... was about this time in 1979 that Bear Bryant, the legendary head coach, had his Crimson Tide ranked at the top of the preseason AP Poll. Alabama was on top of the football universe at the time. No one could predict what the next decades would hold.

Bear Bryant was to retire a few years later and pass a vibrant and thriving football program on to his hand picked successor Ray Perkins. Perkins kept the program in the rankings, but could never quite get to the top. Gene Stallings took his place in 1990 and the Tide eventually rose to the top in 1992. Then the NCAA started their investigations and a long list of setbacks for the program.  

The program at Alabama was never to fully recover until 2009 ...

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