This Saturday night the Alabama Crimson Tide host the Florida Gators in what is one of the most anticipated match ups of the college football season. Last year these two met in the SEC Championship Game, with Alabama winning 32-13, walking away with the title and moving on to win the National Championship. Kickoff is set for 8:00 PM ET, with television coverage on CBS. According to the latest college football odds for the game, Alabama is a 7.5 point favorite at home, with an over/under set for 48 total points.
These two have played for the SEC title in each of the last two seasons, with the winner moving on to win the national title in both cases. It will not be impossible for the loser to rebound and make it back to the title game, but the winner clearly has a significant advantage in returning to the conference championship.
Alabama is coming off of an impressive come-from-behind victory at rival Arkansas last week, the Tides’ 28th straight regular season win. Bama will also be defending a 16-game home winning streak on Saturday, but head coach Nick Saban isn’t taking anything for granted.
“Florida is an outstanding team. They probably have a record of dominance, more than any team in our league, over what they’ve done in the last few years under Urban Meyer, who is an outstanding coach and does a great job with them. They’ve got a lot of team speed. They’ve got good players at all the skill positions. They’ve got a good offensive line. Defensively they’re very active, run well, have a lot of team speed and they play outstanding on special teams. This is as good of an all-around team as we’ve played all year.”
Urban Meyer has run up some impressive streaks of his own while coaching the Florida Gators. During his tenure, the Gators have posted a 24-game regular season winning streak, including winning 13 consecutive games on the road. Last week Meyer led the Gators to a dominating 48-14 victory over the Kentucky Wildcats.
After putting up huge numbers against the Wildcats last week, the Gators’ offensive production improved to 37.8 points per game on 354.5 yards of total offense. QB Jeff Brantley hasn’t been spectacular, but his 700 yards on 64% completions and six touchdowns to just one interception has helped ease Florida fans into the post-Tebow era.
This will be Florida’s toughest defensive match up by far this season, but it is worth noting that the Gators have held their opponents to less than 300 yards passing per game (295.5) and less than 100 yards rushing per game (94.0). Stopping the run will be at the top of the to-do list for Florida’s front with last year’s Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram on the field.
The Crimson Tide have put up some staggering offensive numbers so far this season. Their running game has been especially productive, averaging 245 yards per game on 6.5 yards per carry. Overall the Alabama
offense is averaging just under 40 points (39.5) and it has managed to average 512 yards of total offense over their first 4 games.
Unfortunately for their opponents, Alabama’s defense might be more intimidating than their offense. With just two returning starters from last season, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year for Nick Saban’s defense. That has not been the case so far this season with the Tide holding opponents to just 9.7 points per game on 295 yards of total offense.
After last week’s great game between Alabama and Arkansas, football fans are looking for more great SEC action with this fierce rivalry. Alabama is the favorite and will have the benefit of playing on their home field, but the Gators are brimming with confidence and are not likely to give in without a heck of a fight.
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