2020 vs UCLA - the offensive line had COVID forcing us to forfeit the game even though the other position groups could have played.
2020 vs Arizona - COVID outbreak forces us to cancel the game.
2007 vs Oregon State - Brian Johnson separates his shoulder and Matt Asiata snaps his lower leg in half. Two best players on offensive gone for the season for what looked to be a very promising year.
1986 vs Ohio State - I’m a big Jim Fassel guy but this one was bad, 64-6.
2020 vs USC - poor pass protection leads to starting QB getting season ending injury and a very difficult injury for a QB to recover from.
The Ohio St. game was the second game of the year. Utah had lost to San Diego St at home 37-30 the week before. But yeah, the OSU game was horrendous. That was only a decent OSU team too. Fun fact: OSU had a young grad assistant coach that day named Urban Meyer.
Okay, replace 1986 Ohio State with 2006 UCLA. Opened up in the Rose Bowl and took a dump against an average team. Tommy Grady coming in for no reason to start a random series and throwing a pick 6 was just ridiculous.
2000 Season opener in the Rose Bowl. We were #3. I had a glorious day back home in Southern California to watch my Tide. We run back the opening kick. Didn’t score again. Deshaun Foster ran all over Alabama like he was Sam Cunningham in Birmingham. Alabama entered the season #3 and ended the season with three wins. Ugh.
This makes me happy for a lot of reasons, but mainly because my kid is starting to watch a lot of Alabama football. On the one hand, as a parent don’t I have a duty to prevent him from going to the dark side? On the other hand, doesn’t he have a right to be happy and isn’t it easier to be happy as an Alabama fan than a Utah fan?
Arizona scored on a ‘scoop and score’ and had another TD setup on a short field after a Ute fumble. Our defense dominated that game but no help at all from our offense.
And to think Utah had a guy named Steve Smith at WR, and another receiver, Cliff Russell, was one of the fastest Utes ever. Of course, I believe TD Croshaw was the QB, so …
Reading about Alabama’s 2000 season has been wonderful. Lost to UCF on Homecoming, Mike DuBose immediately fired but allowed to coach the rest of the season since it was a dumpster fire anyway. Alabama was the first P5 team to ever lose to UCF. Ended by losing to Auburn 9-0. I can’t imagine losing to BYU 9-0, oh my goodness.
Andrew Zow was Alabama’s starting QB. Looking at his stats… 48% completion percentage, 4 yards per attempt…lol…6 TDs, 14 INTs. Wow.
David Palmer is the only Alabama QB in my lifetime that I can recall. All the other Alabama QBs are a generic Billy McElroy with that racist white boy fratboy mop haircut.
Joe Namath would have been fun to watch but that was before my time.
Now, after refreshing my memory, this game goes straight to #1. This is the most McBride game ever. It was as if the offense was playing against our defense, doing everything in their power to lose the game. Why on earth was TD Croshaw starting ahead of Darnell Arceneaux??
Arizona barely had over 100 yards total offense and was 0-12 on 3rd down conversions. And won the game by 14 points. I mean…there are no words.
TD Croshaw’s stats for the season: 17 of 56, 250 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INTs. Parents who name their boy TD…
Stevonne Smith and Cliff Russell on any other team in the country that year would have dominated. Darnell Arceneaux was actually a solid QB but for some reason, even when he was healthy, McBride thought TD Croshaw or Lance Rice was better. What a debacle the 2000 season was. Kicker’s losing their helmet with the game on the line, fumbling away the BYU game to give Lavell Edwards a break…just a complete debacle. Let a guy win who ran up the score on you whenever he could. That makes a lot of sense.
David Palmer was a WR. Alabama had a first round draft pick last year that won a National Title. He plays for the Phins. You should watch him.
Also, Alabama had three QBs get Gold Jackets in the NFL. Then they went to be a running school with solid Defense. It wasn’t till Saban hired Kiffen that we decided to get vertical. It’s why a beast like Julio Jones didn’t get TDs till the NFL.
Plus, the starting running back for that game was D’Shaun Crockett. He was about 5-7, 150. Adam Tate and Dameon Hunter arrived late on campus as JC transfers and didn’t play much for the first few games.
That 2000 season was just a complete cluster. Was it Keith Jackson who said something to the effect of, “I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve never seen that before,” when Whetman lost his helmet? And the QB situation still boggles my mind. As near as I could tell, TD only played because his name was TD and Rice only played because his name was on the stadium.
Against BYU McBride starts Rice, we are losing 26-10 nearing the 4th quarter. Put Arceneaux in, 27-26 before the refs look the other way on Staley’s fumble and we let Lavell ride off into sunset with prevent D.