Top 10 college football teams of the decade
By Ethan Lee
No. 7: 2012 Alabama Crimson Tide
Yup, it’s Alabama, again.
In 2012, the Alabama Crimson Tide was the best college football team in the country just one season after winning a national title.
Bama started the season by bashing Michigan in Arlington and steamrolled most of its foes. Week after week, Alabama’s group of running backs would run for a ton of yardage while quarterback A.J. McCarron kept the offense balanced.
The Crimson Tide had no issues taking care of its foes until an eventual Heisman winner wound up taking a trip to Tuscaloosa.
It took Johnny Manziel’s incredible athleticism and a knack for creating chaos for defenses to give Nick Saban a few gray hairs and a loss on the season. No other team was able to take Alabama down in 2012.
And there were several other great teams that tried that season.
Alabama rebounded from that loss, won out through the rest of the regular season, beat Georgia in the SEC Championship Game and absolutely steamrolled Notre Dame in the national championship game. Like clockwork, the Crimson Tide won week after week with the one loss coming at the hands of a quarterback who Saban simply couldn’t prepare his team for.