The Bear and Alabama had fallen on hard times. Which, at Alabama means not winning a conference title. But, in this case, it meant back to back 5 loss seasons.
That just wasn’t going to get it done at Alabama.
1970 wasn’t the greatest of Alabama Crimson Tide football seasons. Opening with the 3rd ranked USC Trojans in one of the more famous football games of it’s day, Alabama was humiliated by a physically superior Trojans team. But, the rest of their season wasn’t a lot better.
They did manage to beat ranked teams in Florida and Houston, but they lost to other ranked teams in Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU and Auburn. They even finished the miserable season with a tie against Oklahoma in the Bluebonnet Bowl.
Darrel Royal had been having the same problems at Texas in the 1960s. During the mid 1960s, Texas finished three seasons in a row with 4 losses. The faithful were getting restless and were saying that Royal had passed his prime. He was no longer effective as a head football coach. In the summer of
1968, Texas switched to the Wishbone offense and after starting the 1968 season with a disappointing 0-1-1 record, they won 30 straight games.
Alabama fans were saying the same things about Bear Bryant. He was done, they hoped. He had outlived his usefulness.
But, that all changed in the summer of 1971 when to the surprise of everyone, Bear Bryant and his Alabama Crimson Tide came out in the game against USC in Los Angeles with a brand new Wishbone offense.
USC had no idea, nobody had any idea because the Bear had kept it a huge secret and had closed practices to the media.
The Trojans had no clue how to stop the Wishbone. That was not what they had worked on coming into the game and the bone is hard to stop if not prepared for it. It’s even hard to stop if you are prepared for it.
After getting beat, 21-42 the previous season in Birmingham, the Crimson Tide would have their revenge in Los Angeles with a shocking 17-10 win over the 5th ranked Trojans.
But, that was just the beginning.
The Tide rolled through their schedule going unbeaten with big wins over ranked Tennessee, LSU and Auburn. Alabama completed it’s regular season with an 11-0 record and a number 2 ranking in the polls. Of course, the top ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers were one of the best teams of all time and they crushed the Crimson Tide, 6-38, in the Orange Bowl.
After an 8-3 record in 1968, a 6-5 record in 1969 and then going 6-5-1 in 1970, the Wishbone offense revitalized the Alabama football team though out the rest of the 1970s and early 1980s. Bear Bryant and Alabama were again on the top of the food chain in the college football world.
Every dark cloud comes with a silver lining, and also if you look sildenafil tablets australia hard enough you’ll find one on this list. These sleeves levitra prescription devensec.com have small bumps, wrinkles or ribs on its surface thereby providing additional stimulation. Spine stenosis: Spine stenosis can be narrowing the actual neural passageways within the vertebrae that produces data compresion along discount viagra with entangling neural roots.. All these actions viagra india online were carried out in a way that more amount of blood can be stored in the secondary tank until it is needed for regeneration. 11-1 in 1971 was followed by a 10-2 record in 1972. 1973 saw the Crimson Tide post an unbeaten regular season record only to lose by 1 point to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, to finish 11-1. The same record was repeated in 1974 with yet another loss to Notre Dame, this time by 2 points and in the Orange Bowl.
In 1975, Alabama was upset by Missouri in their opening game in Birmingham. Read more about that here: Missouri upsets Alabama
But, that would be the one and only time Alabama would know defeat in 1975 winning 11 straight including a big win over Penn State in the Sugar Bowl.
1976 was a bad year for Alabama with a 9-3 record as Georgia won the SEC and played for the national title. Naturally, Alabama was back in the thick of things in 1977. Although, they were shocked in game 2 and lost to Nebraska, the Tide bounced back and again went into Los Angeles and upset top ranked USC by a single point.
Many people in the south thought that Alabama should have won the national title in 1977, but it was given to Notre Dame after they beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Alabama finished 11-1 and 2nd in the polls.
Alabama started the 1978 season ranked number one. They started strong, but were beaten by 7th
ranked USC in Birmingham.
However, Alabama won the rest of their games including a 14-7 win over top rated Penn State in the Sugar Bowl. That game is famous for the goal line stand made by the Crimson Tide to preserve the victory over Joe Paterno and Penn State. There was a split national championship that season with Alabama winning one poll and USC winning in another. The Trojans thought they should have been champs based on their victory over Alabama at Legion Field.
The Crimson Tide left no doubt in 1979 winning every game and finishing 12-0.
In 1980, Alabama dropped way down to 6th in the final polls after season losses to Mississippi State, of all people, and to their old nemesis, Notre Dame. They finished strong by stomping Baylor in the Cotton Bowl while fellow SEC school Georgia and Herschel Walker won the national championship.
The Tide finished unbeaten in the SEC during the 1981, but for some reason Georgia was given the Sugar Bowl bid and they lost. Alabama lost to Georgia Tech, and they tied Southern Mississippi. In the Cotton Bowl, again, they were upset by Texas to finish 9-2-1.
I don’t know when the Bear knew he was done, but the ending came in 1982 and the Crimson Tide finished a very disappointing 8-4. After retiring, the Bear died within a few short months, tragically never getting to enjoy his last days.
After switching to the Wishbone, Bear Bryant finished up his college coaching days with a sparkling 124-19-1 with a good portion of those losses coming in his final days as a coach.
Changing to the Wishbone only added more to the legend that was Bear Bryant. I know I’ll always be a fan.