Nick Saban's Most Underrated Feat: 100 Straight Wins Over Unranked Teams

When the winning streak came to an end on Oct. 9, 2021, few noticed, and those who did were paying a lot more attention to other things. Fans had rushed the field. After kicker Seth Small made a 28-yard field goal as time expired and fans rushed the field to celebrate Texas A&M's 41-38 victory the primary topics of discussion included the reigning national champions having taken their first loss of the season, their 19-game winning streak snapped, and Nick Saban no longer being undefeated against his former assistant coaches after going 24-0.

It was even Jimbo Fisher's birthday, and he had used some colorful language during a speaking engagement during the spring to proclaim his team would beat Alabama during Saban's career. Many thought it could be a career-changing win for him. Plus, it was the Crimson Tide's second visit following its close 2017 victory at Kyle Field, what became known as the “Rat Poison” game, a 27-19 win that was closer than the score indicated. Just like in 2021, Alabama was No. 1 at the time and Texas A&M was unranked.  

 "All that stuff you write about how good we are, all that stuff they hear on ESPN, it's like poison,” Saban said during his postgame press conference, a comment that was heard in the far corners of college football. "It's like taking poison. Like rat poison". 

Naturally, all of those things dominated the headlines that night (and the next couple of days), leaving the following as an afterthought for most college football fans: The Crimson Tide's streak of 100 wins against unranked teams was over. It was the longest in Football Bowl Subdivision history, with the previous record 72 games, shared by Miami (Fla.) (1984-95) and Florida (1989-2000).

It had been going since the win over Colorado on Dec. 30, 2007 in the Independence Bowl (which has since been vacated due to an NCAA ruling from the textbook disbursement scandal that Saban inherited). The final win happened 14 seasons later, 63-14 over Southern Miss.

To put it into perspective, during that 100-game winning streak Ohio State was the only other program to have single-digit losses to unranked opponents with nine. Alabama has had four since Saban's departure at the end of the 2023 season.

It also needs to be noted that the Aggies had started the 2021 season ranked No. 6 in the AP Top25, and were at No. 7 two weeks previous before losing to No. 16 Arkansas and Mississippi State. They were listed second among team also receiving votes that week. Alabama, meanwhile, had already faced three ranked opponents and was coming off the return of Lane Kiffin to Tuscaloosa as the head coach at Ole Miss. It might have been the perfect trap game for the Crimson Tide.

You'll probably never see an amazing like that again in college football, especially during the NIL/transfer portal era. Here's the list of 100 games, which only has this week's opponent, Vanderbilt , on it twice. Saturday's game at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium will the first time the Crimson Tide and Commodores meet with both in the AP Top 25L

SEE ALSO: How Big of a Nemesis, Benchmark was Michigan for Nick Saban in Big Ten?

Alabama Crimson Tide/BamaCentral regularly publishes articles and columns putting Nick Saban's coaching career into perspective.