Nick Saban’s team will face Hugh Freeze’s team at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 25 at 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on CBS.
It will be the final regular-season game for Alabama, who is aiming to finish undefeated in SEC play. This season, the Crimson Tide has won all seven of their SEC games. Saban’s team has only lost once, to Texas in Week 2.
Alabama will host Chattanooga before the Iron Bowl, while New Mexico State will go to Auburn to face the Tigers.
This is a standard Iron Bowl spot. May the pasture voodoo be kept to a bare minimum.
Nick Saban spoke to reporters as usual, and he was very happy with the offensive line’s progress this season.
“They played really well,” Saban said of his team. ” I believe Kentucky is strong up front. We discussed wanting to be the most physically fit team. They performed a good job, in my opinion. I believe we ran the ball better in the second half than we did in the first. And some of it was just how they were playing. But I was extremely impressed with how we controlled the line of scrimmage,
especially in the second half. I believe the pass protection was generally improved, and we intend to continue to improve in all areas.
“Her and Terrion are really kind of buddies,” Saban chuckled. “I know she texts with him and stuff like that.” I have a thing for him. It’s similar to parenting your children. I’m the guy who is always trying to persuade them to do the right thing, and she’s the mama who is always trying to make them happy. That has been the case for a long time.”
“I don’t ever want to see anybody get let go, whatever we want to call it, in this business,” he remarked. “I understand how hard everyone works. I understand how difficult it is to develop a program, to get athletes to compete at a high level on a consistent basis, and I have a lot of respect for those who work really hard to try to transform the lives of the kids they teach.”
“We’ve got all these freshmen who want to play as freshmen,” he remarked. And we’ve had, I don’t know how many, how many guys go out early for the draft? So, if it’s 45 guys, I’m not sure whether that’s the correct number, but I’ve had 32 phone calls multiplied by 45, whatever that number is. Hundreds of thousands, correct? I’ve never been asked how many games a guy played as a freshman. Never. Not even once. Everyone is curious, “What did you grow into?”
“I went to the dead-ball snap,” he admitted. “I believe the erroneous snaps have been cleaned up a little bit.” That’s something I’m still working on, just cleaning up the snaps in practice and in games — emphasizing how vital it is to get the ball in Milroe’s hands and allow him go to work doing what he’s so excellent at.”
“It’s strange to think that almost four years are coming to an end. Playing at Alabama has been a tremendous blessing for me, both personally and professionally. It has taken a lot of effort. It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever received. I’m grateful to coach Saban for believing in a small-framed, 6-3, 260-pound center from Buford, Georgia, all those years ago. Coming in as the class’s lowest-ranked recruit, it’s meant a lot to me to put in the work and show others that with hard work, you can play here and at a high level.”
This was the year that Alabama was finally disregarded. Objective eyes were turned gleefully on Colorado, of all places, as Deion Sanders’ entrance became a haven of freshness and hope before first-season realities set in. (A 34-31 home defeat to a surging Arizona on Tyler Loop’s game-winning 24-yard field goal on Saturday dropped the Buffaloes to 4-6 overall and 1-6 in the Pac-12, but recruitment remains hopeful.) The focus has shifted to Seattle, where Washington has had a fantastic season. (The Huskies’ 11-0 second-half shutout of No. 18 Utah Saturday gave them a 35-28 victory, a 10-0 record, and a 21-2 record under second-year coach Kalen DeBoer.)
