The season starts now.
After only playing one Power 5 conference team in its first three games, Alabama hasn’t really had to focus as much as usual. But with the Florida Gators coming to Tuscaloosa this weekend, that’s about to have to change.
“I think that in games like this players really get excited. If they don’t, they don’t understand Alabama football and they don’t understand playing in the SEC,” said Alabama head coach Nick Saban. “But I think we’ve got enough guys on our team that really understand that, so I don’t think that should be an issue.”
Florida isn’t the SEC powerhouse they once were, but the Crimson Tide hasn’t played them since 2011, back when both teams were perennially competing for national championships. The winner of this game has actually gone on to win the national title after their last several meetings. And even though the Gators have been down in recent years, their squad this season is far more talented than the Tide’s first three opponents.
Alabama is looking forward to the challenge.
“You always want to prepare for a game like it’s Florida or LSU or something, but going into the SEC gets everyone excited,” Alabama offensive lineman Austin Shepherd said. “This is kind of what you live for. This is why you came to Alabama — to play teams like this.”
This isn’t just another game for Saban, either. He will be coaching head-to-head against Will Muschamp, his former assistant at LSU. Saban has only faced Muschamp once as a head coach and has called the Florida coach one of his favorite assistants. But the friendliness floats away once the game kicks off; it’s strictly business. Saban has won seven consecutive games against his former staff members, with an average margin of victory of 31.4 points.
“My responsibility is to Alabama football and what we have to do to try to be successful here but it’s never personal with me when it comes to the opponent,” Saban said. “I never try to make it personal. We compete against each other and we’re still friends. That’s the way it’s going to be.”
Other than the proper technique of screaming at referees, which Muschamp has exacted since leaving Saban, the two coaches won’t be the most exciting one-on-one matchup of the day.
The matchup to watch will be the battle between Florida’s All-SEC cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III and Alabama’s star receiver Amari Cooper, who’s racked up big numbers in the Tide’s first three games but sometimes seems like the only guy quarterback Blake Sims pays attention to. It’s hard to argue with success, though. Few players on West Virginia, FAU and Southern Miss could tackle Cooper, let alone prevent him from catching the ball in the first place. Hargreaves will have to change that if the Gators hope to slow down Lane Kiffin’s high-powered offensive attack.
“[Amari] will probably get a lot more man-to-man coverage in this game, and it’ll be interesting to see how he handles that. He does a good job with it in practice,” Saban said. “But one of the reasons for getting more people involved in the offense is they need to have confidence and we need to have confidence in them so the other team can’t zero in on one guy.”
Having an All-American-level talent like Hargreaves lining up against Cooper may be a blessing in disguise for Alabama. If he slows him down even a bit, Sims will be forced to target other receivers. If he does try to force the ball, however, Hargreaves may end up in the end zone. So, paging O.J. Howard: you might be needed this week.
During his final press conference of the week, Saban cautioned the media to not underestimate Florida, a message he’s consistently delivered to his team in the days leading up to the game.
“Florida has an outstanding team: Way better, way better than anybody here thinks, in terms of the players that they have,” Saban said. “They lost a lot of players due to injury last year, they got a lot of players back that are very, very good players.
“And regardless of what anybody thinks, they’ll be as talented as probably anybody that we play this year, aight, so, it’s going to be important that our players play their very best.”
Alabama and Florida play Saturday at 2:30 p.m. (CST) on CBS.
Follow Jonathan on Twitter @Jonathan_Biles
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