Alabama Time Machine: 1984

The feelings you get at the start of a new football season is very hard to explain to "non football" people. To me its a bit like being a teenager and you've finally got a date with that girl you've had your eye on for so long. All the hope and promise in the world ahead. Sometimes it went well for a while, sometimes it failed right out of the gate.  But always exciting and the anticipation was what made it special.

The fall of 1984 was like that for me, but this particular year was different. This was the fall of my freshman year at the University of Alabama. It was a year of fast and furious change in my life. I was still 17 when I started in Tuscaloosa. I began the year as a high school senior and playing football for my high school and just a few months later I was one of the many hundreds of anonymous freshman wandering the campus with that lost puppy look. Only days after arriving on campus it was already time to begin that sacred ritual of the Alabama football.

The program was in a state of change.  Only two years prior we had lost our beloved Bear Bryant. Ray Perkins had taken over the program and guided them to an 8-4 record in 1983. Not an overwhelming record but equal to many of Bears years and a very “Bear-ish” beat down of a highly ranked SMU team in the Sun Bowl just months before.

Alabama had signed what many believed to be the premier high school quarterback in the country in LaGrange Georgia's Vince Sutton. At running back Alabama had what seemed to be an unstoppable power back in Ricky Moore and if that wasn't enough last years freshman phoneme Kerry Goode was headed for what many believed to be an all American career.

Both wideouts from the year before were gone but Alabama still had experienced players in Greg Richardson and Tight end Preston Gothard. Defensively there was talent everywhere with Cornelius Bennett, John Hand, Curt Jarvis, Ed King, Wayne Davis, and Randy Rockwell just to name a few. Confidence was running high, after all, We are Alabama.

The first game was at Legion Field against Boston College and their Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Doug Flutie. The game began with Alabama rolling as expected. True to our expectations Kerry Goode ran all over Boston College ripping them for over 60 yards. Alabama led comfortably at the half, the student section was rocking, the sweet aroma of Jack Daniels was thick and Sweet Home Alabama was blaring on the loud speakers. Life was GOOD.

As the second half started Goode promptly returned a kick for six. Nothing could stop us, we were in a state of Euphoria. What a way to start my college career! Then shortly after Goode went down on a tackle, he limped off the field quickly. We figured he just bumped is knee, but Goode didn't return that day, or any day that year. His knee was blown. For that matter Kerry Good's career never recovered from that injury. He would return, but never like before.

Then as if the air went out of the defense Doug Flutie began filling his Heisman Trophy resume. He proceeded to rip Alabama's secondary apart. We all stood with mouths open for 30 minutes while Flutie ended our night with a 38-31 come from behind victory. What just happened?

What followed was a 16-6 loss in Atlanta to Georgia Tech. Injuries began to mount and Alabama ran hard into a seasoned Vandy squad who took revenge on Alabama for every loss they had endured since 1969. By mid season Alabama was unsettled at Quarterback, We were 1-4 with only a win over lowly SW Louisiana.

Ricky Moore was a shadow of his former self. Alabama was trying to scrape out victories with a skinny slow footed weak armed kid named Mike Shula at Quarterback and journeyman running back named Paul Ott Carruth who had spent most of his career on the trainers table.

Alabama began to show some life as they managed to hammer out an ugly 6-0 win over Penn State in Tuscaloosa but then dropped a heart wrenching 28-27 decision in Knoxville. As the season wore on Alabama began to get unspectacular but efficient passing from Mike Shula and some rotation of Ricky Moore and Carruth began to be more effective as the line began to jell.

What followed was one of the most amazing games I've ever witnessed as the tide managed a completely unexpected 17-15 upset victory over a vastly superior Auburn squad that was preserved in the final moments when Bo Jackson ran the wrong way on a fourth down goal line play leaving Brent Fullwood to be taken down by the Alabama defense.  The term "Wrong Way Bo" was forever etched in Ironbowl Lore. 

Its hard for me to fathom that a quarter century has come and gone since that magical year. If your wondering about the people in the photograph two of them are successful responsible adults today, the other one is me, Perhaps you remember seeing us on halloween that year wandering around campus.

Time marches on and you can't be a kid forever. But football at Alabama always brings back just a twinge of that magical feeling again. I can't live in it, but just to feel it for a few moments is worth the drive to Tuscaloosa.

As I look forward to the 2009 season with all its promise I am wary that things don't always go they way you expect but I am confident that the Crimson Tide are on the right path with the right leadership in place to contend for championships on a yearly basis.  Life is indeed GOOD again.