Alabama wrapped up a week of on-campus practices for the Sugar Bowl on Friday.
Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide will have these next three days off for Christmas and return Tuesday for one more practice in Tuscaloosa. They will leave Wednesday for New Orleans, where they hope to hone in on Clemson by day and behave at night.
“Coach Saban has talked to our leadership about how there’s not too much good in New Orleans,” junior nose tackle Da’Ron Payne said Thursday during a news conference.
When sophomore outside linebacker Anfernee Jennings was asked Thursday about Bourbon Street, he replied, “I don’t plan on going.”
Alabama has lost its last three Sugar Bowl contests, falling to Utah 31-17 after the 2008 regular season, 45-31 to Oklahoma after the 2013 regular season and 42-35 to Ohio State after the 2014 regular season. The Crimson Tide suffered heartbreaking losses to Florida in December 2008 and Auburn in November 2013 and may not have been fully invested in those two Sugar Bowls, but the matchup against Ohio State was a national semifinal in college football’s inaugural four-team playoff.
The Crimson Tide entered the 2014 playoff as the top seed, but they are the fourth and final seed in this year’s event that also includes Oklahoma and Georgia, which practiced Friday in Athens before taking the Christmas weekend off. Alabama is the lone participant in this year’s playoff without a conference championship.
Alabama won its first 11 games this season but lost the Southeastern Conference’s Western Division title with the 26-14 defeat at Auburn on Nov. 25.
“We didn’t know whether or not we were going to get in this year,” junior tight end Hale Hentges said. “Now we’ve got to keep that same hunger and mentality and hopefully give these guys a run for their money.”
Said Jennings: “You saw the vote and how everything went. We’re all that we’ve got, and we’re going to do what we’ve got to do.”
Alabama has yet to win a Sugar Bowl under Saban, but that doesn’t mean the Crimson Tide haven’t won under him in New Orleans. In the BCS championship game after the 2011 season, Alabama whipped LSU 21-0 in a rematch of a regular-season game at Bryant-Denny Stadium that the Tide lost 9-6 in overtime.
Brown picks Tide
On Friday’s final day of the early signing period, Alabama picked up a commitment from Bobby Brown, a 6-foot-4, 282-pound defensive tackle from Arlington, Texas. Brown is a four-star prospect, according to 247Sports.com, which rates him as the nation’s No. 16 defensive tackle and No. 170 overall prospect.
Brown previously committed to Texas A&M but opened his recruitment Wednesday.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall at timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.