Alabama's Focused Domination Proves It Has Tunnel Vision on National Title

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It will forever be known as the tin-horn game because that’s the way the University of Alabama went through Charleston Southern on Saturday afternoon.

Four days after head coach Nick Saban made it clear that he wasn’t going to accept any sort of a letdown against a Football Championship Series opponent, the Crimson Tide lived up to his expectations and absolutely destroyed the Buccaneers 56-6 at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“We heard it all right before you heard it,” senior linebacker Reggie Ragland said about the Saban rant during a press conference. “We couldn’t take anything for granted, we had to play hard. That’s all they talked about all week.”

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Considering what No. 2 Alabama (10-1) is still playing for, including a shot at the playoffs if it can beat Auburn next week and Florida in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 5, Saban wasn’t going to take any chances—especially the way his team is playing down the stretch.

So on Wednesday, when asked about Charleston Southern quarterback Austin Brown he brought up how the 2011 Crimson Tide defense that finished first in all four major statistical categories (total, scoring, rushing and pass-efficiency defense) struggled against Georgia Southern’s option attack: 

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"You all may be taking the week off this week, but I'm not. A lot of people take a lot of things for granted, and I get asked questions like 'Well, how important is it for the young guys to get to play this week?' Well how in the hell do you know they're gonna get to play? What makes you think that you can just assume that they're gonna get to play? Because you're assuming that the other team isn't very good? They do have a Division I quarterback, he plays like Division I quarterbacks. They're very, very productive on offense, and they do a great job of executing what they, and if we don't play good against them—y'all don't remember the [2011] Georgia Southern game, do you?

"I don't think we had a guy on that field that didn't play in the NFL and about four or five of them were first-round draft picks, and I think that team won a national championship, but I'm not sure. And they ran through our [expletive] like [expletive] through a tin horn, man, and we could not stop them. We could not stop them. Could not stop them. Because we couldn't get a look in practice we didn't practice it right and everybody said the same thing in that game. Y'all took a week off. This wasn't important, so it's not important to anybody else. It's gotta be important to the players, and it's gotta be important to us.

"Everybody gets all excited about the beginning of the season. You get so excited about getting married, but after you're married for a while, you gotta have a process to make it work, and no matter what happens we need to have a process to make it work in every game that we play. You can't assume anything. I don't even know what you asked me, but I just wanted to say that.

"Did anybody see (the Georgia Southern) game? You saw that game? I think we'd given up like 300 yards rushing the whole season in 10 games. That's like 30 yards a game. And all anybody wanted to talk about was how dominant the front was and how nobody could run against us. They got 300 yards rushing in one game."

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However, Saturday’s game gave him another motivational tool as senior cornerback Cyrus Jones demonstrated how someone should play in his last home game.

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Not only did he return two punts for touchdowns, making him the first Crimson Tide player to do so since Alabama started keeping records on returns in 1944, but he also deflected an option pitch to himself for a fumble recovery. Jones subsequently returned it 18 yards to set up Alabama’s seventh touchdown of the first half.

“I was saying all game I was going to jump his option,” Jones said.

The punt returns were just as impressive, of 43 and 72 yards, the first after the ball deflected off teammate Maurice Smith and into open field.

“Coming in we knew that that punter was going to do a rugby-style punt, a lot of line drives and you had to play them off the bounce,” Jones said. “I actually thought it was going to take a big hop only it hit Mo in the foot. I just tried to pick it up and make a play.”

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It was that kind of day for the overmatched visitors, who at the break had 31 total yards of offense compared to Alabama’s 49 points.

“Well, the outcome was probably what we expected,” Charleston Southern coach Jamey Chadwell said.

“They’re obviously as good as anybody we’ve seen. I don’t know if you could combine all of the teams we played and [equal] all of their best players. I do think we had more yards rushing than Leonard Fournette did, though, so you can check that. But we couldn’t run up inside.”

LSU’s Fournette rushed for 31 yards on 19 carries against the Alabama defense on Nov. 7, for an average of 1.6 yards. CSU had 31 yards on 21 carries at halftime, and zero passing, with the Crimson Tide already inserting reserves.

The Bucs (9-2 FCS) finished with 85 rushing yards on 36 carries and barely avoided the shutout.

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On the flip side, Alabama running back Derrick Henry could have all but called his rushing numbers for the day. He had just nine carries for 68 rushing yards, a 28-yard reception and two touchdowns.

The first extended his streak of games with a rushing touchdown to 16, and the second tied Trent Richardson’s record for rushing touchdowns in a single season with 21. Henry also went over the 1,500-yard mark for the season, and despite his limited use, he might have only tightened his grip on the Heisman Trophy.

Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott, arguably Henry’s most serious challenger, only had 33 rushing yards on 12 carries during the 17-14 loss to Michigan State.

Like starting quarterback Jake Coker, who completed 11 of 13 passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns, Henry was pulled in the second quarter.

“We did what we needed to do and were real efficient,” Coker said.

Otherwise, Saturday was a day for the seniors and the players who don’t get on the field too much, with Cooper Bateman and Alec Morris getting turns at quarterback, cornerback Bradley Sylve leading the Crimson Tide in solo tackles with four and Jabriel Washington making an interception.

“It was great,” Washington said. “I saw the end zone too. I was one person away.”

Overall, the senior class has compiled a 46-5 record over the past four years, but everyone knows that Alabama teams are remembered for their ring collections. This group already has at least one national championship (2012), along with two Southeastern Conference titles (2012 and 2014), and is showing that it wants more. 

“I’m glad I went out the way I did,” Jones said.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.