Lordofwrath88

Bama wins with an incredible 197.475, the highest season opening score in program history.


For a squad that pre-season hype was built around veteran strength with 2 contributing super seniors and only losing one All-American (Lilly Hudson)... the Freshman had a hell of a night.

Heck of a start with a near perfect 10 for a FRESHMAN!!!! Roll Tide.

Nah, it's so common it's practically a cliche.... Sophomore Slump.

I say, for the first bad call of the game. DeBoer should toss a chair across to the endzone.

While the Tide won Nick Saban's first national championship in the stadium in 2009 (well, January 2010), it was the National Championship Game, not the Rose Bowl. (USC would beat Penn State for the 2009 Rose Bowl trophy and flowers).

Later Alabama would beat Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl proper, but covid restrictions had moved the game to Dallas.

And of course the Tide lost their last trip in 2024 to the eventual National Champions to end the Saban era.

===============

The 1945 Season. College Football was back in full force following the Japanese Surrender in August ending World War 2. Frank Thomas would lead Alabama to an undefeated season, but it was a weak schedule, with no ranked teams in the regular season. Even with a Rose Bowl title, Bama would not rise higher than #2 in the major polls. Resulting in one of Alabama's stronger unclaimed titles alongside 1966 and 1977.

That season Bear Bryant returned from the Navy to accept his first head coaching gig with Maryland.

Gene Stallings was 10 years old.

Nick Saban would not be born for 6 years and DeBoer, 29.

The University of Alabama enrolled 4,000 students, and saw the establishment of a new Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, the return of male students, and the expansion of the medical school in Birmingham.

Team played like a bunch of kids who knew nothing that happened to day mattered.

lol.

Imagine someone going all the way to Baton Rouge, and then turn around to Tuscaloosa a week later.

2022

Undefeated Football SEC Champions and Final Four appearance (just don't look further into the word "football")

oh well, as long as we don't get REAMED by the playoff committee, Kalen is roughly matching Saban's tenure.

2007 7-6 Independence Bowl
2008 12–2 SEC Title game
2009 14–0 SEC Champs. BCS Champs


2024 9–4 Outback Bowl
2025 10–3 (in progress) SEC Title Game
2026 TBA

Ty just ultimately isn't it.

He has talent and like Bear Bryant says, when a player works his arse off and plays his A game, he can hit above his weight, but for a championship, he's gonna have to get HOT and stay hot.

It's good to step back and remember, we still haven't Alabama with a Kalen QB yet. He still needs to find his next Michael Penix and we'll roll.