Alabama, Florida gear up for battle of nation’s best

Like the mythical Corleone family in the Godfather series, Alabama settled all family business in a November to remember.

The Crimson Tide stopped a two-game losing streak to Mississippi State, a five-game skid against LSU and, Saturday, the six-game slide against Auburn.

The Crimson Tide won the West in convincing fashion. Next for Nick Saban’s topranked and undefeated team is the SEC Championship Game on Saturday against No. 2 Florida, which was installed as a 6- point favorite Sunday.

It is just the seventh time that teams from the same conference — and the first time in SEC history — will play each other when ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the AP poll. Saban said it doesn’t matter that the Gators will be favored.

“Florida has played well, and they’ve scored a lot of points,” the Tide coach said Sunday. “(They) haven’t even had a close game other than the Ole Miss game. They’ve been a dominant team, and they certainly deserve all the accolades that their team gets because they’ve played extremely well all season long.”

Florida coach Urban Meyer said his first look at Alabama came Sunday.

“I spent most of my time looking at their defense and kicking game,” Meyer said. “I have not watched a lot of the offense yet. We’re going to go work on that tomorrow.”

There are great generalities about both teams. Florida is a Ferrari-type of team that runs up points on its opponents. Alabama is the defensive terror that wins games up front. It’s too easy to say this is a speed vs. power game. Both coaches see similarities in what they want to accomplish, just different styles to get them there.

“I think at the end of the day it’s contrasting, but it’s very similar,” Meyer said when asked about the offenses. “We believe in running the football. You’ll hear people say basketball on grass, and you’ll never hear that about our offense — and I’d be disappointed if they did. We believe in the development of the offensive line, and running off the ball, and the pass protection, and running the football, and our line has done well.”

Saban said the Gators present a special challenge for his players.

“They certainly have an outstanding team, and Coach Meyer has done a fantastic job of putting together a bunch of outstanding athletes who play well together, and are very well coached, and execute as well as anybody in the country,” Saban said. “They all contribute in a positive way to playing the roles, to make it difficult to defend them. Their defense is one of the top defensive teams in the nation. They’ve got some outstanding players, good athletes in all positions. … This is an outstanding team. But I don’t think you can expect to be in the SEC Championship game and not play an outstanding team. “

Run it up? Saban was asked about the late touchdown pass Alabama threw in the final minutes against Auburn. Backup Greg McElroy found Marquis Maze for 34 yards up the right sideline with 2:49 remaining, which made the final score 36-0. Saban insisted the Tide wasn’t trying to run up the score. “It was third down. We had our No. 2s in, we played our No. 2s half of the fourth quarter,” Saban said. The coach said the play was designed to be a 7-yard out route to the tight end. But Auburn was in a bumpand- run defense. “The quarterback’s read is to throw the ball over the top if they guy’s on top,” the coach said. “We only threw it twice the whole fourth quarter, and both of those were third-down situations. So my point would be if anyone doesn’t want the ball put over their head, they shouldn’t have got in bumpand- run. But, you know, that’s the game.”

BCS poll: Both coaches were asked about the BCS poll, which saw Oklahoma jump Texas for the second spot. “I’m disappointed,” Meyer said. “I guess that’s what I say because it’s not my conference. But I hope the SEC will never have the voters determine who goes to the Championship game. “I think there are three big football teams, and I know anybody wants to attack the system, it’s a system we have. But if there’s a flaw, we’ve got to continue to work through it to get it right.” Saban said he didn’t have an opinion, but noted the tie-breakers weren’t just thought up yesterday. “It is the rules. Somebody put those in place,” Saban said. “So it’s not really Oklahoma’s fault. They said if there’s a three-way tie, this is how we break a three-way tie. “So I don’t really know that much about it. I haven’t even seen the BCS poll yet. And I don’t really have a feeling about it. I know that all of those teams are outstanding teams — Texas Tech, Texas and Oklahoma. They’re all in the same division. I think that they would be an issue of some sort whoever got selected to go.”

Saban, Johnson honored: Saban and safety Rashad Johnson were honored by the Little Rock (Ark.) Touchdown Club. Saban was named SEC Coach of the Year and Johnson was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year. Saban has Alabama in the SEC Championship Game against Florida after completing his first undefeated regular season. Johnson is second on the team with 73 tackles. The Little Rock Touchdown Club recognized Florida quarterback Tim Tebow as the SEC Offensive Player of the Year and Texas’ quarterback Colt McCoy as the National Player of the Year.