Tony Take: Alabama vs. Florida State a matchup of two heavyweights
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College football officially began Saturday. That is if you count the handful of uninspiring games which occurred on the day. To most, those matchups held about as much interest as the undercard bouts prior to the night’s highly hyped junior middleweight fight between Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor.
Like boxing, college football provided a little bit of a tease, giving starving fans an appetizer while preparing them for next week’s main course. That, of course, would be this coming Saturday’s matchup between No. 1 Alabama and No. 3 Florida State. Hopefully, the game inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium at 7 p.m. CT delivers the same amount of entertainment.
While not quite receiving the same barrage of media attention as Saturday’s historic fight, Alabama vs. Florida State has made its fair share of headlines this offseason. After all, the storylines are what you would expect from a prized meeting between two of college football’s top heavyweights.
Like Mayweather vs. McGregor, this Saturday’s matchup won’t be a title bout. At least not yet that is. In one corner enters the undisputed favorite in Alabama. Fresh off a painful last-round knockout, the Crimson Tide is hungry to get back into the ring and begin its fight to reclaim its crown. The challenger comes in another former title holder, Florida State, who despite being a not-so-distant champion itself is looking to reclaim some respect of its own.
In many ways, both teams enter the fight a mirror image of themselves. There are the obvious ties between Alabama head coach Nick Saban and Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, who spent four years (2000-2004) together at LSU. The meeting is the first between the two former employees as head coaches. Although, Fisher did serve as the offensive coordinator for the Seminoles in 2007 when they beat the Tide 21-14 during Saban’s first year in charge.
This year’s matchup is even more special when you consider the fact that legends Paul “Bear” Bryant and Bobby Bowden never faced off as head coaches. Bowden was Florida’s State’s wide receivers coach in 1965 for a 21-0 loss to Bryant’s Alabama, but that’s as close as the two got to squaring off against each other.
Moving onto the field, this year’s storylines are equally compelling. Both teams offer a loaded defense stacked with future NFL talent. In ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay’s latest top 32 rankings for the 2018 NFL draft, the two teams combined for seven players on defense alone as Florida State’s Derwin James, Derrick Nnadi, Josh Sweat and Tavarus McFadden joined Alabama’s Minkah Fitzpatrick, Anthony Averett and Ronnie Harrison on the list.
The two offenses should offer plenty of firepower as well. Both sides possess a stacked running attack, as Florida State boasts a pair of former five-stars in junior Jacques Patrick and freshman Cam Akers, who was once committed to Alabama before signing with the Seminoles as the No. 2 running back in the 2017 class. Of course, Alabama landed the nation’s top running back in No. 1 overall signee Najee Harris. However, he’ll be behind two other former five-stars Damien Harris and Bo Scarbrough on the Tide’s depth chart.
The passing game offers similar talent with both teams rolling out dual-threat options at quarterback. Reigning SEC Offensive Player of the Year Jalen Hurts will look to show he has improved as a passer, while Florida State’s Deondre Francois will want to make more plays with his feet this year.
We still have six more days until Saturday’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff, which means countless comparisons are sure to ensue. Given the talent on both sides, don’t be surprised if we are calling for a rematch a week from now.