It was called the Wishbone offense and it was a sign of the times. Most fans find the run-based option attack of the Wishbone to be boring as the wait at the emergency room, but old school guys like me like it.
Today, the Wishbone is almost extinct, but they still run variations of it in the Flexbone offense. Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson just retired, so the Flexbone will go with him into the pages of history in the power 5 conferences. But, at least the Naval Academy still runs a similar offense and maybe a few more. For schools that can’t recruit the elite talent, a different style of offense like the bone can be the great equalizer. Defenses that aren’t used to seeing a running offense are going to struggle to stop it.
Unlike today, the Wishbone was alive and well in 1971. It was the dominant offense of the 1970s and caused the NFL serious hardships as far as good, young quarterbacks because most of these guys were better runners than passers.
As I’ve written many times, Texas sort of invented the offense and Oklahoma perfected it. Texas offensive coordinator kind of stole the offense from a Fort Worth, Texas junior high coach named Charles ‘Spud’ Cason.
However, about three years after it’s introduction to college football, Bear Bryant and his coaching staff ‘borrowed’ the offense and adapted it to their own ways.
The Bear was a winner, and a champion and 6-5-1 records were just not working well for him. He was an old school run the ball kind of a coach, of the 3 yards and a cloud of dust variety. Things had to change, and change they did. These were the years that transformed Bear Bryant from a great coach into the legend that we all know.
Bear Bryant closed all Alabama practices and sent out false info to the media and completely shocked the nation in 1971 when they traveled to Los Angeles and took on the USC Trojans. Alabama came out in the Wishbone formation and USC was totally unprepared because they had no film to study.
USC had been ranked 5th and was a heavy favorite over 16th ranked Alabama. But, the Crimson Tide shocked the Trojans, and the nation, and won the game, 17-10.
A new Alabama was born for the last 12 years of Bear Bryant’s coaching career, and they were a
monster. With a 124-19-1 total record over his remaining years and a majority of the losses coming in the last 3 seasons, the Crimson Tide running the Wishbone under the Bear was almost unbeatable.
After they upset USC, the Tide just rolled over everyone else on their schedule in 1971. With quarterback Terry Davis running the show and halfback Johnny Musso lugging the ball for over 1,000 yards for the second year in a row, nobody really came that close to the Crimson Tide other than 18th ranked LSU, who they beat by 7 points.
Alabama just crushed Florida, Ole Miss and 14th ranked Tennessee, before finishing up with 5th ranked Auburn. The Tigers were their chief rivals and had Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Pat Sullivan and outstanding receiver Terry Beasley, but Alabama won easily, 31-7.
It was no embarrassment to get their butts handed to them by the Nebraska of the 1971 season because the Huskers were one of the greatest teams ever. But, Alabama did lose to them, and kind of badly, for their only loss of the season to finish up 11-1.
The Crimson Tide was definitely back and Auburn fans everywhere were seen running for the hills.
The 1972 season was kind of that old ‘second verse is the same as the first’ kind of a deal. Alabama, again led by Terry Davis, ran out to a 10-0 record before being upset by those pesky War Eagles of Auburn by a single point. In a game that became known as Punt, Bama, Punt the Crimson Tide was embarrassed by a series of mistakes in the special teams’ portion of the game. Punt, Bama, Punt
They had been ranked 2nd in the country up until the upset, and then they lost a controversial game against Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Some say Texas quarterback Alan Lowery’s foot stepped out on his touchdown winning run. A 10-2 season and a final ranking of 7th wasn’t all bad.
In 1973, the Crimson Tide really came out to play and beat everyone on their schedule all season long until they reached number 1 in the final polls. They had a Sugar Bowl date with Notre Dame who was ranked 3rd. In a game that would become a classic, Notre Dame upset Alabama by a single point to steal their national title. Alabama finished 11-1 and ranked 4th, but there were a few unbeaten teams that season like Oklahoma, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and Notre Dame. Ohio State and Michigan had tied 10-10 in their classic of a game and the Buckeyes got to play in the Rose Bowl. The highlight of the Alabama season was destroying those hated Tigers of Auburn, 35-0. They didn’t really need any extra motivation against Auburn, but they gained a little revenge for the embarrassing loss against Auburn the previous season.
To read more about the strange and interesting 1973 season: 1973
Of course, 1974 was more of the same for the Crimson Tide. They rolled through their regular season with an unbeaten 11-0 record. But, for some odd reason, they had a hard time with a really terrible Florida State team before the days of Bobby Bowden. Florida State finished 1-10 that season, but Alabama only beat them 8-7.
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Alabama was ranked 2nd when they played 9th ranked Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. Different
years, but it saw the same results with the Fighting Irish coming out on top, 11-13.
As much of a legend as the Bear was, he struggled to beat Ara Parseghian and Notre Dame in their great years.
By the time 1975 rolled around, the Bear and his boys were assumed to be on the top every year. They started the season ranked 2nd. But, that was the year that the Missouri Tigers ambushed the Tide at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama in their opening game. Missouri stuns Alabama
That was a huge upset and the Tide fell all the way to 14th in the polls. But, the season was far from over and the Tide came rolling in with huge wins over every team they played to finish the regular season with a 10-1 record. Then, they beat Joe Paterno and Penn State in the Sugar Bowl, 13-6, to finish with 11 straight wins and an 11-1 record.
If you are going to lose, do it at the beginning of the season and the Crimson Tide finished 3rd in the final polls.
Alabama hit something of a lull in 1976 with a 9-3 finish in spite of having talents such as Jeff Rutledge, Ozzie Newsome, Tony Nathan, Johnny Davis, Charlie Hannah, Bob Baumhower and Marty Lyons which was some of the best talents the Bear ever assembled.
They were surprised by the Georgia Bulldogs and their Junkyard Dawg defense led by Vince Dooley and brilliant defensive coordinator Erk Russell, and lost, 0-21, in Athens. The Bulldogs won the SEC and played Pittsburgh and Tony Dorsett for the national title in the Sugar Bowl and lost. 1976
It was a rare year that Alabama didn’t win the SEC championship.
Talent, or no talent, Alabama was not going to stay down long. The Tide came into the 1977 season with a 6th national ranking and a lot of hope.
That hope was temporarily shattered in game two when they traveled to Nebraska to take on the unranked Huskers. Nebraska upset the Crimson Tide, 24-31. The Huskers’ I’back tandem of IM Hipp and Rick Berns ran wild.
Naturally, Alabama came back and started blasting other teams. They had a lot of the same talent from the season before and it showed on the field. Add in guys like Barry Krause and Major Ogilvie, plus All-World center Dwight Stephenson and these teams were loaded.
After defeating defending SEC champions, Georgia, the Tide beat the top-ranked team in the country, USC. The game was in Los Angeles and 7th ranked Alabama won by a single point, 21-20.
That game dropped Alabama to number 4 and they won out and finished the season ranked 2nd only behind Notre Dame who had beaten top-ranked Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
Many felt that Alabama, with their 11-1 record and win over USC, should have won the title. But, that’s nothing new, either. The many that felt that way were probably Alabama fans.
Bear Bryant and his Alabama teams were about as good as it got in the 1970s, but no national titles yet.
Those years were still to come.