Oklahoma quarterback Trevor Knight (9) passes pas Alabama linebacker Adrian Hubbard (42) pursues in the first half of the NCAA college football Sugar Bowl against Alabama in New Orleans, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Rusty Costanza)TIDE, TAKE THREE
1. Alabama has scored 149 points in its last three meetings against Texas A&M, an average of 49.7 points per game.2. Crimson Tide senior safety Eddie Jackson leads the nation in punt returns (25.8 yards per return) and punt returns for touchdowns (two).3. Alabama will be making its 28th appearance on ESPN’s “College Game Day” since Nick Saban became coach in 2007. Oregon is next with 20 appearances.
Different uniform.
Same concerns.
Alabama has not allowed many four-touchdown passing performances in recent seasons, with Oklahoma's Trevor Knight accomplishing the feat in the Sugar Bowl after the 2013 season and Clemson's Deshaun Watson turning the trick in last season's national championship game. Knight is now a graduate transfer quarterback with the No. 6 Texas A&M Aggies, who face the top-ranked Crimson Tide this Saturday inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.
"He's an outstanding athlete and is very capable of running the ball," Alabama coach Nick Saban said Monday in his weekly news conference. "They've had a lot of quarterback runs where he's made a lot of explosive plays, whether it's on quarterback draws or zone reads. He passed the ball well when we played against him before, and he has done that this year extremely well for them to create that kind of balance in their offense that makes them difficult to defend.
"From a production standpoint, he's as productive a player as we've played against all year."
Knight enters this showdown of remaining undefeated Southeastern Conference teams guiding an offense that is averaging 532.8 yards and 40.2 points per game. The 6-foot-1, 215-pounder from San Antonio has completed 115 of 215 passes (53.5 percent) for 1,500 yards with nine touchdowns and five interceptions.
Within the league, Knight ranks fifth in passing yards and 10th in rushing yards, having carried 65 times for 502 yards (7.7 per carry) and nine scores. Aggies freshman running back Trayveon Williams is third in the SEC with 704 yards and is averaging 8.6 yards per rush.
"They're a spread-type team, and Trevor Knight has played a lot of football and seen a lot of defenses," Tide junior inside linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton said. "They also have a really good freshman running back, so we've got our hands full."
The first time Alabama faced Knight, the Crimson Tide were coming off a devastating 34-28 loss at Auburn in which the Tigers scored from more than 100 yards out on the game's final play. Alabama entered that Iron Bowl ranked No. 1 and having defeated its first 11 foes by the average score of 41-9, but a bid for a third consecutive national title dramatically ended inside Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Saban pledged that the Tide would not let the Auburn defeat affect the Oklahoma contest the way a loss to Florida in the 2008 SEC title game carried over in a humbling setback against Utah in the Sugar Bowl a few weeks later, but Knight had other plans.
Then a redshirt freshman, Knight shredded the Tide, completing 32 of 44 passes (72.7 percent) for 348 yards with the four scores as the Sooners prevailed 45-31.
"That was obviously a night when I played well and our offense played really well and our whole team played really well," Knight said this past summer. "That was a team that had to battle adversity. We didn't have the most talent in the world, but we just put things together and believed in the system."
Knight eventually lost his job at Oklahoma to current Sooners starter Baker Mayfield, and he announced in January that he was transferring to Texas A&M. To say his second marriage has worked out would be an understatement, as Knight and Louisville's Lamar Jackson are the only Bowl Subdivision quarterbacks currently with at least 1,500 passing yards and 500 rushing yards this season.
So effective has Knight been at his second home that Saban isn't planning on reviewing their first encounter.
"We've got enough issues trying to defend what they've got to worry about what Oklahoma did three years ago," Saban said. "We know what kind of player he is. It's very obvious in the film, and I think a lot of the things he did then, he's doing now."
Tide tidbits
Crimson Tide senior right guard Alphonse Taylor remains day-to-day with a concussion and did not go through any contact during Monday's 75-minute workout.... Alabama holds a 6-2 series edge against Texas A&M, which includes a 3-1 mark since the Aggies joined the SEC before the 2012 season.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.