Bama Central

Top 10 Wins of the Nick Saban Era

Following Alabama's legendary coach retiring, let's take a look back at some of the best wins of his career in Tuscaloosa.

Blake Byler

Top 10 Wins of the Nick Saban Era
Top 10 Wins of the Nick Saban Era /
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — They say not to cry because it's over, but to smile because it happened.

That's exactly what we're going to do here, following the news of Alabama head coach Nick Saban's retirement, and the subsequent hire of Kalen DeBoer ushering in a new age of Alabama football.

While at Alabama, Saban built one of the greatest dynasties not only in college football history, but in the history of team sports. He won nine SEC titles and six national championships during his 17-year Crimson Tide career, and holds the record for most national championships won by a college football coach.

So let's take a look back. Saban had some incredible moments and games at Alabama, and we're going to try to narrow it down to the top 10. Your list may be different from this one, and that's okay. Let's just reminisce and celebrate the marvelous career Saban had.

10. 2023 Iron Bowl

4th-and-31.

I know it's fresh in the mind, but the 2023 Iron Bowl has to make a list of top-10 Saban era wins. After all, coming off of what was quite possibly Saban's best coaching job of his career in 2023, surely one of those games had to make the cut.

The game featured what was quite possibly the play of the year in college football in 2023, and was also possibly the most improbable ending to an Alabama football game under Saban. 

After yet another voodoo-riddled game in Jordan-Hare Stadium against a lesser team, Alabama found itself down 24-20 with a 4th-and-GOAL from the 31-yard-line and less than a minute on the clock. The rest is history from there. Jalen Milroe to Isaiah Bond in the corner. Grave, dug.

The win kept Alabama's hopes alive for a College Football Playoff berth, which they captured the following week after knocking off No. 1 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. 

Without that play, Saban's final season would have ended on a significantly lower note.

9. 2015 National Championship

The first of many exciting matchups between Alabama and Clemson during the middle of the 4-team CFP era, the 2015 National Championship Game was one of the most exciting title games we've seen in recent memory.

It was the culmination of one of the best turnarounds an Alabama team has seen in a single season, winning the national title after losing at home in Week 3 to Ole Miss in stunning fashion.

The game was a shootout, with a 45-40 final score indicating the nature of the game. Heisman winner Derrick Henry capped off his legendary Alabama career with a 158-yard, 3-touchdown game, including the game-sealing touchdown in the final minutes.

Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson was a thorn in Alabama's side, throwing for over 400 yards and four touchdowns against the stout Crimson Tide defense led by the likes of Reggie Ragland, Jonathan Allen, Minkah Fitzpatrick and more. 

Then, of course, there were the heroics of tight end O.J. Howard, who caught both of Alabama quarterback Jake Coker's touchdown passes in a breakout performance.

The game also featured the second-gutsiest call in Saban's career (we'll get to the first later), an onside kick in the fourth quarter that completely swung the momentum of the game.

It captured Saban's fourth national title at Alabama, and his first championship of the playoff era.

8. 2012 LSU

Alabama and LSU had some incredible battles over the years, and this one took place right in the middle of the Nick Saban-Les Miles era.

Coming off the season where Alabama and LSU played twice, once in the "Game of the Century," and again in a rematch in the BCS National Championship Game (another we'll get to later), there was plenty of juice behind this top-5 matchup in Death Valley.

After 58-and-a-half minutes of tough, hard-nosed, physical football, Alabama found itself down 17-14 with 1:27 on the clock.

From there, quarterback A.J. McCarron conducted a surgical, legacy-defining drive where he went time and time again to his most reliable target Kevin Norwood, before dumping off a screen pass to T.J. Yeldon that went 28 yards and put Alabama ahead for good.

McCarron's drive kept Alabama undefeated on the season, and helped pave the way for the Crimson Tide's second straight national championship about two months later, the only time Saban won back-to-back titles in his illustrious tenure.

The game-winning touchdown also produced one of Eli Gold's most iconic calls as the voice of the Crimson Tide:

7. 2008 Iron Bowl

This one is definitely the least competitive game on this list, but that doesn't make it any less significant.

In Saban's second year in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide had arrived on the national scene. Undefeated headed into late November, Alabama had one more opponent to conquer to secure an undefeated regular season.

That opponent was Auburn, the team who had owned college football's biggest rivalry for six consecutive seasons. Coming into the 2008 season, Alabama hadn't won an Iron Bowl since 2001, three head coaches ago.

What took place in Bryant-Denny Stadium on that late November afternoon was a 36-0 beating, one that resonated with the college football fans in the state of Alabama, announcing to the world that the Crimson Tide was back to reclaim its state.

It also featured one of the best Rammer Jammer's of all-time, where the song was repeated six times at the end of the game.

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6. 2011 National Championship

The BCS National Championship Game that concluded the 2011 season was one of the most dominant games of the Saban era. 

The game was a rematch, which much of the college football world despised, but after LSU came into Bryant-Denny Stadium in November and won the "Game of the Century" 9-6 in overtime, there wasn't much denying the Crimson Tide and the Tigers were the two best teams in the sports.

Even though the game took place in LSU's backyard in the Superdome in New Orleans, Alabama wasn't phased.

The Crimson Tide defense put up one of the greatest performances in a championship game college football has ever seen, to the tune of a 21-0 shutout.

In one of the most remarkable stats of any game Nick Saban coached, the LSU offense was unable to cross the 50-yard-line until there were just eight minutes to go in the game. 

After a season full of field goal kicking woes, Jeremy Shelley nailed five kicks, and Trent Richardson scampered down the sideline for the only touchdown between these two teams in 120 minutes of football. 

5. 2018 SEC Championship

Ultimately, this Alabama team in 2018 didn't accomplish as much as some of the other teams on the list. I'm sure many Alabama fans would like to forget how that national championship game went. 

But the SEC Championship in 2018 was one of the most memorable games of Saban's tenure, and it bookended one of the most incredible full-circle stories college football has ever seen.

We'll get to the first half of that story in just a bit.

In this one, Alabama trailed to Georgia, again, and the Bulldogs were right in the midst of finding their footing under head coach Kirby Smart, former Alabama defensive coordinator. 

The Bulldogs led Alabama 28-14 in the third quarter, and Heisman finalist quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was dealing with injury after injury.

Then, in the fourth quarter, with Alabama down by a touchdown, Tagovailoa went down for good. He was unable to return to the game, so Saban turned to Jalen Hurts, the quarterback that boasted a 26-2 record as a starter through his first two years in Tuscaloosa, but was benched in favor of Tagovailoa in the previous season's natinoal championship game. 

Hurts led Alabama back to win the game, displaying one of the greatest displays of patience paying off the sport had ever seen. Instead of immediately transferring after getting benched, Hurts stuck it out, improved, and was ready when his number was called.

That day, Hurts cemented himself in Alabama lore forever.

4. 2009 National Championship

The one that started it all.

In Saban's third season in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide completed a perfect 14-0 season, culminating in Saban's first national championship at Alabama, and the school's first since 1992.

The championship game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, saw Alabama score 24 consecutive points after going down 6-0 in the early minutes, including a pick-six of a shovel pass by defensive lineman Marcell Dareus.

Texas tried to made it close in the fourth, but the Crimson Tide was able to seal the deal with a late touchdown from Alabama's first Heisman Trophy winner, Mark Ingram, as Saban began the greatest run in college football history.

At the following championship parade in Tuscaloosa a week later, Saban made a bold declaration: "This is not the end. This is the beginning."

We had no idea how right he truly was.

3. 2012 SEC Championship

The National Championship Game that concluded the 2012 season was about as boring as they come, a 42-12 beatdown of Notre Dame that won Saban his third title in four years in Tuscaloosa.

It was the game before that, the SEC Championship, that many think was the true national title game that season. 

Alabama came into the game ranked No. 2, and on the other sideline was No. 3 Georgia. The way the BCS rankings had gone all season, it was assumed that this was a de-facto playoff game, with the winner moving on to the national title. 

What ensued was one of the best college football games of all time. 

On a field loaded with NFL talent, the Bulldogs jumped out to a 21-10 lead in the third quarter after a blocked punt was returned for a touchdown. 

Alabama clawed its way back, and finally took the lead back with a 45-yard touchdown from McCarron to blossoming freshman Amari Cooper. Georgia had a potential game-winning drive in the works, but in the Alabama red zone, the Crimson Tide tipped Aaron Murray's pass at the line of scrimmage, and time expired. 

Alabama 32, Georgia 28. 

2. 2009 SEC Championship

When Alabama lost the 2008 SEC Championship to Florida, the Crimson Tide knew it would see the Gators again. 

Much of that Alabama team returned for 2009, and the players on that team have all said they had one goal throughout the entire season: beating Florida.

Sure, Alabama won the national title in 2009 over Texas, and that was a massive win, but it's arguable that the SEC Championship Game win over Florida was more important to both the team, and the program. 

Florida was the power in college football at the time. The Gators, led by head coach Urban Meyer, had won two of the last three national championships in 2006 and 2008, and split the two with Tim Tebow winning the Heisman in 2007.

They owned the sport, and Alabama dethroned the kings with a 32-13 victory that left Crimson Tide players closing the mouths of a gator chomp on the sidelines.

January of 2010 was when Alabama won its first national title under Saban, but it was December of 2009 when the Crimson Tide truly ascended the college football mountain, and never looked back.

1. 2017 National Championship

You had to know it was coming.

The 2017 National Championship Game featured one of the craziest stories and most legendary plays in football history.

Alabama and Georgia, the second time in the decade that two SEC teams met in a national title game, and it looked like Kirby Smart was going to best his former boss in their first-ever meeting.

At halftime, the score read Georgia 13, Alabama 0.

That's when Saban made the most important in-game decision of his coaching career. He pulled starting quarterback Jalen Hurts, who had only lost two games in two years as a starter, and inserted a true freshman from Hawai'i, Tua Tagovailoa.

Tagovailoa ignited the Crimson Tide offense, sparking a comeback for the ages that almost ended with Alabama winning in regulation, but kicker Andy Pappanastos shanked the would-be game-winner, sending the game to overtime.

Down three points with the ball, Tagovailoa took a seemingly disastrous sack on first down, setting up 2nd-and-26.

Then the unthinkable happened. Tagovailoa threw a rope down the sideline to DeVonta Smith for a walk-off touchdown, winning Alabama's 18th national championship, and cementing the best win of Nick Saban's career.

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Blake Byler
BLAKE BYLER

Blake Byler is a staff writer for BamaCentral and primarily covers Alabama basketball and football. He has covered a wide variety of Crimson Tide sports since 2021, and began writing full-time for BamaCentral in 2023. You can find him on Twitter/X @blakebyler45.

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