Monday may be worse than usual for fans of the Crimson Tide. Alabama lost in a stunning upset against Vanderbilt Saturday afternoon. It was weekend of bad news for ranked teams who fell to unranked opponents. Tennessee lost to Arkansas, defending champs Michigan lost to the Washington Huskies, and Southern Cal came up short against Minnesota. But, it’s the Tide’s forty to thirty five loss to Vanderbilt that may be stinging the most right now. It’s not the first time Alabama has suffered the agony of defeat even when Nick Saban was coach. Here’s a tale of a win bookended by losses for the Tide.
“Yeah, we beat the last seven national champions, all of them this year,” said Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney. Tide fans may remember.
“I don't know who tweeted that out. I appreciate that little nugget. We beat the last seven national champs. We beat this season,” he said.
Swinney was talking about how Clemson beat Alabama for the national championship in Tampa in 2017. The Tigers hoisted the College Football Playoff trophy by defeating the Tide thirty five to thirty one. Retired coach Nick Saban was still in charge of Alabama’s football team at that time. He had to say following the loss…
“I think every loss is very painful, and my loss is really for the bad feeling that I have for the players who've worked so hard to create this opportunity for themselves and not to be able to finish,” said Saban.
That may sound reminiscent of what Alabama fans heard over the weekend following the Tide upset loss against unranked Vanderbilt.
“Gotta, gotta do a better job as you know, it's like I said, you know, we win as a team and we lose a team,” said the Tide’s current coach Kalen DeBoer.
“And you know, those are the things that that really hurt you, because I think they kept the drive alive and then ended up scoring a touchdown. And, you know, just that hump that we couldn't quite get over through a lot of the game,” DeBoer said.
The Tide came up short against Clemson in 2017 by almost the same margin as Alabama’s forty to thirty five loss over the weekend against Vanderbilt. It can be argued that the stakes were higher in 2017. But, the point is even Nick Saban suffered losses along with wins.
“It is very disappointing for me, but because of them become talking about it at halftime,” said Kirby Smart, head coach at Georgia. He’s not talking about the Bulldogs loss at the hands of Alabama last week in Tuscaloosa. Smart was speaking with the press after the Tide’s come from behind victory to win the national title in 2018.
“We couldn't close the deal,” said Smart.
Georgia dominated the game at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. At half time, Coach Saban pulled quarterback Jalen Hurts and substituted the unknown freshman Tua Tagovailoa for the second half. Even Kirby Smart had to hand to the untested signal caller that led the Tide to victory.
“We told her about halftime, there was no question that they were going to him,” said Smart. “Because they were struggling and they needed some momentum, and he provided them some juice and got them some momentum, got the momentum swung back their way. And he's good player.”
“We could end this story with a Bama win and everyone living happily ever after. But, life tends not to be like that, and neither is college football.”
“A Hollywood movie Steven Spielberg, or whoever one of them, producer people are, they couldn't write this script,” said Dabo Swinney of Clemson.
We started this feature with a quip from the Tiger’s head coach, so get ready for another one..
“You could they couldn't write this script,” he said.
Swinney wasn’t talking about the 2017 defeat of Alabama in Tampa. This time, it was the 2019 drubbing of the Tide in the San Francisco Bay area for that year’s title.
“We took care of the ball, we attacked, made big plays defensively,” Swinney recalled in 2019.
“All the way through, we had a great season, but five words, good is not good enough,” said Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. It was his turn to share his feelings following a loss one year after beating Georgia in overtime for the title.
"We didn't finish the way we wanted to finish. We didn't do the things we needed to do to execute and be successful in this game, and that's all it is,” Tagovailoa said.
“They’ve been making it close. They're going to run the clock down, they're going to shorten the game,” said Kalen DeBoer following what some critics are calling embarrassing and humiliating. The Tide coach says he knew what was coming from Vanderbilt.
“We knew that that was going to be the case,” he said. “We talked about it all week long, that that's, you know, Coach Lee, and that's why all all week I said he's done a great job of playing Team football, and that's exactly what they did.”
How long it may take for critics to forget the Vandy loss is an open question. Alabama has a chance to start righting the ship this Saturday when the Tide faces South Carolina at Bryant Denny Stadium.
