Once circled as the featured game on Alabama’s regular-season schedule, this weekend’s matchup at Texas A&M has lost a bit of its luster. The No. 1 Crimson Tide (5-0, 2-0 in the SEC) is a 17.5-point favorite as it travels to College Station, Texas to take on the Aggies (3-2, 0-2), who have opened up SEC play with back-to-back losses to Arkansas and Mississippi State. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. CT on Saturday and will be televised nationally on CBS.
Here are five things to watch heading into the matchup.
A look at Alabama’s five-star replacements at OLB
Nick Saban was a bit cranky during his Wednesday-evening Zoom call. Perhaps that was due in part to Alabama losing another starting outside linebacker this week.During the SEC teleconference earlier in the day, Saban revealed that starting Sam linebacker Drew Sanders suffered a hand injury that required surgery. The injury will force Sanders to miss this weekend’s game against Texas A&M as Alabama plans to evaluate his status over the next few weeks.
After revealing the news, Saban stated that sophomore Chris Braswell and freshman Dallas Turner will fill in during Sanders’ absence. When asked to elaborate on the five-star duo later in the day, the head coach got a bit testy.
“If I talked earlier in the day about them, why do I have to [again]?” Saban questioned. “It’s like a doubleheader in baseball with the same guy pitching both games. I talked about the progress that they both made this morning, so I guess I’ll repeat myself right now.
“Both guys are young guys, they’ve got a lot of potential. They’ve played some in games. They’re getting all the reps in practice. We’re going to do as much as we can to bring those guys along. We’ve got faith, trust and confidence that they’ll be ready to go during the game on Saturday.”
Braswell came to Alabama as the No. 2 outside linebacker and No. 24 overall player in the 2020 class, while Turner joined the Tide this summer as the No. 1 outside linebacker and No. 19 overall player in this year’s class.
Despite being confident in the duo, Saban’s frustration likely stems from the fact that Alabama is now down two outside linebackers after losing Christopher Allen to a season-ending foot injury during the opener against Miami.
Who is Alabama’s emergency back?
Following Jase McClellan’s season-ending knee injury over the weekend, Alabama is down to just three active scholarship running backs. Earlier this week, Saban the team will look to provide depth in the backfield by using a player from another position."If some guy has experience playing that position, we'll see how they might be able to develop and be an emergency guy," Saban said.
"We've got several guys in mind but we'll kind of see how it goes."So far, Alabama hasn’t given many hints about who those players might be.
“Definitely not myself at running back at all,” Alabama defensive back Malachi Moore said when asked this week. “But yeah, I don’t know. There’s a lot of athletic guys on the team, so it would be interesting to see who they move to running back.”
Linebacker Christian Harris wasn’t willing to nominate any of his teammates for the role either.
“That's for Coach, more of a coach question,” Harris said. “I'm not really interested. But like you all, I'm excited to see whatever happens.”
Alabama has several capable options at its disposal. Wide receiver Slade Bolden served as a wildcat quarterback in high school, while defensive back Kristian Story set the Alabama state record with 13,219 yards of total offense over his high school carer. Freshman wide receivers JoJo Earle and Christian Leary both dabbled in the backfield during their high school careers and could also be interesting options, especially on passing downs.
Neal vs. Leal
Saturday’s matchup will feature a battle soon to be seen on Sundays as Alabama left tackle Evan Neal and Texas A&M defensive end DeMarvin Leal square off on the line of scrimmage. Both players are projected to be top-five picks in next year’s NFL Draft and are off to solid starts to their junior seasons.Leal leads the Aggies with 4.5 sacks and 6.5 tackles for a loss as part of 22 total stops through five games. He has also accounted for two pass deflections and a pair of quarterback hurries.
Neal has been Alabama’s most reliable blocker, earning a 78.2 pass-blocking grade as well as a 75.6 run-blocking mark from Pro Football Focus. According to PFF, the starting left tackle has yet to surrender a sack over 173 pass-blocking snaps through five games.
While the battle between Neal and Leal figures to take center stage Saturday, the rest of Alabama’s line will also have its hands full against a Texas A&M defense that returns nine starters from last year and currently leads the SEC allowing just 12.6 points per game. The Aggies are especially tough up front and are tied for 19th in the nation with 15 sacks this season.
Tuesday, Owens recognized Texas A&M’s talented front seven, rattling off the Aggies’ dangerous defenders including Tyree Johnson (6-4, 240), Michael Clemons (6-5, 270), Jayden Peavy (6-6, 315), Aaron Hansford (6-3, 240) and Leal (6-4, 290).
“Those guys up front really help everybody else on the field to be able to play fast,” Owens said. “As long as we can handle our business up front it will make it a little more difficult on them. But we understand they are a really good team, they have really good personnel, they are really well-coached, and playing in that tough environment we’ve got to make sure we can do everything we can in practice this week to be successful.”
Will Phidarian continue to feast?
Phidarian Mathis has had a little fun with opposing quarterbacks — both on and off the field. Following his sack of Miami quarterback D'Eriq King in week one, Mathis tweeted a picture of the play with the caption “Burger King Combo w Fresh Fries.” After forcing a fumble from Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral over the weekend, the Alabama defensive lineman once again took to social media, tweeting a picture of the strip with a caption that read “Golden Corral.”The food puns are fitting as Mathis has feasted on opposing quarterbacks, tallying a team-high 3.5 sacks this season. The 6-foot-4, 312-pound defender has been credited with at least a portion of a sack in four of Alabama’s five games. He has also recorded two quarterback hurries and leads the team with an 88.9 pass-rush grade from PFF.
“He's done a really good job,” Saban said earlier this week. “He's showing leadership. He's setting a good example. He's playing hard in the games. He is being very productive, so we're very pleased with what he's done to this point. He's always been a guy that plays hard, tries to please the coach and do everything he can to help the team win. It's important to him, and those are the kind of guys you love to have on your team.”
Mathis will look to add to his sack total this weekend as he goes up against a Texas A&M offensive line that has already allowed 12 sacks over its first five games. The Aggies have allowed six of those sacks the past two weeks in back-to-back losses to Arkansas and Mississippi State.
Alabama takes on the 12th man
Alabama survived its trip to The Swamp two weeks ago, although not without a few difficulties. The Tide was flagged for five crowd-induced penalties on offense, including four false starts and a delay of game. The difficulty to communicate also spilled over to the defensive end, causing a handful of blown coverages and missed assignments.This week, Alabama will be entering a similarly intense environment as it plays in front of 102,733 screaming and swaying fans inside of Kyle Field. Texas A&M is one of the most difficult places to play as the Aggies’ raucous crowd has been nicknamed the 12th man due to its impact on opponents.
“When you’re dealing with crowd noise like that, there’s minimal communication that is verbal,” Owens said. “You’ve got to be able to use hand signals and you’ve got to know what’s the deal and especially you’ve got to anticipate the snap count. We know we won’t be able to hear anything, there won’t be much communication between us and Bryce [Young] unless he comes right up to the line of scrimmage.
“I think the big thing in preparation this week is knowing what you have to do, where you have to be, so when you get to the game there aren’t a bunch of questions like, ‘What do I have here, what do I have there?’ You just kind of know what you have to do so you’re able to play fast.”
The other thing Alabama will look to do is take Texas A&M’s crowd out of the game early. Against Florida, Alabama jumped out to a 21-3 lead before letting the Gators claw their way back, reigniting the crowd in the process.
"I think the biggest thing we learned — which is something coach Saban has mentioned to us a couple of times — is that you can't allow the home crowd to get back into the game," Owens said. "Especially if you're playing really well because they're just going to feed off of that momentum.”
