Ten years ago, a winning culture was restored to Alabama football.
With a coach who wanted to prove he was the best and players that were tired of seeing the Crimson Tide as a laughing stock, it was the first team since 1992 that was “all in” on winning a national championship and on Saturday, the group will be honored for homecoming.
The year was 2009.
Nick Saban and the University of Alabama had suffered a loss to Florida in the Southeastern Conference title game the previous year and got smack by Utah in the Sugar Bowl.
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National media was pushing Florida as college football’s dynasty, Tim Tebow as its golden boy and Urban Meyer as the greatest to ever coach.
Its championship swagger lost its appeal after legendary coaches Paul Bryant and Gene Stallings; however, there was something different in the water in Saban’s third year.
He was previously told it would take him six years to win his first, but Saban is not one for nonsense.
A mixture of his first big signing class and some players from Mike Shula’s regime were hungry. It had a taste of what the cake would be like and immediately, it was snatched away.
Alabama was not popular then and social media was not as massive as it is now, so there were not any selfish agendas. This team had one mission and with each game, the athletes grew closer to each other and fans were excited for what ultimately happened.
Alabama caught some brakes along the way. The ones that were most noticeable were the two blocked field goals from Terrence Cody against Tennessee and the pair of games – Ole Miss, South Carolina – that Mark Ingram (‘09 Heisman winner) had to operate in the “wildcat.”
Bringing tears to Tebow in the rematch with Florida and defeating Texas in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game provided confetti of crimson and white, as Saban answered his critics in delivering the program a championship in three years.
In reflecting on the moment during his presser on Wednesday, Saban said the 2009 group will always be close to his heart.
“It was the only team that went undefeated and the guys on that team, they came here when we weren’t any good,” Saban said.
“They came in here when we were 6-6 and had lots of issues, lots of problems, but they chose to come and build something and they did something that was really unique and really special.”
While some will not make the event, due to playing in the National Football League, Saban shared a story of how unselfish that unit was. Players could make money at that time in traveling from their homes to the bowl site and back home. Saban had players from all over the southeast region, including Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
He wanted everyone to be together; however, he did not want to make the decision. Everyone was on the same mindset and upon taking a vote, the team went with taking a charter – which was Saban’s idea.
The price was high, nevertheless, all Saban remembers was the words from his defensive captain that year, Rolando McClain.
“Well coach, we won’t remember what we did with that $700 three months from now, but we’ll remember what happened in this game for the rest of our lives,” McClain said.
A few players from that team would later become friends of yours truly.
He is now the proud co-owner of Warehouse Performance Institute in Bessemer, Ala., but before he was a national champion, Mike McCoy was part of Shula’s final recruiting class in 2007.
“I had visits set up with Alabama, LSU and Auburn,” McCoy said.
“When I came on my official visit to Tuscaloosa, it was the 2005 team that made me love Bama. Matt Caddell was my recruiting host and I fell in love with the place. Just the way people greeted us, I felt at home. I did not take any more visits, Alabama was it for me.”
McCoy went through some trials after his freshman year in 2006 and almost thought about transferring once Nick Saban was hired, but he chose to stay. According to him, it was Saban that gave him his first start.
As cliché as it sounds, the atmosphere just felt different in the spring of 2009. Everyone knew what the agenda was and per McCoy, it was deeper than personal gain.
“In talking with some of the guys that came from rural areas, we were just trying to make it out,” he said.
“When we thought about it though, winning a championship became the biggest priority. To be honest, it’s more important than winning a Super Bowl because you did something that you are not getting paid for. To win with guys that you spent time in study hall, guys you worked hard with, guys you grinded in the fourth quarter program with… That is a brotherhood we had.”
After each game, the 2009 team brought a funnier side out of Saban.
“The bus rides and plane trips home were a comedy session,” McCoy said.
“Coach Saban has a sense of humor, but the media won’t see it. You couldn’t recreate that team. It came right out of a move script. Marquise Maze was a comedian, I was the fashion police and if you saw one of us, you saw all of us because we all hung out together aside from football. You had to earn those five-star stripes with us. There were no free passes for playing time. You had to show everybody because we would bang on the field. It was different then than what it is now.”
Constant communication made the ‘09 team special.
“We clicked on all cylinders,” McCoy said. “I would get into it with the wide receivers’ coach at times, but we always talked things over. At practice, receivers and defensive backs used to go at it. Javier Arenas and Kareem Jackson were my brothers prior to practice, but as soon as we hit the field, we banging and the receivers would love contact. If Javy got me on a play, he would show me where I messed up and vice versa. We stayed watching film. We stayed taking notes.”
McCoy went through three different offensive coordinators – Dave Radar, Major Applewhite and Jim McElwain – but he felt like the 2009 team could take on anyone.
“We would give any pro team hell,” he said.
“Alabama got the YAC boys at wide receiver now and they good, but could you imagine what we could have done if we had a coordinator like they have now? I’m telling you we all would have eaten. When you look at Julio Jones, Marquise Maze, Dareus Hanks, myself, Earl Alexander, I mean we was deep and we all could go. Maze would have been Waddle. My body type would have fit DeVonta Smith and Julio was just the total package. He had everything.”
Guys like D.J. Hall and Keith Brown taught McCoy the game, but he was a leader on the first championship team under Saban. He will be on site to be honored and he said no words can describe the life lessons he took from Saban, in terms of applying them to his career.
Alabama has won four more national titles since 2009, but that team was the one who put everything on the line. In the midst of the LED feature, those players will have a chance to relive the time where it changed the dynamic of Alabama football.
Fans will be excited to have the first group of champions back home.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
