2009: The Beginning, Part 2 | Looking back at Alabama's first championship season under Nick Saban

The year was 2009, and Alabama’s third-year coach, Nick Saban, had his Crimson Tide off to an undefeated start in what would become his first national championship season in Tuscaloosa.
The scene had been set with a season-opening win against Virginia Tech, and the Tide was rolling.

The regular season came to a climatic end against Auburn on the play “Near I left Peter Pass Right X Corner.”

But long before Nick Saban’s Tide took the field in the annual Iron Bowl against Gene Chizik’s Auburn Tigers, adversity struck in the form of a visor-wearing, ole’ ball coach by the name of Spurrier and a young, brazen coach - decked out in orange - by the name of Kiffin.

AL.com, on the 10th anniversary of the 2009 national title run, takes a three-part visual trip through what became the foundation for a modern-day college-football dynasty.

For Saban and his Tide, who were off to a 6-0 start, things were out of sorts.

“Everyone was a little bit on edge because we hadn’t performed offensively the way we would have liked, dating back to the Kentucky game,” then-Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy told AL.com.

McElroy, who played at Alabama from 2007-2010, remembers the Kentucky game was rough, Ole Miss wasn’t very good, then there was South Carolina and coach Steve Spurrier.

It was a Saturday night, nationally televised game between No. 2 Alabama and No. 22 South Carolina.

And McElroy, who admitted to never dealing with adversity, blinked first with an early interception. “The rest of the game I was seeing ghosts the whole time,” he said.

Alabama countered the adversity with a healthy dose of Mark Ingram, who ran for a career-high 246 rushing yards, and the Tide got a late score from Ingram for the 20-6 win.

“It was a microcosm of the entire season,” Alabama lineman Mike Johnson said. "There were some struggles. There were some ups and downs. We had a good football team. In the end, we put our foot down, and we were able to get it done."

The following week it wasn’t putting a foot down but a hand up that swatted adversity and a potential game-winning kick right back into the faces of the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville.

Dubbed by SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum as “the moment” of the season, Terrence Cody, the Crimson Tide’s 350-pound nose guard, blocked a 44-yard field-goal attempt on the final play -- his second block of the fourth quarter -- and Alabama escaped with a 12-10 victory over rival Tennessee and its coach Lane Kiffin.

Fast forward five weeks later - and with 1:24 left in the Iron Bowl and the Tide down 21-20 - McElroy got the play: “Near I left Peter Pass Right X Corner.”

A play-action pass inside the 5 - a play McElroy shares was often practiced but never used - finds Roy Upchurch for the game-winning touchdown.

It was the culmination of a 99-yard drive with fewer than 10 minutes left in the game, something the Tide had been unable to do throughout the night.

“Everything that was not happening right for these guys for 3 1/2 quarters was happening right,” then-Auburn coach Gene Chizik told AL.com.

Johnson called the final touchdown the “best moment of his life.”
But the play - and the drive - solidified something deeper.
Said Barrett Sallee of CBS Sports: “It was a statement drive for Greg McElroy, for Nick Saban, and I would say the program.”

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