Alabama Football: Records Falling, More Due to Fall in the National Championship

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) Earlier this season I wrote an article called TIDE stands for "This Is Defensive Excellence." The last few games against Mississippi State, LSU and Auburn were just others chapter in that story, and records began to made.

For the 11th game this season, Alabama's defense has not allowed a team to score more than 14 points despite playing five teams in that span that were ranked in the top 20 in all the polls.

They did fall short of their record of 15 straight games with a such a feat being accomplished by allowing Georgia Southern to score 21 points. But the defense, in fact, only gave up 14. The other seven came on a kickoff return.

With Courtney Upshaw's sack Saturday, he moved into ninth place on Alabama's career-leading sack list. He now has 16.5 sacks. He could tie John Copeland for eighth place with just one more sack. While these numbers are good, former Tide player Derrick Thomas had 28 sacks in just one season, the 1988 campaign.

Now that is a stat that brings it all into perspective just how great Thomas was.

In Nick Saban's last 50 games as head coach of Alabama, the defense has kept opposing offenses under 300 total offensive yards 39 times and under 200 yards 20 times. That's the best 50-game mark for any active coach in college football.

In their last three SEC games, LSU earned just 239 offensive total yards, Mississippi State 131 and Auburn just 140.

But the offense has been moving up the record charts as well.

By gaining 203 yards against Auburn, Trent Richardson moved into fifth place in the all-time yardage list with 3,032 yards. He would have to get 229 against LSU to pass Mark Ingram's 3,261 mark for fourth place. The leader is Shaun Alexander with 3,565 yards.

As far as single-season records, Richardson's 1,583 yards places him second behind Mark Ingram's record of 1,658 yards in 2009. Richardson has a shot to beat that, by rushing for just 75 yards in his next game against LSU.

Another Richardson record that he has already broken is the single-season touchdown mark. Richardson broke Shaun Alexander’s 1999 Alabama record of 19 rushing touchdowns in a season and has 20 going into the LSU game.

Quarterback AJ McCarron moved into the top 10 of the Alabama single-season list for pass completions in a single season. He has now moved into seventh place with 196 completions. John Parker Wilson holds the Alabama record with 255 completions in 2007. 

In the last game against LSU, McCarron completed 16 passes. If he does at least that again, he will move into fourth place. If he completes 27, he could go to second place. Greg McElroy had 198 in his first year and 222 in his second. Presently, McElroy is second and sixth on that list.

McCarron will easily beat Greg McElroy's rookie season record despite playing in one fewer game with just three completions in the LSU game.

That completion list for a single season is:

John Parker Wilson 255    2007 season

Greg McElroy         222    2010 season

John Parker Wilson 216   2006 season

Gary Hollingsworth  205   1989 season

Brodie Croyle          202   2005 season

Presently the record holder for most touchdowns thrown in a season is 20 and is held by Greg McElroy; McCarron has 16 as of now. That's quite good considering he's played one less game, the SEC Championship, and split two games with Phillip Sims.

Again, if he throws one, he'll tie McElroy's 2009 campaign for third all time and two will have him tied for second place with 18. Not bad for a player who played in one less game than those ahead of him.

But the biggest record Alabama fans want to see fall is 13 national championships.