Picking four people for Alabama's Mount Rushmore is like picking between The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, U2, The Grateful Dead ... and then still leaving off another couple dozen incredible bands. You're going to ruffle some feathers in this task.
Bear Bryant and Nick Saban provide two obvious choices for Alabama. Then it's a free-for-all. The Crimson Tide have 23 coaches and players in the College Football Hall of Fame, and that doesn't even count the school's two Heisman Trophy winners (Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry), a two-time national championship quarterback (AJ McCarron), one of the NFL's best wide receivers at the moment (Julio Jones), and three NFL Hall of Fame quarterbacks (Bart Starr, Joe Namath and Ken Stabler). Yet picking Alabama is actually far easier than sorting through Notre Dame, which has 51 -- 51! -- College Football Hall of Famers. Here is Alabama's Mount Rushmore.
Paul "Bear" Bryant, coach, 1958-82: The houndstooth hat obviously must be on Alabama's Mount Rushmore. Bryant's six claimed national titles remain the most in major college football history (but watch out for Saban right on his tail). Bryant's 323 victories are third all-time in major college football. Before Bryant came to Alabama, the school had won just four games in three years. He won a national championship by his fourth year. Alabama played in a bowl for 24 straight years, back before everybody seemingly got a bowl participation trophy as they do today. There was a 10-year period when Bryant posted a remarkable 107-13 record (.892 winning percentage) with three national titles. Pretty easy rule of thumb: If you have your own Hall of Fame on campus, as Bryant does, you're on your school's Mount Rushmore.
Accolades: College Football Hall of Fame, three-time American Football Coaches Association national coach of the year, 12-time SEC coach of the year
Nick Saban, coach, 2007-present: Remember that 10-year stat I just wrote about Bryant? Saban is 105-18 (.854) with four national championships in his first nine years at Alabama. Add another title from LSU and Saban is one away from Bryant's hallowed mark. Like Bryant, Saban has consistently won at a high level with elite defenses but also by evolving. As college football tilted more toward offense, Saban opened up his offense to score more points and needed to win some pivotal high-scoring games. Remarkable fact: Saban hasn't won an Associated Press national coach of the year award during Alabama's current run of four national titles in seven years. (His last AP award came in 2008.) The once unthinkable question is now getting asked: Is Bryant really Alabama's greatest coach ever?
Accolades: Two-time AP national coach of the year, 3-time SEC coach of the year
Derrick Thomas, linebacker, 1985-88: At a school where defense rules, Thomas is Alabama's greatest defensive player ever and belongs on Mount Rushmore. It was an absolute joke that it took Thomas until 2014 to get inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, more than a decade after he was first eligible. He is arguably the greatest pass-rushing outside linebacker of his generation -- not just in college but also in the NFL, where the Pro Football Hall of Fame honored him in 2009. Thomas' college stats are still mind-blowing: 52 career sacks, 27 sacks and 44 quarterback hurries in 1988. To put that in perspective, Alabama's famously stingy 2011 defense had 30 sacks total that year. Thomas sacked the quarterback 27 times in one year.
Accolades: College Football Hall of Fame, Butkus Award, unanimous All-American, 10th in Heisman Trophy voting
John Hannah, offensive lineman, 1970-72: There are four Alabama players in both the pro and college football Hall of Fames: Don Hutson, Ozzie Newsome, Derrick Thomas and Hannah. We tend not to give offensive linemen enough love, but Hannah was too special to ignore on this list. Bryant once called Hannah the finest offensive lineman he has ever been around. Hannah was a two-time All-American guard/tackle at Alabama, where he also lettered in wrestling and track and field (shot put, discus throw). He played 13 years with the New England Patriots and was selected to the NFL's all-time team when the league celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1994. Hutson also got picked for that NFL team, making his exclusion on Alabama's Mount Rushmore all the more difficult. Alas, this is an Alabama program with rock stars, not cover bands.
Accolades: College Football Hall of Fame, Jacobs Award (nation's best blocker), two-time All-American, three-time All-SEC
Just missed the cut: Mark Ingram, RB (2008-2010), Derrick Henry, RB (2013-2015), Joe Namath, QB (1962-1964), Ken Stabler, QB (1964-1967)
