This weekend Alabama will be honoring the 2009 National Championship team’s 10 year anniversary where Nick Saban’s dominance over the college football world officially began. And speaking of dominance, let’s take a look back when the legendary squad faced off against this Saturday’s opponent in the Arkansas Razorbacks.
It was week four of the 2009 season and Alabama was sitting at number three in the country with a record of 3-0 when a 1-1 Arkansas team rolled into Tuscaloosa. After a defensive heavy first quarter, running back Trent Richardson started the onslaught with a 52-yard touchdown for the first score of the game.
Roughly two minutes later following an Arkansas punt, quarterback Greg McElroy connected with Julio Jones on a 50-yard touchdown.
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Nick Saban’s defense dominated the entire game as well as the unit surrendered just seven points on the day. With a group with players like Rolando McClain, Marcell Dareus, Terrence Cody, Javier Arenas, Justin Woodall and many more, opposing offenses expect to have little luck moving the football. And then quarterback Ryan Mallett faced the but end of that stick as he finished 12/35 for just 160 yards.
Flashback to 2009 when @AlabamaFTBL rolled past the Hogs. The 2009 championship team returns to Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday! #RollTide pic.twitter.com/IGehIP4gSd
— Alabama Athletics (@UA_Athletics) October 25, 2019
Notable performances:
Greg McElroy 17/24 291 yards 3 touchdowns
Trent Richardson 9 carries 65 yards 1 touchdown
Mark Ingram 17 carries 50 yards 3 catches 21 yards 2 total touchdowns
Marquise Maze 2 catches 88 yards 1 touchdown
Julio Jones 2 catches 65 yards 1 touchdown
Although it may seem like just another miss match in the long history of Alabama victories, it was an extremely meaningful game in the grand scheme of things. This was the first conference game of the season where Saban and the team sent a message to the rest of the SEC.
That year Alabama outscored its SEC opponents 240-98 with an average margin of victory of 15.78 points as it went on to defeat Texas in the BCS National Championship game.
At some point during Saturday’s game members of the team will take to the field yet again so the Crimson Tide fans can show their gratitude one more time.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
