It’s not unusual to see Alabama undefeated and atop the polls halfway through the season. Since Nick Saban took over as head coach of the Crimson Tide in 2007, his teams have begun a season 6-0 eight times. Of course, Alabama has also won five national titles during that span. But even by Alabama’s ridiculous standards, this year’s iteration of looks different. It’s not that the Tide are simply undefeated; through six games, they haven’t even been tested.
The smallest lead Alabama has held at halftime in any of its games this season has been 18 points. It’s average lead entering the fourth quarter has been 41.3 points. Star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has yet to play a snap in the final period. Missouri offensive coordinator Derek Dooley admitted that simply keeping the score close during entering the final 15 minutes will be a challenge for Missouri when the Tigers travel to Tuscaloosa on Saturday.
“The first step is you gotta be in these games for four quarters,” Dooley said. “Can’t get run out of the stadium. And that’s going to be a big challenge this week, to be honest.”
Speaking with reporters Tuesday, Missouri players and coaches weren't afraid to acknowledge the talent on Alabama's roster. Head coach Barry Odom said the Crimson Tide "don’t have weaknesses.” At the same time, the Tigers said they won’t treat this game differently than any other on the schedule.
“If there’s any circumstance that you’re in awe or you have self-doubt, then you haven’t prepared the right way,” Odom said. “It’s easier to sit here and say that than go apply it, but we’ve got to make sure our details and our habits are exactly the same (as every week).”
Under Saban, Alabama has developed a reputation for its athletic defense and physical running game, but this year’s team appears different in large part due to the play of Tagovailoa. The Heisman trophy frontrunner has emerged as not just one of the best quarterbacks in the country, but one of the most efficient passers ever. Tagovailoa has thrown 18 touchdowns and zero interceptions on the season. He leads the nation in passer rating (258.4), completion percentage (71.2) and yards per attempt (14.8), and he’s currently on pace to break the NCAA single-season record in all three categories. Odom described Tagovailoa’s play as “out of his mind.”
“He’s the best quarterback we’ll play against all season, in my opinion,” defensive coordinator Ryan Walters said. “He’s versatile and dynamic with his feet, and he’s always keeping his eyes downfield. He likes to throw the ball deep and he’s got weapons all over the place.”
Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide is loaded with talent on defense, as usual. Quarterback Drew Lock said when a normal team makes a mistake defensively, it might give up a long touchdown pass, but when Alabama’s players make the same mistakes (which doesn’t happen often under Saban), their athleticism allows them to make up for it and minimize the damage.
“They’ve got a lot of athletes on the field,” Lock said. “If they wanted to man up every single team in college football, I think they have as good of athletes as any team in college football, if not better.”
While heaping praise on Alabama, the Missouri players and coaches also made sure to include that they aren’t intimidated by the prospect of playing the Crimson Tide in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Middle linebacker Cale Garrett believes that’s part of what makes Alabama so dominant — its opponents often enter games expecting to lose. Lock said the Tigers can’t “blow the game out of proportion.”
“Even on film you can see some guys rolling over for them, and I think they just see what’s on the front of their jersey and just expect, oh, that’s the number one team in the country, we have no shot at even keeping up with these guys,” Garrett said. “We can’t have that mentality going in with anybody.”
Passing game hurting without Hall
As if facing Alabama on the road weren’t challenging enough, Odom said Tuesday that Missouri will likely be without its best pass-catching weapon. Wide receiver Emanuel Hall, who didn’t travel to the team’s game at South Carolina last week, is not expected to recover in time to take the field Saturday. Hall strained his groin prior to Missouri’s matchup at Purdue in Week Three, then tried to play through the pain against Georgia but didn’t catch a pass. Odom said Hall isn’t yet back to full speed.
“It’s not because of a lack of effort from Emanuel or our sports medicine staff,” Odom said. “They’ve done absolutely everything that they can to try to get him right and back there.”
Just how big a loss is Hall for Missouri? Consider these numbers: Hall took over a starting wide receiver spot in Missouri’s fifth game last season, after Dimetrious Mason was dismissed from the team. He has caught at least one pass in 10 of the team’s 14 games since. During those 10 contests, the Tigers have an 8-2 record and have averaged 356.0 yards passing, 4.1 passing touchdowns and 45.6 points per game. When Hall has either sat out a game or been rendered ineffective due to injury, as was the case against Georgia, Missouri has a 1-3 record. The Tigers have averaged 232.3 yards through the air, 1.0 passing touchdowns and 31.2 points in those contests.
Dooley acknowledged that Hall’s absence, and that of fellow senior Nate Brown, left Missouri starting two true freshman at wide receiver against South Carolina, but he said the Tigers have to find a way to generate a downfield passing attack no matter who is on the field moving forward.
“We can’t say, well they’re true freshmen, or oh, he’s a walk on,” Dooley said. “These are our guys. We gotta coach them, put them in position to make plays, and do it.”
Injury report
Aside from Hall, Odom expects Missouri to take the field against Alabama at full strength. Despite the fact that Brown didn’t participate in Tuesday’s practice, instead exercising alongside Hall separate from the rest of the team, Odom believes Brown will suit up Saturday. Offensive linemen Trystan Colon-Castillo and Kevin Pendleton, both of whom left the South Carolina games with injuries, were limited participants during Tuesday’s practice, but Odom expects both to be “full speed and ready to go” against Alabama.
Pendleton, who left the South Carolina game in the second quarter and did not return, did not specify the nature of his injury Tuesday, but said he could have returned to the field if he felt the team needed him.
“If I needed to go, if we needed me to be out there, I'd have gone out there and I would have played the game and we'd have done what we had to do,” Pendleton said. “But I had complete confidence in Case (Cook). It's a long season and I want to make it to the end."
Odom also said he expects wide receiver Richaud Floyd to make his season debut Saturday. Floyd missed the first five weeks of the season after he broke a bone in his right leg during fall camp.
