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.

It was a rather routine 24-point home victory during a national championship season, but it led four years later to an all-time Nick Saban rant.

Alabama beat Georgia Southern 45-21 at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Nov. 19, 2011, the final home game of the year. It was the only time all season the Crimson Tide allowed more than 14 points in a game, and the Eagles’ triple-option attack rang up 302 yards rushing and averaged 7.7 yards per carry.

Still, Alabama was never in danger of losing, jumping out to a 17-0 lead early and outscoring Georgia Southern 21-7 in the second half. Afterward, Saban was more than complimentary toward the Eagles while still praising his team.

“Those guys played hard and played with a lot of toughness,” Saban said. “They really did a good job of running their offense. It’s a tough offense to get prepared for. It’s totally different than what we do all the time. We obviously didn’t execute the way we wanted to on defense all the time.

“We did a better job in the second half. That was really important. I think it was really important that our offense did a fantastic job of controlling the ball. They were always able to answer the bell and do a really a good job of not allowing them to have the ball. The time of possession was really good for us. I was really pleased with the way we competed.”

Alabama beat Auburn 42-14 a week later in the Iron Bowl and then blanked top-ranked LSU 21-0 in the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 9, claiming its second title in three years (and first of two straight). The Crimson Tide’s defense finished the season ranked No. 1 nationally in scoring defense (8.2 points per game), total defense (183.6 yards per game), rushing defense (72.2 ypg) and passing defense (111.5 ypg).

The 2011 Georgia Southern game looked like just a momentary blip, until four years later. As Alabama prepared to face another FCS team with “Southern” in its name — Charleston Southern — Saban used the moment to remind the public — and his players — that they’d better not overlook their opponent, doing so in both profane and hilarious fashion.

“You all might be taking the week off this week,” Saban told reporters. “But I’m not.”

The tension built from there. Saban dismissed the idea that Alabama’s third- and fourth-string players might see the field against Charleston Southern, even though no one had asked him about that topic.

Saban then reminded the room about the 2011 game vs. Georgia Southern, when his all-timer of a defense was left searching for answers at times.

“I don’t think we had a guy on that field that didn’t play in the NFL and about four or five of them were first-round draft picks,” he said. “And I think that team won a national championship, but I’m not sure.

“And they ran through our ass like s*** through a tin horn, man. And we could not stop them. Could not stop them. Could not stop them because we could not get a look in practice. We couldn’t practice it right? And everybody said the same thing in that game. Y’all took a week off. This wasn’t important, so it’s not important to anybody else. It has to be important to the players and it has to be important to us.

“Everybody gets excited for the beginning of the season and you get excited about getting married. But after you’re married for a while, you’ve got to have a process to make it work. And no matter what happens, we need to have a process to make it happen in every game we play. Every game that we play. Can’t assume anything.”

Saban then paused briefly before adding, “I don’t even know what you asked me. I just wanted to say that.”

Here’s video:

Alabama beat Charleston Southern 56-6 the following Saturday, and went on to win another national championship that season. But in the decade since, Saban’s “tin horn” line has become the stuff of legend.

Georgia Southern — now an FBS program and a member of the Sun Belt Conference — is often referred to as “Team Tin Horn,” and there is a popular fan-run social media channel called “Tin Horn Productions.” Saban repeated the analogy during his 2024 debut season as an analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay, when discussing Alabama’s 2018 game with LSU.

This time, fellow GameDay analyst Kirk Herbstreit stopped Saban and asked him for an explanation.

“You’ve used that tin horn thing before and I’ve always wanted to ask you what it means,” Herbstreit said.

 “I can’t explain what it means,” Saban replied.

But you know it when you see it.

Coming Thursday: Our countdown to kickoff continues with No. 44, a type of opponent Alabama hasn’t faced in a while.