Archie, Bo, Johnny Football & 14 other ‘Bama-killers’

Archie, Bo, Johnny Football & 14 other ‘Bama-killers’

Tennessee’s Jalin Hyatt was an unstoppable force in Saturday’s 52-49 victory over Alabama in Knoxville, but he’s hardly the only opposing player to enjoy a career day vs. the Crimson Tide.

Alabama has arguably the greatest track record of success in college football history. But it’s inevitable that over the course of more than 120 years of games, someone on the other team was going to shine especially bright vs. the Crimson Tide.

Saturday was Hyatt’s turn, as the sophomore from Irmo, S.C., caught six passes for 207 yards and five touchdowns, becoming the first opposing player to reach the end zone that many times in a single game against Alabama. Hyatt scored on catches of 36, 11, 60, 78 and 13 yards, the last tying the game at 49-49 with 3:26 remaining (Chase McGrath’s 40-yard field goal as time expired won the game for the Volunteers).

Here are 12 other games and 16 other players in the last 50 years or so who made the biggest mark in games vs. Alabama:

Ole Miss quarterback Archie Manning (18) accounted for a then-SEC record 540 yards of total offense in a 33-32 loss to Alabama at Birmingham’s Legion Field in 1969. (Birmingham News file photo by Edouard Brouhac)bn

1. Archie Manning, Ole Miss (1969)

Manning went 2-1 in his career against Alabama, so it’s ironic that it was the lone loss for which he’s best known. Manning and the Crimson Tide’s Scott Hunter conducted one of the all-time SEC shootouts, with Alabama winning 33-32 when Hunter hit George Ranager on a 15-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter. But it was Manning who stole the show, accounting for 540 yards of total offense (434 passing) and five touchdowns for the Rebels. The game was one of the first broadcast live in prime-time to a national audience, and continues to be talked about more than a half-century later.

USC running back Sam Cunningham (#39) running with the ball during the season-opening game between the University of Alabama and the University of Southern California (USC) at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

USC’s Sam Cunningham (39) ran for 135 yards and two touchdowns against an all-white Alabama team in 1970, a 42-21 victory at Birmingham’s Legion Field. (Birmingham News file photo by Eduard Brouhac)Alabama Media Group

2. Sam Cunningham, USC (1970)

The Trojans’ 42-21 victory over the Crimson Tide at Legion Field in the 1970 season-opener is significant for symbolic reasons, as USC’s all-Black starting backfield ran all over an all-white Alabama team. Cunningham, a sophomore making his varsity debut, was the signature player in the game, rushing for 135 yards and two touchdowns. That led to Crimson Tide assistant Jerry Claiborne’s famous quip: “Sam Cunningham did more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King did in 20 years.” In reality, Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was already moving forward on integration, having signed African-American halfback Wilbur Jackson for his 1970 recruiting class. Jackson and junior-college transfer John Mitchell would debut for the Crimson Tide in 1971, a season that began with a 21-14 win over USC in Los Angeles.

Conrad Graham, Tim Priest

Tennessee’s Tim Priest (26) had three of the Volunteers’ eight interceptions in a 24-0 victory over Alabama in 1970. (AP Photo)AP

3. Tim Priest & Jackie Walker, Tennessee (1970)

Later that same season, a pair of Volunteers defenders enjoyed career performances in a 24-0 victory over a struggling Crimson Tide team in Knoxville. Priest grabbed three of Tennessee’s eight interceptions in the game, while Walker — the Volunteers’ first African-American star — had two, one of which he returned 22 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. The game was the first in which Alabama had failed to score since 1959, and came with former Crimson Tide star Bill Battle at the helm as Tennessee’s head coach. Bryant got the upper hand over his pupil the following year in Birmingham, winning 32-15 to start an 11-game winning streak over the Volunteers.

Auburn play Bill Newton (#56) blocking a punt by Alabama player Greg Gantt (#8) during the 1972 Iron Bowl game at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

Auburn’s Bill Newton blocked two Alabama punts in the fourth quarter and David Langner (25) ran them both back for touchdowns in a 17-16 Tigers victory over the Crimson Tide in the 1972 Iron Bowl. (Birmingham News file photo by Haywood Paravicini)Alabama Media Group

4. Bill Newton & David Langner, Auburn (1972)

No game has ever turned quicker than the 1972 Iron Bowl, which went from ho-hum Alabama victory to exhilarating Auburn win in the course of about four minutes of clock time. The undefeated Crimson Tide led 16-3 when Greg Gantt lined up to punt with just under six minutes left to play. Newton blocked the punt, and Langner ran it in from 25 yards out to pull Auburn within 16-10. At the 1:34 mark, Newton and Langner did it again, with Langner scoring from 20 yards away this time. Gardner Jett’s extra point gave Auburn a 17-16 lead, and Langner sealed the win by picking off Terry Davis’ last-second pass. In a game forever known as “Punt Bama Punt,” Auburn won despite totaling only 80 yards of offense and dealt Alabama its only SEC loss between 1970 and 1976.

1982 Press Photo Alabama's Bear Bryant & Southern Mississippi's Reggie Collier

Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant congratulates Southern Miss quarterback Reggie Collier after Collier ran for three touchdowns in a 38-29 Golden Eagles victory in Tuscaloosa in 1982. (Birmingham News file photo)

5. Reggie Collier, Southern Miss (1982)

A dual-threat quarterback before that was cool, Collier accounted for 243 yards of total offense in a stunning 13-13 tie vs. the Crimson Tide at Legion Field in 1981, but was truly a game-breaker in the Golden Eagles’ titanic 38-29 upset of Alabama the following season. He ran for 81 yards and passed for just 68, but rushed for three touchdowns as Southern Miss snapped Alabama’s 57-game winning streak at Bryant-Denny Stadium in what ended up being Bryant’s final home game before announcing his retirement at season’s end. Collier acted as a decoy on other plays, allowing tailback Sam Dejarnette to carve up the Crimson Tide defense for 152 yards on the ground.

Bo Jackson during the 1983 Auburn - Alabama game at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

Auburn’s Bo Jackson takes a break during the 1983 Iron Bowl, in which he ran for 256 yards and two touchdowns in a 23-20 victory over Alabama at Legion Field. (Birmingham News file photo)Alabama Media Group

6. Bo Jackson, Auburn (1983)

Jackson’s dive “Over the Top” to win the 1982 Iron Bowl is one of the most famous moments of both his career and in the history of the Alabama-Auburn rivalry, but it was as a sophomore the following year that he truly became an iconic figure in the game’s history. On a December day at Legion Field riddled with tornado warnings, Jackson ran for 256 yards and two long touchdowns on just 20 carries as Auburn won 23-20 to beat Alabama for the second straight time. Jackson’s 69-yard TD run opened the scoring early in the second quarter, his 71-yard dash late in the third gave the Tigers the lead for good. He added runs of 23, 18, 13, 12 and 11 yards in the game. Jackson went just 2-2 in his career vs. Alabama, but ran the ball 90 times for 630 yards (an average of 7.0 yards per carry) with six touchdowns in those games.

Tennessee Volunteers

Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning went 3-1 vs. Alabama, including a 41-14 victory in 1995 in which he threw for 301 yards and three touchdowns. (Photo by Doug Devoe/Sporting News via Getty Images via Getty Images)Sporting News via Getty Images

7. Peyton Manning, Tennessee (1995)

As his father had before him, Manning seemed to shine brightest against the Crimson Tide. After losing a 17-13 heartbreaker in Knoxville as a true freshman in 1994, Manning wasted no time in showing the 1995 game in Birmingham would be different. He hit Joey Kent on an 80-yard touchdown pass on the game’s opening play, one of three scoring tosses he would throw in a 41-14 Tennessee rout that ended Alabama’s eight-game unbeaten streak in the series. Manning threw for 301 yards that day, and followed that up 176 yards and a touchdown in a 20-13 win in Knoxville in 1996 and 304 and three scores in a 38-21 victory in Birmingham in 1997 to finish 3-1 vs. the Crimson Tide. Throw in Eli’s 2-1 record as a starter at Ole Miss from 2001-03, and the Mannings went 7-3 vs. Alabama.

Danny Wuerffel

Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel threw for 420 yards and six touchdowns in a 45-30 victory over Alabama in 1996 SEC championship game. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)ASSOCIATED PRESS

8. Danny Wuerffel & Reidel Anthony, Florida (1996)

Steve Spurrier’s “Fun N’ Gun” was operating at maximum efficiency in 1996, never more so than in the SEC championship game vs. Alabama in Atlanta. Wuerffel threw for 401 yards and six touchdowns — three of them to Anthony — as the Gators won 45-30 on their way to a national championship. The Heisman Trophy winner’s 21-yard touchdown pass to Anthony put Florida up to stay in the second quarter, then his scoring strikes of 13 and 21 yards to Anthony and 85 yards to Jacquez Green put the game out of reach in the second half. Anthony finished with 171 yards on 11 receptions, while Green added 106 on three catches as the Gators became the first team since the 1971-75 Crimson Tide to win as many as four consecutive SEC championships.

Josh Reed

LSU’s Josh Reed set an SEC record with 19 receptions for 293 yards in a 35-21 victory over Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 2001. (Press-Register file photo)Mobile Register

9. Rohan Davey & Josh Reed, LSU (2001)

In a 35-21 victory over the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa, Davey kept throwing the ball and Reed kept catching it. The two hooked up for just one touchdown — a 25-yarder to give Nick Saban’s Tigers a 28-21 lead in the third quarter — but diced up Dennis Franchione’s Alabama team with what seemed like a thousand tiny cuts. Reed set SEC records with 19 receptions for 293 yards, part of a 544-yard passing day for Davey. The burly, strong-armed LSU quarterback also hit Jerel Myers on a 35-yard strike in the first quarter, and LaBrandon Toefield added two touchdown runs for the eventual SEC champions. Davey also set an Alabama opponent record with 35 completions (in 44 attempts) and LSU’s 611 yards of total offense were also the most ever against Alabama at the time.

Stanley McClover sacks Brodie Croyle

Stanley McClover (75) had 3 1/2 of Auburn’s 11 sacks of Alabama quarterback Brodie Croyle in a 28-18 victory in the 2005 Iron Bowl at Jordan-Hare Stadium. (Press-Register file photo by Chip English)

10. Stanley McClover, Auburn (2005)

Alabama quarterback Brodie Croyle rarely had enough time to set his feet before he was hit in the 2005 Iron Bowl, as Auburn sacked him 11 times in a 28-18 victory at Jordan-Hare Stadium. McClover had 3 ½ sacks, four tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry for the Tigers, who sacked Croyle five times in Alabama’s first 12 offensive snaps, leading to minus-35 yards of total offense and four straight three-and-outs. T.J. Jackson, Quentin Groves, Travis Williams and Anterrious Williams were all credited with 1.5 sacks in the game, while Wayne Dickens added one and Marquies Gunn had merely a half-sack but three QB hurries. Auburn beat Alabama for the fourth straight year (a streak that would eventually reach six in a row), and “Honk if you sacked Brodie Croyle” became a popular message on bumper stickers and t-shirts around Auburn in the ensuing months.

Johnny Manziel

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel (2) threw for 464 yards and four touchdowns, and also ran for 98 yards, in a 49-42 loss to Alabama in 2013. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)AP

11. Johnny Manziel & Mike Evans, Texas A&M (2013)

Manziel’s dazzling passing and rushing performance in a 29-24 upset of top-ranked Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 2012 is more famous, but his production in an early-season shootout loss the next season was even more spectacular. “Johnny Football” threw for 464 yards and five touchdowns, and also ran for 98 yards as the Aggies came up just short, 49-42 at raucous Kyle Field in College Station. His 562 yards of total offense was second in SEC history, behind only his 579 the previous year vs. Louisiana Tech. The speedy, 6-foot-5 Evans was the beneficiary of most of that yardage, catching nine passes for 279 yards, including a 95-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Deshaun Watson

Clemson’s Deshaun Watson met Alabama in back-to-back years for the national championship, totaling 825 yards and seven touchdowns passing (plus one more rushing). The Tigers lost the first meeting 45-40, then won the second 35-31. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)AP

12. Deshaun Watson, Clemson (2017)

Watson had thrown for 405 yards and four touchdowns and added 73 yards rushing in the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship game vs. Alabama, but the Tigers lost that one 45-40 in Glendale, Ariz. He put up an even better performance a year later in Tampa, completing 36 of 56 passes for 420 yards and three touchdowns — and also running for a score — as Clemson won 35-31 for its first national championship in 35 years. Alabama led 28-14 heading into the fourth quarter, but Watson directed three touchdown drives for the victory. His 2-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Renfrow with 1 second remaining — a play described as a “pick” or a “rub” depending upon for which team you were rooting — provided the winning margin for Dabo Swinney and the Tigers.

Honorable mention: Dicky Maegle, Rice (1954 Cotton Bowl); Carnell Williams, Auburn (2003); Stephen Garcia, South Carolina (2010); Cam Newton, Auburn (2010); Trevor Lawrence, Clemson (2019 CFP National Championship Game)

Creg Stephenson is a sports writer for AL.com. He has covered college football for a variety of publications since 1994. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @CregStephenson.