Alabama last played South Florida in 2003, here’s what happened
On Saturday afternoon from Tampa, [autotag]Nick Saban[/autotag], and the Alabama football team will look to get back in the win column when they take on the South Florida Bulls from Raymond James Stadium.
Alabama has plenty of question marks entering the Week 3 matchup against the Bulls and Tide fans are yearning for those to be answered before SEC play begins.
This weekend’s matchup will be just the second meeting between the two programs and on this edition of Throwback Thursday, we are going to take a deep dive into that matchup and how it went down. To do that, we have to go all the way back to 2003.
Mike Shula was making his head coaching debut for the Crimson Tide as Alabama took on a South Florida Bulls program that was entering just its third season in Division 1-A under head coach Jim Leavitt.
Alabama would go on to beat the Bulls 40-17 from Legion Field in Birmingham. The Crimson Tide offense was led by quarterback Brodie Croyle who threw for over 200 yards and one touchdown. Shaud Williams led the attack on the ground, rushing for 98 yards and two touchdowns.
The Alabama defense even joined in on the scoring with safety Charlie Peprah picking off a pass and running it back 51 yards for a touchdown.
Alabama would finish the 2003 season with a 4-9 record while the Bulls would finish 7-4 as a member of Conference USA.
Stay tuned to Roll Tide Wire as we continue to get you ready for Alabama’s Week 3 matchup with South Florida.
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Rewind the clock to 2002 and take a look at Alabama’s dominating win over Eli Manning and the Ole Miss Rebels!
This Saturday two of the best teams in the country will go to battle inside of Bryant-Denny Stadium. Nick Saban will lead the topped ranked Crimson Tide against Lane Kiffin and the No. 12 Ole Miss Rebels in what is sure to be an epic contest.
Alabama and Ole Miss have had plenty of great battles over the past several seasons including last year’s offensive clinic when Alabama topped Ole Miss 63-48.
We are now less than 24 hours away from kickoff and I thought it would be fun to look back at one of Alabama’s most dominating victories over the Rebels.
In 2002 an Eli Manning-led Rebels team headed to Tuscaloosa to take on the Tide. Ole Miss came into the contest ranked 21st and Alabama was ranked 24th.
Alabama controlled the game from start to finish behind junior running back Santonio Beard’s five rushing touchdowns. Alabama dominated the Rebels winning 42-7.
Beard finished the game with 138 yards rushing while Ole Miss only ran for four yards as a team in the game.
Alabama starting quarterback Tyler Watts exited the game early in the second quarter and did not return. Backup Brodie Croyle stepped in and played brilliantly. Croyle finished the game 6-11 for 179 yards, including a 51-yard touchdown pass to Dre Fulgham.
While I don’t expect Alabama to handle Ole Miss the same way in this year’s matchup, I still believe the Tide is the better team and will walk out of Bryant-Denny Stadium with a victory over the Rebels.
Click here for the extended highlights of Alabama’s dominating win over the Rebels in 2002.
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Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Stacey Blackwood on Twitter @Blackwood89.
On the eve of early signing day, Roll Tide Wire recalls the most hyped commits in school history.
Alabama has built one of the greatest dynasties in sports under head coach Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide have dominated every aspect of the sport, including the recruiting game.
Sure, there were other top-rated recruits prior to the Saban era, but recruiting has gone to a new level since 2007. That got us thinking: Who should go on the Mount Rushmore of all-time Alabama recruits?
Ratings coming out of high school certainly factored into our list, but, in some instances, we pushed the selection process beyond that. The importance of certain players in certain recruiting classes changed the game for Alabama, and we took that into consideration.
So without further ado, we bring you a total of eight former high school football recruits. The first four players came up just short as honorable mention selections, while the fab four made our Mount Rushmore.
More Mount Rushmores from the College Wire Network:
The Auburn defense sacked Alabama quarterback Brodie Croyle 11 times.
We’re now NINE days away from having Auburn football again! I’m back today continuing the countdown of my top 10 favorite Auburn games of all time, here’s a lovely throwback to my sixth grade days:
#9, “Honk if You Sacked Brodie”
The year was 2005. Times were much simpler back then. When I wasn’t trying to find the radius of a circle or playing Animal Crossing Wild World on Nintendo DS, I was busy trash talking fellow sixth graders about college football. There was one particular Bama fan who always got on the Auburn kids’ nerves, I’m sure we were just as annoying, but one day he took my bologna sandwich and that was it.
This kid loved making bets with people, but cash was never on the table because we were all still preoccupied with counting our quarters to pay for ice cream in the lunch line. Instead of laying money down we’d exchange lunch items (that’s how I lost my sandwich). He wiped everyone clean and was the king of the lunch table, but all of this changed after the 2005 Iron Bowl.
The Friday afternoon before the game we were all talking trash, even the lone Tennessee fan at our table was jumping in on it. None of us had any idea what we were talking about, so of course that was when the stakes were raised.
I’d run my mouth off a bit too much and the enemy child suggested that if Alabama were to defeat Auburn, I owed him a week’s worth of sandwiches. Since I’d already lost one bologna sandwich to the kid I couldn’t imagine losing an entire week’s worth.
Twenty bucks.
That was the offer I put up. I knew I had a crinkled up twenty dollar bill buried beneath a ton of lip gloss and notes in my Vera Bradley purse. I’d been pocketing that twenty for a long time to buy Mario Kart for DS, if I were to get another twenty that game would be all mine.
In all honesty I raised the twenty because I never thought he’d agree, but he did and I immediately started shaking.
Fast forward to game time. The residential Auburn guru of our house (my dad) had traveled down to the game with his best friend so it was just me and my mom watching. We had a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle on the kitchen table that I was working on when the game started, but after half the puzzle ended up on the floor just 44 seconds into the game I was officially glued to the television.
You can easily guess what grabbed my attention. Wayne Dickens sacked Brodie Croyle at the Alabama 10-yard line for a loss of 7 yards. THEN less than one minute later Quentin Groves (RIP) took Croyle down at the Alabama 6-yard line for a loss of 8 yards. Pretty soon it was 4th and 24 for Alabama and the Tigers’ Sack Party was just getting started.
My mom had no idea why I was so excited during that game. I wasn’t the same die-hard Auburn fan back then as I am now. Mom, I know you’re reading this now. I was really excited because I tricked another 11-year old child into giving me $20. I know gambling is bad, but I couldn’t risk losing another sandwich, sorry.
Outside of the $20 and the fresh video game I had no idea how major the outcome of that game was until I saw “Honk if You Sacked Brodie” shirts and bumper stickers appearing everywhere. Needless to say, my love for college football was just getting started.
This article is dedicated to former Auburn linebacker Quentin Groves, one of my first Auburn football heroes who was taken from this Earth way too soon.
Oct 13, 2007; Fayetteville, AR, USA; Auburn Tigers defensive end Quentin Groves (54) celebrates a victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks with Tiger fans at Renolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. The Tigers scored late in the game to beat the Razorbacks 9-7. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
