Every school record set by the national champion 2020 Alabama football team

Alabama’s national championship season was historic in the challenges it presented: a pandemic-altered offseason and preseason, a schedule made up only of Power 5 teams and a condensed College Football Playoff schedule.

It was also historic from a statistical perspective.

The 2020 Crimson Tide broke at least nine school records, and its three offensive standouts — quarterback Mac Jones, running back Najee Harris and wide receiver DeVonta Smith — broke dozens of individual records.

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Team records

While most of the record book changes required are due to offensive excellence, the black mark of the season — the offensive performance Ole Miss had against Alabama — will also live in UA’s record books. The Rebels’ 37 first downs and 647 yards were both UA records.

Alabama’s offense set the school record for yards per game, 541.6, breaking the 2018 team’s mark of 522. It also broke records set by the 2018 team in team completions (324, beating 301, in 2015) and passing first downs (210, beating 195).

The team also broke the school records for passing yards per game (358.2, previously 342.2 in 2019), points per game (48.5, previously 47.2 in 2019) and first downs per game (28.07, previously 24.8 in 2007).

Mac Jones

Jones did not stop at setting a school record for single-season passing yards with 4,500, doubling as just the second 4,500-yard season in SEC history. He also set the school record for total yards with 5,414 and total yards per game at 347.2, breaking records set by Tua Tagovailoa in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

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Jones’ 14.93 yards per play against Texas A&M was also a school record, breaking Tagovailoa’s record of 14.5 against The Citadel in 2018.

Jones obliterated the school record for single-season completions and single-season completion percentage, his 311 completions easily surpassing Jake Coker’s 263 in 2015 and his 77.4% surpassing Tagovailoa’s 71.4 in 2019 among those with at least 50 attempts.

Jones also made history in the national championship game, setting a record for single-game completions with 36, breaking a record held by David Smith since Dec. 24, 1988.

Najee Harris

Harris set Alabama’s career rushing yards record at 3,843, nearly 300 over the record set by Derrick Henry. He also left no doubt in setting UA’s career total touchdowns record at 57, breaking the record of 50 held by Shaun Alexander. The 57 touchdowns tied the SEC record with Tim Tebow.

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Harris also set the school record with 46 career rushing touchdowns, breaking a record shared by Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry with 42.

Harris also set a single-game and a single-season record. He joined a three-way tie for single-game record for rushing touchdowns after running for five against Ole Miss, joining Santonio Beard’s against Ole Miss in 2002 and Shaun Alexander’s game in 1998. His 180 points broke the school record set by Henry’s 168 in 2015.

DeVonta Smith

On the way to the Heisman Trophy, Smith set single-season and career records on both the school and SEC levels for receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, eight records in total. He went for 1,856 yards and 23 touchdowns this season and 3,965 yards and 46 touchdowns for his career. He also set a school record for career receptions with 235, breaking Amari Cooper’s record of 228.

Single-game performances of Smith’s will also be etched into the record book. His 15 catches against Florida was a school single-game record, breaking marks set by DJ Hall once and Cooper twice.

His 28.8 yards per catch (over at least eight catches) against LSU was also a record, breaking the record held by David Palmer for his performance against Vanderbilt in 1993. Against LSU, Smith had eight catches for 231 yards and three touchdowns.

Smith’s nine 100-yard games this season also broke a record shared by Hall (2006) and Cooper (2014) with seven each. Those nine pushed Smith’s career 100-yard games total to 14, tying the record also held by Cooper.

Will Reichard

UA’s sophomore placekicker went 84-for-84 on extra points, setting a school record for most made in a season. The previous record was set by his backup, Joseph Bulovas, who made 75 in 2018.

Just missed

The 2020 Crimson Tide came close to breaking the yards per play record set by last year’s team, its 7.81 average falling just short of the 7.89 last year. Its 84 touchdowns were also one shy of tying a school record set in 2018.

Smith could’ve come close to even more records. He was 159 yards shy of the single-season all-purpose yards record and 2.5 all-purpose yards per game shy of the record that has stood since Bobby Humphrey averaged 168 in 1986.

Harris was all of 0.42 yards per carry away from the school record for career yards per carry with at least 400 attempts. He was also two touchdowns short of tying the school record for single-season rushing touchdowns and three 100-yard games from tying the school career record. In 2020 alone, Harris finished one game with 98 yards and two more with 96.

Jones was two passing touchdowns shy of the school single-season record of 43, set by Tagovailoa in 2018. Jones’ 464 yards in the national championship game was also 20 yards shy of the school single-game passing yards record set by Scott Hunter in the 1969 Iron Bowl.

Reach Brett Hudson at 205-722-0196 or bhudson@tuscaloosanews.com or via Twitter, @Brett_Hudson