As Alabama once again enters the season as the No. 1 team in the country, one wonders who is the biggest threat to the Tide.
ESPN college football analyst Desmond Howard seems to think despite Ohio State‘s No. 2 ranking, they aren’t the biggest threat to the Tide. but Texas A&M may be.
“I really don’t know how people come to that conclusion, I know they have a lot of talent on offense, and CJ Stroud I guess by Vegas odds is the frontrunner for the Heisman,” Howard said on ESPN’s Get Up. “But I would say outside of that, what have they showed you defensively?”
“So I need to see more defensively what they’re going to do because you can’t go up against Alabama with a porous defense.”
A&M was the only team that defeated the Tide in the 2021 regular season. Given that — plus all that transpired between coaches Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher in the offseason — and Howard sees the Aggies pulling the upset again.
“More importantly, you’re dealing with a team, they don’t think, they don’t believe, that,” he said. “You combine that with Nick Saban said what he said about Jimbo Fisher and recruiting, that only adds fuel to the fire.”
The difference, however, between this year and last year, is that the Aggies won at home and the quarterback who helped defeat the Tide last year, Zach Calzada, has transferred to Auburn. The Tide also made a boatload of mistakes in that game that gave the Aggies a huge lead early on.
This year, the game is being played in Tuscaloosa where the Aggies haven’t won in a decade. So, maybe Howard should reconsider his Aggies pick.
About Stacey Mickles
Stacey is a 1995 graduate of the University of Alabama who has previously worked for other publications such as Sportskeeda and Saturday Down South.