Alabama lights up Tuscaloosa skies with 500 drones for homecoming festivities ft. Nick Saban & Crimson Tide coach 

The Alabama Crimson Tide blew out the Missouri Tigers 34-0 in Week 9 of college football action to recover from their Week 8 loss to the Tennessee Volunteers. The Tide improved to 6-2 and kept their Southeastern Conference championship game and college football playoff chances alive.

Ahead of the game, embattled coach Kalen DeBoer and the captains made speeches to the fans, thanking them for their support during the post-Nick Saban era. The university put on a stunning homecoming show for the fans.

Alabama used 500 drones to make the Tuscaloosa sky come alive with pictures from the program's rich football history. This included images of coach Bear Bryant's famous houndstooth hat, the Tide elephant and retired Nick Saban's likeness.

The homecoming theme for Alabama was "New Era, Same Standard." The university collaborated with Pixis, a drone light show company that works with both NFL and MLB franchises to bring their ideas to life.

Alabama celebrates homecoming in familiar fashion

The Alabama Crimson Tide have not been defensively sound this season, allowing opponent offenses to dominate games. These contests include losses to the Vanderbilt Commodores (40-35) and the Tennessee Volunteers (24-17).

Against the Missouri Tigers on homecoming weekend, the familiar Bama defense showed up and kept coach Eli Drinkwitz's offense in check. It was their first conference shutout since 2020, when they blew out the Mississippi State Bulldogs 41-0.

The Crimson Tide defense, marshalled by embattled captain Malachi Moore, only allowed the Tigers 239 yards of total offense (72 yards passing).

Not only did Bama's defense finally show up, but the Tide's running game also made an appearance against the Missouri Tigers, with 271-of-486 total yards tallied on the ground.

Running back Justice Haynes, who scored one of the four touchdowns, all tallied on the ground, spoke about this aspect of the team's offense during his postgame news conference.

"I think it [the running game] can be a really good building block," Haynes said. "Offensive line, just them gaining confidence in the running game, just as a whole unit, the running backs, us gaining confidence in it. [We'll] just continue to go out there and execute the plays that are called. It all starts with them up front, the offensive line, so kudos to them."

With little room for error for the rest of the season, Crimson Tide fans will hope that the old, physically dominant and defensively sound Alabama is back for good.