TIDE ON TOP
Alabama will start the 2018 college football season in the same spot it concluded the 2017 season: at the top. The Crimson Tide were an overwhelming No. 1 in the Amway Coaches Poll, which was released Thursday. Here is the top 10:1. Alabama2. Clemson3. Ohio State4. Georgia5. Oklahoma6. Washington7. Wisconsin8. Miami9. Penn State10. Auburn
Alabama's overtime victory over Georgia in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium capped the 2017 college football season in dramatic fashion.
This afternoon, Nick Saban's Crimson Tide and Kirby Smart's Bulldogs will begin preseason practices with the shared goal of getting back to the championship game of the four-team playoff. The 2018 season will conclude in Santa Clara, California, though that fact is not expected to come up in the immediate days ahead.
"No team is the same, regardless of whether you're at the same school," Georgia senior defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter said during SEC Media Days. "Every year the team rebuilds, and you have to find a way to get that chemistry to where everyone is working as one. Everybody needs to be one machine, and we all need to be sacrificing for the guy next to you."
Given that Smart worked for nearly a decade as Saban's defensive coordinator in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs employ a nearly identical blueprint for getting each season started. The two programs are not only starting today, but each is holding fan day festivities on Saturday. The Saturday practices will be open to the public, and they will be preceded by media sessions in which the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator for each team will speak for the only time until the postseason.
Similarities between Alabama and Georgia are rampant, whether it involves last season's success, preseason practice schedules or questions within each roster.
The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs each have two touted quarterbacks, with the difference being Alabama's Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa have provided proof at the college level. Hurts was the SEC's offensive player of the year as a freshman in 2016 and is 26-2 as the Crimson Tide starter, but he struggled against Georgia in January and was replaced by Tagovailoa, who rallied Alabama from a 13-0 deficit to the 26-23 win.
Saban is not basing this season's starter on past performances.
"I'm not making any predetermined decisions about that," Saban said at SEC Media Days. "They need to continue to compete, just like every other person at every other position on our team is competing. I love both guys. They're both really good competitors. They are really good people. They are good leaders. They both make great contributions to our team. They are very well-liked.
"Somebody's got to win the team, and however these guys can help the team, I hope they are both committed to staying and doing that."
Georgia sophomore quarterback Jake Fromm was the surprise SEC newcomer of the year in 2017, guiding the Bulldogs over Auburn for their first league title in 12 seasons. Fromm entered last season as Jacob Eason's backup but ascended to the top spot midway through the first quarter of the opener against Appalachian State after Eason was injured.
Justin Fields, a five-star talent in Georgia's stellar 2018 signing class, is now the backup who's just a play away from taking the reins.
"Justin is a kid who's got tremendous ability," Smart said. "He is hungry and really came in wanting to learn right away. He got thrown right into the second row and has taken on the second-team role quickly. I'm excited about the things he's done. He gives us an element in our offense that we don't have, and I am excited to see what he can do.
"He's going to come in and compete very similar to the way Jake Fromm came in and competed with Eason."
Although the quarterback competitions at both Alabama and Georgia could be front and center from a fan and media interest standpoint this month, both teams have much more overhauling to do on defense.
The Crimson Tide return just three defensive starters from a year ago. They lost six defensive backs, including five who were drafted, and must overcome last month's setback of outside linebacker Terrell Lewis tearing an ACL.
"We lost a lot of really good football players, especially on defense," Saban said. "We had 10 guys sign NFL contracts, so there is going to be a lot of opportunity for a lot of young players at every position."
Georgia has just four starters back defensively, having bid farewell to three quality linebackers - Davin Bellamy, Lorenzo Carter and 2017 Butkus Award winner Roquan Smith. Yet that's just one area of the team Smart is excited to see take shape.
"Everybody talks about iron sharpens iron, and that's true," Smart said. "We're are going to have some of the most epic battles we've had for who is going to be the right guard, who is going to be left guard and who is going to be the starting defensive tackle.
"That's what drives us to have success - those battles that happen throughout camp."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.