Eddie Lacy and Kenny Bell have their names on top of a long list of Alabama mainstays that have evaded the grasp of LSU to don the crimson and white as Louisiana natives.
This year’s game will have that old vs. new rivalry played out a little bit differently, as it is Alabama’s defense sporting the heavy Louisianan influence. Both outside linebacker Denzel Devall and safety Landon Collins left the state for the Crimson Tide.
A decision they hear about every day, not just in the days leading up to the Alabama-LSU game.
“It’s pretty much an everyday thing, but you live with it,” Devall said. “At the end of the day, it’s just a big game.”
If nothing else, the common home ground has brought the two closer.
“That’s like my brother,” Devall said. “We came in together and we’ve been talking ever since. He’s my day one.”
Going all the way back to the high school days, pre-Alabama.
“Yeah, we talked during our senior year, got to know each other,” Devall said.
Saban does not have 60 Minutes to spare
CBS knows a thing or two about owning the Birmingham market, as it normally does on fall Saturday afternoons with its college football broadcast.
The network had a similar stranglehold on the market Sunday night, with the much-anticipated ’60 Minutes’ piece on Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide airing Sunday night.
One of the few that did not see the piece, was Saban himself.
“First of all, we’ve had a lot of positive comments about the piece,” Saban said. “We were obviously working last night until pretty late. I did not get the opportunity to watch the piece. I did get a favorable comment from Miss Terry, so that means it must have been OK.
“We certainly appreciate the opportunity and the time spent by 60 Minutes and their staff. Armen has always been very professional, first-class guy. One of the best in the business at what he does. Their whole crew was fantastic in terms of how they went about what they did.”
Click here to see the highlights from the feature posted shortly after its completion. You can also see the feature by clicking here and some unaired footage released later by CBS by clicking here.
Hazing not welcome at Alabama
The Miami Dolphins, and in turn the NFL as a whole, have been dealing with a nasty public relations disaster, as offensive lineman Richie Incognito has been accused of taking rookie hazing too far. Voicemail and text message records feature Incognito using racial slurs towards Jonathan Martin, not to mention the heinous financial spendings forced onto Martin.
Saban made his standards for hazing and bullying of freshmen very clear.
“We don’t have that here,” Saban said. “We don’t sort of aspire to that kind of treatment of anybody in terms of the personal respect that we should show everybody on our team. We certainly don’t want to ever affect anybody’s personal dignity in terms of hazing or being critical in any way.”
In fact, Saban hopes his older players go the other way with younger players: build them up to help them acclimate to the college level, as opposed to passing them through breaking in rituals.
“Our approach has been to try to get our older players to try to be supportive of younger players, to remember how you felt when you were a freshman, maybe being away from home for the first time,” Saban said. “A lot of new things happening in your life, whether it’s personal adjustment that you’re making, academic adjustment that you’re making to college. A lot to learn relative to development as a football player.
“We’ve always taken the approach that we want our older guys to sort of engage our younger guys to do the things they need to do that’s going to help them be most successful in all those areas.”
History in the lines
For years now, especially the last three or four, the Alabama-LSU series has been decided in the trenches. The push at the line of scrimmage – forward or backward – has generally pushed one of the two teams on the winning side of both the line and the game.
“It’s a big game, but you know it’s one that as an offensive line you take full responsibility to put on your shoulders,” Alabama center Ryan Kelly said. “As long as we control the line of scrimmage we give our offense the chance to be successful.”
Ask those that came before him. Kelly did.
“From what I hear from Barrett (Jones), it’s going to be an up front battle,” Kelly said. “It always is with LSU.”
It’s a battle that LSU is well prepared for, depsite breaking in new pieces for this Saturday’s recurrence.
“They replaced (Barkevious) Mingo, (Sam) Montgomery really well,” Kelly said. “Their defensive front is something they pride themselves in. As an offensive lineman, we’re going to have to do a great job in this game to shut down those inside guys and the two outside guys that are fast and good with their hands.”
