Thinking back to the time Alabama made quarterback Tim Tebow cry on the sidelines as the Crimson Tide was putting away a 32-13 victory over Florida in the 2009 SEC Championship game, nobody saw that moment as the birth of the greatest college football dynasty in history.
We didnāt know then itād be the beginning of Nick Saban surpassing Paul āBearā Bryant as the sportās all-time best coach, never mind serving as a precursor to the Gatorsā football program falling into an unfathomable decline and offensive malaise that still hasnāt subsided.
As āBama celebrated its first SEC title under Saban, it was simply viewed as the Tide returning to glory and maybe sustained success for as long as the autocratic boss chose to stick around. But here we are, nearly a decade later, and āBama continues to obliterate the opposition like a tornado ripping through Kansas farmland.
Five of the last nine years, the same program with the same coach has raised the crystal trophy. In the 82 years since the Associated Press has officially crowned a national champion, nobody has ever won five times in any decade. What āBama has done under Saban, like the John Wooden UCLA basketball dynasty from 1964-75, may never happen again.
Only Notre Dame finishing No. 1 four times in a seven-year stretch in the 1940s (1943, ā46, ā47, ā49), as well as Miami four times in a nine-year span (1983, ā87, ā89, ā91), even approaches that kind of dominance. And hereās the frightening part for the 63 other Power 5 programs and top outlier UCF: the Tide might well win two, three or four more national titles in the next five years unless somebody like Georgia, under the guidance of ex-Saban assistant Kirby Smart, or Clemson, under former āBama player Dabo Swinney, tames this monster.
Is this a good thing for college football? Do we really want one program ruling the landscape to such a powerful degree that an occasional 10-3 season would be considered grounds for an entire offseason of holding candlelight vigils in Tuscaloosa?
Probably not, but the truth is college football could use a villain like college hoops has in Duke. Well, nobody plays the role of bad guy with better flair than the Nick-tator.
Saban has just the right amount of chutzpah and diabolical sarcasm ā albeit not quite at Steve Spurrierās level in his Gatorsā heyday ā to be that coach people respect and hate at the same time. If youāre a āBama fan, you revere him. If your school must play the Tide, you revile him.
Itās a perfect setup to compel fans to watch, except for the annoying part of Sabanās team almost always cutting the oppositionās heart out. Honestly, the College Football Playoff is more entertaining with Alabama in the four-team mix, but it does become problematic if the Tide wins too much.
Between the CFP and the predecessor BCS national championship game, Alabama is 8-2 under Saban in those settings, its only defeats coming in the 2014 semifinal against Ohio State (42-35) and the 2016 finals against Clemson (35-31). In the Tideās eight wins, opponents were outscored 257-121.
But it was the last victory, a torturous 26-23 overtime conquest of Georgia in the January CFP title game, that really drove home the point of how maddeningly exasperating it is for the rest of college football to deal with this SEC juggernaut.
More so than the heroic Clemson rally engineered by quarterback Deshaun Watson in the previous yearās CFP finals, this was going to be the ultimate payback for all the dominance Sabanās program had inflicted on the SEC. Especially against teams from the Eastern division, who were 3-25 in the past decade before that epic national title game.
Georgia did everything right to get in position to, if not end the dynasty, at least exact revenge on Goliath. The Bulldogs had a 20-7 lead and the ball in the second half. āBama was vulnerable, maybe one play away from being emotionally bankrupt.
Instead, Saban adds to his legend by inserting a backup freshman quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, to replace Jalen Hurts. All the Hawaiian hero does is lead four scoring drives to force overtime, then execute the insane task of throwing a game-winning, 41-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith, hitting him in stride on second-and-26 to trigger a celebratory confetti shower.
So with an SEC that features six new head coaches in 2018 and Auburn playing Georgia and Alabama on the road ā plus Saban still having two proven quarterbacks with different styles at his disposal ā the list of qualified opponents (Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia) to keep this gluttonous program from devouring another national title is awfully small.
Anybody up for rolling the Tide on a big stage? This dynasty thing is getting a bit repetitive.
Gene Frenette: College football has perfect villain, but who can derail Saban's Tide?
We didnāt know then itād be the beginning of Nick Saban surpassing Paul āBearā Bryant as the sportās all-time best coach, never mind serving as a precursor to the Gatorsā football program falling into an unfathomable decline and offensive malaise that still hasnāt subsided.
As āBama celebrated its first SEC title under Saban, it was simply viewed as the Tide returning to glory and maybe sustained success for as long as the autocratic boss chose to stick around. But here we are, nearly a decade later, and āBama continues to obliterate the opposition like a tornado ripping through Kansas farmland.
Five of the last nine years, the same program with the same coach has raised the crystal trophy. In the 82 years since the Associated Press has officially crowned a national champion, nobody has ever won five times in any decade. What āBama has done under Saban, like the John Wooden UCLA basketball dynasty from 1964-75, may never happen again.
Only Notre Dame finishing No. 1 four times in a seven-year stretch in the 1940s (1943, ā46, ā47, ā49), as well as Miami four times in a nine-year span (1983, ā87, ā89, ā91), even approaches that kind of dominance. And hereās the frightening part for the 63 other Power 5 programs and top outlier UCF: the Tide might well win two, three or four more national titles in the next five years unless somebody like Georgia, under the guidance of ex-Saban assistant Kirby Smart, or Clemson, under former āBama player Dabo Swinney, tames this monster.
Is this a good thing for college football? Do we really want one program ruling the landscape to such a powerful degree that an occasional 10-3 season would be considered grounds for an entire offseason of holding candlelight vigils in Tuscaloosa?
Probably not, but the truth is college football could use a villain like college hoops has in Duke. Well, nobody plays the role of bad guy with better flair than the Nick-tator.
Saban has just the right amount of chutzpah and diabolical sarcasm ā albeit not quite at Steve Spurrierās level in his Gatorsā heyday ā to be that coach people respect and hate at the same time. If youāre a āBama fan, you revere him. If your school must play the Tide, you revile him.
Itās a perfect setup to compel fans to watch, except for the annoying part of Sabanās team almost always cutting the oppositionās heart out. Honestly, the College Football Playoff is more entertaining with Alabama in the four-team mix, but it does become problematic if the Tide wins too much.
Between the CFP and the predecessor BCS national championship game, Alabama is 8-2 under Saban in those settings, its only defeats coming in the 2014 semifinal against Ohio State (42-35) and the 2016 finals against Clemson (35-31). In the Tideās eight wins, opponents were outscored 257-121.
But it was the last victory, a torturous 26-23 overtime conquest of Georgia in the January CFP title game, that really drove home the point of how maddeningly exasperating it is for the rest of college football to deal with this SEC juggernaut.
More so than the heroic Clemson rally engineered by quarterback Deshaun Watson in the previous yearās CFP finals, this was going to be the ultimate payback for all the dominance Sabanās program had inflicted on the SEC. Especially against teams from the Eastern division, who were 3-25 in the past decade before that epic national title game.
Georgia did everything right to get in position to, if not end the dynasty, at least exact revenge on Goliath. The Bulldogs had a 20-7 lead and the ball in the second half. āBama was vulnerable, maybe one play away from being emotionally bankrupt.
Instead, Saban adds to his legend by inserting a backup freshman quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, to replace Jalen Hurts. All the Hawaiian hero does is lead four scoring drives to force overtime, then execute the insane task of throwing a game-winning, 41-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith, hitting him in stride on second-and-26 to trigger a celebratory confetti shower.
So with an SEC that features six new head coaches in 2018 and Auburn playing Georgia and Alabama on the road ā plus Saban still having two proven quarterbacks with different styles at his disposal ā the list of qualified opponents (Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia) to keep this gluttonous program from devouring another national title is awfully small.
Anybody up for rolling the Tide on a big stage? This dynasty thing is getting a bit repetitive.
Gene Frenette: College football has perfect villain, but who can derail Saban's Tide?
