Alabama-Florida for SEC title looks like massive mismatch

Can Florida provide an unlikely Shock? The Manning Award is given annually to college football’s top quarterback and is the only quarterback award that takes into account the candidates’ bowl performance.

Despite Alabama holding its spot at No. 1 in every major college ranking this season, there has been talk this week of the Tide being overrated heading into Saturday’s SEC Championship Game.

This would be a bad idea for most games, but Florida’s offense against Alabama’s defense looks like an incredibly lopsided matchup on paper.

As a fifth-year senior and native of McDonough, Georgia., Tomlinson will actually be a part of four Alabama teams to play in the SEC Championship, and will have played in its domed home away from home a total of six times in his career counting back-to-back appearances in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic. Alabama looks poised to take the series lead, as Nick Saban’s squad is a 24-point favorite, with an implied win expectancy of 92.6% based on the moneyline. “But they find a way to definitely plug them in”.

They opened the season with a pretty clear message with a huge win over USC and they have only improved from that moment. They will however get a key starter back in the lineup for Saturday’s game in Atlanta.

Florida coach Jim McElwain got a firsthand look at Saban’s genius while serving as his offensive coordinator. Allen racked up seven sacks through the first nine games of the season but hasn’t gotten to the quarterback in either of the last three contests.

“You all want to put everything on the playoffs, man”.

Florida is playing in the SEC Championship Game tomorrow as the SEC East division victor.

Considering the underdog status and the coaching rumors, many have counted the Gators out and ruled their season over.

To differentiate yards per rush on offense, the calculated superiority points to Alabama by a jaw-dropping 1.7. “It just means a lot”.

When Stallings got the Tide to the inaugural SEC title game in 1992 and slipped past the Gators 28-21, it was the first SEC title for ‘Bama since 1981. We are giving Florida 27 points.

Alabama takes this one handily.

“I think our fan base travels well to every game, especially to Atlanta”. We know we’re playing a well-coached, talented football team.

Now, this offensively challenged team must contend with the stingiest defense in the land.

“The guy coached me and I’m still in awe of how consistent he can keep being”, said former LSU All-American Marcus Spears, who played on Saban’s 2003 national title team.

“I haven’t thought about it”.

I see two scenarios in which Alabama won’t cover the spread in this game.

Other Alabama players of recent vintage who were from Florida include Javier Arenas (Tampa), Trent Richardson (Pensacola) and Ed Stinson (Homestead). “Hopefully, we can just do enough to help them finish so that they can do something of significance that will define their legacy as a team”. Even though they appeared to struggle against LSU, they were clearly the better team. And while they only played one ranked team during that stretch, they did hand the Buckeyes their only loss of the season.

And how can Saban not make use of a guy like that against the Gators’ hobbled defense? With 2:50 left in the game, Tebow led the offense down the field and then hit Riley Cooper for a 5-yard score, as Florida clinched its second trip to the national title game in three years. If Florida pull this one off I think it would be one of the biggest upsets of the season. The Gators’ secondary is 13th in the country in yards per throw (6.1) and 7th in S&P+ and will match up well against Alabama’s efficient passing game.