On the surface, there may not be much for Alabama to play for this week against Arkansas. The Crimson Tide have locked up a spot in the SEC Championship against Florida in Atlanta next week, and they may look ahead to that game.

Not so fast, for coach Nick Saban.

“It’s really important, this is the next game, this is what we need to be focused on,” Saban said at his Monday press conference. “We need to respect their team, they can beat anybody, that they’ve demonstrated all year long. So there’s no question about the fact that this is a little bit of a historic game for us too. We’ve only had one team around here that went undefeated, and it wasn’t as difficult for that team to go undefeated as it is for this team playing 10 SEC games. I think any time you play on the road in the SEC, you’ve got to be ready to play and you’ve got to respect the fact that the team you’re playing certainly is capable of beating you if you don’t execute.”

Alabama has won 12 straight in the series, and won last year 49-7. Arkansas is coming off a last-second loss to Missouri, while Alabama rolled over LSU on the road last week.