If you wanted to understand just how hard Nick Saban made life on Alabama’s biggest rivals, the numbers tell the story fast. In 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa, he went 41-11 against Auburn, Tennessee and LSU combined, with a 12-5 record in the Iron Bowl, a 16-1 mark against Tennessee and a 13-5 run versus LSU.
But the record only tells part of it. Plenty of those wins weren’t just wins - they were beatdowns, the kind that left no doubt who owned the day. Here are five of the most lopsided.
The most memorable of the bunch might have been the 2011 national title game against LSU. Alabama got a rematch with the Tigers after falling 9-6 in overtime at home two months earlier, a game Tide fans still believed they should have won.
The second meeting looked nothing like the first. Alabama suffocated unbeaten LSU, holding the Tigers to 92 total yards and never letting them get a drive finished on the Tide’s side of the 50.
Five Jeremy Shelley field goals built a 15-0 lead, and Trent Richardson finished it off with a touchdown run in the fourth quarter for a 21-0 championship win.
A year later, Alabama did the same kind of damage to Auburn in the Iron Bowl. In 2012, the Tide were so dominant that they could have named the score.
They scored touchdowns on all six offensive possessions in the first half and went to the locker room up 42-0. The first drive of the second half ended with AJ McCarron finding Amari Cooper for another touchdown, making it 49-0 with more than nine minutes left in the third quarter.
Saban backed off after that, keeping the final margin from getting even uglier.
The 2008 Iron Bowl had a different kind of punch to it. Alabama entered that game undefeated, Auburn came in at 5-6, and the Tide were still carrying the weight of six straight losses in the series.
That ended in Tuscaloosa. Glen Coffee ran for 144 yards as Alabama controlled the game from the opening whistle and rolled to a 36-0 shutout.
Saban even added one more jab late, when backup quarterback Greg McElroy threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Marquis Maze with under three minutes left.
Tennessee got its turn in 2016, and the Vols arrived in Knoxville believing this was finally their chance. They were ranked No. 9, had home-field advantage and were riding the feeling that the streak could end.
Instead, Alabama turned it into another runaway. Ronnie Harrison’s pick-six late in the first quarter pushed the Tide ahead 14-0 and took the air out of the building.
Alabama won by 39 and outgained Tennessee 594-163.
Then there was 2020 in Baton Rouge, where Alabama answered a 2019 home loss to LSU with a statement of its own. Before the game, Saban said, "They probably have some confidence that they can play well against Alabama, so we're going to have to change the way they think."
The Tide did exactly that. DeVonta Smith, who would go on to win the Heisman, piled up 231 receiving yards and three touchdowns, and Alabama cruised to a 55-17 win in “Death Valley,” aka Bryant-Denny West.
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