Nick Saban always talks about the “process” at Alabama.
It’s not really new. He’s been talking about it for awhile now and probably the first time I heard that was in 2008, which was the breakout year for the Crimson Tide.
Arkansas fans should take notice. It’s hard to remember now, but in 2007 the Razorbacks should have won down in Tuscaloosa, but some questionable officiating (really, is that a surprise?) let Bama squeak out a win.
That was also the last time a Hogs’ running back got over 100 yards against the Tide.
Until Saturday when Rakeem Boyd put up 102 on them. Hey, it’s triple digits, so don’t complain. Three weeks ago you would have been shocked if the Hogs could scrounge out 100 yards in total offense against Alabama, much less have a running back go over 100.
“I don’t think we really beat the other team when we give up 31 points,” Saban said later.
It was clear Arkansas getting over 400 yards of offense didn’t exactly put him in the best of moods.
“We made a lot of mistakes on defense today,” he said. “We didn’t play well as a unit. Lots of opportunities to get off the field on third downs and just didn’t do it, which allowed them to extend drives.”
And he noticed the improvement for the Hogs, too. No one does more advance scouting than Saban and his staff.
“They’re a much better team on offense,” he said. “You’ve got to give Arkansas a lot of credit. Their guys kept fighting throughout the game.”
That’s the key phrase that Saban mentioned that Hog fans should notice. This team had multiple chances to quit.
And didn’t.
That part of Chad Morris’ “process” seems to have taken hold. Even in a 34-point loss, the Hogs improved.
Now back to that first season under Saban in Tuscaloosa. It was a team that was up and down all season.
They won over Arkansas and Tennessee, but lost to Louisiana-Monroe and Mississippi State. They even had a four-game losing streak at the end of the season, but managed to slip into the Independence Bowl, which many Alabama fans consider far beneath them.
It took a year for everybody to buy into Saban’s “process.”
Granted, he had much better talent than what Morris inherited in Fayetteville. Alabama hadn’t had a class higher than No. 21 in the 247Sports.com composite rankings in the four years preceding Saban and was on a run of three straight Top 15 classes.
Before this game against the Tide, I said don’t pay any attention to the score because that was probably going to be lopsided.
And Arkansas’ offense continued to keep the improvement going.
Don’t believe it?
Without the turnovers, the Hogs could have made it a one-score game AFTER going down 21-0.
“We got some timely turnovers during the game,” was how Saban put it later.
Ty Storey, who didn’t always look pretty, kept making plays. His errors weren’t the goofy kind, but when he was trying to make a play and the Tide’s defense simply knocked the ball out … which is what they work on every single day.
“Their QB played with a lot of grit,” Saban said later. “He was able to scramble around and make plays, whether it was scrambling around and picking up the first down or scrambling and finding some one open.”
It was another step forward for the Hogs.
When you score more points on the No. 1 team in one game than they’ve allowed in their previous two league games combined, well, that’s progress.
Now the road ahead doesn’t have hills quite as steep.
And if you compare this first season for Morris to what is now the standard of excellence in college football it’s a similar track.
Where that track leads we won’t know for a couple of years.
