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Alabama Football: 1996-2008
Posted on 2/26/15 at 11:54 pm
Posted on 2/26/15 at 11:54 pm
I didn't notice this until last week, but we were strangely consistent throughout the period we refer to as the "dark age" of Alabama football. Take a look at this pattern:
1996: 10-3
1997: 4-7
1998: 7-5
1999: 10-3
2000: 3-8
2001: 7-5
2002: 10-3
2003: 4-9
2004: 6-6
2005: 10-2
2006: 6-7
2007: 7-6
2008: 12-2
Notice it? A 3-year cycle. A 10+ win season, followed by a losing season, followed by a mediocre season, followed by another 10+ win season. How freaky is that?
1996: 10-3
1997: 4-7
1998: 7-5
1999: 10-3
2000: 3-8
2001: 7-5
2002: 10-3
2003: 4-9
2004: 6-6
2005: 10-2
2006: 6-7
2007: 7-6
2008: 12-2
Notice it? A 3-year cycle. A 10+ win season, followed by a losing season, followed by a mediocre season, followed by another 10+ win season. How freaky is that?
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Posted on 2/27/15 at 12:16 am to RollTide1987
I can see a Bama fan who was (fortunately) not conscious for most of that era. The 3 year boom and bust cycle was pretty famous in fan circle. As soon as we'd get going somehwere... boom, the coach leaves, the NCAA cracks down, probation hits... of we just suddenly suck again for some reason. Many people were worried in fact for 2009, the next scheduled Bust year. If Saban was to be our man, 2009 would have to be at least a 8 or 9 win season.
I'd say he passed that test with flying colors.
I'd say he passed that test with flying colors.
Posted on 2/27/15 at 7:18 am to RollTide1987
How old are you, because probably 95% of Bama fans that were +10 years old during that period knew of the pattern.
Posted on 2/27/15 at 7:19 am to RollTide1987
I'm pretty sure the dark age was the 5 years before Bryant.
Posted on 2/27/15 at 7:46 am to RollTide1987
Not even close to being the dark years. Look at the Ears Whitworth days.
Posted on 2/27/15 at 7:55 am to CapstoneGrad06
The 2000 team should be ashamed. Coaches and players both should be embarrassed.
Posted on 2/27/15 at 9:13 am to Lordofwrath88
Yeah I remember a lot of people talking about the pattern leading into the '09 season...
Posted on 2/27/15 at 1:46 pm to Cobrasize
Yep. Preseason number 3. Milons opens the season with a punt return touchdown and we're marching to number 13. Then Deshaun Foster got on the field and made our defense look SWAC level. What a miserable season.
Posted on 2/27/15 at 7:23 pm to CapstoneGrad06
quote:
Not even close to being the dark years. Look at the Ears Whitworth days.
How many of you on this board were alive and conscious of Alabama football during the Whitworth Era? Unless some of you are in your 70s, I'm going to place a bet that none of you were around and watching/listening to the Tide when Whitworth was in charge. So the period between 1996 and 2008 are the dark years for Tide football for the vast majority of us.
As for the person who asked me of my age, all you have to do is look at my nickname to deduce how old I am. I was very conscious of what was going on but I never really sat down to look at the records. I just find it amusing how close those records were to each other over that stretch of time.
Posted on 2/27/15 at 10:34 pm to Riseupfromtherubble
Yeah when Milons took that punt to the house, it felt as though the dream season was about to ensue. What a perfect start. Even late in the game when Alabama rallied from down 21-7 and took a 24-21 lead on the Reggie Miles pick-6, I felt Bama would pull it out and that would be their wake up call for the year.......nope......they were actually just bad. 
Posted on 2/27/15 at 11:57 pm to Cobrasize
quote:
The 2000 team should be ashamed. Coaches and players both should be embarrassed.
I was embarrassed for damn sure and all I did was watch.
I'll never forget how overly confident we appeared on the UCLA pregame stuff. Talked about how great the players were.
Posted on 2/28/15 at 12:18 am to Riseupfromtherubble
The whole 2000 season could only be described as a slow-mo version of the Brazil Germany World Cup game. Total euphoria and joy battered into a pulp before our very eyes one week at a time.
By homecoming it was pretty much.....
By homecoming it was pretty much.....
This post was edited on 2/28/15 at 12:19 am
Posted on 2/28/15 at 7:23 am to RollTide1987
quote:
As for the person who asked me of my age, all you have to do is look at my nickname to deduce how old I am.
I'm the same age, but I don't know anyone that wasn't aware of the trend by at least 2005.
Posted on 2/28/15 at 7:29 am to RollTide1987
I have a hard time calling a period where we had 4 10 win seasons, a conference championship, and should have played for another in 2002 as the "dark ages". Almost all of the losses during that stretch were extremely close. We were never a push over, just couldn't get over the hump late in games (sanctions had a lot to do with that).
Posted on 2/28/15 at 12:02 pm to pvilleguru
While it's true I can only think of 2 or 3 times that whole period where we truly got blown out.... it was definitely comparable to the funk our basketball team is in right now.
-not terrible enough to make any news or raise any heads
-not good enough to contend for anything serious.
Basically we were the worst thing possible... "just another team."
-not terrible enough to make any news or raise any heads
-not good enough to contend for anything serious.
Basically we were the worst thing possible... "just another team."
Posted on 2/28/15 at 12:08 pm to pvilleguru
quote:
I have a hard time calling a period where we had 4 10 win seasons, a conference championship, and should have played for another in 2002 as the "dark ages".
We also had an SEC championship in the 1950s and came very close to winning it twice more that decade, despite the fact that the 50s are regarded as the true "dark age" of Alabama football. And all of that occurred before Bryant arrived in Tuscaloosa.
The period of 1997-2007 was almost just as bad of a decade as the 1950s was. Like the 50s, we won an SEC title (1999) and came close to winning it again twice more (2002, 2005). And like the 50s, we had multiple losing seasons. Granted there were 5 losing seasons between 1950-1960 compared to just 4 losing seasons between 1997-2007. There were also quite a few blow outs in the latter period, particularly between 1997-2004.
Alabama's record between 1997-2007 was 74-61 (.548) compared to 58-49-12 (.537) between 1950-1960. So if you are going to call the 50s a dark age for Alabama football you also have to call 1997-2007 a dark age for Alabama football as well.
Posted on 2/28/15 at 12:19 pm to Lordofwrath88
quote:
While it's true I can only think of 2 or 3 times that whole period where we truly got blown out
I can think of several:
1997
38-21 loss at the hands of Tennessee
27-0 loss at the hands of LSU
Not a blow out, but we also lost to La. Tech 26-20
1998
42-6 loss at the hands of Arkansas
35-18 loss at the hands of Tennessee
38-7 loss at the hands of Virginia Tech
1999
No blow outs but we lost to La. Tech 29-28
2000
21-0 loss at the hands of Southern Miss
29-7 loss at the hands of Mississippi State
Also got beat by Central Florida on homecoming
And got shut out by Auburn 9-0
2001
No blowouts but we did get smacked around by LSU to the tune of 35-21
2002
No blowouts
2003
Got crushed by Georgia (37-23)
And also got crushed by Ole Miss (43-28)
Hawaii smacked us around (37-29)
And we lost to Northern Illinois (19-16)
2004
A 27-10 loss to Arkansas
A 20-3 loss to South Carolina
A 26-10 loss to LSU
2005
It wasn't a blowout, but we never had a chance against Auburn (28-18)
2006
Never had a chance against LSU (28-14)
2007
All six losses were within a touchdown or less
But we did lose to La. Monroe (21-14)
Posted on 2/28/15 at 6:11 pm to RollTide1987
Ugh, Hawaii...
Posted on 2/28/15 at 6:19 pm to RollTide1987
The 2001 LSU and 2004 South Carolina games are the only ones I've ever left early.
Posted on 2/28/15 at 6:27 pm to RollTide1987
It should be noted I blocked some painful memories out.
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