I mean Danielson is so full of himself and Bama it is literally nauseating. I certainly hope ESPN does not retain him when the TV package fully moves to them. Of course they will probably bring in someone just as bad. Anyway I know as a lifetime sports fan and from coaching at the low level I have coached at for almost 20 years that the close tough losses stick with you. Sometimes they stick with you more than the great wins. I have a sneaking suspicion that the same is true with ol' Nick. Everyone knows $aban's enormous accomplishments including another big win in the Iron Bowl on Saturday but lets slow down and take a look at some of his not-so-great moments to again balance the coverage. Those moments that he cannot forget and keeps him yelling at those poor third stringers...
TOP TEN NOT-SO-GREAT NICK $ABAN MOMENTS
10. He probably has managed to forget these but luckily we do not... these would be his embarrassing losses to UAB and Louisiana Monroe in his first years at LSU and Bama. I mean I know he had some rebuilding to do but ouch. He also lost to Auburn both of those years and had to watch Tommy Tuberville run around with six fingers in the air in his first Iron Bowl. Again, ouch.
9. $aban won his first national title at LSU but he did not go undefeated, LSU lost to Florida that year, and he also won a split national championship. This was the last one of these. LSU was crowned the BCS champions but USC won the AP title. It is just a little thing but we know it still bothers him a little bit...
8. All $aban talks about at Bama is the NFL and what an expert he is on it and how he can get players ready for it. He talks about his friendship with Bill Belichick and everyone kind of thinks that $aban did have some NFL success but the truth is he did not. He did coach with Belichick at Cleveland but they did not have success there. He coached a couple of years with the Oilers as a DB coach and of course two years as head coach of the Dolphins that produced nothing but $aban's only losing season. His complete lack of any success in the NFL has got to get under his skin regularly.
7. Nick had Bama turned around in 2008 with an undefeated regular season but lost to Florida and Tim Tebow in the SEC Championship and then got smoked by Utah in the Sugar Bowl. He would of course turn it around in 2009 but those two losses to end that season had to hurt. Bama did not win anything and as you will see below, $aban has not actually completed many perfect regular seasons.
6. Bama was back in all their glory in 2009 and were the unanimous #1 to start 2010. Their next back-to-back looked sowed up already... till $aban and the boys were upset by South Carolina and then lost to LSU before one of the top moments on this list, the CAM-BACK. This is $aban's only three loss season with the Tide and I know it still grates him that he had a 24-0 lead on Auburn AT HOME and LOST.
5. Luckily for $aban Bama fans only care about putting new "national championship" numbers on their car or pickup truck no matter how illegitimate they are. Thus Bama fans do not seem to care about two of $aban's "national championships" where they lost to their biggest rivals, did not win their division and did not even make it the conference championship game. This happened in 2011 where they lost to LSU who won the SEC and in 2017 to Auburn. However the powers-that-be always put them in regardless and they were able to parlay their good fortune into two more "championships". However we know the asterisks beside those titles still burn $aban up.
4. The funny thing about the whole $aban "reign" is you really never hear much from Bama fans about the 2009 team. I guess they were not dominating enough barely beating Tennessee and Auburn in the last minutes. However they still are the ONLY Nick $aban Bama team that went undefeated and won everything. Almost every other year he manages to blow a game to an "inferior" team. In 2012, Bama lost to Texas A&M, Auburn in 2013, OLE MISS in 2014 AND 2015, and of course the aforementioned loss to Auburn in 2017. Yes, yes we know Bama still won it all several of those years but we know those blemishes on those almost perfect seasons still bother Nick.
3. Bama and Nick had a big thing to hang on to coming into 2016 and that was the fact that when they got to the national title game, they won. I mean even if they did not win their rivalry game, their division or their conference... they still won that game. That is until Clemson and Dabo finally slayed the giant in 2016 and on a last second pass no less. I mean that one hurt. Bama was undefeated and about to become the first team to ever go 15-0... till that play. There is no doubt this one sticks in $aban's craw and could be #1 on this list but hey we know it is top three along with his other loss to Clemson... Clemson and Dabo met Bama in the title game again in 2018 and they handed $aban his worst loss at Bama and denied Bama nation another opportunity to increment those national championship numbers. I mean this was a complete beatdown, 44-16, and it once again denied Bama, $aban, and Tua of a perfect season.
2. Last year, LSU was obviously the best team in the country when everything was done but you know before the Iron Bowl that Bama and $aban thought they could beat them in a rematch, ala 2011. Tua or no Tua Bama and $aban knew they could do it and all it took was a beat down of a three loss Auburn team and they would sneak in the back door again just like in 2011 and 2017 and win it all. Auburn was not near as good as they were in 2013 or 2017. I mean no three loss Auburn team was a match for the Bama juggernaut. After it was over the Bama fans flipped quickly to the "If Tua had been there..." card but we know Nick $aban believes they should have won this game. He knows that he still had the better team and that him and his coaching staff messed up and he is still pissed.
Ahhh it feels good. There was the first pick-six Smoke Monday took to the house, the field goal before halftime that enraged $aban, the clutch pass completions by Bo Nix that kept scoring drives alive, the Zacoby McClain 100 yard pick-six (on a really dumb play call by $aban and his coaching staff), Shaun Shiver's "helmet popping" run, the missed chip shot field goal that would have tied the game and then of course the humiliating "twelve men on the field" penalty. That penalty is all on $aban and the coaches. They were about to get back the ball and had a good chance at pulling out the win before that embarrassing mistake. 48-45, you know it still has to be fresh in his mind and bothering the heck out of him even as he watched his boys run it up on Auburn this past Saturday.
1. You know it, they know it and of course $aban knows it... Bama was on the precipice of an undefeated perfect season and winning their THIRD national championship in a row (even if 2011 has that asterisk by it) along with getting another Heisman Trophy. IT WAS ALL THERE FOR THE TAKING. Bama had the lead and multiple chances to put the game away but got stuffed on fourth and one and then got a field goal blocked. They then allowed a late touchdown drive that tied the game. However they got the ball back and somehow got it past midfield and successfully got one last second added back to the clock to give them one more chance to win the game before overtime. $aban then decided to attempt a 57 yard field goal.
They try to call this play lucky but there is no luck involved, if anything there was some horrific coaching by Nick $aban involved. Think about it. You already had a field goal blocked and now you are going to try an even longer field goal with an inexperienced kicker. All I am saying is if that was Auburn I think that is a dumb call. I actually think the higher percentage and lower risk play in this situation is a "Hail Mary". Bama was past midfield, had big strong receivers and a Heisman candidate quarterback. I would have been much more worried about that. Also Auburn called timeout and replaced their man back with a kick returner. As the "greatest coach in college football history" should you not consider that and maybe prepare for the possibility of a return? I guess not.
The rest is history and the KICK SIX play that gave Auburn the win in the 2013 Iron Bowl and destroyed Bama and $aban's dreams of three-in-a-row is now considered the greatest play ever in college football. It has been showed countless times and will continue to be. You know $aban has either seen it again several times or actively avoids it. You know it still burns him up and that keeps me warm at night. "THERE GOES DAVIS! THERE GOES DAVIS! AUBURN IS GOING TO WIN THE FOOTBALL GAME! THEY ARE NOT GOING TO KEEP THEM OFF THE FIELD TONIGHT!!!" So yes while he is probably the greatest coach in college football history or close to it, he has still had many heartbreaking and enraging losses that will always bother him. We know it and he knows it.
So congrats Bama and Nick on another Iron Bowl win that you will try to act like does not mean much to you. And yes we know that you have been in many more national championship contention games than us and of course we know "the number" (I cannot get out of my neighborhood without seeing it on a vehicle) but we also know that there have been just as many or more heartbreaks between those sacred wins. We know that your average oblivious fan can probably forget those soul crushing moments but we know that ol' Saint Nick can not. So Nick please get well soon and you will probably add another championship (with an asterisk in this COVID-19 season) for the fans to update their cars with but there is also a good chance Trevor Lawrence adds another great moment to this list as well.
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