Alabama football coach Nick Saban improved to 13-0 against his former assistants last Saturday afternoon when his top-ranked Crimson Tide defeated Jimbo Fisher's Texas A&M Aggies 45-23.
This Saturday afternoon, he'll have a chance to improve to 14-0.
Alabama is a seven-touchdown favorite against Louisiana, a program formerly known as Louisiana-Lafayette that is under the direction of first-year coach Billy Napier. A former quarterback at Murray County High School, Napier was an offensive analyst for the Crimson Tide in 2011 and served as their receivers coach for the 2013-16 seasons.
Napier was a part of national championship teams in 2011 and 2015.
"Billy is a very bright guy and a very good football coach," Saban said Monday during his weekly news conference. "He works hard, and I think he'll make a really good head coach. He did a good job for us, and they were very productive offensively at Arizona State last year when he was the coordinator there."
Napier was hired to guide a Sun Belt program that has not produced a winning season since 2014. The Ragin' Cajuns are 1-2 so far this year, opening with a 49-17 rout of Grambling before getting waxed by Mississippi State, 56-10, and then falling to Coastal Carolina this past weekend, 30-28.
The Coastal Carolina game was at home for Louisiana, and it was the league opener as well.
"We've showed that we are capable at times," Napier said in a news conference after that game, "but we're also inconsistent. That is on the coaching and the discipline that we teach the team, and those are things that I can control as a coach."
Of Saban's 13 wins against his former assistants, 12 have been by double digits. The lone exception was Alabama's 26-23 overtime triumph over the Georgia Bulldogs in January.
Saban's Crimson Tide defeated Derek Dooley's Tennessee Volunteers by a combined 122-29 during the 2010-12 seasons, and Saban has been especially tough on Michigan State's Mark Dantonio in two bowl games, winning by a combined count of 87-7. This Saturday should not be pretty, either.
"Billy Napier is trying to build a program there, and I think they've done some good things this season," Saban said. "They have a good quarterback (Andre Nunez) and some good offensive schemes. They present a lot of problems for you defensively in terms of adjustments.
"We really need to have the mindset of making improvements as a team. It's an important week for us to get better."
Safety concern
Alabama sophomore inside linebacker Dylan Moses crashed into a security guard and into a fence next to the end zone during the third quarter of Saturday's win over Texas A&M. Moses grabbed his lower back and stayed on the ground for a couple of minutes but eventually got up and returned to the game.
"I'm still kind of sore from it," Moses told reporters Monday. "It was a freak accident, and I had to play through some pain. I knew the fence was there, but I wasn't focused on it. I never thought I would run into it.
"It was really sudden. I didn't have time to brace myself."
Saban was asked about the incident and said it is being addressed.
"They're going to try to do some stuff to the stadium there to shave that corner off a little bit and pad it a little better," Saban said. "After being here all these years, I had never noticed that until that play, but that is definitely something that we are addressing."
Tide tidbits
Junior tight end Irv Smith has at least two receptions in every game so far this season. The Crimson Tide are 8-0 all-time against Louisiana, with their most recent win (25-6) occurring in a 1990 game at Lafayette. The average score of an Alabama contest so far this season is 54-13. Alabama's game at Arkansas next Saturday will have a noon EDT kickoff on ESPN.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.