Roll Tide. Honestly, if you were watching college football back in 2016, you knew you were witnessing something that felt less like a sports season and more like a weekly forensic deconstruction of the opposition. The University of Alabama 2016 football schedule wasn't just a list of games; it was a meat grinder. It was the year of Jalen Hurts as a true freshman, a defense that scored touchdowns almost as often as the offense, and a schedule that looked, on paper, like a cruel joke played by the SEC office.
People talk about the 2011 defense or the 2020 offense, but the 2016 run was a different kind of monster.
You had Nick Saban coming off a national title in 2015, replacing a Heisman winner in Derrick Henry, and somehow making the team faster. Deadlier. The schedule kicked off in Arlington against USC, and while everyone thought it would be a heavyweight bout, it turned into a 52-6 massacre. That was the tone setter. It wasn't just that Alabama won; it was that they made elite programs look like they were playing a different sport entirely.
Breaking down the University of Alabama 2016 football schedule week by week
The meat of the University of Alabama 2016 football schedule really started to show its teeth in mid-September. After a weirdly close call against Ole Miss—where Bama actually trailed by 21 points before the defense and special teams decided to take over—the schedule turned into a brutal stretch of ranked opponents.
Bama went to Oxford and survived 48-43. That game was wild. It's easy to forget now, but Chad Kelly was lighting up the Tide secondary, and it took a Jonathan Allen scoop-and-score plus a Da'Ron Payne fumble recovery in the end zone to swing the momentum. That’s the thing about this specific year: the defense was the primary scoring threat for a huge chunk of the season.
Then came the October stretch. You had Arkansas on the road, then Tennessee in Knoxville, followed by a massive home game against Texas A&M.
Alabama won those three games by a combined score of 131 to 54.
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Against Tennessee, it was a 49-10 blowout that felt even more lopsided than the scoreboard indicated. The Vols were ranked 9th at the time. Ninth! And Bama just walked into Neyland Stadium and turned the lights out. Jalen Hurts was becoming a star, but let's be real—the story was the "Non-Offensive Touchdowns." It became a meme. Every time the ball hit the grass, a guy like Minkah Fitzpatrick or Ronnie Harrison was picking it up and sprinting toward the end zone.
The LSU showdown and the Iron Bowl grind
If you want to understand the true grit of the University of Alabama 2016 football schedule, you have to look at the trip to Death Valley in November. LSU was ranked 13th. Ed Orgeron was the interim coach, and they had Leonard Fournette.
It was a 0-0 deadlock heading into the fourth quarter.
Seriously. A total defensive stalemate. It was the kind of game that would make modern offensive coordinators cry, but for SEC purists, it was peak football. Alabama finally broke the tie with a Jalen Hurts touchdown run, eventually winning 10-0. It showed that even when the explosive plays weren't there, the Tide could out-muscle anybody in the trenches.
The Iron Bowl followed a similar script of total defensive repression. Auburn didn't score a touchdown. Alabama won 30-12. By the time the SEC Championship against Florida rolled around, the University of Alabama 2016 football schedule had prepared them for anything. They demolished the Gators 54-16, a game that featured a blocked punt returned for a touchdown and a defensive line that looked like it was made of NFL starters. Because, well, it was.
A roster that defied the college level
Look at the names on this defense. Jonathan Allen, Reuben Foster, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Marlon Humphrey, Eddie Jackson, Da'Ron Payne, Dalvin Tomlinson, Ryan Anderson, Tim Williams.
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Almost every single one of those guys was a high-round NFL draft pick.
The 2016 schedule tested them because they faced a variety of styles. They had to deal with the high-octane spread of Ole Miss, the pro-style physicality of LSU, and the gimmicky (at the time) look of Texas A&M. Through it all, the Crimson Tide allowed just 63.9 rushing yards per game. That is an insane statistic. You basically had a better chance of winning the lottery than running the ball successfully against Alabama that year.
The schedule finished with a Peach Bowl win over Washington, where Bo Scarbrough went absolutely nuclear. He ran for 180 yards and two scores, making the Huskies' defense look like a high school junior varsity squad. It set up the rematch with Clemson in the National Championship, which remains one of the greatest—and for Bama fans, most heartbreaking—games in the history of the sport.
What we get wrong about the 2016 season
Most people remember 2016 only for the Deshaun Watson touchdown to Hunter Renfrow with one second left. They remember the loss. But if you look at the University of Alabama 2016 football schedule as a whole, it was perhaps the most impressive 14-0 start in the Saban era.
The sheer volume of ranked wins was staggering. They beat eight ranked teams before the title game.
There's a common misconception that Alabama had it easy because the SEC East was down that year. Sure, the East wasn't a powerhouse, but Bama played the best of the West and crossed over to play a decent Tennessee and a solid Florida. They didn't duck anyone.
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The 2016 University of Alabama football schedule also featured the transition from the old-school Saban "ground and pound" to the "Lane Kiffin spread" era. It was the bridge between two worlds. Watching Hurts struggle as a passer but excel as a runner forced the defense to be even more perfect. And they nearly were.
Summary of the 2016 Results
- vs USC (Arlington): Won 52-6
- vs Western Kentucky: Won 38-10
- at Ole Miss: Won 48-43
- vs Kent State: Won 48-0
- vs Kentucky: Won 34-6
- at Arkansas: Won 49-30
- at Tennessee: Won 49-10
- vs Texas A&M: Won 33-14
- at LSU: Won 10-0
- vs Mississippi State: Won 51-3
- vs Chattanooga: Won 31-3
- vs Auburn: Won 30-12
- vs Florida (SEC Title): Won 54-16
- vs Washington (Peach Bowl): Won 24-7
- vs Clemson (National Title): Lost 31-35
It's a relentless list. Most teams would have tripped up twice. Bama just kept rolling until the final second of the final game.
If you are looking back at this season to understand the evolution of the SEC, take a close look at the film from the LSU and Ole Miss games. Those two games represent the polar opposites of what Bama had to overcome. One was a track meet, the other was a bar fight. The fact that the same roster won both is the ultimate testament to that 2016 squad.
Lessons from the 2016 Crimson Tide
For anyone studying the University of Alabama 2016 football schedule today, the takeaway is about depth and defensive scoring. That team proved that you can mitigate a freshman quarterback's growing pains if your defense treats every turnover like a scoring opportunity.
Next time you're debating which Saban team was the best, don't let the Clemson loss distract you from the 14 games of absolute terror Alabama inflicted on the rest of the country.
Practical Steps for further research:
- Watch the 2016 "Non-Offensive Touchdown" highlight reel on YouTube to see the defensive dominance in action.
- Compare the 2016 defensive rushing stats to the 2011 squad to see which one was actually more efficient in the trenches.
- Study the 2016 SEC Championship box score to see how Alabama's special teams fundamentally changed the game's momentum in the first quarter.