The final score has been long forgotten.
It was, after all, a scrimmage, even if final scores tend to be what fans remember most when it comes to sporting events. But in the case of Alabama football‘s 2007 A-Day game, the lasting memory for anyone there was a picture, not a score.
The picture of 92,138 fans — one in every seat Bryant-Denny Stadium had at the time — showing up to signal the beginning of Nick Saban’s tenure as coach. Thousands more wanted in, but during the second quarter, stadium gates were closed by the fire marshal. Around halftime, Chuck Neinas, who had assisted then-Director of Athletics Mal Moore in the hiring of Saban a few months earlier, got a call from Moore.
“We had to close the gates on people for a scrimmage,” Moore told him. “I’ll never have to hire another football coach.”
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It had never happened before, nor has it since; an absolute phenomenon that still defies explanation, other than to credit the UA fan base for being prescient about something special being afoot. And boy, were they right. Saban was about to begin an incredible run of six national championships and nine SEC championships in 17 seasons with the Crimson Tide.
As new coach Kalen DeBoer embarks on his own era at UA, coaching his first A-Day on Saturday, it’s worth pointing out that Saban’s success wasn’t instant. Alabama lost half a dozen games in Saban’s first season. Although Year 2 was a major turnaround, Saban didn’t win his first SEC title at UA until his third year; weeks later, he won a BCS national title against Texas. From there, a dynastic run of championships began. But just as those took time, so too does offseason transition.
Saban never considered spring practice strengths, nor weaknesses, to be predictive of how his team would play in the fall. For him, it was a time to experiment with position changes, assimilate new assistant coaches, and develop good fundamental habits in players, rather than to serve as a season preview. The 15 practices allowed by the NCAA, to Saban, were merely one step in a multi-faceted offseason program that still had a long way to go between A-Day and the season opener.
The last of those 15, however, became quite the event.
Big crowds, if not capacity crowds, annually filled Bryant-Denny Stadium for A-Days thereafter. It became more of a spectacle, with an expanded event schedule and a higher degree of fan anticipation. And there was good reason for it. Keep in mind that pre-Saban, Alabama had a lot more trouble landing five-star freshmen, and very few of them enrolled early and participated in spring practice. Saban ushered a lot more five-star recruits just as early enrollment became a popular move for signees, so the chance to see elite freshmen take the field at BDS in April only drove excitement even higher.
The 2007 A-Day crowd came out in force despite being a little ahead of that trend.
It might not recall John Parker Wilson’s 26-yard TD pass to Nikita Stover that helped the White squad to a 20-13 win.
But it will never forget what 92,138 looks like in April.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.
