Iron Bowl tailgating for Thanksgiving

In his last availability before the Iron Bowl, Alabama coach Nick Saban spent some time talking about Thanksgiving, one of his favorite holidays.

The Tigers do have the Tide on The Plains this year, but they aren’t exactly expected to win the game, let alone hang 60 on an Alabama defense that ranks No. 1 in almost every important statistical category in the SEC.

“(I remember the) look in the eyes of some of the seniors and you see them crying in the locker room and stuff like that”, Ragland said. “Everybody is just focused on this team and just winning games and reaching our ultimate goal”. We understand how the season went and how certain games went. “So we gotta come out and we gotta do our job and gotta try to get this win”.

The Tigers enter Saturday’s game with a 6-5 overall record and a 2-5 mark in Southeastern Conference play.

As for Alabama, with a victory, they’ll merely clinch the SEC West and pull within one win over sagging Florida to claim an SEC championship and playoff berth.

Auburn: QB Jeremy Johnson. That’s far from the only challenge confronting Auburn. The passing game hasn’t shown signs of being explosive enough to take the pressure off the ground game, with a receiving group that Alabama cornerback Cyrus Jones dismissed as “nothing special”. They earn the 10th-fewest penalties among Division I teams, averaging only 4.6 per game.

“They put their 2s in and they’re like most people’s 1s, or maybe even better”, he said. Malzahn didn’t rule out either of them playing. Alabama fans around the nation watched in horror as their team’s flawless season was ticked away from 1 second and 109 yards left on the clock. So it’s all the less encouraging that Auburn allowed just 13 offensive points and still absorbed a 20-13 defeat. The Heisman Trophy candidate takes on a defense that was abused for 228 yards and three touchdowns by Fournette early in the season. “He’s one of the best in the country, there’s no doubt”. Johnathan Ford leads the Tigers defense with 104 tackles, Kris Frost has 85 tackles, and Casanova McKinzy has 66 tackles including five sacks. Next up for Alabama is the annual Iron Bowl game with Auburn this Saturday, November 28, in Auburn. “You can’t like both”, his neighbor said. “It gets me going”, commented McCarron. “We gonna bring it just like they are going to bring it. They got good players and we have good players”.