Florida DE Sherit out for SEC title game

“It really prepared us for the national championship game because all of the buzz, the hype”, Barker said.

It’s not just that Saban is still on top. Yes, maybe Alabama can not win the SEC title game and go on into the playoff.

But there is a blueprint for beating Nick Saban’s Alabama teams. That’s a winning percentage of.888 in SEC games.

The coaches selected him as one of the team’s special teams players of the week following the game against Mississippi State on November 12.

I don’t think Roy Kramer and Co. ever envisioned anything remotely like the 2016 Alabama Crimson Tide – a team so dominant and so far ahead of the rest of college football that the following statement can even be considered … Also the Crimson Tide are backed by a defense that ranks as the best in the country.

“It’s always interesting this time of year and how whatever comes out”, McElwain said.

Just like the team refuses to even contemplate a loss, players and coaches maintain there’s no concern for perfection entering Saturday’s conference championship game. “Obviously Jeremy (Pruitt) has come in and built on what Kirby (Smart) had done, adapted to the personnel they have, doing what coach (Saban) expects”.

Bret Bielema, Arkansas: Hired in December 2012 from Wisconsin, where he was 65-24 in seven seasons and led the Badgers to three consecutive Rose Bowls; is 25-25 with the Razorbacks, 10-22 in SEC play; is 3-13 against Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Texas A&M.

Again, Alabama is a lock for the playoff, win or lose; the question, then, is this: How will freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts handle a Gators defense that ranks third nationally in pass defense (158.0 ypg), fifth in scoring defense (14.6 ppg) and sixth in total defense (292 ypg)? The sophomore quarterback was playing against the team that gave the Crimson Tide its only loss the season before.

Every team has a growing injury list as the season wears on but Florida added yet another, defensive end Jordan Sherrit, who McElwain said will be out of Saturday’s SEC championship game against top-ranked and unbeaten Alabama, at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome. The Gators are 2-0 against Georgia and 0-2 against Florida State under McElwain and have split games against LSU (first win since 2012 this season) and Tennessee (first loss since 2004 this season). Florida would put the game away with an 8 play 65 yard drive to score a touchdown with 2:50 left in the game to secure a 31-20 victory over Alabama.

Alabama, No. 1 in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings, has a chance to become the first team to win three straight SEC championships since Florida won four from 1993 to 1996. The Alabama offense is averaging 39.4 points and 479.6 yards per game and they have turned the ball over 19 times.

On Saturday, the Gators will take the field as 24-point underdogs, if the odds hold steady. And that may be the case for MI head coach Jim Harbaugh. Auburn, under head coach Terry Bowden, was in the game for the first time as well.

– Asked about Langham, who played for Saban in 1994 when both were with the Cleveland Browns, the Alabama coach said, “You know, Antonio didn’t run a great time at the combine and everyone was anxious about his speed”.

In a year in which the SEC revealed the new campaign slogan “It just means more”, it feels as if it has actually never meant less. Has there been too much emphasis on promoting assistants? I’m not sure there’s any one answer. I guess it’s Coach Saban and how he prepares his guys, but every year we play these guys, it’s different than when you play everybody else. And coach McElwain has a point. They and Sumlin are the only ones above.500 in league play.