(#4, #4)Alabama (12-1) vs. (#7, #9) Utah (12-0)
Sugar Bowl
New Orleans, La.
Jan. 2, 7:00 PM
All-Time Series: First Meeting
All-Time Bowl Records: Alabama 31-21-3, Utah 10-3
Monday’s Line: Alabama -9.5
Total Offense, Scoring Offense (National Rank):
Utah: 403.6 ypg, (32nd), 37.4 ppg (15th)
Alabama: 367.2 ypg (56th), 31.2 ppg (30th)
Total Defense, Scoring Defense (National Rank):
Utah: 295.9 ypg (17th), 17.3 ppg (12th)
Alabama: 256.9 ypg (3rd), 13.0 ppg (6th)
The Crimson Tide will wrap up another memorable season in its long, storied history Friday night with its 13th appearance in the Sugar Bowl.
They’ll take on an undefeated Utah Utes team that first crashed the BCS in 2005, spanking Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.
Much of the news this week has focused on the suspension of All-America LT Andre Smith. The Outland Trophy award winner violated unspecified team rules and will miss the final game of the season, and possibly his career.
This puts added pressure on QB John Parker Wilson to make smart, accurate throws to prevent the Utes from stacking the box to take away the Tide’s power running game.
Smith’s absence won’t affect the Tide’s defensive game plan, though. That’s where the Tide have excelled all season, ranking in the top six in both total defense and scoring defense.
And while the Utes certainly present a new set of challenges, some of what they run is similar to Florida’s attack, just without Tebow at the helm. Utah senior QB Brian Johnson is certainly no slouch, though, throwing for 2,600+ yds and 24 TDs on the season.
There’s no doubt that Andre Smith will be missed, but his absence won’t be enough to derail the Tide. This Alabama team is too sound and too disciplined to have a hiccup against a team that is not more talented.
Saban will have the Tide ready to play, and the SEC will continue its BCS dominance.
Alabama 24, Utah 14
Related posts
As mentioned earlier, the SEC Power Poll voters have compiled an All-SEC team of our own. We voted on each position and are now revealing our results. The offense is being revealed today, with the defense following later this week.
You can see the QB at Alligator Army, the Tight End at Leftover Hotdog, and the Offensive Line and Wide Receivers (coming soon) at TeamSpeedKills.
This year's winners for top RBs in the league are UGA's Knowshon Moreno and Alabama's Glen Coffee.
While UGA might not have enjoyed the type of season it had hoped for, it's not because of Moreno. He was electrifying week in and week out, rolling up seven 100-yard games as he and backfield buddy QB Matthew Stafford led the 'Dawgs to 32.1 ppg, second best in the conference. He averaged 5.9 YPC and tallied at least one TD in every game except the Tennessee game.
While Moreno and UGA got the majority of the preseason hype, Glen Coffee and the Tide made it abundantly clear early and often that they were not to be trifled with. While Coffee certainly benefited from Alabama's monstrous offensive line, he—and fellow RB Mark Ingram—were the steadying forces for Alabama's ball control offense.
Coffee registered five 100-yard games and averaged a robust 6.1 YPC. His numbers could've been much higher, but he split time with Ingram
Here's a look at their numbers and conference ranks*.
Rush Yards Per Game
Knowshon Moreno 111.5 (1)
Glen Coffee 102.9 (3)
Total Rushing Yards
Knowshon Moreno 1,338 (1)
Glen Coffee 1,235 (2)
Rushing TDs
Knowshon Moreno 16 (1)
Glen Coffee 9 (3)
Total Yards from Scrimmage
Knowshon Moreno 1,667 (1)
Glen Coffee 1,306 (3)
*regular season games only
Knowshon Moreno
We've all seen this one 1000 times...
...and this one too...
Glen Coffee
He's literally untouched on this...
...and a very nice featurette on SportsCenter.
Related posts
It's all starting to make sense now.
Nick Saban was asked a lot of questions when he oversigned for the upcoming 2008 football season, but quite obviously he knew he'd have some open roster spots.
This morning, LB Jimmy Johns was booted off the team after being arrested and charged with with five felony counts of distributing cocaine. A sixth charge of possession was also tacked on after police officers searched his off-campus residence and found cocaine and Ecstasy pills.
Johns, who had been a RB previously, apparently misunderstood the "line" part of "linebacker" and assumed that cocaine distribution was part of his new role.
No word on whether this will affect sales at Jimmy Johns delis across the country.
