Alabama recorded a 10-0 regular season record during the 2020 campaign, with all 10 games against SEC opponents on a schedule altered by the coronavirus pandemic. Crimson Tide defeated Florida 52-46 in the SEC Championship game, defeated Notre Dame 31-14 in the Rose Bowl and beat Ohio State 52-24 in the national title game CFP. Ten numbers for the 2020 Alabama season:
0 The teams in SEC history have scored points at the pace Alabama has made this season. Crimson Tide led the country with an average of 48.46 points per game in 2020, which surpassed the LSU SEC score of 48.40 points per game established in 2019. While accumulating points, Alabama extended a string of scores of at least 35 points for 24 games – the longest in college football history with nine games – before his 31-14 victory over Notre Dame at the Rose Bowl on January 1. Tide ended the 2020 season with a sequence of 26 games with at least 30 points intact, which occupies second place in the history of major colleges, behind a sequence of 31 UCF games that ended in 2019. Alabama’s top double-digit college record, which at 130 games is the longest in five games. Tide has had no less than 30 points in a game since their 44-16 loss to Clemson in the national championship game CFP on January 7, 2019, or less than 10 points in a game since a 9-6 loss to LSU on November 5, 2011.
1 The SEC team produced six All-Americans – 2020 Alabama consensus with C Landon Dickerson, RB Najee Harris, QB Mac Jones, OT Alex Leatherwood, WR DeVonta Smith and CB Patrick Surtain. Prior to Alabama, the most recent team with six All-Americans consensus was Yale in 1909. Prior to this season, the most All-Americans consensus on a SEC team had been the five produced by Alabama in 2009 and 2018. In 2009, the consensus of All Alabama – Americans was DB Javier Arenas, DL Terrence Cody, RB Mark Ingram, OL Mike Johnson and LB Rolando McClain. In 2018, the Tide All-Americans consensus was WR Jerry Jeudy, QB Tua Tagovailoa, S Deionte Thompson, OT Jonah Williams and NT Quinnen Williams.
3 Alabama players won the Heisman Trophy after WR DeVonta Smith won the 2020 prize. Smith received 447 votes for first place, 221 for second place and 73 for third place for 1,856 points – 669 more than Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence , the runner-up. RBs Mark Ingram in 2009 and Derrick Henry in 2015 are the other Heisman winners in Alabama. The three Crimson Tide winners make Nick Saban the fifth coach with at least three Heisman Trophy players, and only Notre Dame’s Frank Leahy has four with more. Smith joined Tim Brown of Notre Dame in 1987 and Desmond Howard of Michigan in 1991 as the only wide receivers to win Heisman and became the sixth non-quarterback or running back player to win the trophy, along with Michigan CB Charles Woodson in 1997 and ends Larry Kelley of Yale in 1936 and Leon Hart of Notre Dame in 1949. Alabama QB Mac Jones and RB Najee Harris finished third and fifth, respectively, in the vote, making Tide the first team since the Army in 1946 to have three players in the top five. Jones joined WR David Palmer in 1993, RB Trent Richardson in 2011 and WR Amari Cooper in 2014 as Alabama players who finished third in the Heisman vote. Harris joined HB Joe Kilgrow in 1937, HB Harry Gilmer in 1945 and 1947, QB Pat Trammell in 1961, QB Terry Davis in 1972 and QB Jay Barker in 1994 as Alabama players who finished fifth.
7 National championships were won by Alabama coach Nick Saban, most during the research era (since 1936). Saban guided LSU in 2003 and Alabama in 2009, 2011 and 2012 for BCS titles and Crimson Tide in 2015, 2017 and 2020 for CFP championships. The most recent title led Saban to overtake Paul “Bear” Bryant, who coached teams from Alabama that took first place in the final AP vote, coaches’ vote or both in 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978 and 1979. The This season’s national championship gave Alabama 13 during the voting age (with the one that was not won by Saban or Bryant in 1992) – five more than any other program in that period. Alabama’s 52-24 victory over Ohio State in the national championship game CFP on January 11 was the 21st win by at least 25 points against a ranked team from a team coached by Saban, breaking the tie between Saban and Bobby Bowden by the majority in college football history. Also during 2020, Saban overtook Joe Paterno for the most wins against ranked opponents. Saban has a record of 90-42 against ranked teams, while Paterno was 86-82.
10.33 The average yardage per game was calculated by Alabama QB Mac Jones in 2020, the best single season rate in SEC history. With 4,514 yards on 402 passes and 35 race attempts, Jones broke the Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa’s 10.09 mark in 2018. Jones narrowly missed the NCAA FBS 10.37 mark set by Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray in 2018 , but its 77.4 percent completion rate pushed the 76.7 percent Texas QB Colt McCoy in 2008 out of the ledger and its 203.06 pass efficiency rating surpassed LSU’s 201.96 QB Joe Burrow after just one year as the record. Jones became the second SEC player with five games of 400 yard passes in one season and the first to do so in three consecutive games, completing 311 of 402 passes for a 4,500 yard school record with 41 touchdowns and four interceptions in this season.
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11 Percentage of The Associated Press polls since the start of qualifying in 1936 have highlighted Alabama as the # 1 team. Crimson Tide led the last eight polls of the 2020 season to push their total times in first place to 130-25 more than any other program. Alabama extended its season streak with a ranking of 13 – six more than any other team. Ninety-nine of Alabama’s first appearances occurred in the last 201 AP polls, after Tide made 31 first appearances in the previous 984. Alabama topped the final poll this season with a record 13-0. The 2020 club was Tide’s eighth that recorded perfect seasons during the SEC era. Crimson Tide also completed campaigns without loss or draw in 1934, 1945, 1961, 1966, 1979, 1992 and 2009.
13 Alabama consecutive teams did not allow their opponents to score an average of 20 points per game. In 2020, Crimson Tide’s 13 opponents scored an average of 19.4 points per game, the highest average against Alabama since Nick Saban’s first team in Tuscaloosa yielded an average of 22.0 points per game in 2007. During his streak, Alabama had the lowest score in the country against average in the 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2017 harvests. Iowa has the next longest streak, keeping its opponents averaging less than 20 points per game in five seasons.
30 The TDs – 26 running, four receiving – were scored by Alabama RB Najee Harris this season, the maximum for one player in one season in SEC history. Harris pushed Alabama RB Derrick Henry’s 28 TDs in 2015 out of first place in the SEC ledger, and the production also allowed Harris to tie Florida QB Tim Tebow’s SEC record of 57 TDs, established from 2006 to 2009. Harris also broke Henry’s Alabama career racing record with 3,843 – 252 more than Henry accumulated from 2013 to 2015.
2,151 Multifunctional yards for Alabama WR DeVonta Smith and 1,891 yards of scrimmage for Alabama RB Najee Harris in 2020. Both numbers led the country this season. Smith’s 1,862 yards of scrimmage and Harris’s 1,891 multifaceted yards came in second in the country. Smith had 1,856 receiving yards, 237 punt return yards, 52 kickoff return yards and 6 running yards to reach his general purpose total. Harris had 1,466 run yards and 425 receiving yards to reach his number.
3,965 Receiving yards and 46 TD receptions for Alabama WR DeVonta Smith to set career records at the SEC. With 215 yards in the first half of Crimson Tide’s victory over Ohio State in the CFP national championship game, Smith broke the SEC career record for receiving yards set by Jordan Matthews of Vanderbilt with 3,759 from 2010 to 2013, and he too. became the first SEC player with five 200-yard receiving games. A total of 117 Smith receptions for 1,856 yards and 23 touchdowns led the country in each category and set the SEC records for receiving yards and TD receptions, breaking the marks established last season by LSU WR Ja’Marr Chase. Smith broke the SEC career record for TD receptions, which had been set at 31 by Florida WR Chris Doering from 1992 to 1995 and matched by Alabama WR Amari Cooper from 2012 to 2014.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.