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College Football Best Bets: Alabama vs Georgia Saturday Night
SportsGrid
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9/27/2024
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Sports
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00:00
The early game of the year of college football is in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
00:07
Roger Hoover, of course, is a host for the Crimson Tide Radio Network.
00:11
Also, he doesn't want to give himself credit, but does a great job at play-by-play for all
00:15
different sports across the network.
00:17
I'm going to give him the credit.
00:18
Roger and I go back to his days doing play-by-play for baseball in the Marlins organization,
00:25
but he's gone on to have a wonderful career and still continues to do it.
00:28
He'll be in the house Saturday night when the game goes off.
00:30
Roger, great to catch up with you.
00:31
Thanks for coming on our show.
00:32
Yeah.
00:33
Thank you so much, Greg, for having me.
00:34
I really enjoyed my time in Miami and South Florida covering baseball with you, but doing
00:39
well here in Alabama.
00:40
Now, I'm just ready for, as you mentioned, a huge football game coming up on Saturday.
00:44
All right.
00:45
So, it's been years, four years, since Alabama's played Georgia during the regular season,
00:50
and it's a really early matchup for this as well.
00:54
Two teams that have playoff aspirations for the first time.
00:56
And it would appear that the team that loses is still in the mix, by the way, for the college
01:00
football playoff with the addition of 12.
01:03
Bulldogs spread-wise, one and a half, two-point favorites.
01:07
I mean, look, in the SEC, when Titans match up, it does tend to go down to like the last
01:13
possession of the game.
01:15
You have a much better read, certainly, on this than I do.
01:19
How do you think this game plays out on Saturday?
01:20
It's going to be really interesting because normally when we talk about an Alabama-Georgia
01:26
matchup with Kirby Smart versus Nick Saban, you're essentially seeing the same team play
01:30
each other in terms of playing styles, in terms of athletes they're recruiting, because
01:34
players typically go to either Georgia or Alabama.
01:37
Kirby Smart, obviously, with all the years he's spent on Nick Saban's staff, recruits
01:40
the exact same player to Georgia.
01:43
Things have changed a little bit with Kalen Laborde taking over the Alabama Crimson Tide.
01:46
He has a different philosophy on offense, different philosophy on defense.
01:50
So, this is really the first time we've seen a matchup like this where you're not necessarily
01:54
preparing for that same heavyweight style bouts where the game will be played in either
01:58
the teens or the 20s, and you know the defense is going to dominate.
02:02
There's a lot we don't know, I feel like, going into this matchup, but we do know that
02:06
the Crimson Tide have been off to a really good start this year, a 3-0, maybe had some
02:10
tough moments against South Florida, but still put that game away with a 28-3 scoring margin
02:15
in the fourth quarter, and then looked really explosive against Wisconsin as well.
02:20
Georgia hasn't been as explosive.
02:22
They really struggled against Kentucky a couple weeks ago.
02:25
Their offense just hasn't had the same rhythm that we saw a year ago with Carson Beck or
02:29
especially during those back-to-back national championship years.
02:32
So, even though it's two familiar brands, still two teams at the very top of college
02:36
football, this is a little bit different of a matchup than we've seen in the last few
02:40
years between Georgia and Alabama.
02:43
Yeah, and certainly, you know, Roger is broadcasting for the Crimson Tide radio network, so he's
02:48
not going to have necessarily the same things to say about the point spread like I can,
02:52
which was in the offseason.
02:54
The lookahead line was Georgia being a much more significant favorite.
02:56
To Roger's point, Alabama has played better than Georgia in the month of September, which
03:02
is why I think that this is a lot closer than it has been.
03:05
So, Roger, you know, you've certainly seen Nick Saban around as a coach, and now it's
03:12
Kaelin DeBoer's show, so I guess let's go there.
03:16
How different has it been for you seeing him around as opposed to Coach Saban, who,
03:22
you know, of course, I know here from being in South Florida as the head coach of the
03:25
Miami Dolphins as well.
03:27
Attitude-wise, you know, we heard Kirby Smart say earlier in the week that they're preparing
03:32
for a different look defensively.
03:34
It's going to look much different than it did when they faced off against Nick Saban,
03:38
so what is the breakdown with him as opposed to Saban going into a big game like this?
03:43
Well, for Coach DeBoer, he's just very comfortable in his own skin, and he has been just, you
03:48
know, very even-keeled for every moment.
03:50
He has been head coach of the Crimson Tide from first day getting the job back in January,
03:54
only a couple days after Coach Saban retired.
03:57
He has been able to put his own spin on the program a little bit while not changing too
04:01
much from what Coach Saban liked to do and what Alabama football has always been known
04:06
for.
04:07
But again, he's just been very comfortable, and he's kind of talked about the fact that,
04:10
yes, it is a big game, the eyes of the college football world are on this matchup, but we're
04:15
still going to do what we're going to do, and I think the players have really taken
04:17
on that attitude as well.
04:20
So it has been a lot different.
04:21
Again, everyone seems a little bit more relaxed around Tuscaloosa.
04:25
Coach Saban certainly had a very disciplined structure, and you kind of knew what you were
04:29
getting each and every day, and so far, it's been similar with DeBoer.
04:32
It's just been a little bit more loose and relaxed, and I think people have certainly
04:37
enjoyed that.
04:38
I mean, of course, I want the winning thing we saw with Coach Saban for all years, certainly
04:42
want all that to continue moving forward, but it's been refreshing, and again, for Alabama
04:46
to look so good in the first three games of the year, I think it's really helped the
04:50
fan base rallying around Kalen DeBoer, and now they're just excited to see what SEC football
04:54
is going to look like for him.
04:56
Yeah, I think it's all fair, and again, not to bring up the ghosts here of Coach Saban,
05:02
but it's definitely a different look completely for the University of Alabama as it pertains
05:07
to it, and I guess to kind of take it a step further, Roger, sort of as we dive into it
05:13
here, I do think what's sort of odd here is that, and maybe not fair to DeBoer, too, is
05:18
that if Saban was still the head coach of the University of Alabama right now, NIL stuff
05:23
nonwithstanding, I think most people probably would pick Alabama to win this game, but because
05:29
he is not, it's almost like people have slanted their view to Georgia, and I'm not sure that
05:33
that's necessarily fair.
05:36
I would certainly agree with that, especially with what we've seen on offense from Alabama,
05:40
because this team looks a lot better offensively than they did a year ago, certainly upgrading
05:44
the receiver position.
05:46
Jeremy Bernard transfers over from Washington, and then maybe the best young player in college
05:50
football, 17-year-old Ryan Williams, leading receiver so far for the Crimson Tide, and
05:55
not just huge home run plays from Jalen Milrow downfielded him, but even in the short intermediate
06:00
passing game, Ryan Williams has been a good threat, and I think Jalen Milrow is a vastly
06:04
different player than he was a year ago, even going back to the SEC Championship game, where
06:08
he played well against the same Georgia Bulldog team.
06:11
He's making some really good decisions, I think the offense is really designed for him,
06:15
he's already had two rushing touchdowns in each and every game, so he has six touchdowns
06:20
already on the season, just looks very comfortable, so again, I think this Crimson Tide team,
06:25
the main question mark is the defense and the secondary, it's not been tested that much,
06:29
and this is also a Tide team that's been giving up a lot of yards on the ground, certainly
06:33
can't afford to have that come up tomorrow.
06:35
Yep, would agree.
06:36
All right, can't wait to catch it, Roger.
06:38
Hey, it's been great to see you, man, and great to catch up, and really appreciate you
06:41
taking some time to come on the show, and thanks again.
06:44
Yeah, thank you so much, Craig, for having me on, hopefully we can do it again, maybe
06:47
talk about Alabama and Georgia, I don't know, in the SEC Championship game, or the college
06:51
football playoff down the road, we know the Tide will be a part of it.
06:55
I mean, they could play three times.
06:57
Three times with one team.
06:58
That'd be fun, we're ready for it.
07:00
It could happen.
07:01
All right, Roger, thanks again for coming on the show.
07:04
Catch Roger this weekend on the Crimson Tide Radio Network, hosting and getting you ready
07:08
for the big matchup against Georgia.
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