Alabama Reminds Everyone It’s No. 1
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C. J. Mosley (32) of Alabama bringing down Louisiana State’s Terrence Magee in the first half. L.S.U. looked strong early in the game, but Alabama surged back.
By GREG BISHOP
Published: November 10, 2013
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama Coach Nick Saban jumped toward his quarterback, held on tight, let go, turned toward the home tunnel at Bryant-Denny Stadium and began to jog.
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T. J. Yeldon scoring in the third quarter. He rushed for two of the Crimson Tide’s five touchdowns as the team remained undefeated.
Behind Saban ran security guards, and behind them ran photographers and cameramen. Saban held aloft his right index finger and waved at the assembled in the stands. He looked basically how most expect Saban not to look: emotional, content, even giddy.
As Saban jogged off the field Saturday, he smiled, and not briefly, but widely, and for the entirety of his jog. This was a man who lamented the time he lost to recruit this off-season because of his national championship obligations, a man for whom his famous process is more bible than buzzword. His team had pulled away from Louisiana State to win, 38-17, to remain undefeated, and here Saban allowed himself a moment, emphasis on “a.”
Shortly afterward, he stood before reporters, as the final stragglers headed for the exits. It was again all about the process. The four giant video boards played his news conference, the camera closed in tight. Here was a football higher power, the voice of an Alabama football God, four Sabans, preaching simultaneously to an emptying stadium and anyone in earshot.
“I thought we played better in the second half,” he said, back on script.
Alabama (9-0, 6-0 Southeastern Conference) thrives on script, to the point where games and wins and seasons like this become expected, to the point where the D-word, as in dynasty, gets thrown around.
Not that everyone had forgotten about Alabama football, it being, of course, Alabama football, but the Crimson Tide spent much of last month trapped in a contradiction. They remained at once locked atop the rankings and a step or two from the spotlight.
Alabama continued forward, turning a string of lackluster matchups into a series of lopsided victories. If those games, and a stretch of three national championships in the past four seasons, resulted in some Alabama fatigue, in annual dominance taken for granted, the Crimson Tide could ignore the relative quiet and polish its hardware.
Louisiana State (7-3, 3-3) came to town Saturday, and while the hype around this contest did not mirror the “Game of the Century” narrative from two years ago, the Tigers had won five of their last six games at Alabama, which had stumbled once in November in each of the past two seasons. That provided enough intrigue, even if it did not last.
On Saturday, Alabama so dominated that it deserved one of those overly-enthusiastic, rapid-fire claps from Les Miles, the Tigers coach. Quarterback A. J. McCarron threw three touchdown passes; running back T. J. Yeldon sprinted in for two scores; and Alabama’s defense, sloppy in the first half, stiffened as the game went on.
As Saban assessed all that, the hug, naturally, came up in the news conference. He looked down at the podium. “Look, man, A. J. and I have been through a lot,” Saban said. “Some of it you have seen on TV and some of it you haven’t.”
Earlier in the week, undefeated Baylor decimated Oklahoma, and Stanford upended undefeated Oregon. That meant the weekend ended with four no-loss teams toward the top of the Bowl Championship Series rankings: Florida State, Ohio State, Baylor and, of course, Alabama, which gave no reason to believe it is not the most formidable of all. Again.
As kickoff approached, senses here were assaulted. The video boards played tributes. Loudspeakers blared country music. Fans waved white towels and sang “Sweet Home Alabama” and walked right up near the team bench, the path between the first row and the sideline paved like a courtyard, lined with shrubbery and marked by a fence. Even the band — announced as the “$1 Million Band” — came onto the field to entrance music.
Here was Alabama, doing Alabama, where one password for a stadium wireless network provided a simply summary of the mind-set, at the intersection of arrogant and confident. It was: “Champion!” and with an exclamation point.