Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
No. 1 comes last
Tide motivated vs. Hogs by 10-0 quest
FAYETTEVILLE — Alabama traditionally plays the Iron Bowl against in-state rival Auburn to end the regular season, but the No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide pounded the Tigers 42-13 two weeks ago in this coronavirus-affected schedule.
Then Alabama exacted revenge on LSU — which along with Auburn were the only teams to beat the Tide last year — with a 55-17 victory at Tiger Stadium last week.
For the first time since Arkansas ( 3- 6) joined the SEC, the Razorbacks will finish the regular season against Alabama (9-0) a week later than planned when the conference-only schedule was released in August.
Alabama has won its 13th outright SEC West title since 1992, when the conference went to two divisions. The Tide will play No. 6 Florida on Dec. 19 in the SEC Championship Game.
With the Tide being made 31-point favorites over Arkansas — which has lost 13 consecutive games in the series — it seems like the perfect time for Alabama to be caught looking ahead to the Gators and suffer a letdown Saturday at 11 a.m. at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
But do you really think Alabama Coach Nick Saban is going to let his team swallow that rat poison?
“This is what we need to be focused on,” Saban said. “We need to respect their team. Other teams are capable of beating anybody.”
Saban, who is going for his seventh overall national championship and sixth at Alabama, then brought up history.
“It’s a little bit of a historic game for us too, you know,” he said. “We’ve only had one team around here that went undefeated.”
Alabama’s lone perfect record in Saban’s 13 seasons was in 2009 when the Tide finished 14-0 by beating Florida for the SEC championship and Texas for the national title.
“And that wasn’t as difficult for that team to go undefeated as it is for this team playing 10 SEC games,” Saban said.
The best any SEC team could do previously in conference play was 8-0 — which the Tide have done nine times – because none ever had played more than eight games until this season.
Alabama became the first team to win nine SEC games and naturally wants to make it 10.
“I think any time you play on the road or in the SEC, you’ve got to be ready to play,” said Saban, who has a 50-9 road record at Alabama. “And you’ve got to respect the fact that the team you’re playing certainly is capable of beating you if you don’t execute.”
The Tide also don’t get upset by underdogs. They have won 97 consecutive games against unranked teams since losing to Louisiana-Monroe 21-14 on Nov. 17, 2007.
Alabama began its winning streak against unranked teams by beating Colorado 30-24 in the Independence Bowl to finish the 2007 season, Saban’s first, at 7-6.
“I mean, it’s incredible,” Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said of that Alabama streak. “I think Clemson’s got some things going at this point and has some unbelievable numbers over the past several years. But Alabama’s Alabama.”
Tide quarterback Mac Jones said the players talked before the season about going undefeated.
“Playing an all-SEC schedule, to go undefeated would be something that no other team has ever done just because no other team has had to play an all-SEC schedule,” Jones said.
Outside linebacker Christian Harris said the Tide treat every SEC opponent with respect.
“In the SEC, being there’s so many great teams, you can lose at any moment,” Harris said. “You can’t take one game off. We have a lot of respect for Arkansas … I think they’ll present a pretty good challenge for us this week.”
The Razorbacks have lost three games to Auburn, LSU and Missouri by a combined seven points.
“Arkansas, to me, has a really, really good team,” Saban said. “Their record doesn’t reflect how well they’ve played.”
The Razorbacks were 1-23 in SEC games the past three seasons, so Pittman has tripled that total in his first year.
“Sam’s done a good job, I think, of getting these guys to really come together and play hard, believe in themselves,” Saban said. “They’ve just had a couple of tough losses, which I’m sure they’re learning from and we have to assume that we’re going to get their best game.”
Alabama is averaging 49.2 points and 548.3 yards led by Jones ( 3,113 passing yards and 27 touchdowns); running back Najee Harris (1,088 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns); and wide receiver DeVonta Smith (1,305 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns).
Christian Harris leads the defense with 64 tackles. Middle linebacker Dylan Moses has 59 stops and an interception, outside linebacker Chris Allen has 101/ tackles
2 for lost yards, and nickel back Malachi Moore has 3 interceptions.
The Tide also finally have a kicker the rest of team can be confident in with Will Reichard, who has hit 10 of 10 field goals and is 59 of 59 on extra-point tries.
Ole Miss has given Alabama its closest game, 63-48, and the Tide have won by an average of 30.9 points.
Alabama has outscored opponents 253-92 in the first half, then kept pouring it on in the third quarter with a 10533 advantage.
“I think the emphasis is always that there is no scoreboard,” Saban said. “You want to come out and play and re-establish the tempo of the game in the second half.
“I think there have been times where we’ve done this fairly well and there have been times when we’ve had a couple of slow starts. So it’s always something that you try to focus on and work on with the team.”