Goodman: The return of the real Alabama

Fourth and 31 is the play that everyone will remember from this joyride of a season for Alabama, but it’s two others that point to trouble for Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

The back-to-back plays made by Alabama defender Dallas Turner against LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels defined this season of growth for the Crimson Tide. Against Texas, Alabama’s defense faded in the fourth quarter and looked like a team unworthy to be playing in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Two months later, Turner got the best of the SEC’s Heisman Trophy finalist in the second half against LSU and it delivered Alabama the SEC West crown.

Quarterbacks get all the attention, but defenses still win championships in the SEC.

Turner was named the SEC’s defender of the year this week by the Associated Press. Daniels was named the offensive player of the year. When the two stars squared off this season, it was Turner who came out on top. In the defining defensive sequence of the year in the SEC, Turner first batted down a pass attempt by Daniels before knocking LSU’s quarterback out of the game on the very next play. Some called Turner’s hit on Daniels a dirty play. It wasn’t. It was savage all the same, though, and, for those of us with seasoned eyes, the blow was a reminder of the kind of football they used to play in the old SEC. Here at the crossroads of a new kind of college football, it was Turner’s hit on Daniels that signaled a return of the real Alabama in 2023.

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa didn’t win a national championship as a starting quarterback. Alabama quarterback Bryce Young didn’t win a national championship as a starting quarterback. Jalen Milroe has a better chance of winning a national title as a starter than both of those first-round picks, and the reason is because of the defense behind him.

They might not win any national awards, but Alabama’s defense in 2023 is the group of players who saved Nick Saban’s dynasty. Turner was the point of the spear of that vanguard, and the single best player in the Southeastern Conference.

College football is a quarterback’s game these days. So much value is put on the position that Florida State, with arguably the best defense in the country, was left out of the College Football Playoff due to an injury to its original starter at the position. The video game numbers being put up by quarterbacks these days don’t impress me as much as the defenders who can stop them. The Heisman Trophy ceremony is on Saturday, and Daniels might well win the award, but he’ll carry with him to New York a tattooed imprint of the best player in college football. That’s Turner, who I know for a fact had his name on at least one ballot for the most famous individual award in American sports.

PENIX OR NIX

The Heisman Trophy Trust doesn’t like voters to reveal their selections before the presentation ceremony, but I will mention that Bo Nix of Oregon, as much as I wanted him to win the award this season, did not receive a vote on my ballot. The reason was simple. How could I vote for Nix over Washington quarterback Michael Penix, Jr., when Washington and Penix went 2-0 against Nix’s Ducks?

I really wanted to be a homer on this one, considering Nix is originally from Alabama, but my conscience wouldn’t allow it.

Penix was the better player in the end, but that doesn’t take away from Nix’s excellent season and career. Nix’s time in college spanned the most turbulent period in recent NCAA history. The transfer portal, NIL collectives, a pandemic, major conference realignments and more all coincided with Nix’s eligibility. If that wasn’t enough, being the promised savior of Auburn football during the time of Alabama’s Saban put Nix in the eye of the storm.

Were Auburn fans too harsh on Nix, who grew up loving Tigers football like a member of his own family? It’s hard to tell fans to stop being such big fans, and so it was tough to watch Nix receive ridicule when it was Nix who was holding Auburn together all those years and attempting to save Auburn football from itself.

Nix will always be remembered for his victory as a freshman in the Iron Bowl. That Alabama team in 2019 was one of the most talented collections of players ever assembled in the history of college football, and Nix came out on top. Nix’s dazzling performance against LSU in 2021 also stands out. It was Auburn’s first win at Tiger Stadium since 1999.

Who could ever have predicted that Nix would begin his career with a victory against a Top 10 Oregon team, and then finish his career taking the Ducks to the edge of the College Football Playoff?

I’m happy that Nix found peace in Oregon over the last two years, and here’s hoping that he did enough to impress NFL scouts and general managers for a selection in the first round of the NFL Draft.

SAY IT AIN’T SO

The latest sign of the college football apocalypse? It was disheartening to see the news that Alabama receiver Ja’Corey Brooks entered the transfer portal this week. It was Brooks who made the game-tying reception against Auburn in the dramatic 2021 Iron Bowl. Alabama went on to win the game 24-22 in the fourth overtime.

There was a time when being a hero of the Iron Bowl guaranteed those players employment for life in the state of Alabama. Brooks’ transfer reminds me of the decision made by running back Shaun Shivers to leave Auburn for Indiana in 2022. Shivers delivered that monstrous, helmet-popping blow at the goal line against Alabama safety Xavier McKinney in the 2019 Iron Bowl.

Players like Nix, Brooks and Shivers transfer to better position themselves for the NFL Draft. I’m happy they have that opportunity, but when they leave their schools it takes away from the game for fans.