Ask 'Bama: Style doesn't fit profile in SEC, where only survival matters

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- This is what crunch time in the SEC looks like.

It's not about style points. It's not about who has the prettiest team getting off the bus. It's not about putting up big numbers to impress pollsters.

When the end of October draws near in this league, it's all about resourcefulness. It's about finding different ways to win. It's about winning ugly and not caring because winning this time of year, when you're tired and beat up, is just so damned hard. Jim Valvano once said that you only have to do one thing during the NCAA basketball tournament: survive and advance. That's the stretch drive when you're trying to win an SEC championship.

Today we give you Exhibit A: Alabama 12, Tennessee 10.

Alabama is No. 2 in the BCS standings and most of the world already had an undefeated Crimson Tide penciled in to meet No. 1 Florida in the SEC championship game on Dec. 5. At stake in Atlanta, as it was a year ago, would be a berth in the national championship game. The narrative was set.

Tennessee, as it turned out, had other ideas.

With a little over three minutes left Alabama was in control, 12-3, and starting to think about a precious open date after eight straight weeks of football.

"With 3:29 it looks like we're in complete control of the game," Alabama coach Nick Saban said. "It just goes to show you how fragile a season can be."

At that point running back Mark Ingram, who had played his way into the Heisman Trophy race the week before with 246 yards against South Carolina, had touched the ball 321 times as a college player without a fumble.

'In this league it's not supposed to be pretty,' Terrence Cody says. (AP)

But on Ingram's 322nd touch the ball came loose and Tennessee recovered. The Vols scored a touchdown on a busted coverage and got the onside kick. And suddenly, with four seconds left, Daniel Lincoln lined up to kick a 44-yard field goal that could have turned Alabama's dream season upside down.

"Great teams have great players who make great plays at the right time," Saban said.

And that is exactly what happened. Nose guard Terrence Cody steamrolled the middle of the Tennessee offensive line and blocked the kick on the very last play of the game. The 92,012 who jammed Bryant-Denny Stadium exploded. Alabama had survived. And now it advances. Jimmy V would have been proud.

It was the second field goal that Cody had blocked in the game.

"We knew it was going to be a war," said Cody, better known in this part of the world as Mount Cody, who was one Happy Meal short of 400 pounds last year and is now a svelte 354. "All we want to do was get the best push up the middle that we could. Once I got through the line I just threw my hands up and the ball hit them.

"It wasn't pretty, but in this league it's not supposed to be pretty. At this time of year all you want to do is win. We're still undefeated. Everything we want to do -- all of our goals -- are still in front of us."

When it was over, Cody walked toward the tunnel with his arms held up in triumph. The crowd screamed his name. If you're a college football player, it doesn't get any better than that.

"He deserved it," Ingram said. "I've never been so glad to see a blocked field goal in all my life. Terrence is an incredible football player. I'm glad he is on our team."

Alabama looked at the postgame stats and wondered how it survived against one of its oldest rivals. The Volunteers had 21 more offensive plays and almost 13 minutes more in time of possession. Alabama did not have a first down in the third quarter and ran only six offensive plays. In the second half Tennessee had a 13-play drive and a 12-play drive.

Alabama did not have a touchdown of any kind and needed four field goals from Leigh Tiffin. Two of them, from 50 and 49 yards, barely made it over the crossbar.

"We make two long field goals. We blocked two of theirs," Saban said. "That's the game, boys."

Saban knew coming into the game he had a drained football team.

"I'm really proud of our players because we were tired and we played like we were tired," Saban said. "And to me it was more physical than mental. But the good thing is that we can build on this."

Tennessee, in its first season under Lane Kiffin, also has a lot to build on. The Volunteers came here and announced that they will be a force in this league sooner rather than later. On Sept. 19, Tennessee traveled to No. 1 Florida and lost 23-13 when the world was convinced that Kiffin would get his doors blown off.

On Saturday against No. 2 Alabama (which is ranked No. 1 in the AP poll), they dominated the second half and came within inches of shocking the world. Tennessee ran 40 offensive plays in the second half and held the ball for more than 20 of the game's final 30 minutes.

But more importantly, Tennessee played without fear. The Volunteers came very, very close to beating Alabama at its own game -- running the football backed up with bone-crushing defense. The brash Kiffin made it clear this week that as he builds the Tennessee program, he wants it to look more like Alabama than Florida.

And trust me when I tell you this: Kiffin has their attention in both Gainesville, Fla., and Tuscaloosa, Ala.

"I'm really proud of how hard our players played," Kiffin said. "I don't believe in moral victories. We should have won that game. We've got to go back, get better and prepare for a really good team next week [South Carolina]."

And then Kiffin added this:

"We'll be excited when these guys come to our place next year."

Tennessee wanted to wear its traditional home orange jerseys for this game instead of the road white jerseys. The SEC said it was OK if Alabama, the home team, approved. It did not.

But you could color the Alabama players impressed with what Tennessee did in a pretty hostile environment.

"You have to give Tennessee credit. They played hard to the very end," said Ingram, who finished with 99 yards rushing and is still very much in the Heisman Trophy race. "But you have to give credit to us, too. I made a mistake and put us in position to lose the game. But the guys had my back. We made the plays to win the game. Now we move on."

If Alabama goes on to play for the national championship, it will look back on the Tennessee game as the one where it simply survived. It seems every national championship team has one of them. In 2006, Florida had to block a South Carolina field goal on the last play of the game to win 17-16 in Gainesville. Florida went on to win the SEC championship and then beat Ohio State in Arizona for the BCS title.

This game had that same kind of feel.

"Now we get a week off and we get rested up for the stretch run," Cody said. "In this league nobody cares how you win. You just have to win. And that's what we did."