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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/Majestic-Web-367 on 2026-04-11 10:06:53+00:00.

After Alabama’s early triumphs in the 1920s and 1930s under head coaches Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas, the reigns of the program would be passed over to Coach Harold “Red” Drew who would start his tenure as the Tide head coach with 4 seasons out of 8 ranked in the final AP poll and an Orange bowl victory to add onto that glory. While most programs would find these results as solid, it was clear Alabama’s standard set in the 20s and 30s wasn’t being met and after a poor 1954 season going 4-5-2, Red Drew would move on from his role as head coach of the crimson tide, and Alabama would hire arguably the worst coach in the history of their program.

The 1955 season: Now it’s unfair to fully blame Jennings Whitworth for the infamous 1955 season as he was inheriting a lackluster program that had seen it’s best days long past. However, being the only Alabama coach to not win a single game in a season since 1895 when Eli Abbot went 0-4 is not quite the best way to start of your tenure as head coach. That’s right, Alabama would finish the 1955 season under Whitworth going 0-10, ending the year by getting shut out by Auburn 26-0. That’s another point to mention as while the Tide struggled in the mid 50s, Auburn was experiencing some of their best football success they’d ever had under head coach Ralph Jordan, who had taken Auburn to 3 ranked seasons in a row from 1953 to 1955 and would later on become a national champion head coach. To say Alabama was in purgatory would’ve been an understatement as not only had they gone 0-10, but it seemed like their main rival in-state would be the ones taking over the football tradition of Alabama. The tide’s offense was downright awful, scoring only 4.8 points per game which ranked 109th out of the 110 teams that year and their defense wasn’t that much better ranking 101st giving up 25.6 points per game.

The 1956 season: By the 1956 season the outlook for Alabama looked bleak. They would start the year with 4 straight losses, but to their credit 3 of the 4 opponents they faced had been ranked teams in Tennessee, TCU and Vandy. They would then sneak by Mississippi State in a 13-12 win, before going 1-3-1 the rest of the way with a win over Tulane and a draw over Southern Mississippi which at the time was considered a non-major independent school Alabama was meant to be able to beat (Although to Southern Mississippi’s credit they did manage to go 7-2-1 with a bowl appearance). The offense for the tide was still lackluster as Alabama would rank 106th out of 111 teams in pointer per game at 8.5 and 85th in defense giving up 20.9 points per game. It was starting to look like maybe giving Jennings Whitworth the keys to the program wasn’t the best choice, as in the past 2 years the tide had gone a combined 2-17-1, and the outlook did not look much better as Auburn began to become the superpower in the region.

The 1957 season: The 1957 season would be the worst and best season for Alabama football and its future outlook. They would start the year 0-4-1, three of the losses being shut out on offense and the lone tie being a 6-6 draw against Vanderbilt. Their offense would regress from an abysmal 8.5 points per game last year to 6.9 and by this point it was clear Jennings Whitworth could not fix the Tide’s offense. The tide would end the year 2-7-1, with no improvements from last year. Coach Whitworth’s Alabama tenure would end with a 40-0 shutout loss to Auburn, their rival of which would go on to win the AP poll and become national champions. If the tide had any motivation to fire Whitworth, this magnified it as Whitworth would soon be relieved of his role as head coach. Hope looked bleak for Alabama and Auburn looked like they were on the verge for a run that would cement themselves with blue blood status. Oh, and Alabama would sign this guy named Bear Bryant to be their head Coach, but he would go 5-4-1 the next year so he probably won’t be that important.

What happened to Coach Jennings Whitworth: Whitworth would end his career at Alabama going 4-24-2 and would end up as an Assistant coach at the university of Georgia. Although his tenure in Alabama was downright horrific, it isn’t all to be blamed on Coach Whitworth as Alabama had been on the steady decline since the Red Drew era, but it’s also crucial to notice just how impactful his tenure was to Alabama football. There is a very clear reality where the tide might have never been able to recover from Whitworth’s tenure as it took one of the greatest coaches in the history of the sport to revive the program.

Fun facts:

- The only SEC teams to lose to Alabama during Coach Whitworth’s tenure would be Tulane, Mississippi State and Georgia.

  • The combined score in their 3 games against Auburn would be 100-7.

  • They would not feature in the AP poll including the preseason polls during Whitworths tenure. This streak of not making the AP poll would continue into Bryant’s first year but end in 1959. The 4-year AP poll drought would be the longest AP poll drought in Alabama football history.

  • Coach Whitworth’s highest win total at Alabama was 2 wins. Every Alabama coach from 1902 to the present has managed to win more than 2 games in a season. This means Whitworth’s 3 years as Alabama head coach were the 3 worst years in program history win total wise as well from 1902 to the present.