Tommy Deas
TideSports.com Editor
Blue bloods like to hang together.
It is true in high society, whether it's titans of industry cutting deals over a round of golf at the country club or upper-crust socialites mixing at high tea.
And it is true in college football, where the elite often congregate at the most exclusive postseason balls.
So it is that the University of Alabama and Ohio State rendezvous tonight in the Sugar Bowl in the semifinal round of the inaugural College Football Playoff.
The Crimson Tide has been a member of the aristocracy since crashing the Rose Bowl exactly 89 years ago today, defeating Washington in Pasadena, Calif., in a game that marked Alabama's coming out party.
That was the first of UA's 15 claimed national championships. The Crimson Tide has accumulated 24 SEC championships and has 24 former players or coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame, 112 first-team All-Americans and a nation's-best 34 bowl victories in 62 bowl appearances, also tops in the country.
Ohio State, too, has been a top program for a long time. The Buckeyes claimed the first of their seven national championships in 1942. They have won 35 Big Ten titles, made 43 bowl appearances (winning 19) and have had 79 consensus All-Americans to go along with 24 inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Since Nick Saban's arrival in 2007 ignited Alabama's return to nobility, the Crimson Tide has brushed elbows with fellow college football aristocrats: beating Notre Dame and Texas in national championship games, playing a home-and-home series with Penn State and a neutral-site game against Michigan, and facing Oklahoma in last year's Sugar Bowl.
For all their rich tradition, however, Alabama and Ohio State have run in different circles. Their two current head coaches - UA's Saban and Ohio State's Urban Meyer - will be going head to head for the fourth time, same as with the two schools.
"I was thinking, when is the last time we played Alabama," said Ohio State alum Eddie George, who won the Heisman Trophy while playing for the Buckeyes, and who played in the most recent meeting between the two schools 20 years ago. "It's funny how those two brands haven't played. This is a unique matchup, no doubt about it."
While the other semifinal between Florida State and Oregon may hold more interest for the nouveau riche, this one should appeal to traditionalists:
Crimson Tide vs. Buckeyes.
Saban vs. Meyer.
SEC vs. Big Ten.
Past clashes
Alabama is 3-0 all-time against Ohio State.
The first meeting was historic as the only head-to-head showdown between legends Paul W. "Bear" Bryant and Woody Hayes - iconic coaches at Alabama and Ohio State, respectively - but it wasn't memorable from a competitive standpoint. The third-ranked Crimson Tide defeated the ninth-ranked Buckeyes 35-6 in the Jan. 2, 1978, Sugar Bowl.
Johnny Davis rambled for 95 yards and a touchdown and Jeff Rutledge threw a pair of touchdown passes as Alabama rolled up 389 total yards and held Ohio State to 263.
UA and Ohio State next met to open the 1986 season in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., with Alabama winning 16-10. The Crimson Tide's schedule, which also included out-of-conference games against Notre Dame and eventual national champion Penn State, was rated as toughest in the country.
Alabama managed only a couple of Van Tiffin field goals in the first half and trailed 7-6 at intermission in the 1986 matchup with the Buckeyes. Ohio State added a field goal in the third quarter of this defensive struggle to take a 10-6 advantage going into the final period. With linebackers Derrick Thomas and Phillip Brown leading the way, Alabama's defense shut down the Buckeyes for the final 15 minutes. Mike Shula directed a touchdown drive that was punctuated with a 3-yard scoring pass from Shula to Al Bell, and Tiffin kicked a field goal with 1:02 remaining to close out the scoring.
The Crimson Tide played the game with a heavy heart. The victory was dedicated to the memory of former teammates George Scruggs and Willie Ryles - Scruggs died in an auto accident the week after the end of spring practice, and Ryles passed away from a head injury the week before the season opener.
"Give our guys a lot of credit for the way they prepared and handled the last seven or eight days," then-UA coach Ray Perkins said after the game. "Some of these young men have matured past their years."
The most recent meeting between the schools came in the Jan. 2, 1995, Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla. Sherman Williams ran for 166 yards on 27 carries, caught eight passes for 155 yards and scored two touchdowns - including the game-winner on a 50-yard screen pass with 42 seconds to go - in a 24-17 Alabama victory.
"I remember time was winding down in the ballgame and Jay (Barker, UA's quarterback) calling the play in the huddle," Williams recalled. "We had to go ahead and score and grab a lead right there on that drive.
"It was a great call, a great play, great execution and great blocking. Jay read it and had great timing on the pass. The field just opened up. It was the perfect call."
Alabama dominated the game statistically, gaining 521 yards to Ohio State's 276. Jay Barker completed 18 of 37 pass attempts for 317 yards.
Williams credits UA offensive coordinator Homer Smith for scheming up a plan that gave the Buckeyes fits.
"Coach Smith had seen a weakness in the middle of the field and he thought we could exploit it with short passes and screen passes," Williams said.
Ohio State's roster included George, offensive tackle Orlando Pace, who was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection in a 13-year National Football League career, and wideout Joey Galloway, who amassed almost 11,000 receiving yards in the NFL. George ran for 89 yards on 15 attempts and Galloway caught eight passes for 146 yards and a pair of touchdowns for the Buckeyes.
George remembers Williams' dominant performance.
"It was a very close ballgame, very competitive, nip-and-tuck throughout, and Sherman Williams was fantastic that day," George said. "I just remember how he was just on fire, not just running the football but catching it out of the backfield. I mean, he owned our linebackers in open space. As a running back, I totally appreciated that he had the type of game that he had."
That the two schools haven't met again in the last two decades is mystifying.
"A span of time of that time of two great programs that haven't played in that long, it's strange," Williams said.
Coaching titans
Alabama's Saban and Ohio State's Meyer have already played in two national championship semifinal games - only they happened before college football initiated the playoff system.
Saban's Crimson Tide and Meyer's Florida Gators played in the 2008 and 2009 SEC championship games, with the winner in each case going on to win the Bowl Championship Series national title.
In Saban's second season at UA, the Crimson Tide rolled to a No. 1 national ranking with an 12-0 record through the regular season, while Florida came into the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome ranked No. 2 with an 11-1 mark. Alabama led by a field goal going into the fourth quarter, but Tim Tebow threw his third touchdown pass of the game as the Gators rallied for two scores in the final period to win 31-20.
For the game, Tebow passed for 216 yards and ran for 57. Julio Jones caught five passes for 124 yards for the Crimson Tide, with Glen Coffee rushing for 112 yards and a touchdown.
The Gators went on to defeat Oklahoma for the national title, while Alabama was upset by Utah in the Sugar Bowl. A year later, the roles were reversed. Florida came into the SEC title game undefeated and ranked No. 1 and Alabama, also unbeaten, was No. 2.
This time, Alabama was dominant in a 32-13 victory.
Mark Ingram ran for three touchdowns to secure the first Heisman Trophy ever for a UA player.
The Crimson Tide shut the Gators out in the second half.
Tebow cried.
Meyer resigned.
Florida's coach stepped down a few weeks after the game, citing health and family concerns. He even told the New York Times that he took his health problems as "a message from God" that he should give up coaching.
A couple of weeks later, Meyer reversed his decision and returned to the sideline to coach Florida to a Sugar Bowl victory over Cincinnati. Alabama, meanwhile, defeated Texas for the BCS national title.
The 2009 SEC title game loss to Alabama was a turning point for Meyer's tenure at Florida. Starting with that game, he went 8-6 the rest of his tenure with the Gators, coaching through the 2010 season before again resigning.
The final Saban-Meyer/Alabama-Florida matchup occurred during that 2010 season. It was a whitewash, with top-ranked Alabama winning 31-6 over the seventh-ranked Gators in Tuscaloosa.
Meyer sat out a year before returning to the sidelines at Ohio State. Alabama won national championships in the 2011 and 2012 seasons.
Saban and Meyer have won six national championships between them, with Saban winning three at Alabama and one at LSU. Meyer won two national titles at Florida.
The two SEC championship showdowns with Alabama left an impression on Meyer: "Probably I can't remember my address or phone number but I could tell you probably every play in those games," he said when the Sugar Bowl matchup was announced.
Conference showdown
The SEC and Big Ten are two of college football's historic power conferences.
In the postseason, the SEC has gone 48-31 all-time against teams currently in the Big Ten for a winning percentage of better than 60 percent. In recent history, with bowls in Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville, Fla., and, for a time, Nashville having annual matchups featuring SEC vs. Big Ten matchups, the SEC has had the upper hand.
Over the last 15 years, the SEC has an 8-7 record against the Big Ten in the bowl in Orlando (known at various times as the Capital One or Citrus Bowl). The SEC is 10-5 in the same span in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, with the Big Ten holding a 2-1 edge in Nashville's Music City Bowl. In the bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., the SEC and Big Ten are 2-2 against each other.
The SEC and Big Ten have met twice in the BCS National Championship Game, with Florida defeating Ohio State to win the 2006 national title and LSU beating the Buckeyes a year later.
Ohio State defeated Arkansas on the field in the Jan. 4, 2011, Sugar Bowl, beating an SEC team head-to-head in a bowl game for the first time, but had to vacate that victory due to NCAA rules violations that led to the dismissal of Jim Tressel as head coach and the hiring of Meyer to replace him.
In the 2014 regular season, LSU defeated Wisconsin, 28-24, while Missouri was upset by Indiana, 31-27.
Seven SEC teams are in the top 25 in the College Football Playoff Rankings, released Dec. 7, with three - No. 1 Alabama, No. 7 Mississippi State and No. 9 Ole Miss - in the top 10. The Big Ten has No. 4 Ohio State and No. 8 Michigan State in the top 10 with only two other teams in the top 25.
This year's bowl lineup includes four SEC vs. Big Ten matchups: Alabama vs. Ohio State in the Sugar, Auburn vs. Wisconsin in the Outback, Missouri vs. Minnesota in the Citrus and Tennessee vs. Iowa in the TaxSlayer.
Both head coaches know both conferences: Saban coached in the Big Ten at Michigan State from 1995-99 as a head coach before joining the SEC in 2000, when he went to LSU. He also coached at Ohio State for two seasons and at Michigan State for five as an assistant. Meyer, of course, spent six seasons at Florida as head coach.
Marquee matchup
This is a matchup of power programs from power conferences with power coaches.
"This is obviously a great opportunity and a real honor for our team to be able to come back to the Sugar Bowl, to be a part of the first‑ever playoff system playing against an outstanding, very traditional, a great-traditioned program like Ohio State, with a great coach like Urban Meyer," Saban said when the matchup was announced.
Meyer expected to meet Alabama along the way as he built Ohio State's program.
"I'm not surprised," he said. "I think Ohio State's an elite program, and obviously Alabama is as well. ... I knew at some point, if you're going to reach for the top, that you have to go through the top. And the last several years Alabama has certainly been at the top of college football."
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1720680
TideSports.com Editor
Blue bloods like to hang together.
It is true in high society, whether it's titans of industry cutting deals over a round of golf at the country club or upper-crust socialites mixing at high tea.
And it is true in college football, where the elite often congregate at the most exclusive postseason balls.
So it is that the University of Alabama and Ohio State rendezvous tonight in the Sugar Bowl in the semifinal round of the inaugural College Football Playoff.
The Crimson Tide has been a member of the aristocracy since crashing the Rose Bowl exactly 89 years ago today, defeating Washington in Pasadena, Calif., in a game that marked Alabama's coming out party.
That was the first of UA's 15 claimed national championships. The Crimson Tide has accumulated 24 SEC championships and has 24 former players or coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame, 112 first-team All-Americans and a nation's-best 34 bowl victories in 62 bowl appearances, also tops in the country.
Ohio State, too, has been a top program for a long time. The Buckeyes claimed the first of their seven national championships in 1942. They have won 35 Big Ten titles, made 43 bowl appearances (winning 19) and have had 79 consensus All-Americans to go along with 24 inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Since Nick Saban's arrival in 2007 ignited Alabama's return to nobility, the Crimson Tide has brushed elbows with fellow college football aristocrats: beating Notre Dame and Texas in national championship games, playing a home-and-home series with Penn State and a neutral-site game against Michigan, and facing Oklahoma in last year's Sugar Bowl.
For all their rich tradition, however, Alabama and Ohio State have run in different circles. Their two current head coaches - UA's Saban and Ohio State's Urban Meyer - will be going head to head for the fourth time, same as with the two schools.
"I was thinking, when is the last time we played Alabama," said Ohio State alum Eddie George, who won the Heisman Trophy while playing for the Buckeyes, and who played in the most recent meeting between the two schools 20 years ago. "It's funny how those two brands haven't played. This is a unique matchup, no doubt about it."
While the other semifinal between Florida State and Oregon may hold more interest for the nouveau riche, this one should appeal to traditionalists:
Crimson Tide vs. Buckeyes.
Saban vs. Meyer.
SEC vs. Big Ten.
Past clashes
Alabama is 3-0 all-time against Ohio State.
The first meeting was historic as the only head-to-head showdown between legends Paul W. "Bear" Bryant and Woody Hayes - iconic coaches at Alabama and Ohio State, respectively - but it wasn't memorable from a competitive standpoint. The third-ranked Crimson Tide defeated the ninth-ranked Buckeyes 35-6 in the Jan. 2, 1978, Sugar Bowl.
Johnny Davis rambled for 95 yards and a touchdown and Jeff Rutledge threw a pair of touchdown passes as Alabama rolled up 389 total yards and held Ohio State to 263.
UA and Ohio State next met to open the 1986 season in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., with Alabama winning 16-10. The Crimson Tide's schedule, which also included out-of-conference games against Notre Dame and eventual national champion Penn State, was rated as toughest in the country.
Alabama managed only a couple of Van Tiffin field goals in the first half and trailed 7-6 at intermission in the 1986 matchup with the Buckeyes. Ohio State added a field goal in the third quarter of this defensive struggle to take a 10-6 advantage going into the final period. With linebackers Derrick Thomas and Phillip Brown leading the way, Alabama's defense shut down the Buckeyes for the final 15 minutes. Mike Shula directed a touchdown drive that was punctuated with a 3-yard scoring pass from Shula to Al Bell, and Tiffin kicked a field goal with 1:02 remaining to close out the scoring.
The Crimson Tide played the game with a heavy heart. The victory was dedicated to the memory of former teammates George Scruggs and Willie Ryles - Scruggs died in an auto accident the week after the end of spring practice, and Ryles passed away from a head injury the week before the season opener.
"Give our guys a lot of credit for the way they prepared and handled the last seven or eight days," then-UA coach Ray Perkins said after the game. "Some of these young men have matured past their years."
The most recent meeting between the schools came in the Jan. 2, 1995, Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla. Sherman Williams ran for 166 yards on 27 carries, caught eight passes for 155 yards and scored two touchdowns - including the game-winner on a 50-yard screen pass with 42 seconds to go - in a 24-17 Alabama victory.
"I remember time was winding down in the ballgame and Jay (Barker, UA's quarterback) calling the play in the huddle," Williams recalled. "We had to go ahead and score and grab a lead right there on that drive.
"It was a great call, a great play, great execution and great blocking. Jay read it and had great timing on the pass. The field just opened up. It was the perfect call."
Alabama dominated the game statistically, gaining 521 yards to Ohio State's 276. Jay Barker completed 18 of 37 pass attempts for 317 yards.
Williams credits UA offensive coordinator Homer Smith for scheming up a plan that gave the Buckeyes fits.
"Coach Smith had seen a weakness in the middle of the field and he thought we could exploit it with short passes and screen passes," Williams said.
Ohio State's roster included George, offensive tackle Orlando Pace, who was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection in a 13-year National Football League career, and wideout Joey Galloway, who amassed almost 11,000 receiving yards in the NFL. George ran for 89 yards on 15 attempts and Galloway caught eight passes for 146 yards and a pair of touchdowns for the Buckeyes.
George remembers Williams' dominant performance.
"It was a very close ballgame, very competitive, nip-and-tuck throughout, and Sherman Williams was fantastic that day," George said. "I just remember how he was just on fire, not just running the football but catching it out of the backfield. I mean, he owned our linebackers in open space. As a running back, I totally appreciated that he had the type of game that he had."
That the two schools haven't met again in the last two decades is mystifying.
"A span of time of that time of two great programs that haven't played in that long, it's strange," Williams said.
Coaching titans
Alabama's Saban and Ohio State's Meyer have already played in two national championship semifinal games - only they happened before college football initiated the playoff system.
Saban's Crimson Tide and Meyer's Florida Gators played in the 2008 and 2009 SEC championship games, with the winner in each case going on to win the Bowl Championship Series national title.
In Saban's second season at UA, the Crimson Tide rolled to a No. 1 national ranking with an 12-0 record through the regular season, while Florida came into the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome ranked No. 2 with an 11-1 mark. Alabama led by a field goal going into the fourth quarter, but Tim Tebow threw his third touchdown pass of the game as the Gators rallied for two scores in the final period to win 31-20.
For the game, Tebow passed for 216 yards and ran for 57. Julio Jones caught five passes for 124 yards for the Crimson Tide, with Glen Coffee rushing for 112 yards and a touchdown.
The Gators went on to defeat Oklahoma for the national title, while Alabama was upset by Utah in the Sugar Bowl. A year later, the roles were reversed. Florida came into the SEC title game undefeated and ranked No. 1 and Alabama, also unbeaten, was No. 2.
This time, Alabama was dominant in a 32-13 victory.
Mark Ingram ran for three touchdowns to secure the first Heisman Trophy ever for a UA player.
The Crimson Tide shut the Gators out in the second half.
Tebow cried.
Meyer resigned.
Florida's coach stepped down a few weeks after the game, citing health and family concerns. He even told the New York Times that he took his health problems as "a message from God" that he should give up coaching.
A couple of weeks later, Meyer reversed his decision and returned to the sideline to coach Florida to a Sugar Bowl victory over Cincinnati. Alabama, meanwhile, defeated Texas for the BCS national title.
The 2009 SEC title game loss to Alabama was a turning point for Meyer's tenure at Florida. Starting with that game, he went 8-6 the rest of his tenure with the Gators, coaching through the 2010 season before again resigning.
The final Saban-Meyer/Alabama-Florida matchup occurred during that 2010 season. It was a whitewash, with top-ranked Alabama winning 31-6 over the seventh-ranked Gators in Tuscaloosa.
Meyer sat out a year before returning to the sidelines at Ohio State. Alabama won national championships in the 2011 and 2012 seasons.
Saban and Meyer have won six national championships between them, with Saban winning three at Alabama and one at LSU. Meyer won two national titles at Florida.
The two SEC championship showdowns with Alabama left an impression on Meyer: "Probably I can't remember my address or phone number but I could tell you probably every play in those games," he said when the Sugar Bowl matchup was announced.
Conference showdown
The SEC and Big Ten are two of college football's historic power conferences.
In the postseason, the SEC has gone 48-31 all-time against teams currently in the Big Ten for a winning percentage of better than 60 percent. In recent history, with bowls in Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville, Fla., and, for a time, Nashville having annual matchups featuring SEC vs. Big Ten matchups, the SEC has had the upper hand.
Over the last 15 years, the SEC has an 8-7 record against the Big Ten in the bowl in Orlando (known at various times as the Capital One or Citrus Bowl). The SEC is 10-5 in the same span in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, with the Big Ten holding a 2-1 edge in Nashville's Music City Bowl. In the bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., the SEC and Big Ten are 2-2 against each other.
The SEC and Big Ten have met twice in the BCS National Championship Game, with Florida defeating Ohio State to win the 2006 national title and LSU beating the Buckeyes a year later.
Ohio State defeated Arkansas on the field in the Jan. 4, 2011, Sugar Bowl, beating an SEC team head-to-head in a bowl game for the first time, but had to vacate that victory due to NCAA rules violations that led to the dismissal of Jim Tressel as head coach and the hiring of Meyer to replace him.
In the 2014 regular season, LSU defeated Wisconsin, 28-24, while Missouri was upset by Indiana, 31-27.
Seven SEC teams are in the top 25 in the College Football Playoff Rankings, released Dec. 7, with three - No. 1 Alabama, No. 7 Mississippi State and No. 9 Ole Miss - in the top 10. The Big Ten has No. 4 Ohio State and No. 8 Michigan State in the top 10 with only two other teams in the top 25.
This year's bowl lineup includes four SEC vs. Big Ten matchups: Alabama vs. Ohio State in the Sugar, Auburn vs. Wisconsin in the Outback, Missouri vs. Minnesota in the Citrus and Tennessee vs. Iowa in the TaxSlayer.
Both head coaches know both conferences: Saban coached in the Big Ten at Michigan State from 1995-99 as a head coach before joining the SEC in 2000, when he went to LSU. He also coached at Ohio State for two seasons and at Michigan State for five as an assistant. Meyer, of course, spent six seasons at Florida as head coach.
Marquee matchup
This is a matchup of power programs from power conferences with power coaches.
"This is obviously a great opportunity and a real honor for our team to be able to come back to the Sugar Bowl, to be a part of the first‑ever playoff system playing against an outstanding, very traditional, a great-traditioned program like Ohio State, with a great coach like Urban Meyer," Saban said when the matchup was announced.
Meyer expected to meet Alabama along the way as he built Ohio State's program.
"I'm not surprised," he said. "I think Ohio State's an elite program, and obviously Alabama is as well. ... I knew at some point, if you're going to reach for the top, that you have to go through the top. And the last several years Alabama has certainly been at the top of college football."
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1720680
