Before the 2011 college football season started everyone thought the matchup between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers would have great meaning, but this game is hyped up to the highest level because the two top teams in the country are squaring off in a national championship-type atmosphere Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.
Whoever wins this game has the inside track to the BCS National Championship game and it is a matchup between two of the six unbeaten teams left in the college land. No.1 versus No.2 in a high stakes game of football poker and the amazing thing about this is that both schools are fishing for talent out of the same pond in the Deep South.
Right now Nick Saban at Alabama and Les Miles at LSU have established themselves as the two most dominant recruiting and coaching figures in college football. This game will showcase some of the best college talent in the nation.
The last time two teams had this many potential pro players on their teams was the 2005 BCS National Championship game when the USC Trojans, in halfback Reggie Bush’s final collegiate game, went up against quarterback Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns.
Between players from USC and Texas in that monumental contest, 66 made it to the NFL as either draft choices or undrafted free agents.
When we all watch Alabama and LSU we will see numbers in the same range as the 66 total that Texas and USC had in that national championship game.
LSU is a very young football team littered with a host of freshman, redshirt freshmen, sophomores and juniors, but Alabama is built to win now.
In my list of the potential top 42 players that could be available for the 2012 NFL draft, juniors and seniors included, Alabama players man six of those 42 top spots.
Halfback Trent Richardson, cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick, linebackers Dont’a Hightower and Courtney Upshaw, strong safety Mark Barron and free safety Robert Lester are potential first or early second round choices for the 2012 NFL draft.
LSU has two players in my top 42 in cornerback Morris Claiborne and wide receiver Rueben Randle.
And in my opinion the difference between these two distinctively different, but evenly matched clubs, is the fleet-footed Randle from Bastrop High School in Louisiana.
In the last three encounters between the Tigers and the Tide I thought the difference was the playmaking skills of former Alabama All-American and current Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones.
In the three games Jones played against LSU during his college career (and Alabama won two of those three contests) the huge end caught 21 passes for 319 yards and two touchdowns.
Alabama ran the football with some success against LSU, but it seemed to be time after time that Jones made a play to move the chains or get big yardage downfield.
In 2011 the Tide don’t have that sort of end that can dictate coverage, make the tough catch when coverage is rotated to his side of the field and open up one-on-one avenues for the other receivers.
Randle, who is averaging 19.5 yards per catch this season, has become that sort of receiver for the Tigers and even if coverage goes to his side of the field that should give Odell Beckham, Deangelo Peterson and Russell Shepard a lot of man-to-man coverage situations downfield.
Win the turnover battle, make a big play on special teams and let Rueben Randle dictate the pace of this game and the Tigers will win.
And it will also help that cornerback Tharold Simon, halfback Spencer Ware and the best defensive player in college football, cornerback Tyrann Mathieu, will be back in a purple and gold uniform after a one-game suspension.
There is nothing more special than having a meaningful football game in the South on a Saturday night.
LSU and Alabama are set to kickoff at 7 p.m. on CBS.
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