For much of the last decade, the sentence landed with a melancholy thud.
During the dark days, when Alabama fans heard the rallying cry echo through the public address system at Bryant-Denny Stadium, it was difficult not to hear the phrase in the context of how far the Crimson Tide had fallen.
In an undertone of past tense.
In the murk of an uncertain future.
But when long-time PA announcer Tony Giles stood before a large crowd of ecstatic fans who braved inclement skies at Bryant-Denny nine days after Alabama clinched its 13 national championship, his signature line took on a whole new meaning.
“This is Alabama football,” he thundered gleefully as the crowd roared.
This.
Yes, this is Alabama football.
Finally.
This.
Three years after inheriting a program in disarray—when some members of the national media wondered why any top-level coach would accept the risk of going to Tuscaloosa and dealing with the program’s cumbersome baggage and enormous expectations—Nick Saban assembled one of the greatest teams in school history. Perhaps the greatest.
Let the arguments begin, but after completing a 14-0 season with a 37-21 victory over Texas in the BCS National Championship Game at the Rose Bowl, the 2009 Crimson Tide deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the dominant ‘Bama teams of 1961, 1966, 1979 and 1992. Legends all.
The defense, led by All-Americans Rolando McClain, Terrence Cody, and Javier Arenas, pursued, smothered and menaced as well as any Alabama team ever. Time after time, the unit slammed the door shut, forced a turnover, came up with the big play necessary to keep the Tide rolling.
It was also the year of quarterback Greg McElroy’s steady—sometimes spectacular—leadership and Leigh Tiffin’s clutch field goals.
Alabama fans will not soon forget the powerful running—and humility—of Mark Ingram, the school’s first Heisman Trophy winner. Yes, it was the way he ran, the way he battled for the tough yards, kept pushing, kept churning, sometimes breaking free for one of those open field zoomers destined to be replayed over and over again on ESPN, earning him the coveted hunk of granite and a lifetime of pop culture ubiquity. But it was also the way he repeatedly went out of his way to acknowledge his teammates, proving that winning the Heisman did not require abandoning ‘Bama’s traditional focus on the team.
Playing a schedule rated the second-toughest in major college football, Alabama—featuring a record six first-team All-Americans—demonstrated not just power but also resilience, mounting fourth-quarter rallies to sink LSU and Auburn, and stubbornly thwarting Tennessee’s upset bid.
Beyond on-the-field comparisons, 2009 Alabama will forever be connected to its forbearers of 1961, who rescued the Crimson Tide from the Whitworth nightmare, won the first of Paul “Bear” Bryant’s six national championships, and set the tone for the most successful quarter-century in college football history.
A certain amount of distance is required to determine how deep the two teams connect, but right now, in the flush of Pasadena, the 2009 season feels much like 1961. A new era of Alabama power appears to be at hand.
What Saban has accomplished in three years is nothing short of remarkable. Facing the twin dragons of Bryant’s memory and his own $32-million contract, which made him a target of both envy and scorn, Saban methodically rebuilt the program brick by brick, rendering the mediocre Shula Era little more than a bad dream. No matter what, he has earned his inevitable stature outside the stadium, alongside Wade, Thomas, Bryant and Stallings. No matter what, he has earned his way into the same sentence with those giants. It is impossible to say what might have happened if Alabama had hired someone else three years ago, but an entire generation of grateful Alabama fans, conditioned by the pain of coaching departures and NCAA probations, now seems likely to view Saban not just as a guy who led the Crimson Tide to a national championship…but as the man who saved ‘Bama from fading into the history books. If he stays in Tuscaloosa for the long haul and if the program can avoid the traps of the last two decades, the Crimson Tide could be in the early stages of a new dynasty.
But in Tuscaloosa, the past is always prologue.
