After 13 Games and a Month Off, Alabama Facing a One-Game Season
LOS ANGELES — The college football season is a grind.
From September to December, it's the same thing every week. Four days of practice and then 60 minutes of high-intensity, high-pressure football on Saturdays.
However, the postseason is different. Since Alabama defeated Georgia in the SEC championship on Dec. 2, the Crimson Tide has had nearly a whole month off.
That's a lot of time to think. It's also a lot of time to get healthy.
"Well, you can look at it from two sides," offensive guard Tyler Booker said. "Keeping your nerves in check — you really just have to go back to what you've been doing to get to this point. Don't make the game bigger than it is."
"On the other hand, it's been really good for us because we've had some guys banged up and they've really been able to recover. We've been able to go back through all the games this season and see what we really need to improve on in order to take advantage of the opportunity we've earned."
Offensive tackle JC Latham says it's been different not seeing any game action for nearly four weeks, but that now is not the time to get complacent.
"You're waiting a month to play one of the biggest games [of the season] — that's a pretty big deal. It's kind of crazy to me to think that four weeks have gone by and we're not playing. You gotta be real cautious [about] what you do, you've got to make sure you're not celebrating [anything] at all."
"They say an alligator is easy to kill once it gets its prey because it's satisfied. [...] Beating Georgia was a really big deal but we can't be satisfied. We gotta keep trying to be persistent in pushing forward and making sure that we're not done until the end."
