Alabama’s top-ranked football team has several things it needs to accomplish Saturday afternoon in order to stop a two-year slide against Ole Miss.
Getting overly anxious isn’t one of them.
The Crimson Tide lost 23-17 two years ago at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, the site of Saturday’s game, and were a bit too antsy throughout last year’s rematch in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama committed five turnovers and didn’t cause any in a 43-37 setback.
“I think creating a bunch of anxiety with players is not the right way to go,” Tide coach Nick Saban said this week in a news conference. “We were pretty anxious in this game last year, and it sure didn’t help us play very well. So hopefully instead of anxiety, we’ll have high achievement and motivation to play for a full 60 minutes.”
Alabama has rebounded from losses to Ole Miss the past two seasons to win the Southeastern Conference championship, with last year’s team claiming the national title as well. Last year’s recovery was especially impressive given that the Crimson Tide were 0-1 in league play but closed with seven straight wins, including six by double digits.
Most of Alabama’s unraveling in last year’s game against Ole Miss was caused by older players. Graduate transfer quarterback Jake Coker threw two interceptions and senior tailback Kenyan Drake fumbled a kickoff return midway through the second quarter.
Hopes of reversing recent fortunes against the Rebels (1-1) this year in the SEC opener for both teams hinge to a significant degree with Jalen Hurts, who last Saturday became the first true freshman to start at quarterback for the Crimson Tide (2-0) since Vince Sutton in 1984.
“The one thing I like about Jalen is that he’s got a good disposition about playing the next play,” Saban said. “We’re going through a learning curve with him in trying to get him confident in making choices and decisions that will be beneficial to him and to the offense. It’s going to be a work in progress, but the thing I like is that he doesn’t get frustrated. He doesn’t get discombobulated.
“He’s got a lot of poise and a lot of inner confidence. He believes that he can do it.”
Hurts had a solid debut as a starter during last Saturday’s 38-10 win against Western Kentucky, completing 23 of 36 passes for 287 yards and two touchdowns, and it could have been one for the ages. Had O.J. Howard not dropped a potential 22-yard touchdown, Gehrig Dieter not dropped a potential 40-yard touchdown and a 63-yard pass to ArDarius Stewart not been called back due to a penalty, the 6-foot-2, 210-pounder from Channelview, Texas, would have had 412 yards and four scores through the air.
The drops by Howard and Dieter also factored into Hurts completing just 4 of 15 passes on attempts more than 20 yards down the field.
“He’s got a strong, strong arm,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “There are times the defensive backs will level off and think, ‘Well, the guy is on the move. I should be in good shape,’ but you’re not because of his arm strength. He’s very accurate with it. The shots that they’ve taken down the field have been very effective.”
Said Saban: “If we all do what we’re supposed to do better, that’s going to take a lot of pressure off whoever is playing quarterback. That’s the more significant issue for us right now.”
Saturday is not only the first trip to Oxford for Hurts but redshirt freshman quarterback Blake Barnett, who also is expected to play, sophomore tailbacks Damien Harris and Bo Scarbrough, and freshman right tackle Jonah Williams. Having graded out at 85 percent in each of his first two games, Williams is drawing praise from Saban and teammates.
“I’ve seen extreme maturity out of him,” redshirt junior center Bradley Bozeman said. “He came here to play, and he hasn’t looked back since.”
Alabama also has several key defenders who will be suiting up inside Vaught-Hemingway for the first time, most notably sophomore defensive backs Minkah Fitzpatrick, Ronnie Harrison and Marlon Humphrey.
LSU is the only other program to defeat a Saban-coached Alabama team in consecutive seasons, with the Tigers topping the Crimson Tide in 2010 and 2011. In the latter season, the Tigers and Tide met again several weeks later in the BCS championship game in New Orleans, with Alabama rolling to a 21-0 triumph.
The last program to defeat a Saban-coached team three straight years was Purdue in the late 1990s, when Saban was at Michigan State. The Boilermakers were coached by Joe Tiller and quarterbacked by Drew Brees.
Now it’s up to the 2016 Tide to stay cool and collected in order to prevent Ole Miss from pulling another rare feat.
“They have a great quarterback – that Chad Kelly is a winner,” Harrison said. “We’ve just got to come out and keep everything contained and keep them from making big plays.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.