Atlanta is not the capital of Alabama.
It’s just seemed that way since Nick Saban became the football coach of the Crimson Tide.
Alabama will play for the 15th time in Atlanta under Saban this Saturday when the No. 2 Crimson Tide and Duke vie in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Tide are 13-1 in their 14 previous trips, with the only loss coming in the 2008 Southeastern Conference championship game against a Florida lineup that included Tim Tebow at quarterback, Percy Harvin at receiver and Brandon Spikes at linebacker.
The Georgia Dome once felt like Alabama’s home away from home, but now it’s Mercedes-Benz, which opened in 2017 with a $1.6 billion price tag. It already has housed the Tide whipping Florida State 24-7 in the 2017 Chick-fil-A Kickoff, topping Georgia 26-23 in overtime for the 2017 national championship and rallying past Georgia 35-28 last December to win the SEC title.
“It does seem like another home, because we’ve been playing there for a long time,” Alabama junior safety Xavier McKinney said this week in a news conference. “I think it’s a good experience for everybody. I like playing in domes, personally. I like playing in NFL stadiums, and I think these games help you prepare for road games.”
Alabama routed Clemson 34-10 in the inaugural Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in 2008 and has since won four more season openers in Atlanta. The Tide also have won six SEC titles, a playoff semifinal over Washington and the national championship over Georgia in the Peach State’s largest city.
The Tide are set to challenge Southern California next season in the Dallas suburb of Arlington before facing Miami in the 2021 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, but they will then begin home-and-home series with Texas (2022-23), Wisconsin (2024-25), West Virginia (2026-27) and Notre Dame (2028-29).
Though Alabama’s looming shift from neutral-site opening games is obvious, Saban has found plenty of value in them, including Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. showdown.
“We’re going to play an SEC game on the road early in the season (South Carolina on Sept. 14), and for a lot of our young players, this is an opportunity to prepare them to play on the road,” Saban said. “You’re going to travel, and you’ve got to focus, because you’re at a different place playing in a new stadium. There are a lot of external factors that can affect your focus on what you need to be doing.
“This is an experience to do that, and it’s great from a program exposure standpoint. We’ve had games in Atlanta, Dallas and other places that have given our program a lot of exposure, which I think is important.”
For Alabama’s 2016 signees, this will be their sixth trip to Atlanta with the Tide. It’s the fourth trip for 2017 signees such as McKinney and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who already has a lifetime of Mercedes-Benz memories given that he replaced Jalen Hurts and rallied the Tide past Georgia for the 2017 national title but had to be replaced by Hurts in last year’s SEC championship game.
Tagovailoa will not need to look around much against the Blue Devils.
“It helps because you know where the game clock is going to be,” Tagovailoa said. “You know where a lot of things are going be.”
As Alabama’s wins in Atlanta have increased, so have the number of its alumni returning to the Georgia capital as NFL players. Former Alabama receivers Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley compete for the Atlanta Falcons, while former Tide running back Mark Ingram made plenty of trips to the visiting locker room as a member of the New Orleans Saints.
“When you play in the atmospheres that the professionals play in, it’s something that you’ve dreamed of as a kid,” Tagovailoa said. “Being able to play in an atmosphere like this is awesome. It’s almost close to my dream.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.