Playing the waiting game this week
While a select group of teams will be playing for a conference championship this weekend, the Alabama Crimson Tide finds itself in an awkward situation.
The Tide is firmly in place as the No. 2 team in the BCS standings, but won’t play in Atlanta for the SEC championship because the only team ranked higher than the Tide, the LSU Tigers, is a fellow SEC West opponent.
It appears that the two teams are on a crash course for a rematch of their 9-6 overtime battle in Tuscaloosa, but for now all Alabama can do is sit back and wait for the final standings to cement their fate.
“We don’t know what the future holds for us, but I think it’s going to be a huge stage regardless of what happens,” said Alabama head coach Nick Saban.
If Alabama doesn’t go to the national championship game, it would still likely travel to New Orleans, just one week earlier for the Sugar Bowl. Players and coaches will have to wait until Sunday night, when the final standings will be revealed.
“I’m really not nervous about it,” senior center William Vlachos said. “You can only control what you can control. I really never worry about things that I can’t control. We’ll let the people that have those decisions make them for us.”
The Tide won’t practice this week, and won’t know its practice schedule until its bowl game is announced. But the focus will be on keeping players in top shape, so they can prepare for whichever postseason contest awaits them.
“All we can do is wait,” senior nose tackle Josh Chapman said. “Whoever we play is who we play, that’s who we’ll prepare for. But right now, we’re just going to work on how can we be a better team, and the little things we can do.”
Trent for Heisman
Mark Ingram made history two years ago, winning the first Heisman trophy in Alabama’s storied football history, and Trent Richardson has a chance to add a second on to the trophy case in three years.
Through 12 games, Richardson has amassed 1,583 yards rushing, the second-best single-season total in school history. Richardson, a junior from Pensacola, Fla., has also scored 23 total touchdowns this season, tied for the second most in SEC history.
And he’s done it all while being the focal point of the opposing defense’s game plan.
“For the last couple of years now, they key in to stop him,” Vlachos said. “Mississippi State and Auburn — they’ve got 150 people in the box. And he’s running it for 157 yards? That guy’s a special player.”
Chapman goes against him every day in practice and is just glad he doesn’t face Richardson on Saturdays.
“That’s a running back that you want on your team,” Chapman said. “And I’m glad Trent’s on ours, instead of having to go chase him for somebody else.”
