2000 - Week 4

Things aren't very bright in Tuscaloosa right now. The Tide is 1-3 for the first time since 1990. Here are more bitter facts...

• This is the fifth time that we have been 1-3 to start a season. Really bad news...the previous four years only had one winning record with a 1-3 start; that was 1990.
• Alabama's record on September 23 falls to 4-2-1.
• Alabama's now 39-7 when it scores exactly 21 points, and 10-9 when it gives up exactly 28.
• This is the 25th time we have lost by a touchdown exactly.
• Alabama's record when both teams combine for exactly 49 points is now 13-3.
• The Tide's on-the-field record against the Hogs drops to 7-4 (6-5 when the 43-3 win in 1993 is taken away).

Now that we're through 1/3 of the schedule, let's look at some overall statistics.

• Bama is averaging 18.5 points a game. If we continue that output, that'll mark our 10th lowest offensive output in years since 1950 and be the lowest since 1968 (16.72 ppg).
• Bama is giving up an average of 23.25 points per game. If this number continues to hold, it'll be the fourth-worst average since 1950 (only 1955, 1969, and 1998 were worse).

Up Next - South Carolina

Wow. How many people expected the records of these two teams to be reversed at this point in the season in August? Anyway, here's the facts on the Gamecocks and a couple of other little details:

• Alabama's all-time on-the-field record against South Carolina is 9-0, and the Cocks have never really come close to beating Alabama. The smallest margin of victory in the series is 8, and the average margin of victory is 25.1 points per game. Against teams that Alabama has played five times or more, this is the 9th most impressive average margin of victory; furthermore, Alabama has only played four of those teams (Cincinnati, Chattanooga, Louisiana-Monroe, and South Carolina) within the past twenty years.
• Alabama only averages giving up 3.7 points to South Carolina per game. Against teams that are still playing Division 1A ball, that's the third-lowest opposing scoring average against Alabama. Only Washington State (0 ppg; only played them once in the 1930 Rose Bowl) and Baylor (1 ppg; only played them twice overall) have lower scoring averages on the Tide in this situation.
• Alabama's record against teams from South Carolina (USC, Clemson, Furman) is 25-3; Alabama has won their last 25 games against South Carolina teams. The last team from South Carolina to beat Alabama was Clemson, 25-0 in 1905.
• At last, we come home! Birmingham just isn't home to this Tide fan. Bryant-Denny is truly our home field, and the Tide's record proves this fact. Alabama is 260-42-3 in Tuscaloosa, a winning percentage of .856. I was thinking that it was a long time since it'd been this late in a season that we'd played a game in T-town, and sure enough, that's true...the last year that we played our first game in Tuscaloosa in game 5 or later was 1981. The latest first Tuscaloosa game was in 1945, when the first game in Tuscaloosa was played in game number 8.

2000 UA Football Facts