Bear Bryant had arrived in Tuscaloosa back in 1958. In his first eight seasons, he finished #1 in the AP poll three different times and had an unbeaten, but uncrowned team in 1966. He hadn’t been back on top since, but the 1973 Alabama football team came into the season with some momentum. They had […]
The 1980s were a dry stretch for the powerful Alabama football program. After closing the previous decade with national championships in 1978 and 1979, the Crimson Tide hadn’t reached a major bowl game since 1981. Bear Bryant retired the following year and Ray Perkins couldn’t keep the Tide in the national elite. Bill Curry got […]
1981 Alabama football wasn’t the same loaded team that won back-to-back national titles in 1978-79. They had slipped a bit in 1980, though they still went to the Cotton Bowl and crushed Baylor. The offense lacked explosiveness. Starting quarterback Walter Lewis only threw 66 passes and the Tide relied on a rushing attack where five […]
Alabama was coming off national championship seasons in both 1978 and 1979, as the coaching career of the legendary Bear Bryant neared its end. The 1980 Alabama football team didn’t make it a three-peat, but they made a run at it and their ultimate Cotton Bowl victory would be Bryant’s last victory in a major […]
Alabama had split the national title with USC in 1978. The Crimson Tide were ranked #2 to start the new season, so they would open needing at least a little bit of help—it was their old nemesis out west in USC that was ranked #1. The bowl structure of the time meant that the SEC […]
Alabama alum Gene Stallings returned to his school in 1990 as head coach, with a mandate to restore the glory days of Bear Bryant, whom Stallings had played for. The first season was iffy—even though the Crimson Tide got a Fiesta Bowl bid, they had lost four regular season games and then got crushed by […]
The Alabama football program had been on relatively hard times since the legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant retired after the 1982 season (he passed away months later). Ray Perkins and Bill Curry took their turns at replacing him. Perkins never made it to a major bowl game in four years. Curry tried for three more seasons that included a tri-SEC title in 1989 and Sugar Bowl appearance, but his lack of a tie to the Bryant era made him less than popular, to put it mildly. The next man up was Gene Stallings, who was a part of the Bryant Family.
The 1977 college football season defined by a dramatic January 2, when the four major bowl games were played. Two big blowouts created chaos and a controversial national champion.
The Georgia Bulldogs have been a pretty consistent winner over the years, but only once have they won the national championship. That came in the 1980 college football season, when a freshman running back named Herschel Walker came blazing onto the scene and transformed Georgia and the entire SEC for the three years he was in Athens.
The 1981 Cotton Bowl brought together one traditional power for whom the bid was a disappointment, and one up-and-comer for whom just being there was reason to celebrate. Alabama, the two-time defending national champion, met Baylor in the game that followed the 1980 college football regular season.
The 1980 Sugar Bowl saw a national title settled in New Orleans for the second year in a row and once again the team doing the claiming was Alabama. After a winning a co-national championship the prior year, the Crimson Tide won it all again. The team standing in their way was Arkansas, coached by Lou Holtz. Let’s look back on the paths Alabama and Arkansas took through the 1979 college football season to reach New Year’s Day 1980 in the Bayou.
Alabama spent time at #1 early in the 1978 college football regular season. Penn State stayed undefeated throughout and was #1 late in the season. On January 1, they were 1-2 in the polls and settled it with a great battle at the 1979 Sugar Bowl that was defined by one of the most memorable goal-line stands and tackles in college football history.