‘Bama is Back!’ SEC analyst makes bold proclamation ahead of Week 5

SEC Network analyst and former Vanderbilt quarterback Jordan Rodgers joined SportsCenter Wednesday morning to talk through some of the major matchups coming up on the Week 5 college football slate.

As part of his stop by the show, Rodgers was posed a question: what will be the biggest headline coming out of the weekend in college football? Rodgers responded that a certain SEC powerhouse will turn heads nationally by getting their mojo back.

“Well, buckle up, because it’s going to be… ‘Bama is back!" Rodgers declared. He loves how the Crimson Tide passing game has picked up since the Florida State loss and believes its three-headed monster can lead a victory... at Georgia. That's a tough challenge but Rodgers believes in the surging Alabama QB.

"If they go into Athens and get them a huge win over Georgia, it’s going to be on the right arm of Ty Simpson," Rodgers further asserted. "He has been the most efficient quarterback in the country, completing almost 90% of his passes in the last couple of games."

One primary reason for better recent numbers out of Simpson? An uptick in Ryan Williams' production.

"If they get a win, Ryan Williams is going to have to remind people that he is Ryan Williams, like he did against Wisconsin, had 165 yards in that game," Rodgers laid out, noting that Williams has been inconsistent at times. "But before that, it'd been almost an entire calendar year since we had seen Ryan Williams go for 100 yards. He had kind of disappeared, he had only two touchdowns in the previous 10 games."

But one of those games in 2024 was not the Georgia matchup, against whom Williams probably had his best performance of his entire true freshman season, especially given the stakes.

"Remember, 177 yards against Georgia last year," Rodgers added. "If ’Bama’s going to get it done, it’s going to be Germie Bernard and Ryan Williams on the outside.”

Bernard is the current Alabama leader in reception yards with 275 to Ryan Williams' 195, and he was also more of a go-to guy in the Florida State loss. We know Williams is capable of breaking open a defense, but Bernard is the more consistent No. 1 target for Simpson so far. As we saw last year, if Williams adds explosives to stretch the field, then he and Bernard can enjoy a field day.

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