Crimson Tide Begin Auburn Practice Week on Sunday
11/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 21, 2010
TUSCALOOA, Ala. - The No. 9 Alabama football team began preparations for Friday's Iron Bowl on Sunday afternoon with a 90-minute practice in shells at the Thomas-Drew Practice Facility.
The Crimson Tide welcomes the undefeated and second-ranked Auburn Tigers to Bryant-Denny Stadium for a nationally televised game on CBS the day after Thanksgiving. Alabama brings a 20-game winning streak at Bryant-Denny Stadium into the contest. The Tide's last loss at home was on Nov. 17, 2007.
"This is obviously one of the greatest rivalries in all of college football," Alabama head coach Nick Saban said before practice on Sunday. "The Iron Bowl has been going on in this state for a long, long time. It's kind of unique in that everyone in the state is on one side or the other. We have two great schools with great football histories, and obviously pretty good teams this year.
"A lot of players have played against each other in high school, knew each other, played in good programs and were developed well. I think it says a lot for football in this state to have two teams of this caliber playing in the Iron Bowl this particular year."
The Crimson Tide have won two straight over the Tigers after a come-from-behind 26-21 victory a season ago in Auburn that helped UA complete an undefeated national championship campaign in 2009. UA leads the series 40-33-1.
"The focus this week is on the Alabama-Auburn game," Saban said. "It's not about anything that's going on outside. It's not about what happened last year. None of that really matters. It's about this week, this time, this game, and our focus is going to be on the preparation for our team to play the best football and give our guys the best opportunity to be successful against a very good team. The culmination of your season sort of gets judged by how you do in a game like this, so we want to play our best football and do our best job of executing."
The Iron Bowl is scheduled to kickoff at 1:30 p.m. CST Friday at Bryant-Denny Stadium with Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and Tracy Wolfson calling the action.
