No. 1 Alabama Falls to No. 2 Florida in SEC Title Game
December 6th, 2008Full Story: No. 1 Alabama Falls to No. 2 Florida in SEC Title Game
AP: Gators Chomp Past Bama for SEC Title
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| RollTide.com |
| Alabama takes the field in the SEC Title Game |
Time Out
by Dan Rutledge
TV Schedule Below
Live Coverage from Yahoo
Borrowing a phrase made famous by a great from another sport (thanks, Yogi), “déjà vu all over again” seems to be the theme of the 2008 Southeastern Conference Championship Game in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome Saturday at 3 p.m on CBS.
Déjà vu No. 1: The two participants – as if anyone doesn’t already know – are the Alabama Crimson Tide (12-0, ranked No. 1) and the Florida Gators (11-1, No. 2). That is the most familiar lineup for the SEC title game. This will be the sixth time, more than any other matchup, the two have met for the league championship. Florida leads the Championship Game series 3-2.
Déjà vu No. 2: Shades of ’92 … this year’s Alabama squad is drawing comparisons to the last Bama national title team. And if the current version of the Crimson Tide is to earn the same place in football history as the ’92 squad, it will have to indulge in a little déjà vu. It will have to, in its 13th game of the year, beat a seemingly unstoppable team from Florida. In ’92, it was udefeated Miami. Now it’s once-beaten Florida.
Déjà vu No. 3: In ’92, few gave Bama a chance against the mighty Hurricanes. This year, few give Bama a chance against the mightly Gators. Alabama is a 10-point underdog, despite being ranked higher than Florida.
And déjà vu No. 4: One more way this year is the same as 16 years ago – Alabama relishes its underdog role. In an interview last week Matt Hammond, an offensive lineman on the ’92 team, said he and his teammates used to get up early on Saturday mornings to watch ESPN’s GameDay Show and wait for Lee Corso to make his pick for their game for the week. “We always wanted ESPN to pick against us, ” Hammond said. “I think that’s the role that Alabama likes and is comfortable with.”
So it’s just fine with the 2008 team that they are thought of as the poor little skinny boys fixin’ to go up against those big, bad, super fast Gators. And it is true that Tide fans love to beat the “experts” while at the same time beating the opposition on the field.
Now the game does have some “new” to it … this will be the first time ever that the No.; 1 and No. 2 teams in the AP poll square off for the conference title. It will also be the first head-to-head competition between two of the top coaching minds in college football today, Nick Saban of Alabama and Urban Myer of Florida.
That matchup itself is intriguing, pitting two of the most brilliant minds in the game. And as the coaches go, so goes the team. The two men have different coaching philosophies. Saban reminds yours truly of Bama coaching legend Bear Bryant. His teams win by, as Bear would put it, “blocking and tackling … or execution, execution, execution.” Alabama and Saban do not believe in “style points,” in piling on points to make a statement or impress anyone. Saban, like Bear, would rather win the old-fashioned way – with a strong running game setting up play-action passing in a balanced attack and an equally strong and aggressive defense that stops the opponent’s run game.
Bama has gone to a ball-control running game late to keep from running the score up too far and embarrassing its opponent. Myer came to Florida as a proponent of the new, wide open spread attack now popular in the college game. Referred to by some as “basketball on grass,” Myers likes to use a short passing game that acts as part of the running game and also like to have a running quarterback. Florida does, of course, also believe in a strong defense.
Something Has to Give Department: Alabama leads the SEC in rushing defense, total defense and scoring defense. The Tide is the best in the nation against rushing touchdowns. Bama has given up just three rushing TDs this season, with the next best six. The Gators, on the other hand, leads the league in rushing offense, total offense and scoring offense. To take the mirror-image metaphor further, Alabama ranks fifth in passing defense while Florida ranks fifth in passing offense.
Now, the prediction: The Magic Season will continue for Alabama. The omens point to Bama prevailing in the SEC title game.
The season began in the Georgia Dome with an upset against a highly-regarded Clemson team. Going full circle, the regular season will end with an upset win against a highly-regarded Florida team.
This will be the sixth time that Alabama has played twice in the same season at the same out-of-state neutral site. The last time that Alabama was in this circumstance was when it beat Miami in the 1993 Sugar Bowl in the Superdome, where they had defeated Tulane earlier in the season. Ummm … and that win secured the 1992 national championship for the Tide. Coincidence?
Everyone should be paying attention early. In 11 games this year, both Florida and Alabama have won when they scored first. Obviously, both can’t dent the scoreboard at the same time Saturday. But an interesting fact about the above statistic is the game not mentioned, game No. 12. The foe is common for both in game 12 – the Ole Miss Rebels. The difference is that although Bama did fall behind for the first and only time all year when the Rebs took at 3-0 lead, the Tide came back to win the game. Florida lost to Ole Miss.
Tim Tebow is a football player and a great leader. He deserved the Heisman and is making a good run at a second award. But Tebow and his Gators haven’t faced a team like Bama yet this season. Yes, the Gators are the hot team right now and by posting big offense numbers down the stretch, have become the darlings of the national press and fans all over the nation. In all but one game this year Florida has won by at least 23 points and beat defending national champ LSU by 30, Georgia by 39 and South Carolina by 50.
But Saban’s Tide, with an experienced Wilson at the helm and a stable of steady runners at his call, has the necessary ingredients to slow down the Tebow Express – a ball-control clock-eating offense and a stifling, physical, aggressive defense. That defense has also shown an affinity to come up with the big stop or the big turnover right at the right time. Often this year, the big score that turned the momentum the Tide’s way came on the defensive side of the ball. Special teams could also prove the difference for Bama. Punter P.J. Fitzgerald will keep the Gators on the long end of the field and no one would be surprised if explosive Javier Arenas returned a kick for big yardage, perhaps a score.
And last, but not least, is an edge the Tide holds in a certain intangible – focus on team. As Tide QB John Parker Wilson put it in an interview this week, “There is a lot of difference in a team that has each other’s back, that cares about each other, that wants to do good not for themselves, but for the team.”
Look for Bama to keep the ball for most of the first half on two-three long drives and hold a halftime lead. It will be close, but – not a good sign for Florida – low scoring. Bama will shut down the Gator run, including Tebow, fording the Gators to go exclusively to the air in the second half. Look for a key turnover (or two) to make a momentum difference in the Tide’s direction in the final going.
If anyone has paid attention, they would have noticed that the games in which Florida has had trouble, usually has lost, since Myer’s arrival in Gainesville, has been against teams that runs the ball right at them, teams with big, mobile and talented offensive lines. Alabama fits that bill to the “T.”
And a last point. This game against Florida, against one of the top offenses in the country run by a Heisman Trophy winner, is a challenge for any team. But Bama isn’t just any team. As Coach Saban put it last week, when asked why this was one of his favorite all-time teams, he said, “I love this team because these players respond to challenges.”
Dan Rutledge is a veteran sports writer and editor who recently retired after 25 years with Gulf Coast Newspapers in Baldwin County, Alabama. He writes this advance column on college football exclusively for The Locust Fork News-Journal every Friday during football season.
Also read Cecil Hurt’s column from The Tuscaloosa News:
CECIL HURT: Tide must prove itself once again
TV Schedule EST
Noon
No. 23 Pittsburgh at UCONN ESPN
East Carolina at Tulsa ESPN2
Navy vs Army CBS
1 p.m.
No. 17 Boston College vs No. 25 V. Tech ABC
3 p.m.
Washington at California FSN
4 p.m.
No. 1 Alabama vs No. 4 Florida CBS
4:30 p.m.
No. 5 USC at UCLA ABC
7 p.m.
Mid Tenn. State at Louisiana-Laf. ESPN360
W. Kentucky at Florida Intl. ?????
Arkansas State at Troy ESPN360
7:30 p.m.
Louisville at Rutgers ESPN
8 p.m.
No. 12 Ball State vs Buffalo ESPN2
No. 20 Missouri vs No. 2 Oklahoma ABC
Arizona State at Arizona ESPN
South Florida at West Virginia ESPN2
11:30 p.m.
No. 13 Cincinnati at Hawaii ESPN2
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