Aggies: Alabama its usual No. 1 self
Defending national champions huge favorites at home
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M defensive back DeShawn Capers-Smith had some spare time over the weekend so he caught a bit of the replay of Alabama at Mississippi from Saturday.
“I turned it off, obviously,” Capers-Smith said of growing bored with the mauling in Oxford, Miss.
Capers-Smith had seen enough to know Alabama is the same old Alabama, after the Crimson Tide burst to a 49-7 halftime lead over the Rebels en route to a 62-7 victory.
Now, the No. 22 Aggies (2-1) earn their chance to topple topranked and reigning national champion Alabama (3-0) starting 2:30 p.m. Saturday in BryantDenny Stadium, with A&M already having faced one of the nation’s top two teams in Clemson.
“We just have to do the best we can,” Capers-Smith said of the Aggies’ approach in their first road game.
The Aggies’ best likely would mean keeping it a contest in the fourth quarter, just as they did against No. 2 Clemson on Sept. 8 at Kyle Field. The Tigers won 2826, but the Aggies, unranked at the time, had a chance to tie the game on a two-point conversion with 46 seconds left. The attempt failed, but their confidence was buoyed by the result, despite it being the first setback of the Jimbo Fisher era at A&M.
“If you don’t bring your ‘A’ game, they’re going to beat you,” A&M linebacker Tyrel Dodson said of facing the Crimson Tide. “Because of the game against Clemson, people are expecting more out of us.”
Perhaps so, but oddsmakers aren’t giving A&M a chance. The Crimson Tide and coach Nick Saban were almost four touchdown favorites on their home field as of Monday, and the outcomes of their first three games are primarily why.
Alabama, which leads the nation in scoring with 57 points per game, has scored 50-plus points in at least three consecutive games for the first time since 1945 — and one of those games 73 years ago was against the Pensacola (Fla.) Naval Air Station. No team in Southeastern Conference history has started the season with three consecutive games of 50-plus points — until now.
“Alabama has an outstanding team, as we all know, defending national champions and all of that,” Fisher said Monday. “They’re sound, and they’re dynamic and they can score points — even with their defense. We’ve got our hands full for sure.”
Fisher, 52, served as Saban’s offensive coordinator when both were at LSU from 2000-04, and Fisher said Saban is a master of “creating a culture” at whatever program he’s in charge of.
“They expect to win, they know how to win, they’ve got good players and they’re well-coached,” Fisher said. “That makes a really good combination for what you’re doing. Everybody else is building their programs and establishing their programs.”
Including Fisher, who had built a solid program Florida State from 2010-17 before hopping the Gulf of Mexico from Tallahassee, Fla., to College Station. Fisher, who won a national title in 2013 at FSU, won at least 10 games in six of his eight seasons with the Seminoles, while A&M has won at least 10 games once this century.
Saban, 66, said Fisher’s culture is in the early stages of taking hold at Texas A&M.
“Everybody who takes over a program is working really hard to establish the principles and values of the organization,” Saban told reporters in Tuscaloosa, Ala. “The standard that you want people to work to in terms of effort, toughness, intangibles, discipline, things like that.
“Jimbo has obviously done a really good job of that. They’re a completely different kind of team than they’ve been in the past.”
The Aggies not only are lifted by their near miss against Clemson, but staying within range of Alabama last season at Kyle Field. The Crimson Tide won 27-19, with the Aggies scoring a touchdown with a little less than two minutes left to make it a one-score game.
A&M quarterback Kellen Mond, a true freshman at the time, finished 19 of 29 for 237 yards with a touchdown pass and an interception along with a rushing touchdown that early October day against the Crimson Tide, who’d go on to win their fifth national title since 2009 under Saban.
“I definitely felt as a freshman I could play against them, and I really don’t think anything changes now,” Mond said. “I feel like I can play with them.”