I realize they've had time to heal and rest up so their defense should hopefully be recovered from some of the late season injuries.

But I do feel that going into the playoff they actually (for a change) looked like the weakest of the 4 teams. They defended the run poorly against Mississippi State and Auburn and that has been the key to their whole play style and dominance during the Saban years.

Hurts is good but not great and the team can't rely on him to push them to a win in dicey situations in my opinion. Hurts relies on the team, especially defense and run game, to put Bama in a position where he doesn't have to make a lot of good throws for them to win.

Now having said that, if the hurt defensive players being rested and healed up lets them defend the run more like early season then Bama has a good a chance as anyone left.

Luckily Clemson doesn't have DeShaun Watson this year as he was clearly better (a lot better) than Hurts and was the reason they won last year. Haven't watched the new guy much, but Clemson's D is still fearsome too.

Roll Tide, hope they win.

Sophomore Jalen Hurts is 25-2. And he IS the running game.

And last year - against Clemson - he engineered the go ahead touchdown with 2 minutes remaining...

Saban himself said the defense ran out of gas and his goal was to fix THAT!

And then, of course, there was that 'pick play' in the end zone that won the game. That QB is in the pros now.

And Jalen Hurts has had a year to study that play. If you can't beat 'em...


I just want to pump up your hopefulness!!!

The various NFL first rounders at RB are the run game but Hurts is certainly one of the biggest threats.

The D running out of gas is simply a function of the offense not being able to sustain drives. ANY defense would run out of gas in that situation, I think Bama had the best D in the nation last year but after watching them not be able to get off field against Clemson and Bama offense not sustain drives I kind of knew that Clemson would probably win.

I do agree that the pick play was basically a cheat that a lot of teams (cough New England Pats) get away with.

One thing I really liked about this season is the Hawaiian 2nd string QB, Tua, that guy is awesome.

for the freshman 'true passer' when they were playing Auburn - even as Hurts was having a poor passing game. Auburn at home against rivals is truly a 12th man!

The Clemson game was at Clemson, by the way.

In New Orleans - if Hurts is off to the detriment of the team - I can see the Hawaiian coming out!

I just suspect that New Orleans will be nothing like playing in Auburn - as Auburn just found out playing in Georgia!

The lefty.... personally don't think Hurts is the end all be all. Roll tide!

Alabama simply isn't that good this year. The Georgia/Oklahoma game seems a closer call to me.

Clemson lost to a 4-8 team.

Hmmm.

I'd say that simply isn't that good a year.

Same problem for Oklahoma.

You are supposed to win the one's you are supposed to win!

A rivalry game with Auburn at their home to salvage the head coach and season? THAT makes Alabama bad?

And I'm not a Clemson fan (nor do I dislike Clemson), but I think they'll win fairly easily. Say 28-10?

That's where the money is.

I wouldn't give any points if I were you.

I never seem to predict the correct score, so take mine with a grain of salt, but if I was betting straight up on a winner, I'd go Clemson. I haven't seen enough from Alabama this year to change my mind. But the Syracuse loss was pretty awful. On the other hand, the win against Auburn at the beginning of the season with a freshman QB looks pretty impressive in hindsight.

when they left home-field advantage behind and scored 1 touchdown in the entire SEC Championship game.

They won't be playing at home vs. undefeated UCF, either.

(it's just so hard to say anything good about Auburn )

Roll Tide!

excuse me while I cry some crocodile tears.

Go SEC!

not sure why....I sure hope GA and BAMA can turn it around.

For that matter, so did the Faux Dawgs, Mississippi State. And South Carolina.

The BIG 10 is 7 - 0 and if Hairball could have won in Michigan....it would have been a sweep. Why take him???

while watching the All SEC Championship Final!

... if we didn't have 2 teams with a prior commitment to the PLAYOFF.

does that count as two wins for the SEC?

Having said that I think it's misleading to talk about SEC domination this year despite Bama and GA being in the final.

Like other conferences, aside from that top team or two, it's not like the past where there were a handful of national title contenders in the SEC and the Gators and LSU would be threats to win the title also.

Basically the powerhouses in the SEC this year were Bama, GA and Auburn.

LSU, Gators and the Mississippi teams not so much.

Not that different from the Big 10 where you have Buckeyes and Penn State and Wisconsin and... the rest.

Or Big 12 where you have Sooners and Frogs, a drop off to OK State, and... the rest. (Big 12 has really suffered from the Longhorns implosion.)

The SEC has gone through this weird thing because of Saban's consistent greatness. Places like GA and LSU have run off some very good coaches with really good results because they were not Saban and couldn't get them into the title picture every year. Luckily for GA it's worked out well.

It's clearly not what it was say 8-10 years ago in terms of the number of top teams in the conference. There are two dominant teams, two and a half if you count Auburn, and the rest are not really better than their counterparts in other conferences as the non playoff bowls demonstrated.