2002 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

The 2002 Alabama Crimson Tide football team (variously "Alabama", "UA", "Bama" or "The Tide") represented the University of Alabama in the 2002 NCAA Division I-A football season. It was the Crimson Tide's 106th overall season, 70th as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and its 11th within the SEC Western Division. The team was led by head coach Dennis Franchione, in his second year, and played their home games at Bryant–Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They finished the season with a record of 10–3 (6–2 in the SEC) to finish in first place in the SEC West; however, the team was ineligible to compete in the 2002 SEC Championship Game or a bowl game due to a two-year postseason ban imposed as part of the penalty for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) violations.

2002 Alabama Crimson Tide football
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Division	Western Division
Ranking
AP	No. 11
2002 record	10–3 (6–2 SEC)
Head coach	Dennis Franchione (2nd season)
Offensive coordinator	Les Koenning (2nd season)
Defensive coordinator	Carl Torbush (2nd season)
Captain	6 Jarret Johnson Kenny King Kindal Moorehead Tyler Watts Ahmaad Galloway Lane Bearden
Home stadium	Bryant–Denny Stadium (Capacity: 83,818) Legion Field (Capacity: 83,091)

2002 Southeastern Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
Eastern Division
No. 3 Georgia x$		7	–	1					13	–	1
Florida		6	–	2					8	–	5
Tennessee		5	–	3					8	–	5
Kentucky		3	–	5					7	–	5
South Carolina		3	–	5					5	–	7
Vanderbilt		0	–	8					2	–	10
Western Division
No. 11 Alabama		6	–	2					10	–	3
Arkansas xy		5	–	3					9	–	5
No. 14 Auburn x		5	–	3					9	–	4
LSU x		5	–	3					8	–	5
Ole Miss		3	–	5					7	–	6
Mississippi State		0	–	8					3	–	9
Championship: Georgia 30, Arkansas 3
$ – BCS representative as conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions y – Championship game participant Alabama had the best division record, but did not participate in postseason play due to NCAA probation. Rankings from AP Poll

Summary

The team was led by second-year head coach Dennis Franchione. The team began the season with a 4–1 record, only losing a very close game to then #8 ranked Oklahoma. On October 5, the Crimson Tide lost another hard-fought game to the #4 Georgia 27–25 at home. The team would then defeat their next five opponents by an average of 24.4 points. In the 2002 Iron Bowl, the team was defeated by the Auburn Tigers by a score of 17–7. The team would end their season by defeating Hawaii. Though the team finished at 10–3 (6–2) and atop the SEC West standings, they were ineligible to play in the postseason due to receiving NCAA sanctions in 2001.

On December 5, head coach Dennis Franchione left the University of Alabama to take a head coaching job at Texas A&M which was left vacant by the firing of R. C. Slocum.[1]

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 31	11:30 a.m.	Middle Tennessee*		Legion Field Birmingham, AL	JPS	W 39–34	80,091
September 7	2:30 p.m.	at No. 2 Oklahoma*		Oklahoma Memorial Stadium Norman, OK	ABC	L 27–37	75,564
September 14	6:00 p.m.	North Texas*		Bryant–Denny Stadium Tuscaloosa, AL	PPV	W 33–7	79,818
September 21	6:00 p.m.	Southern Miss*		Bryant–Denny Stadium Tuscaloosa, AL	ESPN2	W 20–7	83,818
September 28	6:45 p.m.	at Arkansas		Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium Fayetteville, AR	ESPN	W 30–12	73,551
October 5	2:30 p.m.	No. 7 Georgia	No. 22	Bryant–Denny Stadium Tuscaloosa, AL (rivalry) (College GameDay)	CBS	L 25–27	83,818
October 19	2:30 p.m.	No. 21 Ole Miss	No. 24	Bryant–Denny Stadium Tuscaloosa, AL (rivalry)	CBS	W 42–7	83,818
October 26	6:45 p.m.	at No. 16 Tennessee	No. 19	Neyland Stadium Knoxville, TN (Third Saturday in October)	ESPN	W 34–14	107,722
November 2	1:00 p.m.	at Vanderbilt	No. 12	Vanderbilt Stadium Nashville, TN	PPV	W 30–8	36,407
November 9	1:00 p.m.	Mississippi State	No. 11	Bryant–Denny Stadium Tuscaloosa, AL (rivalry)	PPV	W 28–14	83,818
November 16	8:00 p.m.	at No. 14 LSU	No. 10	Tiger Stadium Baton Rouge, LA (rivalry)	ESPN	W 31–0	92,012
November 23	2:30 p.m.	Auburn	No. 9	Bryant–Denny Stadium Tuscaloosa, AL (Iron Bowl)	CBS	L 7–17	83,818
November 30	6:45 p.m.	at Hawaii*	No. 14	Aloha Stadium Honolulu, HI	ESPN	W 21–16	50,000
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

• Source: Rolltide.com All-time Football Results: 2002 Season[2]

Roster

2002 Alabama Crimson Tide football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class QB 12 Brodie Croyle Fr QB 13 Spencer Pennington Fr C 51 Evan Mathis So C 58 Alonzo Ephraim Sr WR 80 Zach Fletcher Jr WR 84 Triandos Luke Jr	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 6 Derrick Pope Jr SS 10 Carlos Andrews Jr CB 41 Roman Harper Fr DE 54 Kindal Moorehead Sr DE 91 Chris Harris Fr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class	Head coach Dennis Franchione Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster

Game summaries

Middle Tennessee

See also: 2002 Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Middle Tennessee	0	11	3	20	34
Alabama	22	0	7	10	39

Oklahoma

See also: 2002 Oklahoma Sooners football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Alabama	3	0	14	10	27
#3 Oklahoma	9	14	0	14	37

North Texas

See also: 2002 North Texas Mean Green football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
North Texas	0	7	0	0	7
Alabama	3	16	7	7	33

Southern Miss

See also: 2002 Southern Miss Golden Eagles football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Southern Miss	0	0	7	0	7
Alabama	7	7	0	6	20

Arkansas

See also: 2002 Arkansas Razorbacks football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Alabama	14	3	3	10	30
Arkansas	0	7	3	2	12

Georgia

See also: 2002 Georgia Bulldogs football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#7 Georgia	7	7	3	10	27
#22 Alabama	3	6	3	13	25

Ole Miss

See also: 2002 Ole Miss Rebels football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#21 Ole Miss	7	0	0	0	7
#24 Alabama	14	7	7	14	42

Tennessee

See also: 2002 Tennessee Volunteers football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#19 Alabama	7	7	10	10	34
#16 Tennessee	0	7	7	0	14

Vanderbilt

See also: 2002 Vanderbilt Commodores football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#12 Alabama	7	6	7	10	30
Vanderbilt	0	0	0	8	8

Mississippi State

See also: 2002 Mississippi State Bulldogs football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Mississippi State	3	11	0	0	14
#11 Alabama	14	7	7	0	28

LSU

See also: 2002 LSU Tigers football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#10 Alabama	0	14	0	17	31
#14 LSU	0	0	0	0	0

Auburn

See also: 2002 Auburn Tigers football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Auburn	14	3	0	0	17
#9 Alabama	0	0	7	0	7

Hawaii

See also: 2002 Hawaii Warriors football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
#14 Alabama	0	14	0	7	21
Hawaii	0	0	3	13	16

References

1. "Franchione bolts Alabama for Texas A&M". CNN. Retrieved February 10, 2008.
2. "All-time Football Results: 2002 Season". RollTide.com. University of Alabama Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. Archived from the original on December 2, 2011. Retrieved August 27, 2011.