No. 1 Alabama’s average margin of victory has been 32.7 points this season en route to a 10-0 during this conference-only record.
As the Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide prepare for Saturday’s SEC Championship Game against No. 7 Florida, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith was asked if the title game would be close.
His reaction, of course, was classic Stephen A. Smith.
“What?” he asked laughing. “It’s a wrap. That’s funny question. I mean please. Since you haven’t heard it from me in a while: Ala-bama. There’s nothing to talk about here. I mean please. Don’t the Florida Gators got two losses on their resume this year? Didn’t they lose to Texas A&M? Didn’t they lose to LSU last week in a ‘thriller’? But when LSU went up against Alabama, they dropped 55 on LSU. Or when they went up against Texas A&M, wasn’t that score like 52-24? Florida lost to both of them, but they gonna give Mac Jones and Najee Harris and DeVonta Smith and the crew problems? Please.”
In his third year at Florida, coach Dan Mullen led the Gators to the SEC title game for the first time since 2016 behind the dynamic passing of Kyle Trask, who has thrown for 40 touchdowns in the shortened season — 10 more than anyone else in the country.
Trask is second nationally in passing yards per game (360.3), one spot ahead of Jones at 345.9. Jones’s 27 TD passes ranks third nationally. Jones is the nation’s No. 2-rated passer and Trask is fourth.
None of that matters to Smith.
“All day every day, especially when it comes to the SEC this weekend, Alabama. It won’t even be close. My condolences to the Florida Gators. I like (Kyle) Trask. They’ve got some good players, but there’s no Tim Tebow in that locker room, talking about ‘let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.’ It’ll never happen again. You ain’t gonna play like garbage, apologize and defend. There ain’t nobody like that in that Florida locker room.
“Roll Tide. It’s a romp. You can book it. I’m predicting the score right now. It’s gonna be like – and I know the coaches will be using this for motivation for his team, it won’t work by the way – Alabama 52, Florida 26.
“I’m predicting a romp.”
Well, there you have it.
Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.
