EDITOR’S NOTE: Every day until Aug. 29, Creg Stephenson is counting down significant numbers in Alabama football history, both in the lead-up to the 2025 football season and in commemoration of the Crimson Tide’s first national championship 100 years ago. The number could be attached to a year, a uniform number or even a football-specific statistic. We hope you enjoy.

Football coaches don’t always get to go out on their own terms. Fewer still get to do so with a victory.

Only four of the last eight Alabama football coaches recorded a win in their final game with the Crimson Tide. And just two of those did so in the last game they would ever coach.

One of those was Paul “Bear” Bryant, who announced his retirement in mid-December 1982. Bryant watched his team beat Illinois 21-15 in the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 29, but did not get to enjoy a very long post-football life, dying on Jan. 26, 1983, after suffering a heart attack.

The other is Gene Stallings, who announced his resignation after Alabama beat Auburn 24-23 in the 1996 Iron Bowl. Stallings’ team beat Michigan 17-14 in the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day, and despite being just 61 at the time, Stallings has never coached again.

“Why now?” Stallings asked himself rhetorically in his post-Iron Bowl press conference. “I don’t know why now.”

Stallings went 70-16-1 in his seven years at Alabama, most famously leading the Crimson Tide to the 1992 national championship — its only one between the Bryant and Nick Saban eras. But Alabama had also been hit with major NCAA sanctions during his watch (though some of the violations in question occurred during Ray Perkins’ tenure), and was banned from the postseason for the first time in program history in 1995.

There are many believe that Stallings’ resignation was far from voluntary, though he was not forced out. He simply grew tired of dealing with athletics director Bob Bockrath, with whom — it was later revealed — he’d nearly come to blows in the Alabama locker room following a one-point loss to Mississippi State in early November.

After Bockrath toyed with the idea of bringing in an outsider to replace Stallings, by the second week of December, Alabama had settled on elevating defensive coordinator Mike DuBose into the head position. That meant the upcoming bowl game would act as a passing-of-the-torch from Stallings to DuBose, and potentially a big sendoff for the outgoing coach.

For three quarters in the Outback Bowl, though, Michigan was threatening to spoil Stallings’ Hollywood ending. The Wolverines led 6-3 when they drove to the Alabama 11-yard line with less than 13 minutes remaining, and could take a two-score lead with a touchdown.

Fittingly, it was a defensive player who made the game’s defining play. Linebacker Dwayne Rudd, No. 87, put Alabama back in control of the game.

Crimson Tide safety Kelvin Sigler blitzed off the left side, hitting Michigan quarterback Brian Griese as he threw. The ball fluttered to Rudd, who spun immediately toward the sideline and raced untouched for an 88-yard touchdown.

You can see the play here, at the 14:37 mark:

Rudd’s touchdown put Alabama up 10-6, but there were still more than 12 minutes remaining. However, the Crimson Tide defense got a stop, and running back Shaun Alexander gave his team a 17-6 lead with a 46-yard touchdown with a little more than two minutes remaining.

Michigan scored a touchdown and added a two-point conversion with 25 seconds left to cut the lead to 17-14, but Alabama’s Chad Goss recovered the onside kick. The Crimson Tide kneeled out the final seconds and then carried Stallings of the field.

“We wanted to end the season with a win for the team, and especially for coach Stallings,” Rudd said afterward.

The win over Michigan was vintage Stallings. The Crimson Tide scored just one offensive touchdown, but made the plays it needed to on offense, defense and special teams when it absolutely had to have them.

The victory also clinched a 10-win season for the Crimson Tide, Stallings’ fourth. He said afterward he was “a little embarrassed” about the victory ride.

“I was trying to get down, to tell you the truth,” Stallings said. “I was trying to find (Michigan coach Lloyd) Carr to shake his hand.”

Since Stallings’ departure, only one Alabama coach has recorded a victory in his final game. That was Dennis Franchione, whose 2002 team won 21-16 at Hawaii to finish off its own 10-3 season (the Crimson Tide was also banned from the postseason that year, for violations that took place under DuBose).

Franchione left Alabama a few years later to take the Texas A&M job, and remains a hated figure within this state. Many observers — then and now — hypothesize that the Crimson Tide’s upset loss to Auburn in Tuscaloosa was in large part due to the fact that Franchione was already mentally checked out, if not surreptitiously negotiating his exit to College Station.

There were no such worries with Stallings. He gave every ounce of his attention and dedication to the Crimson Tide until the final seconds ticked off in Tampa.

Stallings is still living at age 90, though he’s had some health setbacks in recent years. He remains beloved in Alabama, and on New Year’s Day 1997 he got a fitting farewell.

Coming Thursday, our countdown to kickoff continues with No. 86, a breakthrough win vs. an historically significant opponent