Saban excited for Alabama-LSU showdown
Nick Saban likes to tell his Alabama football players to not drink the rat poison. That doesn’t mean Saban avoids spreading a little rat poison.
On his radio show this week, the Bama coach was asked his plan if the Crimson Tide won the coin toss Saturday in the showdown game at LSU.
“To be honest with you, I hope we elect to kick ass, is what I hope we do,” Saban said.
Sounds like even Alabama’s dogmatic coach is going stir crazy, waiting for a real game.
The top-ranked Tide has steamrolled foes in going 8-0 this season, with only Texas A&M staying within four touchdowns of Alabama.
And the Aggies trailed by 29 points in the third quarter before a late TD made it a 45-23 final.
Third-ranked LSU figures to put up more resistance. The 7-1 Tigers have played perhaps the nation’s toughest schedule, with victories over Miami, Auburn, Ole Miss, Georgia and Mississippi State.
LSU lost 27-19 at Florida, now ranked 11th.
Alabama has won seven straight over LSU since that memorable 9-6 Tiger win in 2011, when the teams were ranked 1-2.
But the games in Baton Rouge have been tight: 10-0 in 2016, 20-13 in 2014, 21-17 in 2012.
“I heard it’s really loud over there,” Bama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said this week. “I heard that it’s a really hostile environment that we’re going to. I thought Tennessee was very loud. From all the guys who played there in previous years before, they said it’s really, really loud. I’m excited.”
So is Saban.
Upset special
Herm Edwards was widely panned when hired as Arizona State’s football coach last off-season. But Edwards has done a nice job with the Sun Devils.
Arizona State is 4-4 overall with four defeats by seven points — San Diego State 28-21, Washington 27-20, Colorado 28-21 and Stanford 20-13. But ASU has beaten Michigan State and Southern Cal, the latter in Los Angeles.
And remarkably, Arizona State is in the thick of the Pac-12 South Division. Utah leads the race at 4-2, with USC and Arizona at 3-3, and ASU, UCLA and Colorado at 2-3.
If Arizona State beats Utah on Saturday, the Sun Devils will be a half-game out of the lead. Utah is a seven-point favorite, but the game is at Sun Devil Stadium. Let’s go with Herm Edwards in the upset.
Coach on the hot seat
Lovie Smith is a good football coach. Over 11 NFL seasons with the Bears and Buccaneers, Smith produced an 89-87 record and three playoff wins. A winning record in the NFL is not easy to achieve.
But winning has come slowly to Smith at the University of Illinois. The Illini are 8-24 in Smith’s three seasons, 3-20 in the Big Ten.
Various reports have vacillated between Smith is “miserable” at Illinois and Smith wants to finish his career at Illinois. But at some point, the decision is not Smith’s.
Smith signed a six-year, $21-million contract with the Illini in 2016. Saturday, the Illini hosts Minnesota in what figures to be Illinois’ best chance at victory in November. Keep losing, and Illinois might put Smith out of his misery.
Ranking the games
1. Alabama at LSU, 7 p.m., CBS: The Tigers haven’t scored more than 17 points on Bama since 2010.
2. Georgia at Kentucky, 2:30 p.m., CBS: The SEC East title game. Winner goes to Atlanta for the league championship game. Which makes this the biggest Kentucky game since playing the 1950 Sooners in the Sugar Bowl.
3. Penn State at Michigan, 2:45 p.m., ESPN: Win here, and the Wolverines should sail into the finale against Ohio State.
4. Notre Dame at Northwestern, 6:15 p.m., ESPN: Since losing to Akron, the Wildcats scared Michigan (20-17) and now has won four straight, including wins over Michigan State and Wisconsin.
5. Utah at Arizona State, 3 p.m., Pac-12 Network: If the Sun Devils can pull the upset, every team in the Pac-12 South will have at least three conference defeats.
6. Boston College at Virginia Tech, 2:45 p.m., ACC Network: BC, 6-2 overall, still could host Clemson with first place in the ACC’s Atlantic Division on the line.
7. Iowa at Purdue, 2:30 p.m., ESPN2: Iowa comes to the scene of the mighty upset of Ohio State, still with a chance at the Big Ten West title.
8. Stanford at Washington, 8 p.m., Pac-12 Network: Hard to believe, but the loser here will have four defeats.
9. Michigan State at Maryland, 11 a.m., ESPN2: Crazy week in a crazy year for the Terrapins, who still are 5-3.
10. California at Washington State, 9:45 p.m., ESPN: Every WSU game the rest of the year figures to be big.