NO. 1 ALABAMA AT NO. 16 ARKANSAS

Nick’s knack: Alabama is Alabama with Saban in charge

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Nick Saban photo illustration.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Nick Saban photo illustration.

"That's what you get up every day to do, to dominate the people that you have to compete against and play against."

-- Nick Saban, Jan. 4, 2007

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Three close calls

• There have been three close games during Arkansas’ nine-game losing streak to Nick Saban-coached Alabama teams.

2007: ALABAMA 41, ARKANSAS 38

Coach Houston Nutt’s Razorbacks rallied from a 31-10 deficit with four consecutive touchdowns behind Darren McFadden’s 195 rushing yards to take a 38-31 lead with 8:08 remaining. Leigh Tiffin, the goat of Alabama’s 24-23 double-overtime loss in Fayetteville the previous season, made a 42-yard field goal to make it 38-34 with 4:20 remaining. The Crimson Tide got the ball back late, and helped by two pass interference penalties and a stoppage of play to measure for what was clearly not a first down when Alabama had no timeouts remaining, won on John Parker Wilson’s 4-yard touchdown pass to Matt Caddell with 8 seconds left.

2010: ALABAMA 24, ARKANSAS 20

This was the first of three times Alabama has played at Razorback Stadium as the No. 1 team, but the game started in Arkansas’ favor as the Razorbacks led 20-7 in the second half. But Alabama forced three Ryan Mallett interceptions and came back to win.

2014: ALABAMA 14, ARKANSAS 13

The Razorbacks had their chances on a cool, rainy afternoon, but they couldn’t fully capitalize. Arkansas lost a fumble inside the Alabama 1, dropped an interception in the end zone that the Crimson Tide turned into a touchdown, and there was a failed fourth-and-1 opportunity near midfield in the second half.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Alabama Coach Nick Saban wasn't kidding around during his introductory news conference when he talked about his desire to dominate the competition.

Saban and the Crimson Tide have delivered.

Alabama (5-0, 2-0 SEC), ranked No. 1 for 42 weeks since 2008, will bring that familiar No. 1 ranking into Reynolds Razorback Stadium tonight at 6 against No. 16 Arkansas (4-1, 0-1).

Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema has talked about what it will take for the Razorbacks to win their first SEC championship. He has not hesitated to say Arkansas will have to beat mighty Alabama to achieve that goal.

Bielema's regard for the program Saban has constructed is immense.

"Without a doubt, all the things that he preaches he lives on a daily basis," Bielema said. "You talk about someone that handles everything the exact same. They line up a certain way. They play a certain way. If someone goes against the norm, you either don't see them or you see the reaction that you want as a coach.

"Then he's got really good players. ... There's a lot of people in this league who have great players, but not everybody plays as consistent as Alabama."

Five SEC teams -- Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Missouri -- have not beaten the Crimson Tide under Saban.

Saban is 9-0 against Arkansas and Tennessee -- the Tide's next two opponents -- but he doesn't like to talk about it.

"I don't strike it up to anything," Saban said when asked about a common denominator in the victories over Arkansas. "We've had some really, really tough games with Arkansas, and we have a lot of respect for their players and the way they compete, the physical toughness that they play with, and just know what it takes to be able to compete against teams like this that play really sound, solid football.

"Our emphasis is on this game and what we have to do to win this game, and no matter what happened in any games in the past, it's not going to have any effect on this game."

Saban has never lost a game in Fayetteville. His two losses as the LSU head coach against Arkansas came in Little Rock -- a 14-3 game in 2000, and the Miracle on Markham, a 21-20 decision in 2002 that sent the Hogs to the SEC championship game.

Saban has a current winning streak of two or more games against every team in the SEC with the exception of Ole Miss, whom the Crimson Tide downed 48-43 on Sept. 17, and South Carolina, whom Alabama last played in 2010. His 1-1 record against South Carolina makes the Gamecocks the only SEC school against whom Saban has a winning percentage of less than 66.7 percent.

Saban's second Alabama team went 8-0 in SEC games, 12-2 overall, and lost to eventual BCS champion Florida in the SEC Championship Game. The Crimson Tide were just getting warmed up.

Alabama has a 103-12 record since 2008, a winning percentage of .896, while playing in what is regarded as the toughest division of the nation's toughest conference.

The Crimson Tide have won four SEC championships, four national championships and re-established the Alabama aura of the Bear Bryant years.

Alabama won its first national championship under Saban in his third year, thumping Texas 37-21 to polish off a 14-0 season in 2009. The Crimson Tide added national titles in 2011, 2012 and 2015.

The Tide have played 41 games when ranked No. 1 since the ninth game of 2008, and they are 36-5 in those games.

"At this point, Alabama is just -- it's the machine now," SEC Network anchor Dari Nowkhah said. "I mean, how many times do you have to win national titles before people just start assuming they're going to go there and succeed?

"I mean, he [Saban] goes into a living room and shows them five rings, four of them from Alabama. They're in every single major college football conversation. He's very businesslike, but there's a side to him that we never see that his players respect the heck out of him."

Alabama's success can be summed up as a confluence of tradition, a commitment of resources, Saban's guidance and outstanding recruiting.

The Crimson Tide have had the No. 1 recruiting class for six consecutive seasons.

Andy Staples, the national college football writer for Sports Illustrated, said Saban's success can be traced to harnessing the focus of those highly regarded players.

"They do something that nobody else right now has been able to do, and that is make large groups of 18- to 22-year-olds behave in a consistent manner week after week after week," Staples said. "We've all been that age. You know you're very up, very down, very all around. But for whatever reason, they can make that team prepare consistently, play consistently."

Arkansas linebackers coach Vernon Hargreaves said having players buy into a system is critical, and it is reminiscent of his eight years as linebackers coach (1998-2005) at Miami, which produced one BCS national title, four Big East championships and a 6-2 bowl record.

"A lot of times when that thing gets going like that, it just kind of keeps feeding itself," Hargreaves said. "I've been around that before. And as long as you do your job and keep getting the right players, then everything else takes care of itself."

Arkansas defensive line coach Rory Segrest was on Alabama's national championship team in 1992 before injuries derailed his career.

"Alabama's traditionally been a good football program, with a lot of national champions before Nick ever got there," he said. "Obviously, he's done a great job since he's been there. So ... a lot of tradition and a lot of great players that they continue to recruit, year in and year out. But like I said, we've got some pretty good ones ourselves, and we're ready to get in there and get after it."

Saban, in his 10th season, became the longest tenured SEC football coach after LSU fired Les Miles two weeks ago.

His record at Alabama, with five vacated games from 2007 not included, is 105-18.

The Razorbacks have a few milepost victories under Bielema -- consecutive victories against LSU and Ole Miss, and road victories at Tennessee and TCU among them -- but he hasn't beaten Alabama.

"I know that we've done some good things, but we haven't done enough to go over the top," Bielema said.

On his radio show Thursday night, Bielema said most fans might think the Razorbacks have been preparing for Alabama just this week.

"Our players have been preparing to play Alabama since January," he said.

Sports on 10/08/2016

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