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What an incredible year it has been for the Crimson Tide. Alabama rode Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry right through its 45-40 victory over Clemson Monday night to win its fourth national title in Nick Saban’s nine seasons in Tuscaloosa.
Yet, Bama’s 14-1 season wasn’t as easy as it looked. After its only defeat of the year – a 43-37 loss at home to Ole Miss on Sept. 19 – the Tide completely turned its season around while practically playing an elimination game every week.
Let’s take a look back at five defining moments for Alabama in 2015:
1. Winning the national championship: Alabama’s defense played one of its worst games of the season against Deshaun Watston and Clemson, but Saban suddenly morphed into a combination of Les Miles and Sean Payton when he called for an onside kick just after Adam Griffith booted a field goal to tie the College Football Playoff championship game. Two plays after Marlon Humphrey recovered the onside kick, Jacob Coker hit tight end O.J. Howard with a 51-yard TD pass as the Crimson Tide took control for good. The most telling thing about Monday night is the rare emotion and humility Saban showed during his postgame interviews. The man is not a robot after all.
2. Winning the SEC Championship Game: The Crimson Tide’s 29-15 victory over Florida wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing game in the world, but it helped Bama do two things – become the first team to win consecutive SEC titles since Tennessee in 1998 and clinch a second straight spot in the College Football Playoff, where it finished the job it couldn’t do last year. And, oh yeah. Henry carried the ball only 44 times for 189 yards and a TD.
3. Henry’s Heisman moment: Not only did Henry rush for 210 yards and three touchdowns in Alabama’s 30-16 home victory over LSU, he ran past Leonard Fournette as the Heisman favorite. Of course, Alabama’s smothering defense had a lot to do with that by holding the Tigers’ super sophomore to just 31 yards on 19 carries – both season lows for Fournette.
4. An Iron Bowl to remember: Henry ran the ball a school-record 46 times in Alabama’s 29-13 victory in the Iron Bowl that helped the Tide clinch the SEC West title and a spot in the conference title game. Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of Henry’s performance was the fact that he finished with 271 rushing yards, the most ever allowed by Auburn.
5. The turning point of the season: Forget about Saban’s decision to start Cooper Bateman at QB in Alabama’s only defeat of the season, its aforementioned loss to the Rebels. And forget about the fact that Alabama still had a chance to win that game despite committing five turnovers. What’s important to remember about this setback is that it was the game when Saban decided that Coker was his guy, and that decision — with the possible exception of Monday night’s onside kick — was his best move of the year. Alabama never lost again on the way to the fifth national title of Saban’s illustrious career.
Stan Chrapowicki is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers SEC football, Alabama and Auburn.
