2008 Alabama Mirrors Teams of the Past

In the wake of Alabama's 29-9 victory over the Tennessee Volunteers Saturday night, it's tempting to look back to the early 1990s and make comparisons between this team and the teams Coach Stallings led.  After all, if you want to know the last time Alabama won back-to-back games against the Vols you have to go back over 15 years.

If you do so, you'll be making a bad comparison between 'Bama teams of that era and this one.

Sure, the win in 1990 when Bama upset the eventual SEC Champion Tennessee in Knoxville by a score of 9-6 was the start of a winning streak.  Sure, that win was followed by another, that time in Birmingham, which marked back-to-back wins against our longest standing rival.

This victory by the Tide goes back to older days—those days we talk about glowingly while rival fans accuse us of living in the past.  In fact, after the victory Saturday night, Alabama fans won't be the only ones that can talk about the past.

The Volunteer fanbase can look back and glow as well this morning.  But their glow has a distinct red hue of embarrassment when they consider the last time they were beaten back-to-back by Alabama (by more than 20 points each time) was back in the mid-1970s.  Those defeats came at the hands of teams that were simply tougher and more physical than their Volunteer opponents.

The team in 1974 featured names like Richard Todd and a freshman by the name of Ozzie Newsome.  Todd was by no means spectacular in the '74 season.  In fact, he averaged less than 100 yards per game passing.  The leading receiver for that team was a freshman, and the hopes of the Bama nation were found in the thoughts of what he was going to be like when he hit his junior and senior years.

Now, this 2008 team features a quarterback who is throwing the ball more than Todd but only averaging a few more yards per game.  John Parker Wilson, to date, is averaging less than 115 yards per game passing.  This 2008 team also has the same ingredient of a freshman receiver captivating the Bama nation as Julio Jones leads the Bama receiving corps in catches and yards per game.

But that is not the similarity I find most intriguing.

Those teams in the mid-'70s were more physical, on both sides of the ball, than their opponents dressed in UT orange.

After Javier Arenas fumbled the punt, giving Tennessee the football in Alabama territory, in the red zone on top of that, Alabama's defense soon realized they could push the Volunteer offense around at will. 

While the Vols scored in the first quarter, and by that accomplished something six other teams that have faced Alabama haven't been able to do, they also had to do something all eight of the teams that have played Alabama have been forced to do.  Pull out any stop they could think of just to put points on the board only to realize, in the end, it just wasn't enough.

The Alabama defense from that '74 team featured names that are a significant part of our history.  An interior defensive lineman, Bob Baumhower.  A linebacker by the name of Woodrow Lowe.  A strong safety from Corvallis, OR (who happens to be back there today), by the name of Mike Riley.

2008 counters with a young one as well in Josh Chapman, who was a virtual unknown to those outside the Alabama family until the conclusions of Saturday night's game, when he was an integral part of a defensive unit that allowed 36 yards rushing for the game.  A linebacker, Rolando McClain, who, like his predecessor, is going to be the subject of conversations for decades to dome. 

Is there another coach residing in the secondary?  Right, one would have to say yes when thinking about the role Rashad Johnson has taken with this defensive unit.  A "coach on the field" is how the staff has described him and his leadership roles this year.

Both of these two defenses, like the offenses, have traits in common.  The 2008 Alabama team has allowed its opponents very few points in the first quarter, just as the 1974 team held its opponents scoreless time and time again in the same period (10 points allowed in the first quarter for the 1974 season).

Sylvester Croom, George Pugh, Les Fowler, Neil Callaway, Ricky Davis…the list goes on and is one with names easily at the tip of every Bama fan's tongue.  Perhaps, most ironically, the '74 team featured a defensive back by the name of Tyrone King.  Yes, that Tyrone King.  The father of a defensive back on the 2008 squad, Tyrone King, Jr.

Andre Smith, Antoine Caldwell, Nick Walker, Dont’a Hightower, and even Cory Reamer…another list that goes on and on and will easily be on the tips of Bama fans' tongues in a few decades.

That '74 team, after its defeat of UT in Knoxville (28-6) went on to face Mississippi State, LSU, and Auburn to close out the season 11-0.   While Alabama did suffer its first loss in the bowl game against Notre Dame, it did secure another of its 21 SEC Championships.

That team wasn't flashy.  In fact, it was a team that could easily be described as "a hard working, blue collar-type bunch."

This 2008 team, sitting at 8-0, still has Mississippi State, LSU, and Auburn left on its schedule.  Its destiny is in its own hands.  The chances are looking better and better this team could mirror the '74 record of 11-1.  In fact, if they continue taking care of business in their "hard working, blue collar-type approach," they'll have a good chance to add to that SEC Championship trophy case as well.

What we are witnessing right now isn't rocket science.  The teams we have played have all faced the same problem.  It's found under the definition of a "physical football team."

René Descartes, renowned Mathematician, said, "Always recheck the reasoning behind every problem." 

The problem facing the teams left on our schedule, as well as the teams we've already faced, is how to deal with a team that is intent on being more physical than those they face.  While we've seen excuses made on why teams have fallen against the Tide this season, we only seen a few that defined the reason behind their problems.

Descartes also left us with this gem.

"If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things."

That doubt, easily explained, is the one that rivals defend with: "Alabama isn't ready to compete with the SEC’s best.  It still belongs to the Auburns, the LSU's, the Georgias."

They know the answer, but seemingly still choose to believe…

"Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow."