Get ready for the Game of the Century. Again.
It seems like the SEC has one every year, and this time it is Saturday’s game between No. 1 Alabama and No. 6 Texas A&M (3:30 p.m., CBS) in College Station.
The Crimson Tide has been waiting for this opportunity since Aggies quarterback Johnny Manziel strutted out of Bryant-Denny Stadium with a 29-24 upset last November. He drilled Alabama for 253 passing yards and two touchdowns, plus 92 rushing yards in a performance that locked up the Heisman Trophy.
Alabama recovered to win the SEC and national title games, but its players spent the offseason watching highlights of Johnny Football shredding them. Manziel, meanwhile, shrugged off the Crimson Tide as merely the next team on the schedule.
“It feels like another game,” he said. “It feels like Week 3 of the season.”
CBS disagrees. It will devote a camera to follow Manziel’s every move during the broadcast.
“No matter where he is and no matter what part of the game it is, we will have a shot of it,” producer Craig Silver told Sports Illustrated. “If he is anywhere in sight of that camera, we will catch it.”
As huge as the game feels, it will take a lot more than this to sort out the SEC Western Division. Both teams still have to get through No. 8 LSU, which posted victories at Alabama and Texas A&M over the past two years, and a group of upstarts led by newly ranked Ole Miss.
Eastern complications: Georgia opened the SEC schedule with a very important victory over South Carolina. The Bulldogs, Gamecocks and Gators likely will have a tough time separating from each other all season, and Saturday's 41-30 win gives Georgia the head-to-head tiebreaker over South Carolina in case they get tangled.
The cross-division games will play a big factor and clearly work toward the Gamecocks’ advantage this year. Georgia and Florida each drew LSU, while South Carolina will play Arkansas and Mississippi State.
Mason rolling: Former Park Vista running back Tre Mason is off to a great start for Auburn as he looks for a second straight 1,000-yard season. He ran 14 times for 99 yards and a touchdown in last week's win over Arkansas State.
Mason, a junior, is No. 7 in the SEC with 172 rushing yards. He also is second in the conference at 41.2 yards per kick return and had a 100-yard touchdown return in the season opener against Washington State.
Clowney unhappy: South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, a junior who is widely projected to be the No. 1 pick in April's NFL draft, is off to a slow start in his bid to win the Heisman Trophy.
After setting the program record with 13 sacks last season, he had none in the season opener against North Carolina and one last week in the loss to Georgia.
“I told the coaches, ‘You’ve got to put me somewhere else — in the middle if you want to — somewhere I can make some plays,’ ” he told reporters after Saturday’s game. “If they want to move me around, that’s up to them.”
SEC owns the rankings: Exactly half of the conference is ranked in the Associated Press' top 25. That number is unlikely to hold steady because the teams will knock each other out over the course of the season, but it maintains the SEC's lofty reputation.
Alabama, looking for its third straight national championship and fourth in the past five years, is No. 1, followed by No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 8 LSU and No. 9 Georgia. South Carolina slipped to No. 13 after losing to the Bulldogs, and Florida dipped from No. 12 to No. 18 after a disastrous game against Miami.
Ole Miss jumped to No. 25, though its wins came against Vanderbilt and Southeast Missouri State.
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