The Crimson Tide’s best season is one that shouldn’t have been played.
I predicted many times this summer that there would be no 2020 college football season. Most universities had shifted to virtual instruction because of the pandemic and it seemed inconceivable that we would ask football players to come to campus. Several major conferences in fact canceled their seasons. But, under pressure from coaches, players, and fans—and the fact that the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference were going to play come Hell or high water—they ultimately uncanceled. The season probably shouldn’t have been played. Lots of coaches and student-athletes from lots of schools contracted the virus. While none died that I know of, some doubtless suffered permanent damage to their health. Even from a competitive balance standpoint, tons of games were canceled. The Ohio State team that lost to my Alabama Crimson Tide last night dominated most of the games they played; but they only played a 5-game regular season compared to Alabama’s 10. All that said, it was just an incredible season for Alabama. They absolutely dominated an all-SEC schedule, winning 10 conference games in the regular season and an 11th in the SEC Championship game against Florida.* Then they went on to beat two great teams, Notre Dame and Ohio State, in the Playoff. This, despite a COVID scare involved their head coach and then an actual COVID case involving their head coach, Nick Saban, that kept him out of a key rivalry game. And a reshuffling of their schedule to deal with other teams’ COVID issues that took away a bye week heading into the conference championship game. We moved to Alabama just after the last of the Bear Bryant championships and I wasn’t a follower of those teams. I was in my first year of grad school at Alabama when the 1992 team won the first-ever SEC Championship Game and then clobbered Miami to win the national championship, going 13-0 in what was the teams 100th season. And I’ve cheered on five previous national championship teams under Saban. But this one was the most special. Not only because of the bizarre circumstances that they had to manage all year, which was incredible in its own right. But they also overcame a freak injury that took out arguably their best player, wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, in the opening kickoff of the Tennessee game in week 5 and continued to dominate. They also lost the nation’s best center, Landon Dickerson, in the closing moments of the SEC Championship and had to face Notre Dame and Ohio State without him. (Saban did put him in for the final, kneel-down snaps of the National Championship game, which was a great touch.) Their number two wideout, DeVonta Smith, wound up winning the Heisman Trophy and three other postseason awards. Their quarterback, Mac Jones, came seemingly out of nowhere—he wasn’t even expected to hold on to the starting job—to finish third in the Heisman balloting but to set all sorts of records and win the two quarterbacking awards and consensus first team All-America honors. Their top running back, Najee Harris, somehow finished only fifth in the Heisman balloting despite breaking multiple SEC records and taking home the award for the nation’s top running back. Saban’s six titles at Alabama would tie him with Bryant for the most in major college football history. He had previously won one at Louisiana State, so he now holds the record by himself. ESPN’s Andrea Adelson (“College Football Playoff: Alabama’s title felt both impossible and undeniable“): At the end of a long, grueling, strange, uncomfortable season for college football, we finally got a small piece of normalcy as the final seconds ticked off the clock Monday night at Hard Rock Stadium: Alabama, hoisting yet another national championship trophy after winning in dominant, historic fashion.
