01/02/2009. Louisiana Superdome (New Orleans, LA). The 75th annual Sugar Bowl. The #7 Utah Utes (12-0) vs. the #4 Alabama Crimson Tide (12-1). Broadcast on FOX.
One of my favorite memories of this game was Barry Switzer talking all that shit about Utah’s players and saying Utah was going to get blown out and they don’t belong in this game then having to eat his words 😂
In Christ I trust! Because the BCS rankings were bullshit. They beat TCU, BYU, Oregon State, and Michigan. Three of which ended in the top 25 in the rankings. The Utes were projected number 1 in 4 of the 6 models at the end of the season used by the BCS, but they still had them at number 4 because the coaches did. They were screwed because they weren’t a power 5 conference.
I think Utah is only getting better too! They played an amazing season last year and I think they're only going to improve... This is coming from a GA fan... GO DAWGS ❤️🖤
One of THE BEST GAMES EVER!!!!! To HUMBLE THE SEC & ALABAMA WAS THE BEST THING EVER!!!!!!!! Even though ALL of CFB knew that THE U should've been playing for the National Title as THE ONLY UNDEFEATED TEAM in CFB that year.
This was the loss that spurred them into becoming the best college football team in the country over the last decade. It was a wake up call to lose to such a lower tier team.
One of the rare occasions where Alabama's opponent had better athletes at skill positions and a better defense. They were simply overmatched. The way the Utah d-line ran roughshod over the Tide was impressive and stunning. Whereas Utah consistently punished the Alabama receivers and ball carriers, the Tide missed so many tackles. The Tide scores 10 points on offense. Wow. Simply a dominating performance by Utah.
I'm no Utah fan, but Utah was the better team. Their conference was under rated. I'm a Duck fan, but the truth is the truth. I sure hope Oregon romps Utah in the conference championship game this year, but I sure wouldn't count on it. Utah is pretty good again. Just remember what happened to Bama.
Well, I'm glad that Oregon was able to defeat Utah. I do believe that the Ducks played their best game yet this year. Utah was not overrated. They have a very good team.
m8s4lif As a Utah fan, I’m actually glad the Ducks won. Utah had a good team this year but I think losing to the Ducks saved us a lot of embarrassment nationally. I’ll be rooting for the Ducks in the Rose bowl.
@@scott121681 I may be wrong, but I do believe that your Utah team would have done a lot better than many seem to think. You guys have a very good team. They just might have done the unthinkable and did a repeat performance of what they did to Alabama a few years ago. Well we will never know. Bottom line to me is that Utah has a very good team. I'm a Duck fan, but I believe in giving respect where I feel it's deserved. I have a lot of respect for your team. Good luck in your bowl game.
@@m8s4lif yeah I'm of the mindset that Utah woulda did better than Oklahoma if they woulda played LSU. I really think Utah coulda caused problems the same way Auburn did to LSU.....and truth be told, Auburn had several chances to win that game but didn't take advantage of their opportunity.
The game that put Utah Football on the Map for real! Fiesta Bowl in 2005 was awesome, but no where near as good as this team!! Fun to be at both games!!
DeDano 55 win another N.Championship ! You got a Bama team out of gas , when u had your BEST TEAM OF ALL TIME. EVEN AS A BAMA FAN, I WON $$$ CAUSE NCAA IS 75% EMOTIONS
Brian , 2004 Utah team was best Ute team of all time (Urban Meyer and Alex Smith). There were several of these Utes that made the NFL, not common for a (then) G5 school. Keep making excuses for that 2009 Bama team bud. They were outplayed, and even out coached which is unusual since Saban is considered the GOAT. No question this was a big game for the Utes and a minor blip for the Tide, but they were beat fair and square.
2019 LSU could beat 2004 or 2008 Utah and anybody else national title team in football history even the Cincinnati Bengals team of 2019 would get beat by 2019 LSU
@@markpapenfuss1111 Lifetime Bama fan here, you are correct, we got beat, fair and square, so obviously we were outplayed, not sure about being outcoached, Saban is the "goat", a very painful game for Bama, a great game for the Utes,,,
Looking back on this. Utah was loaded at the skilled positions, it was a shock to many but in hindsight that team had so much depth at the skilled positions it may not have been such a shock to who knew of Utah that year. Utah to this day has not had the sheer number of skilled players, mostly on offense than that team had, and many on the defense were drafted or played in the NFL. I wonder if even the Utah team that won the P12 would beat this team.
I love our current team rn that won the Pac-12, but looking back at this footage, I can say that the Pac-12 team would lose by like three tds to the 2009 or 2005 team imo.
So glad that Fox lost the rights to broadcast BCS games. These were terrible broadcasts. Give Utah credit, as well as Oklahoma five years later. Alabama truly looked like they did not want to be a part of these games. However, this 2008 team was the team that really started this run by Alabama. They bought into Saban's "process" and I think that they are forgotten for the foundation they laid with their 12-2 season.
2008 Alabama had the #1 recruiting class, went 12-0 in the regular season, was ranked #1 by week ten, had the 3rd best defense in the country, and had 22 players drafted to the NFL. The players were getting paid from the slush fund just like every year.
Utah showed up and punched the square in the mouth to start. Bama didn't know what to do after that. There is no excuse for Bama when the identical team goes undefeated the next season and wins the championship. Champions show up to every game not matter what. Utah showed up, and dominated
Yeah but it’s an exhibition game so....really meant nothing. As a fan I was deflated after losing to Florida, I could’ve cared less about this game. Best friend was on the team. The feeling was mutual throughout the team as well.
@@CD-pk7xr what we not gonna do is use the whole "we didn't care about this game or we didn't wanna be there" excuse. Nope. If y'all didn't care about this game, then why in the hell would you accept the bid?
@@MrGodismypower so close to paying for a national title. Then lose a heartbreaker when they’re so close. I understand the sugar bowl is the Super Bowl to Utah players and fans because you don’t know any different. But it’s really not that big a deal. As a fan and alum, my excitement was nil after losing to Florida. I know a lot of guys who played on that team, they felt the same. No school or coach is going to not accept a bowl game offer.
@@CD-pk7xr you have the option to accept or decline the bid. If y'all really didn't care about that game, y'all coulda easily played the back ups the whole game but guess what? Y'all sent your starters out there and got embarrassed by a little ole mountain west team. That should never happen.
@@MrGodismypower the people who accepted the bowl bid and the ones playing are totally different people. If you think every starter played in that game, you may want to do your due diligence before you speak in absolutes. Anyways I’ve got bigger shit to tend to. The five national titles since then makes this game as relevant as a fart in the wind.
Oh fuck I just came. What an amazing memory from my early adulthood as a Utes fan. If you meet one of us that says they expected us to win they're lying. That shit was so unexpected and so on brand for the literal football geniuses that are Kyle Whittingham and Brian Johnson
Just like when OU beat Alabamas ass a few years later. This is the reason Alabama plays high school teams in the out of conference games. They are scared to be exposed as the refs and espn will do everything they can to prop them as high as possible
They were a better verson of 2018 UCF. Nobody wanted to give UCF a shot because of the conference they played in. Who would've thought Utah could play with the big boys
Mason Edwards well UCF went 13-0 beating auburn in the peach bowl in 2017 being the only undefeated team that year but in 2018 UCF got their streak broken in the hands of LSU and since then LSU hasn’t lost a football game bc in 2019 we the only and first SEC team to go 15-0 🏆
I don't get why we lost this game....shit was crazy Oh wait I see why...Utah was a lot faster and our tackling was HORRENDOUS lol...Jebus Can't wait for a rematch with these guys...
You also have to remember that alabama just lost all reason to play after losing to Florida that year. People don't understand that. That whole season was played to get to Atlanta and hopefully miama, but why would they want to play hard after giving it their all against Florida that year and losing? It was the exact same story in 2013 after the auburn game.
Quambles No I understand that perfectly but I don't think that's a legit reason for playing so horrendously bad. I remember the same thing happening in the 2011-2012 season when they were what 10-3? Yet they destroyed Michigan St in the cotton bowl. I really wish they would learn to let go of a bad lost and just win the game regardless if they're going to the NC because losing like they did against Utah and Oklahoma is just sad...lol Saying that they had nothing to prove(Which is what some fans said) is also silly...its not always about going to the NC and winning. Alabama is currently 0-3 in the sugar bowl. That's pretty freaking embarrassing...
+JenoEXOProxy23X I though you'd bring up the 2010 year. We were already out if the picture before the end of the season, we played angry in that game and that was more of a game that showed some of the young talent that season. The other two seasons I mentions were games we lost towards the end of the season, two heartbreaking games to be exact. Like I said, it seems they came out extremely flat because of that and tried to come back but it was too late.
I'm from Utah and do not watch football.. I've never watched a college game and haven't watched the Super Bowl in many years. But with all the trash talking that Utah took I had to watch. And I have watched this game about 3-4 times since that day. Not since trump won have I watched more media eat their words. Love it!
Alabama was a great team that year, Ingram, Jones. To say they laid down is a dis on the players. These guys in college are fighting to get to the next level and increase their draft status. They played for their coach, teammates, program, and for themselves. The utes won and judging by the game could have been the best team in college football. SEC only plays 8 conference games a year, and as utah has found out since joining a power 5 that depth is key because you lose more players as you fight more talented teams week in and week out. They have been humbled by seeing what it's like to have more than 2-4 challenging games a year. Teams that have 3 star recruits and above in 9 games. We can see now what it is like. Going 10-2 in a power 5 is harder than 12-0 in a g-5. Utah was just the better team that day. The tide are unstoppable this year, but the SEC gets to much love. A team that put up 0 points at home have no business in the top 10. Kentucky, and Florida along with Georgia are not that dominant. They are good teams, and deserve that. Hopefully we get to see a lot of out of conference match ups to gauge conferences. Utah was the only pac team to win a bowl in 17 against a WV team missing their qb. Can't wait for bowling! And BTW, utah did win the pac 12 south.
@@littlebig3720 nothing to do with this particular game but I will say that homie that wrote that long ass paragraph got it wrong by saying LSU in 2018 had no business in the top 10 just bc we got shut out at home to Bama but LSU been in a bad offensive scheme for years what’s been winning a lot of games for us is our defense same as in 2018 but we only lost that Bama game lost to a decent Florida team by 8 in the swamp and got robbed in a 7 overtime loss at Texas A&M. LSU went to a New Years 6 bowl and beat a UCF team that hasn’t lost in almost 2 years and did that severely short handed due to a lot of our starters especially on that defense sitting out to prepare for NFL draft. LSU is very good even without a good offense but with a dominant defense carrying us. And we all saw in 2019 that with the talent and personnel it recruits year in and year out a spread offense scheme put in place makes LSU unbeatable and that got proven.
Just my opinion. Alabama had some big defensive player. After this game I think Saban saw the advantage Utah had with the smaller and lean more athletic players so he took a page out of their book.
Alabama needed this loss to become the monster that they were. I’m sure saban used this loss as a lesson to not become complacent because any given Saturday you can lose if you don’t give your best effort.
I totally agree dude saying how UTah got in because this win . 100%I agree Who in the f really thought Utah had a chance . Probably looked at them as easy meat . Let’s win and have some fun . Then someone kicked off and Rest is history
Destroyed ALABAMA in this game we shoulda been in the Top 2!!! AlaCrapaaa to #1-2 n got robbed for the CHAMPIONSHIP AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT FINSHED 13-0!!!!
I believe Utah did finish #2 that year? Florida was #1 and won it by the rules that were in place. Whether Utah could have beat Florida or not, there was no such game to determine that on the field. We will never know.
Yeah this game really shocked a lot of Bama fans, me included, taught me a valuable lesson, we ended up 12 and 2 that year and Utah ended up 13 and 0... we can be beaten, and we do lose, we are not unstoppable,,,but we did beat Utah in 2004 and 2005, I think the scores were 48 to 17 and 35 to 3,,,but our Bama hats are off to Utah for the 2009 Sugar Bowl game,,, 31 to 17,,, it was a beatdown,,,
@@angrygreekman6075You are correct I just looked it up and yes we have played Utah State twice and beat them twice, we played Utah in 2009 we were number 4 they were number 6 and beat us 31 to 17, it was very humbling, we learned to respect all schools, Saban has drilled it into the players and the heads of the fans,,, you can be beaten at any time,,,
@@martinmartins7703 We went through a very low period after Bear Bryant retired. From about 1983 through 2007, Bama was just average, we only won 1 National Championship and that was in 1992 under Stallings, we can take losing we just don't like it (just like everybody else) but we never give up on the Crimson Tide, and yeah when Saban is gone we will most likely go through some ups and downs,,,
To this day Nick Saban probably wishes to do unspeakable things to Utah if he ever got the chance. In all honesty though, Bama matched up terribly against Utah in this game. Our 3-4 at the time was geared to stop pro style offenses and Utah's spread was too asymmetric for the defense to properly cover. It also didn't help that fucking Andre Smith fucked over his team in this game. Bama's offensive line got their shit pushed in so badly.
Bro alabama did not give a shit about winning the sugar bowl. We just lost to fla and blew our chances of a NC. But congrats on utah . This is the only thing they have done in what 50 years 😂
You know a program is good when anytime someone beats them it’s remembered. Or when a team celebrates like they won a national championship after beating you in a game that’s not that big.
True, and seriously, that's all Ute fans have to hold on to. They've beaten USC like 4 times over the last 8 years and they don't even scratch what a win against Alabama means.
@@dostacos1 I'm not gonna compare Utah to Alabama as it wouldn't be a good comparison. Alabama has a long tenured record of being dominant. This was a huge win for the Utes program but they look deadly this year as well. Try to show some respect for a Utah team that was underated and beat a good Alabama team.
It’s simple, Alabama came in overconfident and disappointed because, for their program, it’s natty or bust. Utah had a good team and took advantage. It happens. This was the biggest game in program history for Utah and one of the perceived lowest games program history for Bama, it truly was a perfect storm.
Wow bro your are just everywhere in this comment section. Imagine being this obsessed over a team you rent the fan of lol. You know you could just give utah credit for a good game and accept they were better than alabama that year
They were the better team that night but who went on to join the weakest big 5 conference and has yet to win a conference championship, and who's won 5 national titles since this game took place?
No way that the PAC 12 is weaker than the ACC. Before you go off, yes Clemson was in the championship game and yes there were 2 or 3 other decent teams (VA Tech, Florida State, Louisville). However, you should be able to admit that the ACC is wildly inconsistent at best and championship mediocre at worst. The following articles show the power conference rankings. realtimerpi.com/college_football/ncaaf_conf_Men.html www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-conference-power-rankings-sec-back-on-top-in-2017/\ www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-conference-power-rankings-sec-takes-a-tumble-big-ten-surges/ Look at strength of schedules as well. PAC12 teams are consistently in the top 25 on strength of schedule over the last 5 years. Granted, Alabama's schedule has become tougher as well. But look at the some of the cupcake teams that Alabama put on their schedule since 2013. Chatanooga, Georgia State, FAU, Southern Miss, West Carolina, Charleston Southern and Kent State to name a few. Granted they have other tough opponents as well, but...CMON man! REALLY?!? Aside from, of late, Oregon State, EVERY week The PAC 12 does not have the disparity like the other "Big 5" conferences do. SEC, Big 12, Big 10 and the ACC all have a handful of teams perennially at the top of the table. Barely half of the other teams have even "threatened" to win their respective conferences. Since 2008, Alabama has won the conference championship 5 times. Only 4 other teams won the championship during that time (Auburn - 2, Florida, LSU and Georgia). Again...disparity. Now...all that being said Alabama is a powerhouse...hands down. My point with all of this is, why can't 'Bama fans just admit that on that day, the Crimson Tide GOT rolled. No excuses of "they felt snubbed because they weren't in the championship game", or "their star player wasn't there so they aren't the same team". If anything, you'd think that the 'Bama pride would be enough to go out and beat on an upstart, non "power conference" team to show their fans and the nation that teams like Utah can't play against the big boys. BTW...not to split hairs, but SINCE this game was played, they have only won 4 conference championships. Just the facts man, just the facts.
Matthew Jones...trust me, I would rather that Utah have the pedigree that Bama has. It was the icing on the cake though. Beating Alabama AND going undefeated?! It was a good game for sure. Really could have gone either way honestly.
Matthew Jones You're a fucking Idiot. The Pac-12 is NOT the worse power 5 conference. Also, Utah won because they are the better team that night and dominated the game. Utah had to earn it you fucking loser! From the wac to the mountain West to the Pac-12. You're just mad because you're miserable in life and don't have anything, you're a loser, LOL. 😂😂😂 The system is so corrupt against the Pac-12. The other 4 power 5 conferences with certain teams, but especially the SEC get the help from cheating, from the media, to the refs, to the B.S. NCAA. They're such corrupt, lying, Hypocrites, they're scumbags!
