TIDE, TAKE THREE• 1. Alabama has won seven straight games over Arkansas by the average score of 42-13.• 2. Nick Saban will be coaching in his 100th game for the Crimson Tide, having posted an 83-16 record with three national titles.• 3. The Crimson Tide have defeated Arkansas 17 times in 24 tries, but the official series record is 14-8 due to two vacated wins (2005, 2007) and a forfeit (1993).
Alabama head coach Nick Saban applauds on the sidelines.Alabama has defeated Arkansas 52-0 each of the past two football seasons, but nobody is expecting a third such result.
The No. 7 Crimson Tide are having to regroup following Saturday's 23-17 loss at Ole Miss, but the bigger reason for a closer encounter this week in Fayetteville is the improved play of the Razorbacks. Arkansas is coming off an open date with a 3-2 record, which could have been 4-1 had the Razorbacks not lost a two-touchdown lead in their 35-28 overtime loss to Texas A&M on Sept. 27.
"Arkansas is probably the most improved team in the country if you want to compare from last year to this year," Alabama coach Nick Saban said Monday in his weekly news conference. "They've really played very, very well all season long and had a great chance to beat A&M. They have been dominating in terms of the way they've been able to run the football and pass it effectively when they've needed to."
Arkansas leads the Southeastern Conference and ranks sixth nationally with 316.6 rushing yards per game, while the Crimson Tide lead the SEC and rank third nationally by allowing just 64.0 rushing yards a game. The Razorbacks have three rushing touchdowns of more than 80 yards already this season, and by three different people.
Jonathan Williams had a 90-yard touchdown and Keon Hatcher an 82-yard score in the 73-7 dismantling of Nicholls State on Sept. 6, and Alex Collins found the end zone from 84 yards out the following week in a 49-28 win at Texas Tech.
The Razorbacks will be the first traditional offense Alabama has faced this season.
"I never thought I would be here in my lifetime as a coach where running regular I-formation plays and running the ball with two wide receivers and two backs in the backfield would be the anomaly of football," Saban said. "We have not played a dozen snaps of regular defense all year long based on the style of play we see each and every week. I think spread offenses are good offenses, and there are very effective running teams doing that, but this is really old-fashioned, hard-nosed, Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes kind of football.
"It's so different that during the bye week we spent a day on trying to review regular defense that we don't ever seem to play."
Saban provided an update Monday on the three key players injured in Saturday's setback. Junior center Ryan Kelly is expected out at least two weeks with a sprained knee, while junior linebacker Denzel Devall could miss a month with an ankle injury and junior tailback Kenyan Drake is out for the season after breaking his leg.
Devall and Drake have undergone surgery, according to Saban.
Arkansas running back Alex Collins will help lead a traditional offense against Alabama.Redshirt freshman Bradley Bozeman replaced Kelly at center midway through the third quarter at Ole Miss and is among a limited number of options to continue in that role.
"It's not just a position you can throw a guy into," Saban said. "You have to be able to step and snap the ball, and most players who haven't played center are not accustomed to doing that. Bozeman and [true freshmen] Josh Casher and J.C. Hassenauer are the guys we have, and we're going to have to develop those guys at center. You can't just move the right tackle to center and tell him to be a center. It doesn't work that way.
"I wish we could so we could always have our five best guys out there, but the center is the one position where a lot of things have to go correctly before you go and block the guy."
Although Alabama has had three dominant performances this season at Bryant-Denny Stadium, the team has struggled away from home. In their last four games away from Tuscaloosa dating back to last season, the Crimson Tide have lost at Auburn and to Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, posted a somewhat shaky 33-23 win over West Virginia in the opening Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic in Atlanta and then lost in Oxford.
"It's like we were scared to lose," senior running back Jalston Fowler told reporters Monday. "Everybody wasn't playing their 'A' game. It's like if we escaped with a win, everything would be all right."
Said Saban of the recent road woes: "I don't think we've played with the same kind of energy and enthusiasm for whatever reasons. I'm not saying we didn't play hard, but we need to finish things."
Tide tidbits
True freshman left tackle Cam Robinson did not allow a sack or a pressure at Ole Miss, and he did not commit any penalties. ... True freshman punter JK Scott averaged 51.8 yards on six kicks and had a season-long of 64. ... Alabama's home game on Oct. 18 against Texas A&M was picked up Monday by CBS and will have a 3:30 p.m. kickoff. ... Arkansas resident and Tide sophomore tailback Altee Tenpenny is now third on the depth chart behind T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry with Drake and Tyren Jones (finger) injured.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.