solid running back, and they're built on running the ball too with the counter and the rocket sweeps. It was rough preparing for them.

Cyrus Jones, junior cornerback:
I wasn't surprised at our defensive performance.

Brown:
Every time we play Mississippi State it's a physical game. Those guys, they come to play every time.

Ragland:
We got some stops on defense. Our offense got some scores that we needed.

Alabama set the tone midway through the first quarter when DePriest tackled running back Josh Robinson in the end zone for a 5-yard loss that resulted in safety.

DePriest:
The safety was definitely a key play in the game. It got us momentum.

Geno Smith, junior defensive back:
Coach called a blitz. I knew they were backed up and I knew if I took on the block well they would bounce it outside. That's what happened, and the defense swarmed. We were able to make a play.

Ragland:
I really couldn't see because I was taking on a block. A bunch of guys got to the ball and we got a safety. It got the team going.

Smith:
It was exciting. It was a big moment in the game. It was the first big play of the game. It was definitely a big play.

Brown:
We started pretty fast in that game.

Alabama's offense was paced by T.J. Yeldon, who ran for 72 yards and a touchdown, and Amari Cooper, who caught eight passes for 88 yards and a score. Six other players caught passes as Sims threw for 211 yards.

Ryan Kelly, junior center:
Anytime you can have No. 4 (Yeldon) in the backfield it's awesome for an offensive lineman, a guy who can hit the holes like that. You know as long as you can stay on your blocks you can make big plays.

Blake Sims, senior quarterback:
They tried to cloud (Cooper) the best they could, but after the way (the other receivers) played everybody should stop saying all we've got is Amari Cooper and if teams stop Amari Cooper we can't win. We proved that if you try to stop Amari Cooper the other guys can step up.

Kelly:
In the SEC they're going to bring a lot of guys, so to have a back like (Yeldon) that can butt up big linebackers in the SEC, it gives Blake a lot more time to find receivers down field.

Alabama hit an offensive lull in the second half as Mississippi State pulled with six points near the beginning of the fourth quarter. Sims then led a drive that put the game out or reach.

Brown:
I'm not sure what it was in that moment. I just feel like we lost that sense of urgency during the game. We lost the sense of urgency that we're playing the No. 1 team in the country. It kind of stalled us for a little bit.

Ragland:
I got all the confidence in the world in Blake. I've seen Blake do some special things, and I've seen Blake do some bad things. But at the end of the day Blake is a great competitor. He came out and did some great things for us.

Sims:
Guys wanted to be the best and fought hard and played great. I just did what I had to do and those guys just wanted to be great today and they wanted the victory bad.

Brown:
That guy, when he comes in the huddle he's just ready. The look in his eye, every time he comes in the huddle he's ready to go. Especially in a big moment, he's always ready to play. Whether it's with his legs or with a throw he's ready to go.

In what was scheduled as a breather before the Iron Bowl, Alabama took a beating the following week against Western Carolina as a handful of players went down with injuries, including wide receiver Amari Cooper.

DeAndrew White, senior wide receiver:
Injuries come with the game. You can't assume you'll get hurt or anything like that. We just, you know, go onto the next person.

Eddie Jackson, sophomore cornerback:
I mean, it was pretty tough, but we kept our heads held high. We just prayed everything was going to be good, everyone was going to be healthy.

Denzel Devall, junior linebacker: It was just like, what's really going on? But I knew we'd be all right, the guys would come back. It was just one of those games that you just have to get over and get the guys back healthy so I knew what we had ahead of ourselves.

White:
I don't want anybody to get hurt: our team or the opposing team. So it wasn't a good feeling, but I knew that we were going to pull it together and come off.

Jones:
We knew Auburn was coming up, so I think it was a matter of getting players rested and things like that.

Sean Landry and Kelly Ward contributed to this report.

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Chapter 10: Iron Will

Aaron Suttles

For the second year in a row, the University of Alabama's postseason fate came down to the annual grudge match with Auburn in the Iron Bowl. The game featured five lead changes, with Alabama overcoming a 12-point second half deficit to earn a 55-44 victory and a trip to the Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game.

Reggie Ragland, junior linebacker:
What happened with the previous year, them going back and catching that field goal and running it back, it was very emotional.

Reuben Foster, sophomore linebacker:
I didn't want to go through a whole other year listening to the same stuff and going back home and having to listen to all the crap that they talked about me, Rashaan (Evans) and our coaching staff and my family: and when I say family, I mean my teammates.

Jalston Fowler, senior fullback:
That was fun. I was up for that game. The only thing we kept saying the whole week was, "We owe these guys." It played a big part in it because we wanted, I wouldn't say revenge, but we wanted payback.

Ragland:
We wanted to come out and prove something. Everybody wanted to come out and prove something. We have to come out and stop these guys and what happened last year, we can't give them that kind of chance again.

Auburn got the better end of the shootout in the first half, taking a 26-21 halftime lead.

T.J. Yeldon, junior running back:
It was a crazy game.

Xzavier Dickson, senior outside linebacker:
It was scary. The first half was scary.

Geno Smith, junior defensive back:
That was a crazy game, I'm not going to lie.

Foster:
It was scary.

It was a back-and-forth first half with Auburn taking a five-point lead into the half. Auburn then took advantage of quarterback Blake Sims' third interception of the game during the first drive of the second half to go ahead by 12 points. The Tigers used the deep passing game to surge to a double-digit lead.

Trey DePriest, senior linebacker:
It was frustrating to me. That's not how we play defense.

Landon Collins, junior safety:
It's very frustrating, but you have to tell your teammates to turn the page and go on to the next play.

Smith:
You're going to get beat. That's going to happen when you play defensive back, you're going to give up plays. You're not going to play the perfect game all the time.

Kirby Smart, defensive coordinator:
As bad as the Auburn situation was, they never quit. And they got better throughout the game and they never pointed fingers.

DePriest:
To give up that many yards, that many points, it was frustrating at times.

Smith:
That's life as a DB.

Blake Sims, senior quarterback:
I made some mistakes and got down on myself. I've got great players, great coaches behind me that picked me back up and gave me an opportunity to go back in and play well.

Amari Cooper, junior wide receiver:
Myself, DeAndrew (White) and Christion (Jones), we've always rallied behind (Sims) when he messes up a little bit. We tell him he can overcome it and to play the next play. So when we did it this time, he believed us.

Austin Shepherd:
He had to just go out there and change the game. He had to just put in the past because coach always tells you to play the next play.

Sims:
We never gave up when we were down.

Cooper: I said to Blake, "We're behind you. Lets go, play the next play."

After his third interception led to his team going down by 12 points, Sims caught fire, throwing three touchdowns and running for another as he led the Alabama offense to five consecutive touchdown drives in the highest scoring Iron Bowl in history. The defense also got in on the act, limiting the explosive Auburn offense just enough for its offense to grab control.

Dickson:
I just knew we had to get out and stop them in the second half.

Smart:
That reflects on the leadership of the defense. They did a really good job of staying within themselves and not panicking during the game.

Smith:
It was so many highs and lows.

DePriest:
The offense had our backs in that one, and I'm glad they did. We just couldn't seem to get them stopped there for a minute.

Ragland:
We came out and made some good stops, but we also did some bad things that we needed to fix. I think it woke everybody up and then we had to buckle down.

Dickson:
We just had to settle down and make adjustments. Basically that's what we did. We went in and made adjustments at halftime and came out and executed.

Smith:
For us to pull it out just shows our team this year. We played with a lot of purpose.

Shepherd:
You just never knew what was going to happen so you knew you had to score. The way it was going you had to score every possession because you don't know what they're going to do.

Sims:
The young guys played for the seniors.

Yeldon:
They were scoring, we were scoring. We took the lead and just kept going after that. The team responded well. The defense got a couple of stops and the offense just kept putting up points.

Cooper:
Since I've been here, the emotion when were down is always we can come back.

Sims:
I just took it one play at a time.

Shepherd:
I just pulled (Sims) aside and said, "We need you." I told him he was a game-changer.

Cooper:
We've been doing it all year. He just forgot about them and made big plays.

Yeldon:
They weren't stopping us. The interception stopped us. Other than that we scored every drive.

Shepherd:
I guess his confidence just got back. I hope my words had something to do with it. He switched it in his head and the light came on.

Sims passed for 312 yards and four touchdowns, running for another score. Cooper had touchdown receptions of 17, 39 and 75 yards.

Sims:
The long passes to Amari, that was great play calling from Coach (Lane) Kiffin. That was very big to continue the momentum.

Yeldon:
Once Amari got going, I knew we were going to win the game.

Cooper:
They played a lot of man. On the first long one they were in man (coverage). On the second one they were in man. On the third one they were in Cover 8.

Sims:
(Cooper) ran a great route on both of them. I just put the ball where it needed to be, and he went and got it and did the rest.

- See more at: https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=885&CID=1728116#sthash.gviEdLip.dpuf

 

[Bamabww]

Chapter 11: Champions Again

Aaron Suttles

Alabama claimed its 24th SEC championship with a dominating 42-13 win, catapulted by a 21-point fourth quarter. The win all but guaranteed the Crimson Tide's spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff, but there was still a matter of seeding.

Austin Shepherd, senior right tackle:
The opening drive I think we ran seven or eight plays, probably six of them are fastball. You can just tell a difference when you run that against a defense because you can feel the D-line getting tired the further the game goes on.

Nick Perry, senior safety:
In my opinion that's one of the hardest things to do is win the SEC. To be able to win that, that's a blessing. We definitely believe this is the hardest conference and we definitely believe we're in the hardest division in college football.

Leon Brown, senior right guard:
It meant a lot, my first SEC championship ring. It was my first time being in that situation, my first time winning a ring actually in my whole career playing football.

Trey DePriest, senior linebacker:
After the Ole Miss loss, nobody thought we were going to win the SEC championship. For us to do that was sweet.

Ryan Kelly, junior center:
We came in and knew they had a great defense. I think we had some different set ups where if Blake had some looks he had the ability to throw it. We wanted to get him out of the pocket because he can do great things outside of the pocket.

Jonathan Allen, sophomore defensive end:
We felt like we had the right mentality to not let anyone run the ball on us. I believe we came out here and made a statement defensively. They were physical up front but I felt we did a good job being aggressive and we were definitely physical out there."

Xzavier Dickson, senior outside linebacker:
It meant a lot. To win it in my home state meant a lot.

Shepherd:
It was unreal. It was kind of a dream come true for me because I never got to play Georgia so it was kind of like my homecoming. It was awesome to finally be able to play in the Georgia Dome for something that wasn't just the first game of the season.

Geno Smith, junior defensive back:
To win an SEC championship is definitely a blessing. To go back home and play in the Georgia Dome, that's a big thing for me.

Shepherd:
I think I had 22 tickets.

DePriest:
I didn't actually hold the trophy. I let the rest of the guys do that.

Perry:
To be able to go out there and win the West and win the SEC, it's a great feeling. We were very excited for that one because it's tough to do.

DePriest:
I went and got my son. It was awesome. That's the second time he's been down on that field. I went and got him after the Virginia Tech game last year. Him being able to walk now, it was awesome feeling to have him down there with me.

Shepherd:
(Lane Kiffin) just knows football. He throws his hands up because he knows it's a touchdown. I guess he sees it before anyone else does. He's an offensive mastermind, that's how I put it.

Perry:
We celebrated that and had fun with that for 24 hours. We just got backed and got focused on Ohio State.

Brown:
Once the 24-hour rule is over, we've got to get back to business.

After celebrating on the Georgia Dome field, Alabama went back to Tuscaloosa and awaited the word on when and where it would play in the College Football Playoff. The team gathered for the selection show to find out it had garnered the No. 1 seed and would face Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl.

Allen:
My thought was let's get it.

Perry:
They announced the first (seed) first and we were first so we were just sitting back and seeing. When they announced Florida State was going to be third, oh man, who are we going to play? I think we welcome all challenges so we just want to play a great team.

Dickson:
I felt great, man, to be given another opportunity and to be one of the final four teams to be fighting for a national championship felt awesome.

Perry:
We knew going in that we probably were since we won our championship game. It was kind of surprising between Baylor, TCU and Ohio State to see what they would do. I think the Committee got it right, and we're going to play a great Ohio State team.

Shepherd:
Just excited to able to say you're apart of the first College Football Playoff, you'll be able to have that with you forever.

Reggie Ragland, junior linebacker:
I always wanted to play Ohio State. You hear about all of those big name guys that have been there. They have a great football tradition there. It's going to be crazy. They have good fans, I heard, crazy fans. Our fans and their fans in this Dome will be very loud and it's going to be very entertaining and I can't wait for the experience.

T.J. Yeldon, junior running back:
I don't think too many guys really wanted to come back here after what happened last year, but I feel like that was motivation and we know what we have to do. We know we want to be the first team to win the College Football Playoff and now we just have to take care of business.

Perry:
We're playing a great Ohio State team with a lot of tradition and a lot of pride. I definitely do think we're in the best conference and the best division, but we know there are other great teams out there, too, in other conference. We just believe we're the best.

- See more at: https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=885&CID=1728119#sthash.r2qtr5m5.dpuf

 

[TerryP]

'preciate you sharing these, Wayne.