TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama is entering its first open date of the season with a 5-0 record that has transpired by an average victory margin of 37 points.
The Crimson Tide will have some extra time off as the new No. 1 team in the nation, as Saturday’s 59-31 defeat of visiting Ole Miss coupled with Clemson’s 21-20 outlasting of North Carolina resulted in last season’s College Football Playoff finalists swapping spots in The Associated Press poll and the USA Today Amway coaches poll. Although the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 has moved down after a victory 90 times since the poll’s debut in 1936, Clemson is the first program to do since Ohio State in November 2015.
Alabama will next play Oct. 12 at Texas A&M, which is ranked No. 25 in the AP and No. 21 in the Amway after topping Arkansas 31-27 on Saturday.
“You can look at the bye week as a week off, or you can look at the bye week and say, ‘There are a lot of things we need to improve on,’ and that’s certainly the approach that we want to take with our team,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “I always say that if you win and don’t play well, that’s not always a good thing, and that’s something our team needs to understand and our team needs to know.
“People have to have the disposition that they want to go out and improve this week. We didn’t obviously play a complete game and got exposed in some areas where we didn’t play very well, and we’ve got to get some of those things fixed.”