Goodman: The return of the authentic Alabama

admin | December 8, 2023 | Other Clubs | No Comments

Fourth and 31 is the play that everyone will remember from Alabama’s rollercoaster season, but two more signal to trouble for Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

The back-to-back plays by Alabama defender Dallas Turner against LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels characterized the Crimson Tide’s season of development. Alabama’s defense crumbled in the fourth quarter against Texas and appeared undeserving of playing in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Two months later, Turner defeated the SEC’s Heisman Trophy nominee in the second half against LSU, giving Alabama the SEC West title.

Quarterbacks receive all of the attention, but defenses still win SEC championships.

The Associated Press selected Turner the SEC’s defender of the year this week. Daniels won the award for offensive player of the year. When the two stars faced off this season, Turner emerged victorious. Turner swatted away Daniels’ pass attempt before taking LSU’s quarterback out of the game on the next play in the SEC’s defining defensive sequence of the year. Turner’s hit on Daniels was dubbed a dirty play by some.

It wasn’t the case. It was nasty nonetheless, and the blow reminded those of us with seasoned eyes of the kind of football they used to play in the old SEC. Turner’s hit on Daniels, here at the crossroads of a new form of college football, marked the return of the true Alabama in 2023.

Tua Tagovailoa of Alabama did not win a national title as a starting quarterback. As a starter, Alabama quarterback Bryce Young did not win a national championship. Jalen Milroe has a better chance of winning a national championship as a starter than both of those first-round picks, and it all comes down to the defense.

They may not win any national championships, but Alabama’s defense in 2023 will be remembered as the group of players who salvaged Nick Saban’s dynasty. Turner was the vanguard’s spearhead, as well as the Southeastern Conference’s finest player.

Nowadays, college football is a quarterback’s game. Due to an injury to its original starter at the position, Florida State, which has perhaps the top defense in the country, was left out of the College Football Playoff. The video game numbers that quarterbacks are putting up these days don’t impress me as much as the defenders who can stop them. Daniels may likely win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday, but he’ll be carrying a tattooed imprint of the finest player in college football with him to New York. That’s Turner, who I know was on at least one ballot for the most prestigious individual award in American sports.

PENIX OR NIX

The Heisman Trophy Trust does not allow voters to announce their choices before the presentation event, but I will say that, as much as I wanted Bo Nix of Oregon to win the award this season, he did not receive a vote on my ballot. The reason was straightforward. I couldn’t vote for Nix over Washington quarterback Michael Penix, Jr., when the Huskies and Penix were 2-0 against Nix’s Ducks.

I really wanted to be a homer on this one, especially because Nix is from Alabama, but my conscience wouldn’t let me.

Penix was the better player in the end, but that doesn’t diminish Nix’s outstanding season and career. Nix’s undergraduate career coincided with the most chaotic period in modern NCAA history. Nix’s eligibility coincided with the transfer portal, NIL collectives, a pandemic, major conference realignments, and other events. If that wasn’t enough, being the promised savior of Auburn football during Alabama’s Saban’s reign put Nix in the crosshairs.

Were Auburn fans unfair to Nix, who grew up rooting for the Tigers like a part of his own family? It’s difficult to persuade supporters to stop being such big fans, and it was difficult to see Nix be mocked when it was Nix who held Auburn together all those years and attempted to salvage Auburn football from itself.

Nix will be remembered for his Iron Bowl victory as a rookie. That Alabama team in 2019 was one of the most talented groups of athletes ever assembled in college football history, and Nix came out on top. Nix’s outstanding performance versus LSU in 2021 is especially noteworthy. Auburn’s first victory at Tiger Stadium since 1999.

Who could have imagined that Nix’s career would begin with a win over a Top 10 Oregon team and end with the Ducks on the brink of the College Football Playoff?

I’m glad Nix found peace in Oregon over the previous two years, and here’s hoping he accomplished enough to impress NFL scouts and general managers to earn a first-round draft pick.

SAY IT AIN’T SO

Is this the latest indicator of the end of collegiate football? The news that Alabama receiver Ja’Corey Brooks had entered the transfer portal this week was depressing. Brooks made the game-tying reception against Auburn in the tense 2021 Iron Bowl. Alabama went on to win the game in four overtimes, 24-22.

There was a time when being an Iron Bowl hero guaranteed those athletes lifetime employment in Alabama. Brooks’ transfer reminds me of running back Shaun Shivers’ decision to leave Auburn for Indiana in 2022. Shivers delivered that massive, helmet-popping punch at the goal line in the 2019 Iron Bowl against Alabama defender Xavier McKinney.

Players like Nix, Brooks, and Shivers transfer to improve their chances in the NFL Draft. I’m glad players have that opportunity, but leaving their schools detracts from the game for viewers.

EMAILS I GET

Every Thursday afternoon, I’ve enjoyed sending out my newsletter. Subscribers can sign up at the top of this column. I’ll conclude today with an email from a South African reader:

Hello Joe,

This is your ole buddy, Mac, coming to you from Africa again. Cape Town, South Africa, this time. Yes, FSU was robbed. One could make a compelling case that Georgia was robbed too.

Essentially, the SEC has two teams again in this year’s playoffs, Texas and Alabama. The CFP does care about the ratings, all their BS to the contrary aside. They made sure that Texas and Alabama would NOT meet in the semis.

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! I am the great and powerful Wizard of Oz!” Or is that the Wizards of Odds? As a song from Cabaret declares, “Money makes the world go around.”

Thanks for the eye-catching viewpoint, Mac, and don’t forget to pay your Emerald City bartenders at the end of the night.