Flashback: When Alabama rode a nailbiter vs. Tennesse to the national title

So, here’s an admission about the Alabama-Tennessee game: I once walked out of a game in the series in abject disgust.

No, it wasn’t during last week’s 19-14 slog against the Vols, which didn’t officially end until A’Shawn Robinson snared Josh Dobbs’ fumble/forward pass with his left paw and fell down inside Tennessee’s 5-yard line. That game was fraught with its own set of stresses for fans.

The game I’m thinking of happened in 2009, ending with Terrence Cody blocking Daniel Lincoln for the second time that afternoon.

You probably remember the play –or, at least, you’ve seen it a hundred times by now. I should have seen it live, and did not. Allow me to explain.

To begin, remember that 2009 was the Redemption Season for Alabama. The Tide had come from the college football wilderness in 2008 to take over the No. 1 ranking, only to fall to Tim Tebow’s Florida Gators in the SEC Championship (the Gators went on to win the national championship). And as the ’09 season began, the narrative was set – Alabama would mow through its regular-season opponents, would face Florida again in Atlanta … only this time, the result would be different.

Meanwhile, Tennessee was in Year 1 without the reviled Phil Fulmer, who had tortured Alabama fans for years both on the field (his team won seven in a row and 10 of 12 vs. Bama from 1995-2006) and off (he was one of the key figures in the massive NCAA investigation that helped cripple the program for a decade). You might have thought the fervor for the UT game might have died down after he left, except that his replacement was this guy:

The new Vols head coach had immediately set himself to creating enemies around the league, publicly accusing Urban Meyer of cheating and essentially daring Alabama to stop him and his staff in its rejuvenated recruiting blitz. The gamesmanship extended into the first few minutes of his team’s game at Bryant-Denny that day — Kiffin and his staff threw a very public fit on the sidelines when the Vols took the field and their headsets malfunctioned.

Once the game got started, the whole thing basically went to hell. Monte Kiffin and Ed Orgeron essentially corralled and contained Jim McElwain’s offense for most of four quarters, limiting them to a mere 256 total yards (4.3 yards per play) and 12 points on four Leigh Tiffin field goals. Two of those field goals were from 50 and 49 yards.

So it was a frustrating day. However, for most of the day, it felt like a frustrating day that wasn’t likely to endanger the Redemption narrative – Tiffin’s fourth field goal made the score 12-3, and when Bama held Tennessee on the ensuing drive, there was every reason to believe the Tide would escape into its bye week with the title still in its sights.

Then something really ridiculous happened: Mark Ingram fumbled.

Seriously, it’s a thing that happened exactly twice during his Alabama career that I can remember (this game and the Auburn game in 2010). After nearly breaking the game-sealing touchdown — someone (Eric Berry maybe?) grabbed him by the jersey and held on for dear life — Ingram was attempting to grind out a first down … and lost possession of the football. Instead of a game in hand, Alabama suddenly needed to hold UT again.

They didn’t. Instead, the Vols scored the game’s only TD when Jonathan Crompton found Gerald Jones; they executed a nifty onsides kick, and Crompton found tight end Luke Stocker — covered by DT Marcel Dareus, for some reason — to put his team in position for a stunning, soul-crushing win.

Anyway, that’s when I bailed. The thought of losing a season that special to freaking Lane Kiffin and Tennessee was more than I could bear in the moment. I regretted the decision almost immediately; not only did I miss Cody’s famous block*, but I actually left my wife and her mother in their seats, with no clear plan about how we’d find each other after that.

* – Let the record show that Kiffin complained about not getting an unsportsmanlike call in the aftermath of the block as well — he said Cody should have been flagged for removing his helmet while the ball was live, and therefore UT would have been entitled to another try 15 yards closer. He was and is wrong, and frankly if we ever meet I’ll probably bring this up within the first five  minutes.

In the aftermath, I remember feeling almost apologetic about the win — Alabama had been soundly outplayed by a hungrier, fresher group, and had survived because … well, luck, really. When they did what they set out to do two months later — whipping Florida and winning the national championship in January — I made peace with it. Every team that ever won a championship needed some luck along the way, and this season was no different.

Whether Saturday’s agonizing win over the Vols in Tuscaloosa ultimately lights the path to another championship is unclear at this point; it’s unclear whether Alabama is the same focused group in 2015 that it was in any of its championship runs (particularly the ’09 group, which was something truly special).

But I am glad I stayed until the end this time. On TV, anyway.

Will Heath

Will Heath is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers SEC football.