Revenge Weeks Are Historically Successful for Nick Saban, Alabama
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It’s fitting that Ole Miss is Alabama's opponent this week, just like it was in 1930 when the football team landed its unofficial nickname (before Crimson Tide) and was commonly referred to as the Red Elephants.
Writing about that 64-0 win over the Rebels, Everett Strupper of the Atlanta Journal famously penned the following: “At the end of the quarter, the earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, ‘Hold your horses, the elephants are coming,’ and out stamped this Alabama varsity.”
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An elephant never forgets. Apparently neither does Nick Saban.
Although the Crimson Tide have been downplaying last year’s 23-17 loss at Ole Miss, history suggests a different attitude.
They still remember Kenyan Drake’s horrific leg fracture and dislocated ankle, Bo Wallace’s three touchdown passes in the second half and Senquez Golson intercepting a pass in the end zone with 37 seconds remaining.
They also remember the fans storming the field at Vaught–Hemingway Stadium and hauling away the goalposts. You just don’t forget something like that.
“It sucks, big-time,” senior cornerback Cyrus Jones said. “That’s all I can say. I hate losing more than I love winning. I think that’s just the mindset around here. It’s definitely not something you want to experience.”
With that said, Saban’s teams are really, really good at bouncing back from those kinds of setbacks.
In the 10 “revenge” games since 2007, when Alabama has gotten another shot at an opponent it lost to, the Crimson Tide are 9-1. When Saban was at LSU (2000-04), his teams were 7-1 in that situation.
The coach even had some success with it at Michigan State (1995-99), going 8-7 in rematches. Some of those losses came against Nebraska (coached by Tom Osborne), Michigan (Lloyd Carr) and Penn State (Joe Paterno), but the team that gave him the most trouble was Purdue and a quarterback named Drew Brees. His Spartans went 1-3-1 against the Boilermakers.
Before losing 9-6 in overtime to LSU during the 2011 season, Saban had won 12 straight rematches. The last coach to beat him in consecutive games is Steve Spurrier, when high-flying Florida pounded LSU 41-9 in 2000 and 44-15 in 2001.
In those 14 initial defeats, Saban’s team lost by an average of 14.4 points. In the rematches, he won by an average of 14.7 points.
Of course, no rematch was bigger than LSU in 2011, when the Crimson Tide lost a grueling regular-season game in overtime but came back and not only beat the Tigers in their backyard of New Orleans for the national title but recorded the only shutout in BCS National Championship Game history (21-0).
| Alabama Loss | Rematch |
| 2013 Auburn 34-28 | 2014 Alabama 55-44 |
| 2012 Texas A&M 29-24 | 2013 Alabama 49-42 |
| 2011 LSU 9-6 OT | 2011 title game Alabama 21-0 |
| 2010 Auburn 28-27 | 2011 Alabama 42-14 |
| 2010 LSU 21-14 | 2011 LSU 9-6 OT |
| 2008 Florida 31-20 | 2009 Alabama 31-13 |
| 2007 Auburn 17-10 | 2008 Alabama 36-0 |
| 2007 LSU 41-34 | 2008 Alabama 27-21 OT |
| 2007 Georgia 26-23 OT | 2008 Alabama 41-30 |
| 2007 Mississippi State 17-12 | 2008 Alabama 32-7 |
| LSU loss | Rematch |
| 2003 Florida 19-7 | 2004 LSU 24-21 |
| 2002 Arkansas 21-20 | 2003 LSU 55-24 |
| 2002 Alabama 31-0 | 2003 LSU 27-3 |
| 2001 Ole Miss 35-24 | 2002 LSU 14-13 |
| 2001 Florida 44-15 | 2002 LSU 36-7 |
| 2000 Arkansas 14-3 | 2001 LSU 41-38 |
| 2000 Florida 41-9 | 2001 Florida 44-15 |
| 2000 Auburn 34-17 | 2001 LSU 24-17 |
A close second was the 2009 SEC Championship Game, when Alabama avenged the 2008 loss to Urban Meyer and quarterback Tim Tebow at Florida. It went on to win the first of three national titles in four years.
Then-offensive coordinator Jim McElwain walked off the field at the Georgia Dome both happy and relieved because he had essentially been working on the game plan the entire year. Ironically, he’s now the Gators’ head coach.
“One of the most important things that we always do, especially when it's the same staff, is you always look at what did they do last year,” Saban said about evaluating last year’s loss to Ole Miss. “How did they play you defensively? What did they try to do offensively? Sort of evaluate, and we do this after we play the game, what we did well, what we needed to improve on.
“That's the first thing we get out this year when we play somebody, is try to figure out how we can do those things better and how we can make those adjustments.”
What Alabama learned from last year’s loss will be on display Saturday night during the SEC West’s first big showdown of the season (8:15 p.m. CT, ESPN), but a few things already demonstrate the Crimson Tide’s level of preparations.
It scheduled Middle Tennessee for last week to help the defense adjust to the fast style of play, and some of Alabama’s key players—including defensive linemen A'Shawn Robinson and Jarran Reed, and linebacker Reggie Ragland—are playing at a lighter weight this season to help them in games like this one.
Maybe Alabama will get another shot at Ohio State if it can return to the College Football Playoff, and next week it faces Louisiana-Monroe for the first time since 2007. The Warhawks pulled off a stunning 21-14 upset when the Red Elephants were in the middle of a four-game tailspin during the textbook disbursement scandal.
But for now Alabama is zeroed in on evening the score against the Rebels.
“(All) I remember about that day we took an 'L,'” Ragland said of last year's loss. “That hurts anytime. I hate losing.”
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.
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