No. 1 Alabama romps past Florida 54-16 in SEC title game

Howard, will face the Florida Gators, paced by QB Austin Appleby, in the Southeastern Conference Championship game on Saturday, December 3, 2016, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

Alabama finished with 174 yards rushing in the second half.

In 1992, Alabama defeated Florida, 28-21, in the inaugural SEC Championship game at Birmingham’s Legion Field.

Alabama will be the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoffs, and will draw the No. 4 seed when the final pairings are announced Sunday.

“To do that three years in a row is a really significant accomplishment, especially these guys who have challenged all year long by playoff game after playoff game, but this is the first championship game we had, and they really responded well”.

Florida needs a new name for its special teams unit.

Good luck with that against the Tide, which have given up 10 points or less in eight games. Alabama will play in one of the CFP semifinals on December 31 and it will be a return trip either way: back to the Georgia Dome to play in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl or to the site of last year’s national championship game at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., where the Tide beat Clemson 45-40.

The game got off to a odd start as Florida marched down the field on the opening drive for a touchdown to take an early 7-0 lead.

Then Derrick Gore blocked a Florida punt and Josh Jacobs returned it 27 yards for a score.

Before leaving the game, Hamilton had one tackle and one interception, which he almost returned for a touchdown. Expect Hurts to once again be the focal point of Alabama’s offense, especially in the ground game.

The Crimson Tide rushed for 234 yards in the win, which is 234 more than Florida mustered; the Gators were held to zero net yards on 30 rushes. We don’t like giving up first downs. Bo Scarbrough had 11 carries for 91 yards, Damien Harris 8-86. Thus, the safest play on the board might be the under, even though the over has cashed in four of the last five meetings between these two teams.

The Tide went almost as far on its next possession, driving from its own 9 for another touchdown that sent most of the Florida fans heading for the exit early in the fourth quarter. “Last I checked, we’re a pretty good football team”. If the Florida defense can do what no one else has been able to do and keep Alabama out of the end zone, Pineiro’s leg could be huge.

UF cut it to 33-16 at halftime when Appleby threw a 25-yard TD pass to tight end De’Andre Goolsby. So the Crimson Tide will play one more game in the Georgia Dome in a playoff semifinal. According to CFBFilmRoom.com, the senior trio of defensive end Jonathan Allen and linebackers Ryan Anderson and Tim Williams have combined for 108 quarterback pressures through 12 games, one less than the same three players combined on through 15 games last season.

Facing third-and-14 after a false-start penalty and a sloppy start, Appleby found Antonio Callaway for 18 yards. “They’ve really accumulated a lot of speed at some spots where they were always big”.

A botched fake punt in the first half. Alabama answered with a field goal by Adam Griffith.

Alabama’s offense was about to get a nice rest. He returned an interception 40 yards to set up a Tide field goal in the first quarter. Less than 9 minutes after the Gators took their stunning touchdown lead, they found themselves down 16-9.

The Tide offense finally got something going on the first possession of the second quarter.

The threat of a loss is very real for the Tide. But in that slightly different universe, Oklahoma schedules, say, Texas State instead of Houston, thinking that one tough non-conference foe is enough on top of the nine Big 12 games on the schedule.

As expected, Alabama had little trouble Saturday, winning 54-16 in the 25th edition of the SEC’s showcase event. Tony Brown picked it off at the Alabama 38.

This was a game where early on Alabama looked vulnerable, and yet the Tide never trailed at the end of any quarter and won 54-16. The score completed a 72-yard, 11-play drive that consumed 7:34. Get his NCAA Football Free Pick: Alabama vs. Florida in SEC Championship Game.

Justin Crawford rushed for 209 yards to help the Mountaineers (10-2, 7-2) to their first 10-win regular-season since 2007.