Happy Monday, everyone. Alabama heads to Baton Rouge this weekend, and the GameDay circus will follow.
LSU last hosted “College GameDay” on Oct. 12, 2019, before a 42-28 win over Florida during the Tigers’ undefeated national championship season.
AdvertisementThough LSU has been the visiting team featured on the show since then, most recently earlier this season when the Tigers traveled to South Carolina, this is the first time College GameDay is returning to Baton Rouge.
It will be LSU’s 14th time hosting the popular pregame show, the fourth-most in the country behind Ohio State (23), Alabama (19) and Michigan (15).
Wonder what kind of reception Nick Saban will get on Saturday morning?
The Tigers’ defense has been a bit uneven, but they have been able to get after the passer a bit.
After Alabama struggled to contain rushers like South Carolina’s Kyle Kennard and Tennessee’s James Pearce Jr., the Crimson Tide will be tasked with facing multiple top pass rushers Saturday in Baton Rouge.
LSU defensive end Bradyn Swinson is second in the SEC with eight sacks in eight games. He also has 10.5 tackles for loss, fourth-best in the conference.
Alabama has allowed 17 sacks and 47 tackles for loss through eight games.
Against three teams with mobile QBs – South Carolina, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M – LSU has surrendered an average of 220 rushing yards and 32 points per game. Jalen Milroe ran for 155 yards and four touchdowns against the Bayou Bengals last season. He will likely have to make a similar mark on this one if Alabama is to win.
The Tide got some help and thus managed to move up in the polls without playing this weekend.
Alabama football was idle on Saturday, but still took a jump in the coaches poll top 25 rankings when they were updated Sunday. The Crimson Tide was ranked No. 11 in the poll, jumping three spots after sitting at No. 14 last week.
It was a similar story later on Sunday, when the Associated Press media poll was released. Alabama was also 11th in those rankings.
The Tide benefitted from a run of upsets on Saturday. Texas A&M fell to South Carolina, then dropped five spots to No. 16 in the coaches poll, No. 15 in the AP, and Clemson dropped nine positions to No. 17 in the coaches rankings, and eight to No. 19 in the media poll after losing to Louisville.
Vanderbilt showed up near the bottom of both polls and will undoubtedly appear in the playoff committee’s initial rankings that come out on Tuesday. It’s surprising that South Carolina wasn’t ranked in either. The Gamecocks have lost three games but all came against top 16 teams, and they have blowout wins at Kentucky and Oklahoma in addition to Saturday’s convincing win over the Aggies. As for Clemson, they got utterly embarrassed by Louisville on their home field.
Alabama has a narrow path to Atlanta if they take care of business.
After South Carolina’s 44-20 drubbing of Texas A&M Saturday, no SEC teams remain undefeated in conference play.
The Aggies, Georgia, LSU, Texas and Tennessee remain at the top with one conference loss each. And within the next four weeks, the outcomes of Texas vs. Texas A&M and Georgia vs. Tennessee could very well determine which teams play for an SEC Championship by themselves.
Of the one-loss teams, Alabama holds a tiebreaker advantage if Georgia, LSU, Texas A&M and Texas were to add a second loss. Tennessee, with its 24-17 win against the Crimson Tide Oct. 19, would still hold an advantage over Alabama with a second loss.
Any postseason hopes for Alabama obviously hinge on winning out. Beyond that, Alabama’s simplest path would be for Texas to beat Texas A&M but drop at least one before then, and for Georgia to lose to either Ole Miss or Tennessee. There are other scenarios but with the SEC likely to get at least four into the playoff field, getting to Atlanta isn’t terribly critical.
Alabama basketball tips off the regular season tonight vs UNC-Asheville at 8pm CT on ESPNU. This preview from SI includes quotes from Nate Oats about most of the roster. One of the less heralded returnees, Mo Dioubate, may well play a critical role.
“If we didn’t have him [during last season’s NCAA Tournament], we don’t win the Grand Canyon game, we don’t make the Final Four, we don’t even make the second week of the tournament…Really good high school player who took a little bit longer to figure out our system as he didn’t do a good job of shooting the three last year but he still did a lot of things really well, including making tough plays, that’s his strength. He comes into that Grand Canyon game and immediately flips the momentum, gets some [offensive] boards, makes some tough plays, he’s going make some tough plays. He’s all over the glass, he’s getting a lot better at being a connector on offense, getting some of our great shooters open and he’s been working on his shot.”
Every team needs that dude who lives to do the dirty work, and Mo D is one of those types. This season is perhaps Alabama’s most anticipated in school history.
“It’s just so unbelievable to see the high level of play consistently from this team,” said Neill, a fan since the 1990s. “That’s what we haven’t had in so long.”
The past few years, Alabama has transformed from a program with solid history into a nationally relevant program competing with the best in the sport. Coach Nate Oats has been at the center of it, with his teams winning the SEC regular season title twice, the SEC Tournament twice and then making a Final Four appearance in April.
Now, preparing to open his sixth season Monday (8 p.m. CT, ESPNU) against UNC Ashville at Coleman Coliseum, Oats has the No. 2 team in the country, the highest preseason ranking ever for the program. For what was a perennial bubble team not even a decade ago, Alabama finds itself in a moment like never before. In a position to chase a championship fresh off a Final Four, the Crimson Tide has created a surreal and wild moment for the fans who’ve been there through many decades.
In NFL news, Tua Tagovailoa hooked up with Jaylen Waddle late to tie the game vs Buffalo yesterday, but lost on a last second field goal. Derrick Henry rolled up 130 yards and two TDs as the Ravens smoked Denver. Oh, and DeVonta Smith did this.
Watching the NFL makes you realize just how spoiled we have been.
That’s about it for today. Have a great week.
Roll Tide.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
