It was satisfying for Nick Saban to leave Tiger Stadium in ruins after a 38-point victory.
No team in the history of Alabama football had scored 50-plus points on LSU since 1895, but Saban sent a message and set a record against his former team on last week. He has one game left on the regular season slate and three potential postseason matchups in his journey to win a seventh national championship. This was an unprecedented season, especially when one considers how much the Coronavirus impacted college football, but the Crimson Tide is undefeated and No. 1 in the nation.
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The last time a Saban-coached Alabama team went undefeated was in 2009.
At that point in time, the program was in a state of mediocrity. It had fallen from the greatness of Paul W. “Bear” Bryant and Eugene Stallings, and struggled to gain relevancy under other coaches. Prior to his death in March of 2013, Mal Moore searched for a head coach with a championship mindset.
He found Saban in the National Football League with the Miami Dolphins and convinced him that his style would work better on collegiate athletes.
In his return to the sport, Saban had his first BCS National Championship roster in his third year.
Alabama played in a lot of close games, but the team stood together and bought in on gaining its respect back. It finished at 14-0 and captured a Southeastern Conference title, national title and its first-ever Heisman Memorial Trophy winner (Mark Ingram).
With its matchup versus Arkansas on Saturday, Saban addressed reporters on the importance of the game.
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“This is a historic game for us around here,” he said on Monday. “We only had one team to go undefeated. It was not as difficult for that team to undefeated as it is this team playing 10 SEC games. So, I think any time you play on the road in the SEC, you gotta be ready to play. You gotta respect the fact of the team you are playing is capable of beating you if you don’t execute.”
After defeating an LSU team that did a lot of trash talking, it is easy to overlook a 3-6 group in Arkansas.
Sam Pittman, head coach of the Razorbacks, has improved the program. During his first season at the helm, he could easily have Arkansas at 6-3.
For the Hogs, it lost three games by a combined seven points. Typically, it has been one of a few schools to give the Crimson Tide a tough game.
Aside from the contests in 2012, 2013 and 2018, Arkansas tends to be a challenge for Alabama.
Christian Harris, Alabama’s sophomore linebacker, said the team is not overlooking anyone.
“We treat everyone the same,” he said. “In the SEC, being that there are so many great teams, you could lose at any moment. You cannot take one game off.”
He suffered two losses as a freshman, so Harris would love to bounce back with a perfect season.
Regardless of how difficult it is to go undefeated in today’s college football world, Alabama has achieved focused on offense and defense.
Eventually, a team has to meet the standard of the ’09 group and maybe Saban has found it with this bunch.
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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.
