Nick Saban excited to welcome back Alabama’s 2009 national championship team
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Many Alabama alumni will be returning to Tuscaloosa for homecoming weekend, highlighted by Saturday’s football game against Arkansas. One special group of alumni will be recognized in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
In his Wednesday post-practice press conference, Nick Saban shared that he’s excited about welcoming back Alabama’s 2009 national championship team. For Saban, the 2009 team is a special squad, for multiple reasons.
“That was our first national championship team and probably a really special team to me — the only one that went undefeated.
“The guys on that team, they came here when we weren’t any good. They came in here when we were 6-6 with lots of issues, lots of problems. But they chose to come and build something and they did something that was really unique and special.”
Saban also told a story of how players used to make money off of what they were awarded for bowl travel and finding less expensive ways to get to the game, as many would go home and then figure out their own travel plants to get to the bowl game. For the Rose Bowl, the Alabama players decided to take a charter to the Los Angeles area, forgoing their chance to cash in on the bowl travel money. Saban, who was in favor of the charter from the start, shared that let the players vote without revealing his preference. The players voted in favor of the charter flight.
Saban remembered Rolando McClain telling him, “Well, coach, we won’t remember what we did with that $700 three months from now, but we’ll remember what happened in this game.”
It’s safe to say everyone from the 2009 team remembers beating Texas in the Rose Bowl.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
