An Extra Dose of College Football Hype: Tide Vs Aggies

By Joseph Barry on July 19, 2013

I know it is still July, and college football is still about 40 days away but the September 14th matchup between Alabama and Texas A&M already has a ton of hype heading into this year, due largely to the fact that the SEC newcomers (A&M) were the lone blemish on Alabama’s championship year. Despite what some people are calling the best opening weekend in college football in years (matchups of Alabama vs Virginia Tech, LSU vs TCU, and Georgia vs Clemson have had people salivating since the end of the Alabama bludgeoning of Notre Dame to end last season) fans cannot seem to stop talking about this SEC Opener for both teams. So many story lines will fly around in weeks leading up into this colossal matchup, so why not start looking at them right now?

1. Revenge – Despite going 13-1, racking up both an SEC championship and national title along the way, and supplanting themselves as easily the best college football team of 2012, the Crimson Tide weren’t perfect. They lost a stunner to a #15 ranked Aggies team at home that, at the time, looked like a loss that would prevent them from playing for a national title. The game this year is in College Station and the winner will have an early leg-up in college football’s toughest division, the SEC West. Both teams realistically, but those odds diminish significantly if they lose this game (not because one early loss will totally rule them out, but because the winner’s odd increase significantly.) An important statistic to note is that Nick Saban is 7-1 in revenge games as head coach at Alabama and 15-2 at LSU and Bama combined. Bottom line: Hell is more likely to freeze over than Saban is to lose to the same school in back-to-back games. Alabama is hungry to build on their dynasty that college football hasn’t seen the likes of since USC in the mid-2000s.

Alabama will try to get revenge for their lone loss of the 2012 football season when they travel to College Station Sept. 14; photo from dallasnews.com

2. Quarterback Play – Arguably the top 2 QBs that the SEC (and college football overall) has to offer will take the field in this game, A&M’s Heisman winning Johnny Manziel and Alabama’s two-time national champion (technically three-time, but he was redshirted during the first) AJ McCarron. Both of these guys are incredible at what they do. McCarron is known as more of a game-manager, but his 30 TD vs 3 interceptions last season speaks for itself; Manziel, on the other hand, is simply a wizard with the ball, accounting for 52 total touchdowns last season, and can do things like this. It is very likely this game will come down to which quarterback makes the least mistakes, and with these guys mistakes are not a common occurrence by any stretch. As if that wasn’t enough, SEC Media day created more buzz when McCarron all but said he isn’t as irresponsible as Manziel. More on that here. It will be interesting to see how that plays into the game, seeing that it will be the talk of the media leading up to the game.

3. O-Line Pride – Each team boasts a left tackle on the offensive line that should be a first round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. Jakes Matthews of Texas A&M and son of NFL Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews spent last year at right tackle, but with the departure of Luke Joeckel, who was taken #2 overall in this years draft, Matthews will slide over to the left side to protect Johnny Manziel’s blind side. Some people are even saying he could end up being better than Joeckel! Then Alabama boast the monster than is the 6’6, 310lb. Cyrus Kouandjio. To give you a perspective on how good he is, he kept former Crimson Tide DJ Fluker at right tackle last season, and Fluker went #11 overall in this past draft. Both players were voted onto the preseason first team All-SEC, and they’re two to keep your eye on in this game as two of the best O-Line prospects in college football.

4. Go Deep – Each quarterback will have a top SEC wide receiver to throw to in this matchup. Alabama’s sophomore receiver Amari Cooper burst onto the college football scene last season as a true freshman, accounting for 53 receptions for 895 yards and nine touchdowns. For A&M, redshirt sophomore Mike Evans, who led the team the team with 82 catches for 1,105 yards, will replace the graduated Ryan Swope as Johnny Football’s favorite target. Cooper was voted to the first team All-SEC this preseason, while Mike Evans made the second team.

If you’re not salivating at this game yet, you may need to check your pulse. College football is almost here and this titanic matchup will be great; I only hope it lives up to the hype. This is the game to watch in the early part of the 2013 version of the college football season.

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