Former Alabama and NFL star Lee Roy Jordan isn’t positive that Alabama is yet worthy of a No. 2 ranking, partly the product of a number of upsets. But, he added, “I think by the end of the year we’ll have a very, very good football team.”

The last time Jordan recalls seeing a Tide team play like this?

“It might have been back in ’92 or somewhere in there,” he said, referring to the program’s last national championship team. “Everybody was really confident and hardworking and believing that they were going to win.”

Other Tide teams have teased fans. The headlines and magazine covers proclaimed “Bama’s Back” after Mike Shula’s 2005 team won its first nine games and rose to a No. 4 ranking. That team fell to LSU (in overtime) and Auburn before bouncing back with a Cotton Bowl win over Texas Tech.

“It’s still so early,” Tide center Antoine Caldwell said. “I remember when we were 9-0 that year and it felt kind of like this where we were beating people. Then you kind of got a heartbreaking loss toward the end. I remember all that. I was telling everybody, let’s take it one game at a time and everybody just calm down. Go out and prepare like we’ve been doing and that’s what this team is going to do.”

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