For No. 11 Alabama football’s Homecoming game, the Crimson Tide will host the Arkansas Razorbacks in Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday morning. The Razorbacks are currently winless in the SEC, but head coach Nick Saban said his team is preparing for an opponent that is capable of anything.
“They’ve had some really tough games, some close losses, but they’ve scored a lot of points,” head coach Nick Saban said. “KJ Jefferson is a really good, big-time quarterback, big guy, hard to sack, can run, very talented arm.”
Although Arkansas is 2-4 after a four-game losing streak, the Razorbacks have scored more points than Alabama this season, although just by 1 point, 188-187 total points.
As for Jefferson, he and Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe are neck and neck in terms of both passing and rushing yards as well as sacks. Both Jefferson and Milroe found themselves frequently on the ground against Texas A&M, being sacked seven and six times, respectively.
Although Saban predicts Jefferson will be hard to get to, the good news is that the Alabama defense is third in the SEC with 22 sacks. Linebackers Dallas Turner (No. 1 in the SEC) and Chris Braswell (No. 5 in the SEC) make up more than half that statistic with 12 sacks between the two of them.
The Alabama defense is rounded out by standout safety Caleb Downs, who is No. 4 in the SEC in tackles with 47.
Defensive back Jaylen Key said the freshman’s progress is “tremendous.”
“The guy’s a ball player,” Key said. “He can do so many things, he can cover, he can tackle. Doing that at an early age and having the maturity he has is next to none.”
Although he’s not a fellow freshman, Arkansas linebacker Jaheim Thomas could give Downs a run for his money, ranking just above the freshman with 59 tackles.
“He’s one of the better linebackers we’ve played against,” Saban said.
For an Alabama team that is still working on its offensive line and cutting down the penalties, neutralizing a force like Thomas will be a necessity for success.
Offensive lineman JC Latham said the penalties were a key focus in practice this week.
“Take advantage of the opportunity when we incorporate different cadences into our practices,” Latham said. “Sometimes we literally just line up and call a random play and we’ll change cadence just to work on it, so it’s just instilling that discipline so we know what to do to get better.”
Both teams in this Homecoming matchup have struggled with penalties this year.
Last week, Alabama had 14 penalties against Texas A&M, and Arkansas had 10 against Ole Miss, although the Razorbacks also had a 14-flag game earlier this season against LSU. For the Crimson Tide, penalties have been especially concerning since six of them have led to negated touchdowns.
As for the penalties on the defensive side of the ball, linebacker Chris Braswell said the team is a lot better compared with the beginning of the year.
“I think we cleaned up penalties a little bit more,” Braswell said. “We’ve been a lot more disciplined, not really jumping offsides, not a lot of unnecessary penalties. Obviously we still are getting some penalties but that’s going to happen in a game, and we’d like to clean those up more.”
At the end of the day, Alabama leads this series 26-7 and has won the past 16 matchups. The Razorbacks are unranked, the game is in Bryant-Denny, and it’s Homecoming week.
But neither Saban nor his players are underestimating Arkansas.
“In SEC play, it’s going to be tough,” Key said. “Everybody wants to win, it’s going to be a dogfight. Every week you’re playing someone that’s good. You’ve got to be mentally prepared to go into that, mentally prepared to go to practice every week to prepare for those games, which is pretty strenuous.”
Alabama will kick off against Arkansas at 11 a.m. CT on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
