Times Out
by Dan Rutledge

Their styles are certainly different, but they are both winners and know how to teach others to be winners, too.

Talking about Alabama coaching legend Bear Bryant and Nick Saban.

Ever since The Bear left Tuscaloosa, the Bama Nation has been searching in vain for someone to take his place. But no one — up to now — has been able to fill his shoes.

It appears that current coach Saban may be the one.

To have his Crimson Tide in the No. 2 spot in the land and undefeated at the halfway point of the season in just his second year at the helm is a good start and a good omen for Tide faithful. And as a faithful Tide watcher for the past half century plus and a faithful watcher of the weekly Bear Bryant Show when it was on the tube, I can say Saban reminds me of Bryant.

Although Saban doesn’t do it with the same down-home phrases and doesn’t mumble, their approach is similar. Bear used to downplay his own team’s abilities and play up the upcoming opponent. Each week, to hear the Bear tell it, the week’s opponent was so good that it could probably win in the NFL and his “skinny little boys” would be lucky to stay on the field with them. Saban does it more directly, but his aim is the same — to remind his players that in football, anything can happen and just because you won last week doesn’t mean you will win this week, especially if you are overconfident or do not respect your opponent.

Bear, like Saban, believed in playing every play as if it was the last play of the game and never letting up, no matter how far you are ahead. Alabama’s problem over the past few seasons, and the past few coaches, has been that when it got a big lead, the players would get the big head and assume they had the game won.

And anyone who knows anything about team sports and the place Big Mo (momentum) has it deciding a game knows that letting up, relaxing, playing at less than full speed and less than full intensity will usually spell disaster. Big Mo is famous for changing sides during a game — and once he’s on the other side, it’s often hard to coax him back to your side. In other words, once you let that intensity slack up, you often can’t get it back.

As Dave Mason (an old rock and roller: you can see him with Willie Nelson and others at the upcoming Farm Aid concert) put it in a song: “You can lose it and it won’t come back at all.”

So, don’t look for a big letdown from Bama when they entertain Kentucky this week.

It won’t be as hard for Saban to convince his players to stay focused and regard the Wildcats as a threat as it was last year when Louisiana-Monroe was coming in. Kentucky is, after all, an SEC team and an SEC team that has been improving in recent years and will be coming into Tuscaloosa undefeated (4-0) and bringing the nation’s best scoring defense.

Bama ranks No. 1 in the SEC in rushing offense. Kentucky has used the same game plan in its four wins. The Wildcats like to control the football with a strong running game. It is the only team in the SEC that has accrued more possession time than Alabama. Since both teams can’t hold the ball, something has to give.

The feeling here is that big noseguard Terrance Cody will do what he has done against every team the Tide has faced this year — clog up the middle and make it extremely hard to run the ball successfully.

And if the Tide has trouble running the ball — something that is hard to even imagine given how good the O-line has played to date — John Parker Wilson showed last week with his SEC Offensive Player of the Week performance (13 of 15 pass completions for 205 yards) that he can make the difference. So look for the Tide to beat the spread (Line: Alabama by 16) in this one.

Half of the league’s teams are in the nation’s top 25 teams halfway through the regular season, although only three are among the top 10. Alabama jumped six spots to No. 2 on the strength of its impressive road win over the then-No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs.

Undefeated LSU (4-0) moved into the third spot while the Bulldogs (from Athens, not Starkville) landed at No. 10. Florida fell to No. 12 after its shocking upset at the hands of Ole Miss, unbeaten Auburn fell to No. 13 after another underwhelming win and surprisingly unbeaten Vanderbilt resides at No. 19. Week 6 on the SEC football schedule is a sparse one.

With Georgia, LSU, and Mississippi State taking the week off, just five games are on tap.

But four of the five are interesting match-ups. We’ve already talked about the clash of the unbeatens in T-Town. But the contest up in Nashville, Tenn., is intriguing. Undefeated Vandy (4-0) hosts once-beaten Auburn (4-1) (Line: Auburn by 4) in a game that is almost impossible to figure. The Commodores are in the No. 1 spot in the SEC East Division at 2-0 — despite being ranked dead last in the SEC in both total offense and total defense.

How have they pulled it off? Well, let’s say that Auburn had better be careful and say a prayer or two every time it puts the ball in the air.

Vandy leads the nation in turnover margin and in interceptions. The Commodore defense has already picked off 10 enemy aerials this year. They also lead the league in punt return yardage. And don’t turn the ball over at your end of the field against Vandy. It leads the league in red-zone efficiency. Auburn, on the other hand, has used a good defense and a lot of luck to stay in the unbeaten ranks.

The Tigers have won four games despite a very inefficient offense. AU hired Tony Franklin as its new offensive coordinator and the guru of the spread offense was expected to turn the War Eagles into a point-producing machine. So far, the machine has not been running on all cylinders. After the 3-2 win over Mississippi State, last week’s 14-12 win over Tennessee seemed like a runaway victory.

This week, head coach Tommy Tuberville has said he wants to see the Tigers run the ball more. But trying to tinker with, make changes to a new offensive scheme that the players spent fall drills trying to get down could throw more sand into the gears. This will be a good one. And don’t look for a lot of points at the end. It won’t be 3-2, but it could be 14-10 or 10-7.

There are two other league games this week — Florida (3-1, 1-1) at Arkansas (2-2, 0-1) (Line: Florida by 24) and South Carolina (3-2, 0-2) at Ole Miss (3-2, 1-1) (Line: Ole Miss by 2). At Fayetteville, the Hogs could be in for another home whipping. The Gators will be hopping mad after its upset at the hands of Ole Miss and at Oxford the Rebs will be still basking in the glow of that big win. South Carolina, which has one of the toughest defenses in the league, is hungry for a win. Look for another good week for road teams.

In the only non-league outing of the week, Tennessee (1-3) tries to get back on the winning track against Northern Illinois (2-2). The Vols should win this one and must win it to keep from having a disastrous season (Line: Tennessee by 16).

WEEKEND TV LINEUP

Saturday’s boob tube lineup follows (all times CST):

11 a.m.
Boston College at N.C. St. (CW), Penn St. at Purdue (ESPN), Iowa at Michigan St. (ESPN2), Duke at Georgia Tech (ESPNU)
11:30 a.m.
Florida at Arkansas (Raycom Sports), Kansas at Iowa St. (Versus), Oklahoma at Baylor (FSNS)
1:30 p.m.
Stanford at Notre Dame (NBC)
2 p.m.
The Citadel at Appalachian St. (SportsSouth)
2:30 p.m.
Kentucky at Alabama (CBS), Illinois at Michigan (ESPN2)
3 p.m.
Navy at Air Force (Versus)
5 p.m.
Auburn at Vanderbilt (ESPN)
6 p.m.
Texas at Colorado (FSNS), Maryland at Virginia (ESPNU), Connecticut at North Carolina (ESPN2)
6:30 p.m.
Washington at Arizona (Versus)
8 p.m.
Missouri at Nebraska. (ABC)
9:15 p.m.
Washington St. at UCLA (FSNS)

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