Nervousness was all over the fans of Alabama football during the first half of its last two matchups, as both Citadel and Auburn kept the game close.
Nick Saban saw his offense start both contest slow, before finally kicking into high gear and ultimately wiping out opposition. However, the University of Georgia presents a much more difficult task and after suffering a heart-breaking loss to the Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff national title game to start this year, head coach Kirby Smart is out for revenge.
He has talent on both side of the football, including quarterback Jake Fromm, running backs D’Andre Swith and Elijah Holyfield, receivers Mecole Hardman, Riley Ridley, Terry Godwin and Issac Nauta (tight end) and on defense, the Bulldogs have linebacker D’Andre Walker, defensive lineman Jonathan Ledbetter and Deandre Baker in its secondary.
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For his presser on Monday, Saban said Georgia is “one of the most complete teams in college football.”
He was very complimentary of Fromm’s growth as a signal caller and talked about how Smart has really developed his players. Despite the Tide being projected to win by 10.5 points this weekend, it knows it cannot have a repeat of what happened in the last two weeks.
Whether it is not pushing guys too hard or finding a different way to create a mental edge, getting off to a fast start is imperative for Alabama to defeat Georgia in Atlanta.
“You always want to make sure your team is physically fresh,” Saban said, in answering a question on why the Tide has had slow starts in recent games. “But, the more difficult thing to determine is ‘Are the players getting mentally tired?’ And I think that you want to make sure both parts of that equation are in order to be fresh and ready to go.”
Following his record-setting Iron Bowl performance, Tua Tagovailoa took the podium for his portion of media interviews. The sophomore quarterback and Heisman frontrunner echoed the message of his head coach – leading into his second time facing the Bulldogs.
“We need to go out there and start fast,” Tagovailoa said. “We have not started fast throughout the second part of the season. Execution is a big part of our offense. We got to find creases in our running game and get the ball downfield. We should be fine, if we are able to do that.”
Upon making halftime adjustments, the Tide was much better in second half versus Citadel and the Tigers – outscoring both teams, 75-14 to earn blowout wins.
While both teams will look to pressure quarterbacks on defense, Alabama’s key to victory will be starting the first half against Georgia in the same way it kicked off the second half of action in previous games.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
