Meanwhile Bammer is ranked #1 for the 13th consecutive season.

#2
#2
Probably got another 7 years or so of Saban to boot. He's gonna make it a 20 year dynasty.
 
#3
#3
It's got to be so easy being a Bama fan. 13 consecutive seasons at #1. Even their down years from the 90's wasn't as bad or as long as this is for us.
 
#4
#4
rjd970 said:
It's got to be so easy being a Bama fan. 13 consecutive seasons at #1. Even their down years from the 90's wasn't as bad or as long as this is for us.
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Alabama's lows during their down period were just as bad as ours, but their highs were also a lot higher.

They got put on probation multiple times, had one 3-win season and two 4-win seasons, and had to fire Mike Price before he even coached a game because he partied with strippers, Coach Fran left them out of nowhere to take the A&M job, etc. However despite all that they actually managed to win the SEC in 1999 and had another season where they won 10 games.
 
#5
#5
05_never_again said:
Alabama's lows during their down period were just as bad as ours, but their highs were also a lot higher.

They got put on probation multiple times, had one 3-win season and two 4-win seasons, and had to fire Mike Price before he even coached a game because he partied with strippers, Coach Fran left them out of nowhere to take the A&M job, etc. However despite all that they actually managed to win the SEC in 1999 and had another season where they won 10 games.
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And Bama's down period was roughly half as long as Tennessee's.
 
#6
#6
bamawriter said:
And Bama's down period was roughly half as long as Tennessee's.
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How do you define "down period" for both schools? I've got Bama's from 1997-2006, so exactly 10 seasons. I suppose you could throw in Saban's first year into the down period too for 11 seasons total. I've got Tennessee's from 2008-?, so 12 going on 13 seasons. Tennessee's is longer at this point, but not double the length of Bama's (yet).
 
#7
#7
05_never_again said:
How do you define "down period" for both schools? I've got Bama's from 1997-2006, so exactly 10 seasons. I suppose you could throw in Saban's first year into the down period too for 11 seasons total. I've got Tennessee's from 2008-?, so 12 going on 13 seasons. Tennessee's is longer at this point, but not double the length of Bama's (yet).
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I think '97 is a tad early. It was a bad season, but it bounced back with a an SEC title and Orange Bowl berth in '99, which is way better than anything UT has accomplished during their down period. Dubose crapped the bed in '00 and the sanctions kicked in right after. So I'd go '00 to '06 (and even that stretch includes 2 ten win seasons). So seven years is "roughly half" of thirteen.
 
#9
#9
TrueOrange said:
In other news AP/Coaches Poll news: Indiana in the top 10?

First time since 1969.
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Indiana is legit. I watched the Michigan game and then went back to watch their opener vs Penn St. That team is really good. tOSU is going to crush them, but they are easily the second best team in that division.
 
#10
#10
bamawriter said:
I think '97 is a tad early. It was a bad season, but it bounced back with a an SEC title and Orange Bowl berth in '99, which is way better than anything UT has accomplished during their down period. Dubose crapped the bed in '00 and the sanctions kicked in right after. So I'd go '00 to '06. So seven years is "roughly half" of thirteen.
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You only know in hindsight of course, but when you go back and look it's clear starting in 1997 that years like 1999 were becoming the exception rather than the rule. 1999 was bookended by 2 mediocre/bad years...1997 to 2001 wasn't a good time for Alabama football at all.

Your highs are definitely higher than ours during the down period, but 1999, 2002, even 2005 were outliers in an overall pretty embarrassing period. The Mike Price fiasco is arguably even more embarrassing than Schiano Sunday; can you imagine how that story would be covered if it happened today? The most we've managed to do during our down period is win 8 regular season games.
 
#11
#11
05_never_again said:
You only know in hindsight of course, but when you go back and look it's clear starting in 1997 that years like 1999 were becoming the exception rather than the rule. 1999 was bookended by 2 mediocre/bad years...1997 to 2001 wasn't a good time for Alabama football at all.
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Not disagreeing, but I'm trying to compare apples to apples, which is somewhat difficult because:

Your highs are definitely higher than ours during the down period, but 1999, 2002, even 2005 were outliers in an overall pretty embarrassing period. The most we've managed to do during our down period is win 8 regular season games.
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And therein lies the issue. What designates a "down period"? I mean, if a down period can include an SEC championship, shouldn't we take UT's down period back to '05 since they only managed one appearance during that span?
 
#12
#12
bamawriter said:
Not disagreeing, but I'm trying to compare apples to apples, which is somewhat difficult because:



And therein lies the issue. What designates a "down period"? I mean, if a down period can include an SEC championship, shouldn't we take UT's down period back to '05 since they only managed one appearance during that span?
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It's subjective, but I see it as a period of time where good seasons become the exception, bad seasons are the norm. Alabama had mediocre/bad seasons in 1997 and 1998, then kind of came out of nowhere to win that 1999 SECCG, then went right back to sucking. It was a bear market rally, if you will.

I think you can totally make the case that Tennessee's go back to 2005; Fulmer had 2 losing seasons in his last 4, so bad seasons were kind of close to becoming the norm starting in 2005. Tennessee didn't start to string together bad seasons until 2008 and thereafter, so that's why I started it there, but you can totally say 2005 is where it started. I wouldn't start our "down period" back this far, but the program hasn't been the same since 2001, IMO. It certainly hasn't had a nationally relevant performance since that season, which is mind-boggling for a program with these resources and support.
 
#13
#13
In my opinion Notre Dame should have jumped Bama. They beat the number one team in the country. I know Bama beat UGA but they were not in the top spot.
 
#14
#14
onevol74 said:
In my opinion Notre Dame should have jumped Bama. They beat the number one team in the country. I know Bama beat UGA but they were not in the top spot.
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There's certainly an argument to be made. For what it's worth, Bama also beat an otherwise undefeated team (A&M), and Bama's strength of schedule is considerably better than Notre Dame's.
 
#15
#15
onevol74 said:
In my opinion Notre Dame should have jumped Bama. They beat the number one team in the country. I know Bama beat UGA but they were not in the top spot.
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Bama would beat Notre Dame by three TDs.
 
#16
#16
Salty Dog said:
Someone please end this nightmare.
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Instead of ending the nightmare, we would be smart to learn from it. Bama hired the best college coach in the history of the game. They gave him unprecedented control on football operations. And they neutered anyone who was against Saban and his demands no matter their affiliation with the program.
As a TN fan, it sucks right now. As a college football fan, it is boring for the other 117 teams not named Bama, Clemson, or tOSU.
 
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#18
#18
McDad said:
Instead of ending the nightmare, we would be smart to learn from it. Bama hired the best college coach in the history of the game. They gave him unprecedented control on football operations. And they neutered anyone who was against Saban and his demands no matter their affiliation with the program.
As a TN fan, it sucks right now. As a college football fan, it is boring for the other 117 teams not named Bama, Clemson, or tOSU.
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Yep. Every bit of this.
 
#19
#19
McDad said:
Instead of ending the nightmare, we would be smart to learn from it. Bama hired the best college coach in the history of the game. They gave him unprecedented control on football operations. And they neutered anyone who was against Saban and his demands no matter their affiliation with the program.
As a TN fan, it sucks right now. As a college football fan, it is boring for the other 117 teams not named Bama, Clemson, or tOSU.
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There was absolutely zero indication that Saban would end up as good as he has been. Yeah he did good at LSU. But think about it. In 2001 Saban got beaten by us, boat races by UF and lost to Ole Miss. Yeah he won the NC but it was far, far from a dominant season.

There is little we can actually learn. There is only a roll of the dice. We could hire a proven winner, give him Saban like control and do everything you said. And still not even come remotely close to what Saban has done. He is literally a once in a generation coach. Hiring a HC in college football is like the lottery. Complete luck.
 
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#20
#20
McDad said:
Instead of ending the nightmare, we would be smart to learn from it. Bama hired the best college coach in the history of the game. They gave him unprecedented control on football operations. And they neutered anyone who was against Saban and his demands no matter their affiliation with the program.
As a TN fan, it sucks right now. As a college football fan, it is boring for the other 117 teams not named Bama, Clemson, or tOSU.
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I could be making a correlation does not equal causation mistake, but history does seem to suggest that Tennessee and Alabama cannot be good at the same time. The history of that rivalry seems to indicate that. When they're good, we suck. When we're good, they suck. I don't think Tennessee will beat Alabama as long as Saban is there, and Tennessee will not be good again until some combination of Alabama/Georgia/Florida begin to throttle back and stop firing on all cylinders. I do not think we can win the SEC East as long as those schools are consistent top 10 programs. IMO, it is not a coincidence that Phil's glory years occurred with 2 of those 3 programs stunk. And the one program that was good (Florida) still ate our lunch.

I wouldn't think that Alabama and Tennessee would be as strongly correlated as perhaps Georgia and Tennessee, but maybe there's something to it.

And @BigOrangeTrain is absolutely right. It was foreseeable that Saban would improve Alabama (he'd already won a national title at an SEC school) but there was no way of knowing he'd be this good. His reputation when he took the job was quite different than it was today; he was thought of as something as a liar and a bad NFL coach who did have success at LSU but there was questions whether he could turn Alabama around. He wasn't even their first choice - Rich Rod was.
 
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