The Crimson Tide’s run defense is the best in the country, and their rushing attack on offense is one of the most devastating in college football.
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Today’s Alabama Crimson Tide vs Florida Gators college football game has a start time schedule of noon eastern time and airs on TV channel CBS. The Gators” No. 1 priority is to stack the box and force “Bama quarterback Jake Coker to beat them through the air. And, Florida has one of the top all-around defenses this year, ranked in the fifth position overall and fourth against the run. Florida coach Jim McElwain, a former Saban assistant in Alabama, said the Crimson Tide are great at getting the ball into the hands of the explosive players.
If Florida is going to have a chance on Saturday, it will need big-time performances from sophomore quarterback Treon Harris and junior running back Kelvin Taylor.
Florida gained just a single net yard from scrimmage on 10 second-quarter plays and got off only five plays in the third quarter as Alabama took charge. Florida saw its four-game winning streak come to an end last week as it fell to in-state rival Florida State, 27-2, at home.
I don’t anticipate today’s scoreline going that route, with the Gators expected to react to that defeat.
Florida and Alabama had been mainstays in the conference title game, but their last meeting prior to Saturday’s rematch altered the course of each program – and college football itself.
Defense was the story of the game for Alabama, especially early as the offense sputtered.
“To get back this quickly… we’ve got a long ways to go as an organization and a program, and yet the momentum this team has built is something everybody should be proud of”, McElwain said.
The killer was McElroy’s 17-yard touchdown to tight end Colin Peek.
Favored by five points, the Gators knew what hit them, fell behind and really never recovered. Henry has rushed for 1,797 yards this season, and he’s in striking distance of Herschel Walker’s SEC record of 1,891 rushing yards in a season. The Gators scored a touchdown on an Antonio Callaway punt return early in the second quarter, but the offense provided no support beyond a 46-yard pass to Callaway in the first quarter that led to a missed field goal. Henry has been the Heisman favorite ever since Alabama blew out LSU, and it seems unlikely that his status will change, given that he has averaged 208 yards in his last six games against SEC opponents.
“I actually might have hung up thinking it was one of my buddies busting my chops, not knowing he had a job opening”, McElwain said with a laugh.
On Saturday, the Gators will find out just how far McElwain’s program still has to go.
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“And you always watch and hope that they do well”. Heading in to another appearance within the SEC championship game, there isn’t any indication in that anyone is near knocking off Nick Saban’s behemoth from Tuscaloosa.
