There was a moment here at Bryant-Denny Stadium during Alabama’s 42-35 victory against Arkansas when they cut out the lights and turned the place into an interactive dance club.
It was the biggest rave in the history of Alabama, I’m going to assume, and it came during a fourth-quarter timeout when everyone’s hearts were already beating in their throats. LED strobes popped on from above and set the mood, risky red on this Saturday night of sweat and stress — pure sensory overload on the eve of Iron Bowl week, and it felt like everyone in the place was on drugs.
Uncut disco football funk straight to the nervous system.
House music thumped and flashed. Fans blinked on the flashlight features of their smartphones, and a stadium that was a few seconds earlier a giant bowl of unfamiliar tension was suddenly something else entirely, a freestyling party of communal therapy and celebration.
This is college football in 2021, and it’s amazing, but seeing buttoned up Alabama go full freak probably still takes getting used to for some of the more seasoned fans. These games lately, though … the old-timers know that kind of freaky all too well. They’re the ones who remember life before Nick Saban, and these shows have been weekly flashbacks of wilder times and raised pulses.
Alabama survived LSU two weeks ago and felt lucky to do it. The offense struggled, remember? The defense had to save the season.
This time?
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The victory against Arkansas was a light show of brightly screaming quarterback brilliance that made numb the senses by the end. The offense was a beautiful dance of muscle and speed and grace like Alabama had never seen. Quarterback Bryce Young, the sophomore from California, threw for more yards in a game than any other passer at Alabama before him. His final stat line feels like a lightning bolt into the heart of college football history: 31 of 40 passing for 559 yards and five touchdowns. Against a good team. Arkansas, this time around, came to party. Alabama had 671 yards of offense and Arkansas had 468.
More flickering statistical wonderment…Alabama receiver John Metchie III had 10 receptions for 173 yards and a touchdown. Jameson Williams, the transfer from Ohio State, caught eight of Young’s perfect throws for 190 yards and three touchdowns.
What’s it like when Young scrambles and throws and paints the field with the strokes of a master?
“It’s just like backyard football,” Metchie said.
Big backyard.
And Arkansas was drawing up plays in the dirt, too.
It wasn’t just that Arkansas cut Alabama’s lead to 34-28 with 11:24 left in the game. It’s how the Hogs did it.
It wasn’t just a fake field goal for a touchdown. It was one of the best plays in college football this season. It had it all.
Jump pass? Check.
One-handed catch? Yes.
Ref in the way of Alabama’s only hope of defending the play? That, too.
Big ol’ Arkansas tight end Blake Kern bounding down the field like a runaway tractor trailer? Naturally.
What was Alabama’s offense thinking after seeing that salvo of shock and awe?
“Play ball and put one back on’m,” Williams said.
And so it was another shot of Jame-O to the face.
But first — this being the show of shows — there was the “light wave” during the strobe-red, timeout dance party. When the lights went crimson, a house deejay guided everyone through the choreography of camera phone flashlight Saturday night fever fun.
Ever seen fireflies do their thing at dusk? Not in the city, but in the places where the city is a thing far away. This new stadium game feels like that, but if the lightning bugs were controlled by bass beats and pixie magic. Last was the stadium wave and sparkling light rolled around Bryant-Denny like phosphorescence in a boat wake.
When the stadium lights snapped on again, the timeout was over and Alabama’s offense electrified for the final time this last game of the season at Alabama, Senior Night for the guys who stayed in school after that team of forever and all time in 2020.
Touchdown. Young to Williams. Again. But somehow better than the previous two works of art.
“I think we had a really good plan on offense,” Saban said.
Go deep, Jame-O, and illuminate the path to Auburn.
Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr. His first book, “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’,” is available wherever books are sold.
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