Alabama won’t face much of a challenge against Mercer on Saturday.

No offense to the Bears, but we’re not talking apples and apples here. The Alabama-Mercer game is a money game for Mercer and there’s no shame in that. There’s also no shame in Bama scheduling a cupcake here and there to fine-tune their team.

The Miami game turned out to be a blowout, but you certainly can’t accuse Alabama of assembling a weak schedule when they scheduled the Hurricanes. Miami was ranked — even though it didn’t look like it last week.

So we know that Alabama will beat Mercer game handily, but there is more to achieve in the game. Here are 5 things every Alabama fan wants to see in what should be a lopsided affair:

Maturity

I seem to recall that a coach once called it “rat poison.” If you’re not hip to that term, it’s when a team receives so much praise that it becomes complacent. Alabama head coach Nick Saban has tried to eradicate all rat poison from his program, but it was in abundance this week: nationally, locally and personally.

Bama’s dominating performance against the Hurricanes had everyone talking. After the game, the performance was widely covered on a national level despite having competition with so many other compelling games. Alabama was the talk of the weekend. It’s pretty much impossible to avoid the understandably positive coverage with social media. The bigger concern is that friends and family will pump up young egos.

This is the perfect week for Alabama’s players to show some understandable immaturity. After all, they are young. Alabama just dominated a ranked opponent. They’re playing a team that they should throttle. And they open SEC play next week with a road game at Florida, which will be considered the gem of the SEC schedule. Alabama can’t actually lose the Mercer game, but they can lose track of the ultimate goal, which is an undefeated season and national championship, if they don’t keep their focus on improving each day.

More Bryce Young

This may just be from my perspective as a college football fan. Bama’s new quarterback, sophomore Bryce Young, is fantastic to watch. He’s way more mature than anyone could have ever expected. He stepped into the spotlight and looked like he owned it. Young is so patient with pressure in his face that it’s scary. There was no flinch to him whatsoever. No matter who you root for, that is fun to watch.

Less Bryce Young

As fun as it is to watch Young, I thought Alabama may have kept him in the Miami game a little too long. I understand he needs experience, but an injury would be devastating. Bama might still win the national championship without Young, but it would be horrible for the young man and horrible for college football. Bama should post a big lead easily against Mercer. Fans should hope Young doesn’t play at all in the second half.

More wide receivers

We all knew about John Metchie III. He was the heir apparent to DeVonta Smith, the receiver who won The Heisman Trophy last year on a team full of Heisman Trophy candidates. It doesn’t look like there will be a massive drop-off for the No. 1 receiver spot at Alabama, which is saying a lot. However, transfer Jameson Williams didn’t look too bad, either. How deep is Alabama at wideout? I’m not sure that anyone outside of the Alabama coaching staff really knows. It would be nice to find out more Saturday.

Each other

I heard a commentator say recently that he felt emotional when he first saw fans in the stands again on Saturday. The feeling was shared by many, including me. It just felt different than last season. College football was back and that means a lot to a lot of communities. You might read or hear me say something negative about the NCAA in the not-so-distant future but — as a whole — it brings people together. So if you step into Bryant-Denny Stadium, be thankful. As we learned in 2020, nothing is guaranteed.