Gameday: Alabamas Revenge Games

A swirl of Oxford dress shirts mixed with sundresses, all rushing toward euphoria, not knowing the destination, just washed up in a tidal swell moving toward midfield.

They tore down the goalpost in Mississippi that day, and marched it through campus.

Some called it the biggest win in the history of the program, and even if your predilections pointed you to the golden years of the 1960s, you couldn't begrudge those holding the opinion that Ole Miss' 23-17 toppling of No. 3 Alabama last October belonged in the handful of wins that define the Rebels football program.

Now armed with a point-per-minute offense, a first-year starter at quarterback and a scary-talented defensive line, Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze attempts to do what only one other coach has done in the last nine seasons: beat Nick Saban's Alabama team two years in a row.

Some call them revenge games, and Saban has them mastered. Only LSU, which beat Alabama 24-21 in Baton Rouge in 2010 and then returned to Tuscaloosa in 2011 and laid a 9-6 overtime win on UA, has escaped Saban in a revenge game.

Psychology plays a part, as players point toward a rematch from the moment the last second ticks off the scoreboard following a loss.

"We think about it pretty much the whole season and offseason," junior defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson said. "It made us grind harder and work harder for this season. It's going to influence us a lot and make us want to want to win even more."

Size, speed, strength and depth are the main reason, however. Alabama recruits so well, develops its players with such regularity that, simply put, there aren't many teams capable of beating Alabama once, never mind back-to-back, which is why UA has been of the wrong side of the scoreboard so infrequently - just 11 times in the last eight years.

It's a truly remarkable run.

Then there is the game-planning, something Saban, whether he admits it or not, obsesses over after a rare loss, which goes a long way towards explaining why the 63-year-old coach is 8-1 in revenge games since 2008.

Saban lost six games in his first season (Auburn, Georgia, Florida State, Louisiana-Monroe, LSU and Mississippi State). He went 4-0 in revenge games the next season; UA hasn't yet crossed paths with Florida State or Louisiana-Monroe again, although ULM is on this year's schedule and Alabama will play FSU in 2017.

The next year Alabama lost only to Florida and Utah. The following season, Saban's Crimson Tide crushed Florida in a rematch game to capture the 2009 SEC Championship.

After a perfect 2009 season, Saban lost three games in 2010 (Auburn, LSU and South Carolina). He went 1-1 the next season in revenge games.

In 2011, UA lost only to LSU and got retribution quick, beating the Tigers the same season in the BCS Championship Game. And for good measure, since losing that revenge game, Saban and Alabama haven't lost to LSU since.

The next season, Alabama lost to Texas A&M. Saban beat the Aggies in College Station, Texas, the following year.

In 2013, Saban lost to Auburn and Oklahoma. He got the best of the Auburn last year in the return game.

Sense a pattern?

It's safe to say that Saban and his staff poured over film of the defeat to Ole Miss a year ago, studied the Rebels' first two wins of the 2015 season (in which they combined for 149 points), and have devised the finest game plan available.

"I think in large part it comes down to the execution," Greg McElroy, a former UA quarterback under Saban, said. "When you look at the way Coach Saban has derived game plans over the course of his tenure, he does a great job of taking away what you do well. So if you look at revenge games or rematches, if you try to rely on the same tricks, he's going to have an answer for it.

"The best example of that to me was in 2011 when Alabama struggled stopping LSU's speed option, which they ran pretty well in the Game of the Century. But then when they tried to do it in the national championship game, Alabama had it completely dialed up and held it very much in check over the course of the entire game.

"He does a great job recognizing trends, he does a wonderful job recognizing tendencies. So I think it forces you to be very creative offensively in order to have answer to his answer."

Known as one of the brightest defensive coaches in the game, Saban often relies on throttling opposing offenses in revenge games. But he's also dialed up offensive strategies to win a couple of revenge games.

On the road in College Station, Texas, in 2013, Alabama hung 49 points and 568 yards of total offense on the Aggies when UA's own defense couldn't slow down Johnny Manziel and Mike Evans.

A year later in a revenge game, this time at home against Auburn, Blake Sims and Amari Cooper put on a show to out-race Auburn in a game that featured 99 total points, 55 of those from the Crimson Tide.

Saban meticulously studies what the team did to win the year before and employs an offensive and defensive game plan to counter it.

"I don't think there's any question about it," Saban said. "One of the most important things that we always do, especially when it's the same staff, is you always look at what did they do last year? How did they play you defensively? What did they try to do offensively? Sort of evaluate, and we do this after we play the game, what we did well, what we needed to improve on.

"That's the first thing we get out this year when we play somebody, is try to figure out how we can do those things better and how we can make those adjustments. I always think that's a big part of planning."

It's a tricky thing to label it a revenge game. Players go back and forth on the idea, at least in the public arena.

Parsing their comments, they've said all the right things this week, each dispersing a begrudging respect to Ole Miss while at the same time not saying anything with much emotion. Whether a public front or not, Alabama players haven't got caught in the emotional hype of the game, almost refusing to answer questions about or acknowledge the events of last year's game.

"I don't really think it's about revenge," senior cornerback Cyrus Jones said. "Of course, everybody knows they beat us last year, and we don't like to lose. We're coming in trying not to lose this year. Just focusing on this year, this game.

"Like we always say, it's a new year and a new team so we're still trying to build our identity."

Asked about last year's loss and what he remembered of watching Ole Miss fans storm the field, junior defensive lineman A'Shawn Robinson, face expressionless, stared straight ahead and with a dry, monotone voice said very little.

"Nothing, really, to be honest. It's last year. (This is a) new year," he said.

Does that provide motivation for this year's game?

"Not really. Just ready to play," he said.

Of course each player is different. Senior linebacker Reggie Ragland recounted the only thing that stuck with him from the crazed rush-the-field aftermath: "We took an 'L' that day," he said. "So that hurts anytime. I hate losing, as a competitor I hate losing."

Saban is no stranger to psychology, and how to subtly and overtly use it to give his team an edge. He has employed it in an in-your-face style following loses to Florida in 2008 and Auburn in 2010, placing posters around the locker room and weight room reminding his players of what happened the previous season so that they were forced to see it every day.

But a player's internal motivation is his own driving force.

"He's one of the best when it comes to motivating. His track record proves that. But I think the revenge factor comes more from the players," McElroy said. "I know, and we didn't talk about it a lot, but we talked over the course of the regular season and throughout the offseason how bad we wanted to get Florida, how bad we wanted to get another shot.

"Now Coach Saban would never mention that because they weren't even on the schedule. ... Now granted, the coaches behind the scenes are doing an awful lot as far as their offseason preparation with teams that might have gotten the best of them the year before. As far as talking about it, you'll never hear a coach mention it, but players, behind closed doors, absolutely it's on your mind.

"From a player's perspective, you want to get the best of the team that got the best of you."

Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0229.