Alabama Visited Tampa To Recruit, But A Game Of Survivor Broke Out With USF That Nearly Beached The Tide And Nick Saban

Well, hopefully Alabama will get some recruits out of its trip to Tampa, Florida, for a rare, road rent-a-win against little bitty South Florida.

Recruiting was why mighty No. 10 Alabama with all its mystique, history and brand awareness traveled to talent-rich Tampa to play 34-point underdog South Florida. The Bulls were 1-11 last season and 3-18 the previous two. Alabama coaches went to high school games Friday night. Then they fought for their lives with their players for most of Saturday afternoon before eking out a 17-3 win.

Alabama coach Nick Saban did not have much to clap for through most of the Tide's game vs. South Florida Saturday in Tampa, but in the end Alabama won 17-3. (Photo by Cliff Welch via Getty Images)

Late in the third quarter, the Crimson Tide still found itself in a 3-3 fight to avoid its most embarrassing loss since coach Nick Saban's first season with the Tide in 2007 when it fell to Louisiana-Monroe, 21-14.

Alabama Did Not Lead South Florida Until Third Quarter

"I'm really proud of our players," he said. "I know we struggled a little bit on offense, but I'm really proud of the way they competed."

A "little bit?"

"We have no continuity on offense," Saban said at halftime when tied 3-3.

New Alabama starting sophomore quarterback Tyler Buchner, a Notre Dame backup who transferred in last spring, looked every bit the backup. He short-hopped open receivers as if he was trying to throw the ball away and called the wrong pass protections.

All four of Buchner's drives finished in punts as he finished 5-of-14 passing for 34 yards before redshirt freshman Ty Simpson replaced him in the second quarter with South Florida up 3-0 on a 44-yard field goal in the opening period. The mistake-prone Tide set that score up when Kool-Aid McKinstry lost a fumbled a punt return at the Alabama 30-yard line.

South Florida's 4-yard scoring drive followed a 55-minute lightning delay that made this hard-to-watch mess resemble a baseball game even more along with the low score. Alabama could have led 7-3 early, but Terrion Arnold's 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown came back because of holding. That was the fourth Tide touchdown this season nullified by penalty. It has been that kind of year so far.

Simpson completed just 5 of 9 passes for 73 yards, but he led tight end C.J. Dippre perfectly for a 45-yard completion in the Tide's lone touchdown drive for a 10-3 lead with 4:35 left in the third quarter. And he finished the game. Previous starter Jalen Milroe did not play.

Alabama's 17 points were its fewest against a non-ranked opponent since a 14-13 win over Arkansas in 2014.

"I need to do a better job of preparing our team for these types of games," Saban said.

He has only one more of that type left, though. Chattanooga visits on Nov. 18. Ole Miss (3-0) comes to Tuscaloosa on Saturday (3:30 p.m., CBS) after beating Georgia Tech, 48-23 Saturday. The Rebels should be favored, but opened as an 11-point underdog. Oddsmakers must be living in a recent Alabama past that is no longer.

Ole Miss and No. 14 LSU (2-1, 1-0 SEC) on Nov. 4 look like possible losses the way Alabama is playing. LSU won 41-14 at Mississippi State Saturday. Ole Miss and LSU each have better starting, backup and reserve quarterbacks than Alabama. In fact, every SEC West team may be better at QB than Alabama.

Alabama's Roydell Williams Shined

Tailback Roydell Williams was Alabama's offense as he gained 129 yards on 17 carries, mostly in the second half. His 1-yard touchdown run gave Alabama that 10-3 lead.

Alabama's announcers celebrated as if the Tide just took the lead in the Iron Bowl over an undefeated Auburn. But it was more gasping relief than anything.

Simpson added a 1-yard touchdown run with 5:56 left for the 17-3 final after an old school 80-yard drive in 11 plays behind Williams that looked like something out of the 1970s under Bear Bryant.

Saban's quarterback position is about as solidified now as it was in August. If Buchner was expected to be the starter for the rest of the season, scratch that. And there is no Joe Namath walking through that door.

"We're going to evaluate the quarterbacks who played today and evaluate Jalen Milroe. We'll decide this week who gives us the best opportunity to be successful as an offense, and that's the way we'll go," Saban said.

Milroe has looked better than the other two and runs much better.

Alabama Offensive Line Struggled

Saban will have to evaluate the offensive line, too. It allowed five sacks in all, including three to edge rusher Daquan Evans, who was rarely blocked by left tackle Kadyn Proctor.

Alabama was without starting left guard Tyler Booker because of back spasms. Saban said Proctor really missed having Booker next to him.

"Based on the sacks, I would not evaluate the offensive line very well," Saban deadpanned. "We messed up protections several times (quarterback's job), and we got beat."

Saban admired the pass rush attack by South Florida.

"They have probably as exotic a pressure package as anybody we've played," he said.

Nick Saban Seemed At A Loss

All in all, it was either enough to get Saban thinking more about retirement, or motivated him even more than usual to return Alabama to what it was.

"Hopefully, we'll all learn lessons from the experience and improve," he said. "We've got a lot of things to fix, and we'll work on it."

The Tide looks nothing like a national championship contender. It instead resembled a directional school in beating one that only went to Division I-A (now Football Bowl Subdivision) in 2001. And if Alabama doesn't win it all this season, it will mark the longest gap between titles in the Saban era. The longest previous stretch without one under Saban is just two seasons - 2018 and '19 after the 2017 title.

The Tide's last title was in 2020, which was the COVID season.

South Florida, of all programs, brought Alabama and Nick Saban to their knees.

"Exotic?" This from a school that just started football in 1997? That's when Mike Dubose coached Alabama.

That's the era Alabama resembled Saturday.

That was clearly not the Alabama of Nick Saban.