The next 8 days will be filled with distractions for Alabama football, as quarterback Mac Jones made clear Friday night.
Jones pushed back a reporter who asked about the Heisman Trophy, due Tuesday night, with a reaction straight from Nick Saban’s playbook: “It’s about rat poison. “
Jones didn’t get a deadly dose, in fact not compared to his teammate, supposed favorite DeVonta Smith. However, with the outcome of the rest of Friday night, even a distracting drop can be dangerous. Ohio State crushed Clemson, 49-28, in New Orleans, dominating both sides of the ball and converting their season’s belief with their most productive functionality yet.
Former Alabama player Barrett Jones, who did an assignment as an analyst on ESPN’s radio show, made a comparison: Ohio State posted a bachelor’s purpose opposite ClemsonArray, who eliminated the Buckeyes a year ago, reflecting the purpose. The 2009 Alabama team had opposed Florida in the SEC championship game.
So this season, Saban hasn’t worried about his team’s focus.
“It will be a bit of them to see how we deal with (preparation), how we prepare to go to Miami and play this game,” Saban said. “In fact, I am proud of the way our players have dealt with outages throughout the year. I know it has been a difficult season for the fans, the players and the coaches who run their team. But I think so. ” It is smart. for everyone, when we have those games, other people have something to be interested in and the players have the opportunity to compete. “
There will be no shortage of scenarios.
Alabama has played 12 games, Ohio State in seven. This is not a mirror image of Ohio State’s willingness to play. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Buckeyes’ coaches and management, aware that this year’s OSU team had championship potential, have struggled to play. But there is a toll related to five more games. Alabama will be the favorite in Miami, but what else would it be with Jaylen Waddle, Landon Dickerson and LaBryan Ray? Ohio State is also injured and there is no way to turn out that the additional games injured Alabama players, other than the calculation of betting 20 additional quarterbacks.
Dabo Swinney waved this flag before betting on the state of Ohio. Saban, like him, will keep all public comments strictly neutral.
Saban wasn’t sure which opponent Alabama would face when he made his post-game comments following Crimson Tide’s victory over Notre Dame in their own semi-final. But his investigation of Alabama functionality is perfectly accurate in terms of confronting the state of Ohio.
“I think you have to be able to play all styles,” Saban said. “I think if other people have a pearl on you in terms of what has been a success in front of you, you have no answers, then everyone is going to do it and they are going to take a lot from you.
“I think it was a bit difficult for us in the part of the moment that we did not execute the ball very well in the part of the moment. We tried to check it out and get rid of it at the end of the game. It was not very successful, they had the ball for almost the last 8 minutes of the game.
“We want to be able to finish a little bit better, whatever the taste of the defense someone tries to play against us. I’m sure we’ll be informed of that and do better next time. “
With a “next time” to do, Alabama has done its best, but, as Saban points out, they haven’t played the best game yet and will possibly want to get closer.
Follow Cecil Hurt on Twitter @cecilhurt