The Alabama offense, led by quarterback Pat Trammell, didn't set any sportswriters chasing metaphors to describe its brilliance. Yet the Crimson Tide kept themselves busy rolling unimpeded through their own slate of games. 'It's not what they eat and tote off, it's what they fall into and mess up that hurts,' he said.Īlabama certainly wasn't complaining about the pest problems in the Southwest Conference given their own concerns in the Southeast. The loss ended Texas hopes for the title and prompted Texas' frustrated coach Darrell Royal to describe the Horned Frogs as 'a bunch of cockroaches.' 1 ranking but, once again, Alabama got an assist from the team from Fort Worth as the Longhorns fell to TCU 6-0 in Austin. Ohio State's rank remained respectable as the Buckeyes kept the 'L' column empty but as long as Alabama kept winning the team from Columbus couldn't pass them in the polls. 2 team in the land were stopped cold by a tie with the Horned Frogs in the season opener. The high hopes of Woody Hayes' Buckeyes going into the season as the No.

The Crimson Tide's unexpected allies in the campaign for the national championship turned out to be a rather lightly-regarded TCU. During the course of the '61 season both Ole Miss and Michigan State briefly held the top slot but each plummeted in the rankings after losses to LSU and Notre Dame, respectively. Then Iowa's championship hopes went awry when they hit the heart of their conference schedule and they dropped four straight. 1 and the sportswriter's assessment seemed merited as the Hawkeyes ripped off four straight wins out of the gate. And the 1961 season was a rollercoaster for the frontrunners.Īt the start of September Iowa was sitting pretty at No. Maybe they did and maybe they didn't but the high poll ranking came in handy as the season progressed since, like any national championship, gaining the title depended a great deal on the fortunes of other teams vying for the prize over the course of the season. I hope they know what they are talking about.' 'I don't do the picking, just the coaching.

'I can't see how a fellow can sit in New York and Birmingham and tell how good a football team a thousand miles away that he hasn't seen will be,' Bryant said. Bryant, according to sportswriter Clyde Bolton wasn't concerned about the high ranking but his reaction to the ranking had a ring modern Alabama fans would find familiar. 3 in the AP poll behind Iowa and Ohio State. The 1960 season Alabama earned an 8-1-2 record that was the best mark since the ten-win 1952 season but a frustrating 3-3 tie with Texas in the Bluebonnet Bowl left the squad feeling there was unfinished business to attend to.Īlabama started the season ranked No. The first season under Bryant saw the Crimson Tide’s first winning season in five years and the next put them in a bowl game for the first time in six. The three years leading up to the championship season were marked by continued progress but frustrating setbacks that made the prospect of the championship seem almost unattainable. We did not deliberately go out looking for smaller players in those days, but we demanded quickness and it usually came in smaller packages. 'We certainly weren't very big, and we got a lot of attention for that over the next few years. Not the biggest, but the best,' Bryant recalled in his autobiography. 'In 1961 we had the best team in college football. Yet four years after that fateful meeting - and half a century ago this year – eleven of the 89 freshmen in that room celebrated the first of six titles the man known as 'the Bear' would bring to Tuscaloosa.Īlabama's 1961 National Champion Football Team But he had never succeed in leading a team to the national championship. Over the previous decade the Crimson Tide suffered no less than five losing seasons and, at one point, endured an agonizing 17-game losing streak.Īt 44 years of age, Bryant had already earned a reputation as a miracle worker in rebuilding downtrodden programs such as Maryland, Kentucky and Texas A&M into powers. In 1958 Alabama football had reached it's lowest possible point.

'You are going to win the national championship for Alabama,' he said.īryant's absolute conviction made it impossible for those in attendance to doubt he was dead serious but beyond those doors uncertainty carried a little bit more weight. And Bryant has something very specific to tell his new team that winter morning. He was preceded by his reputation and accompanied by that powerful charisma that forced people to pay attention when he entered a room and concentrate for all their worth when he began to speak. Bryant walked into his first team meeting as head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Ohio state football roster 1961