BamaCentral marks the end of the Nick Saban coaching era with the definitive rankings of his top 250 players with the Alabama Crimson Tide.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — They have five national championship rings between them, and came extremely close to scoring some more.
The both finished in the top three in Heisman Trophy voting. Both won a major national award in addition to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Both were crowned the NCAA king for a season. The title is decided by passer efficiency rating. McCarron was the 2013 NCAA passing champion by posting a 175.3 rating before Nick Saban opted for more passing-friendly offense. While throwing to Heisman winner DeVonta Smith in 2020, Jones posted a 203.1 rating, which was briefly an NCAA record.
Just to be clear, the 2009 Crimson Tide defense had three All-Americans with Javier Arenas, Terrence Cody and Rolando McClain, along with future first-round draft picks Mark Barron, Marcell Dareus, Kareem Jackson, Dont’a Hightower and Courtney Upshaw. The quarterback claimed that as a freshman he more than gave them everything they could handle during practices. It turned out, he did.
“I think it shows how great my teammates are and how much they mean to me and how much they’ve helped me over the years,” McCarron said about his records chase in 2013. “I think it will be cool when I’m retired and sitting at home with the grandkids and my kids and be able to tell them stories, but for right now I’m worried about us as a team and what we need to do to three-peat and bring another championship back here.
Not a lot of people could handle the pressure of trying to match or beat that, or of trying to capture the first three-peat since Minnesota in the 1930s. “To me, you can't be a good quarterback unless you're a good game manager, because you've got the ball in your hands every time and you're making some kind of choice and decision of what to do with it, whether you hand it off, what play you hand it off on, where you throw it in the passing game,” Saban said. “You've got to process a lot of information quickly and make quick decisions.
• Led the Crimson Tide to back-to-back BCS national championships in 2011 and 2012. Also was on 2009 team that won title • Broke Alabama’s single-game receiving yards record with 224 against Tennessee and matched it against Auburn• Set school single-season records with 1,727 yards and 16 touchdowns • Stepped in to start as a true freshman, and was named to SEC All-Freshman Team. Had 37 tackles, including 1.5 for loss, seven pass breakups, one interception and a forced fumble
To stress how important Mosley thought it was to air things out, when a reporter subsequently asked what would happen if the younger players didn’t take heed of the situation, he responded, “They better. If not, they won't be on the field.” For months coaches had been saying that everyone needed to be more personally invested for this team to be successful, but hearing Mosley’s speech was probably exactly what Saban and been waiting and hoping for. Even though the 2012 Crimson Tide had just nine scholarship seniors, they were also the ones everyone looked to because they understood better than anyone how hard one has to work to win rings. They also knew the flip side, as nearly all of them had been on the three-loss 2010 team.
Four times the Rebels had the ball well into Crimson Tide territory only to be stifled by a big play. Junior safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix set the tone on the opening possession when he sent Laquon Treadwell spinning into the air, and freshman Eddie Jackson started making a home for himself at cornerback when he intercepted an option pass by the freshman wideout.
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