Football Welcomes LSU for Top-10 Contest this Saturday
11/2/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The University of Alabama football team returned to full practice and game preparation after bye last week. The Crimson Tide put together an hour and 30 minutes of work in shells on Monday afternoon outdoors on the Thomas-Drew Practice Fields.
The Tide used its bye week to focus on fundamentals at practice in preparation for the final stretch of the season. Alabama's next opponent will be LSU this Saturday, Nov. 7, at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The two SEC West rivals are set to kick off at 7 p.m. CT on CBS with Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and Allie LaForce covering all the action.
The Tigers come to Tuscaloosa with a perfect 7-0 record, including a 4-0 mark in conference play. LSU also had took a bye last weekend, and is one game behind the rest of the conference after its season opener against McNeese State was canceled due to weather. LSU is coached by Les Miles, now in his 11th year in Baton Rouge, and owns a 110-29 record under his tutelage.
Alabama owns the all-time advantage, 49-25-5, and has won four consecutive meetings against LSU dating back to the 2012 Allstate BCS National Championship in New Orleans. Most recently, the Crimson Tide produced a last-second drive to force overtime in Baton Rouge a season ago. In that extra period, Blake Sims found DeAndrew White in the corner of the end zone to push the score to 20-13, the eventual final.
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Head Coach Nick Saban
Opening Statement:
"I think that we had a very productive bye week. We got a chance to work on a lot of things - a lot of repetition for a lot of players to improve, but now it's time to refocus on the task at hand. The players have had a few days off, and I think the goal is for us to play our best football of the year, and to do that each individual on the team needs to play their best. That obviously starts with preparation and we're going to start our preparation for this game today.
"From an injury standpoint, I think Eddie Jackson is okay - he did practice some last week, and I think he'll be able to practice some today. Ronnie (Harrison) and Dominick (Jackson) will both start back in individual drills and be evaluated based on how much they can do in practice today; the staff will have to evaluate them on a day-to-day basis.
"We have had some great games with LSU through the years. This has turned out to be a great rivalry, and I think it's a great rivalry because of the quality of the programs. I think six or seven times since I've been here both teams have been ranked in the top 10, and that's obviously a credit to the great job Les Miles has done in the 11 years he's been there. Their players and the way they compete, and the quality of players that they have is because of the great job of coaching that they do. They return 16 starters so they have a lot of experienced players. They've been very productive on offense. I think Leonard Fournette is probably in my opinion, though I haven't seen all of the players, as dominant as any player in the country in terms of the way he plays and what he's capable of doing as a running back - both running the football and as a receiver. Quarterback Brandon Harris has certainly done a really good job of taking care of the football and making big plays when he needs to. He's a dual-threat quarterback, and he can run. They've got really good receivers and their offensive line is probably the biggest, most physical that we've seen all year long. This is a really good offensive team - they've rushed for over 300 yards a game and have been able to make explosive plays in the passing game that has led to a lot of points. Defensively, they're still ranked in the top 20 in almost every category. They're difficult to run against, have a very good secondary and linebackers, and have a really good pass rusher in Lewis Neal. He has a lot of quarterback hurries, a lot of sacks, and is one of the top guys in the SEC. LSU is always good on special teams. They've got a lot of team speed and have very good specialists. All-around this is a very good football team, and they no doubt deserve every bit of the ranking that they have, and are probably one of the best teams in the country."
