Ad Disclosure
It’s not just Alabama in the West. It’s Alabama and the rest of college football.
That’s how former Georgia coach and 2009 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Jim Donnan views today’s landscape, at least. Despite being limited to 10 points in a shutout win over LSU last weekend, the Crimson Tide remain as the easy candidate for No. 1 overall.
“They’re very impressive, the way they’ve dominated college football for several years,” Donnan told AL.com. “I think the main thing is, offensively, they’re going to have to find a way against some of these teams they’re going to play in the playoffs if they get there, of generating some points. It’s hard to score on LSU, but at the same time, I think that’s going to be the only issue. They’ve been their own worst nemesis with some mistakes. They’ve really got everything — good kicking game, great defense, I just think they’re head and shoulders No. 1 right now.”
Donnan, who now works as an analyst for the American Sports Network, also discussed the seemingly widening divide between the SEC East and West. With a 1-9 head-to-head record for the East vs. the West in 2016 and the realistic possibility that a team wins the division with three conference losses, there’s some serious separation between the two sides.
“The East is kind of in a downward trend,” Donnan said. “If you look back when I was coaching, Florida and Tennessee both won a national championship in the five years I was there. And now Tennessee’s gone nine straight years with three (or more) losses. And Missouri jumped in there and won it. I just think the East is a little undermanned compared to the West, but I don’t think the West is overwhelming like it’s been.
“You’ve got the big divide between Alabama and everybody else, but I think some of these Eastern teams are catching up with the bottom tier of the West. But nobody’s catching up with Alabama right now.”
Alabama (9-0, 6-0) will host Mississippi State (4-5, 2-3) this Saturday at noon ET.
Tyler Waddell is a member of the Saturday Down South news team. He brings over five years of professional journalism experience and is closing in on a Bachelor's in sports management. Follow him on Twitter (@Tyler_Waddell).
