Alabama Returns to Southeastern Conference Play on Saturday
9/26/2016 3:24:00 PM | Football
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The University of Alabama football team began the new week of practice with an hour-and-twenty minutes of work in shells on Monday afternoon at the Thomas-Drew Practice Fields.
The team focused on corrections after a 48-0 victory over the Kent State Golden Flashes last Saturday. The Crimson Tide's next challenge will come when the team hosts the Kentucky Wildcats on Oct. 1. The Wildcats are led by Mark Stoops, now in his fourth season in Lexington, and sport a 2-2 (1-1 SEC) record after a 17-10 victory over South Carolina last weekend.
Alabama and Kentucky will meet at Bryant-Denny Stadium this Saturday for a homecoming weekend matchup. The game is scheduled for a 6:05 p.m. CT kickoff on ESPN with Dave Pasch and Greg McElroy in the booth and Tom Luginbill on the sidelines for the broadcast.
The Crimson Tide own the all-time advantage in the series with UK, 36-2-1, including a 9-0 record in Tuscaloosa. Alabama defeated Kentucky, 48-7, in Lexington in the last meeting between the two teams in 2013. Head coach Nick Saban is 8-1 in Southeastern Conference home openers at Alabama and his teams have outscored opponents by a 282-129 mark.
Nick Saban met with the media on Monday afternoon. Following is his opening statement:
"Well, just in review, we challenged the players to play a complete game, and I thought we did a much better job of that in this last game. Now that we are back in SEC play, I think it's time to build on that; build on the momentum; play faster; be more crisp; practice better; play with confidence; use the right technique and not talk about paying attention to detail or being casual or finishing or any of those things. If we want to be the team that we are capable of being, I think it's important for everyone to buy into that and do that. The SEC is a tough league and every game you play in this league is an important game as this game will be against Kentucky.
"You all got the players of the week. The injury update is Damien Harris is still day-to-day. He probably won't do much today. I think ArDarius Stewart and Robert Foster will both still be listed as day-to-day and questionable for this game.
"We are looking forward to Homecoming and playing at home. Hopefully we will have a great crowd that's enthusiastic about this game, and I know our players definitely will be.
"Tony Brown and Johnny Dwight are both eligible to play in this game. They have done all the things they needed to do, so their suspensions are over, and we are very happy to have them back.
"Kentucky has played their best in the last two games that they have played. Mark Stoops has done a really good job of sort of finding out who they are and how they want to play. They played really well in the last two games. They have really good skill players on offense, good running backs and good receivers. They have explosive guys that have put up pretty impressive performances to this point. Their quarterback has played well for them, even though he had to come in for the starter, and he has done a nice job; they haven't really skipped a beat. Defensively, they really played their best in their last game against South Carolina. They did much better on third down and got off the field. This is a physical team, and I think it's going to be really important that we start fast and play physical in this game and in all aspects of the game because they are a very well-coached team. They are playing really well right now."
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