TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The final scoreboard displayed a blowout, but last weekend wasn’t the type of revenge Alabama players had in mind heading into their rematch against South Florida from last year.
Thanks to four late touchdowns, No. 4 Alabama was able to nearly cover the 31-point betting line in a 42-16 win against USF. However, the victory saw the Crimson Tide hanging on to a five-point lead with roughly six minutes to play thanks to a slew of sloppy penalties and turnovers.
Heading into last week, Alabama players were hoping to avenge an ugly 17-3 win at South Florida last year in which it needed a last-minute touchdown run from quarterback Ty Simpson to put the game away for good in the fourth quarter. That wasn’t the case over the weekend, as the Tide was hampered by 13 penalties resulting in 120 yards while also coughing the ball up three times.
“It wasn’t our cleanest game,” Alabama tight end C.J. Dippre said of last weekend’s win. “Unfortunately, it had to be another unclean game against the same team we had an unclean game [against] a year ago. If you were to have an unclean game, have it against a different team, not the same team. So now they think they’re whatever.”
Dippre went on to extend his respect to South Florida, stating “they had a good plan” and “came in and did what they had to do.” However, he feels most of Alabama’s problems were self-inflicted.
“You know, ’Bama beat ’Bama. That’s kinda what me and the guys were kind of sticking with," Dippre said. "They didn’t do anything special. Good team, all respect to them, but we were kind of just beating ourselves. The penalties, turnovers, we’ve just got to up the standard.”
Offensive lineman Tyler Booker agrees.
“Oh for sure,” Booker said. “You could look back at that game — we had two touchdowns called back for holding, and then we had about 200 yards of penalties. 100 yards equals a touchdown, so that’s four touchdowns we left on the board. We were definitely beating ourselves. I’m glad we went through this adversity so we can learn from it in the future.”
Booker missed last year’s game at South Florida due to back spasms but still entered last week looking to prove a point on the field. Instead, Alabama’s offense suffered six three-and-outs and had two would-be touchdowns wiped off by penalties. That was enough to leave a sour taste in the Tide’s mouth regardless of who it was playing.
“We could be playing Georgia or the Dallas Cowboys, we always want to perform to the best of our ability,” Booker said. “It really wasn’t about USF. It was about us not playing to the ’Bama standard.”
Still, it was a bit more annoying slipping up against this bunch. When asked Tuesday, safety Malachi Moore said USF players were a little more chirpy than most opposition once the Bulls took the game into the fourth quarter. Eventually, Alabama had the last laugh, putting together a 28-3 run over the game’s final 10 minutes.
That being said, Moore considers the frustrating win a learning lesson for the team moving forward.
“It makes us lock in a little more to the details,” he said. “The A on our chest is just not enough. We know we have to go out there and play our A-game because we’re everybody’s Super Bowl.”
Alabama (2-0) will look to put together a cleaner performance this weekend when it travels to Wisconsin (2-0) for an 11 a.m. CT kickoff inside Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday. The game will be televised on FOX.
