Nick Saban's first Alabama team, the 2007 squad that infamously lost to Louisiana-Monroe, is regarded as something of a stepchild among the 14 full seasons under Saban that have followed. How could it not be, as a positively average 7-6 team that preceded eight SEC champions and six national champions? It lost as many games as the Crimson Tide lost over the following four seasons, and the loss to ULM — the Crimson Tide's opponent this Saturday — was the unquestioned low point.

Over the years, fans have had a tendency to make wide receiver D.J. Hall the face of that loss. Don't believe it? Casually bring up ULM 21, Alabama 14 from the seat of your next local barstool, and Hall's first-half suspension that day will inevitably be scapegoated by someone within earshot.

SABAN'S 15Order The Tuscaloosa News' special book on Nick Saban's first 15 seasons at Alabama

ON THE MENDNick Saban offers update on injured WR Tyler Harrell

"It shouldn't be," said Keith Brown, one of Hall's best friends on that team and a fellow wide receiver who, like Hall, is from the Florida Panhandle. "That's people knocking his character, but that guy played his heart out for the team, for the fans, and for his family. We all feel like if we'd done something different, that game might've had a different outcome. We had a ton of drops in that game. It wasn't D.J.'s fault that I dropped a ball, or that I ran a wrong route. We can't place a loss to ULM, of all teams, on D.J."

I tried to reach Hall for this column, to get his thoughts on this phenomenon he might not even be aware of. I failed — he's tough to get a hold of, perhaps by design. Brown admits he's "gone dark" himself. But on this topic, he's outspoken enough.

"In my opinion, it's absolutely absurd. Yes, he was a significant player, but there are 11 people on the field," Brown said. "If you really go back to that game, we scored our 14 points in the first half without D.J. It was the second half when he was out there that we couldn't move the ball. And we gave up four turnovers."

The reality is that a heartbreaking 41-34 home loss to LSU two weeks earlier, which eliminated the Crimson Tide from the SEC West race, knocked the collective wind out of the entire team and triggered a four-game skid to end the season.

It is too easy, especially through the haze of 15 years gone by, to conjoin a team's loss to the suspension of a guy who was arguably its best player. But it shouldn't be easy to forget Hall as the Tennessee killer that he was, even though beating UT was a much tougher trick for Alabama at the time.

He caught 10 balls for 139 of Brodie Croyle's 190 passing yards in Mike Shula's only win over Tennessee, a 6-3 game in 2005, including a spectacular, leaping 44-yard grab to make the game-winning field goal possible. But it was a crucial fumble caused by safety Roman Harper that noted artist Daniel Moore used to capture the win. Even in 2007, just four weeks before the ULM debacle, Hall posted a 13-185-2 day in the undisputed highlight of that season, a 41-17 win over the Vols.

Maybe it's not surprising, and somewhat understandable, that a star player's suspension became emblematic of a team's overall failure to buy into a Saban program that, just a year later, reached an SEC title game and a Sugar Bowl. But in proper context, the two-time 1,000-yard receiver and breaker of school records deserves a legacy that's more than being the first footnote on the most embarrassing loss of the Saban era.

"I don’t think anybody has represented our profession and coached with more class than coach (Bobby) Bowden did. And I have the same kind of respect for both of his sons who have been in and out of our profession, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Terry and what he’s trying to do at ULM." — Saban on the Bowden family.

Ahead of Kentucky's upset of Florida last week, Wildcats QB Will Levis got himself fired up watching the 1983 Al Pacino classic, Scarface. As a connoisseur of the gangster/mafia genre, I'd say he can dial it back to Donnie Brasco for Youngstown State this week, and should save Goodfellas for Georgia week. ... In a battle of former Saban assistants, Jimbo Fisher's TAMU team will try to get off the mat from a loss to Appalachian State in a home game against Miami, led by coach Mario Cristobal. It's going to be a long year in College Station if an Aggies team ranked No. 7 in the preseason catches two September losses in nonconference play. … SEC Spread Pick of the Week: Penn State -3 at Auburn. Season: 1-1.

Reach Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread