Yearly Archives: 2021

It doesn't happen too often, but Alabama enters this week's game in search of a way to atone for a regular-season loss. One hundred consecutive wins against unranked opponents: That's what Alabama saw come to an end last week against a Texas A&M team that finally found its passing game after sputtering along all year as a one-dimensional running team. This week, Alabama wants to start a new winning streak, and it hopes to do so against a one-dimensional passing team. Whether a passing offense proves easier to defend than a rushing offense, that's yet to be seen. Mississippi State enters this game with a 3-2 record. Its last win? Texas A&M, two weeks ago, by a 26-22 score. That immediately becomes the Bulldogs' best win of the year, to go along with victories over Louisiana Tech and North Carolina State in the first two weeks of the season. In between, MSU lost consecutive games to Memphis and LSU. MSU head coach Mike Leach is one of the most colorful head coaches in the business today, and he doesn't even pretend to try to run the football. Mississippi State has no tight end on its roster; why have one when you don't need a blocker that can sometimes slip out into the pass patterns? But make no mistake, Leach is innovative, and to underestimate him is to invite yet another upset. Alabama can't afford such if it intends to rebound and eventually play for a national championship. This game might come down to Alabama's mindset, and whether Nick Saban can refocus his team rather than watching it poor-mouth itself into a second loss.

This is not an official University of Alabama document. The depth chart is taken from individual practice and game observations, and is color-coded. Seniors are in black, juniors previously on the team are in green, junior college transfers in their junior year are in purple, junior college transfers in their sophomore year are in yellow, sophomores previously on the team are in blue, redshirt freshmen are in cyan, and true freshmen are in red. NOTE: Because Alabama operates from multiple alignments on both offense and defense, 12 positions are listed on both sides of the ball to account for those specific alignments.

One win from a perfect Week 6 record, and it was the worst-case scenario on the board, as Alabama fell to Texas A&M. This week there are several interesting games, all difficult to pick. Unfortunately, that might again include a game in which Alabama is involved.

It wasn't that Texas A&M was some semi-talented journeyman team like South Carolina in 2010 or Utah in 2008 – Texas A&M was predicted by some to the SEC West's representative in Atlanta this year. But after an injury to the Aggies' original starting quarterback, a disappointing offensive line that had used more combinations than a vault at Fort Knox, and a wide receiver corps that had looked anything but game-changing – to say nothing of back-to-back losses to Arkansas and Mississippi State – there was almost no one who would stand behind any kind of preseason wishcasting nonsense when Alabama finally touched down in College Station this week.

Here are this week's (2021 - Week 06) college football games on TV. The first table shows the available SEC football games on TV; the second table shows all of the college football games on TV; and the fourth table shows all college football games organized by network. The networks shown in each table are DirecTV and Xfinity. All times are CDT.

Alabama must take the game seriously. It's at Kyle Field, not one of the easiest SEC venues. The Aggies have a solid defense and a good running game, and Alabama lost two key players in a win over Ole Miss last week, RB Jase McClellan and DE Drew Sanders. McClellan is done for the year.

Alabama @ Texas A&M, October 9, 2021, 8pm ESPN 

Of the four misses in Week 5, the Predictions Dept. is most upset about the Florida-Kentucky pick, which we got right in the preseason but then changed to Florida due to loss of confidence in the Wildcats after Kentucky sputtered through a couple of also-ran opponents. This week, there are just seven games, with five of them highly interesting matchups. Alabama-Texas A&M is the big one, but the hardest to pick may end up being Arkansas-Ole Miss.

Alabama's 42-21 win was even more dominating than the score indicated, because Ole Miss got a trash touchdown at the end following one of the worst pass interference calls of the year (and there have been several, if you have been watching SEC football in 2021).

In 2021, Ole Miss finds itself ranked 12th off a resume that features a solid win over a mediocre Louisville team, and two blowouts over Austin Peay and Tulane. Ole Miss then took the fourth week of the season off to prepare for Alabama. The Rebels seem to be getting the biggest bump to the resume off the Tulane win, which in turn was likely due to Tulane nearly knocking off Oklahoma in its season-opener. That Tulane win, by the way, has to look a bit less shiny given the Green Wave lost to UAB last week.