The best and worst teams so far this season in Southeastern Conference football will square off Saturday afternoon when No. 1 Alabama puts its 5-0 record on the line at Arkansas, which has lost four straight games since an opening win over Eastern Illinois.
At Monday’s weekly news conference, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban came prepared with potential motivational tactics.
“Fayetteville has always been a difficult place to play,” Saban said. “We have a lot of respect for Arkansas. With Chad Morris, you can see them getting better and better each week, and they played their best game of the year this past Saturday against Texas A&M. This is a very capable team, and this is what I call a trap game for us.”
There are several truthful aspects to Saban’s comments, beginning with Saturday’s locale. Alabama survived Arkansas in Fayetteville 24-20 in 2010 and 14-13 in 2014, but the Crimson Tide posted a 52-0 road rout in 2012 and won 49-30 in their last visit there.
The Razorbacks are getting better each week, as Saban mentioned, with last Saturday’s 24-17 loss to Texas A&M looking a lot more impressive than the 44-17 loss to North Texas on Sept. 15, but a trap game?
Typically, trap games are sandwiched between tougher contests, but Alabama is coming off a 49-0 massacre during the first half of a 56-14 win over Louisiana that impressed even him.
“Sometimes you wonder what you get out of games like the one we just played,” Saban said, “but one thing I was really pleased with is that our players went out there and played with the right competitive character and started the game fast. Regardless of the resistance we had, we played to our standard.”
Arkansas is 0-11 against the Saban-coached Tide, the only SEC West program that remains winless against him. Alabama has won eight of the past 10 meetings by double digits, with a 3-0 league start also serving as motivation this week.
“Conference play is always huge, especially a win in your division,” senior center Ross Pierschbacher told reporters. “It gets us one step closer to our goal, so we’ll need to step it up even more this week.”
Alabama is a 34-point favorite against the Razorbacks, who allowed a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown against North Texas and a 96-yard kickoff return in a 34-3 loss at Auburn.
Special teams may be the biggest edge in Saturday’s game as well, with the Crimson Tide leading the nation with 42.4 yards per kickoff return and with Arkansas allowing 30.1 yards a return to rank 124th. Alabama has yet to allow a yard on a punt return, while the Razorbacks are yielding 15.5 yards per return to rank 117th nationally.
“They’re good in some of the special teams, but I think it’s been a little inconsistent,” Saban said. “When you have new coaches and do things differently, the players don’t always understand what they’re supposed to do and how they’re supposed to do it. They’ve been very effective at times, but they’ve had some plays that have hurt them as well.
“We’re going to work hard to do the best we can on special teams to create some advantages in this game, and we try to do that in every game we play.”
Lewis update
Saban was asked Monday about junior outside linebacker Terrell Lewis, who suffered a torn ACL in July conditioning.
Lewis missed 10 games last year due to an elbow injury in the opening win over Florida State, but he returned to help the Crimson Tide smother Clemson in the Sugar Bowl national semifinal and had a 13-yard sack of Georgia’s Jake Fromm during overtime of the national championship game.
“Terrell is making really good progress in his rehab and what he is able to do,” Saban said. “I’m not a doctor, so it’s a medical decision as to when he can start running and doing drills, when he can practice and when he can play. There is no established timetable. It is strictly up to the medical staff.”
Tide tidbits
Pierschbacher graded out at 92 percent with no missed assignments in 49 snaps against the Ragin’ Cajuns. Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa (238.3) and Jalen Hurts (198.3) are listed in this week’s SEC notes as the two highest-rated quarterbacks in the league in efficiency. Next week’s contest against visiting Missouri will be televised by ESPN with a 7 p.m. EDT kickoff.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.