Alabama and Auburn have had different challenges this season.
For Alabama it’s been all about winning another national championship. Nick Saban said before the season that the Tide wasn’t defending anything, that this was a new team and a new year. You could see in the summer programs on ESPN he looked just as focused as ever on this team, this season.
But is there some complacency at Alabama this year? Saban did a lot of media appearances (commercials), had a couple of programs on ESPN dedicated to his program and him in particular and even had a documentary made about him titled, Gamechanger. He’d done what he had set out to do and that was win a national championship. It’s human nature that once you satisfy your ultimate goal you kind of relax. It’s hard to have the same enthusiasm as you had the year before when you’ve achieved the goal for yourself and your program.
And the players may be looking at their respective professional careers. Mark Ingram, Julio Jones, Dont’a Hightower, Mark Barron and Marcell Dareus may be looking ahead to their futures. That’s pretty understandable. Not acceptable to the fans of the team, but these guys would like to be paid well for busting their tails seven days a week on football.
We’ll get a more clear picture of the Tide this weekend when they play Tennessee. We’ll see if they still have the passion to win the SEC West and win it all again. I’m not sure they’re good enough this year, but if they have a strong effort against Tn, they could get their momentum back and carry it into the rest of the season. Just wondering if they’re hungry enough this year. They didn’t look like it last Saturday against Ole Miss. They looked like a tired, average team to me. I’m sure they were worn out from Arkansas, Florida and particularly South Carolina, but now not sure they have enough left in the tank this year to get it done. We’ll get a good idea of what this team wants to do with their season this Saturday. If they play well against Tennessee, they might be back in business. If not, I don’t think they’re going to win it all and might lose another in the SEC.
For Auburn, it’s all about keeping the momentum. Can Cam Newton keep putting up these amazing numbers? That’s the question in my mind. He’s got a top three defense nationally coming to Auburn and he’s going to have to do it again. LSU is going to try their best to make Cam beat them with his arm. Cam can throw pretty well, but if he has to 25 times a game that could be interesting. But Cam seems to find a way with his wheels. I don’t know if LSU can contain him as good as their defense is. You think every week the opposing team is going to stop him and nobody can. I’m a big Cam Newton fan. I think he’s the best player in the country right now. He’s got to do it once again this weekend. Another question is: Can the Auburn defense play well enough to win? The LSU offense is not Arkansas with Ryan Mallett that’s for sure, but Jarrett Lee has gotten better passing the ball and Stevan Ridley is a quality tailback and Terrence Toliver is an outstanding receiver. They’ve also got a couple of other wrs who are good.
So this will be a classic. Strength against strength. Cam vs the LSU defense. AU defense against a pretty decent LSU offense with some weapons. Will be fun.
(Do Mark Barron and Tide have enough left in the tank to make a run the rest of the way?)