A RUN FOR THE HEISMAN
Alabama tailback Derrick Henry enters the SEC Championship game as this season’s FBS leader in rushing yards (1,797) and rushing touchdowns (22). He is closing in on Herschel Walker’s SEC single-season rushing record (1,891 yards in 1981) and is on pace to surpass 2,000 yards. He has a streak of 17 consecutive games with a touchdown. He has run for 200-plus yards in four games this season.
It all adds up to: Heisman Trophy favorite.
“Not worried about that,” Henry said this week of the Heisman. “Worried about Florida.”
A USA Today survey of 30 Heisman voters this week showed Henry the runaway favorite. An ESPN survey of its “experts” gave nine of 10 votes to Henry. Sports Illustrated’s “Heisman Watch” also has him as the leader.
Henry strengthened his candidacy with a 46-carry, 271-yard performance in Alabama’s victory over Auburn last week. He can make a closing statement to voters with a strong performance against Florida in the SEC title game Saturday.
A native of Yulee, Fla., near Jacksonville, Henry will be running against his home-state team in the Georgia Dome.
Heisman votes are due after the conference championship games, and the winner will be announced Dec. 12 in New York.
If Henry wins, he would be the first running back to claim the Heisman since Alabama’s Mark Ingram in 2009. Quarterbacks have won the trophy the past five seasons.
ADVANTAGE, ALABAMA
Alabama’s defense is the best in the SEC. Florida’s offense is among the worst.
That seems to be the defining matchup, or mismatch, of the SEC Championship game.
Alabama leads the SEC in total defense and scoring defense. The Crimson Tide has sacked the opposing quarterback an SEC-leading 41 times in 12 games.
Florida, on the other hand, ranks 12th in the 14-team SEC in total offense and ninth in scoring offense. Gators quarterbacks have been sacked 37 times, most in the league. Florida has scored just seven touchdowns in its past four games behind struggling quarterback Treon Harris.
The Gators’ offense was dealt a blow in mid-October, when starting quarterback Will Grier received a one-year NCAA suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
“When you lose your starting quarterback, it’s always a tough transition,” Florida offensive lineman Trip Thurman said. “Will is a great player, and it’s unfortunate we had to lose him, but we trust Treon back there.”
Alabama senior linebacker Reggie Ragland said he saw the makings of his team’s dominant defensive front seven from the start of the season.
“I knew it from the jump,” Ragland said. “Guys wanted to be great, and that’s what we’re doing this year. Guys are putting it all together and playing physical, tough, hard football.
“If one guy goes down, we’ve got somebody else that can come in and play hard, just as hard as the guy that was the starter.”
Florida’s strength is also in its defense, which ranks right behind Alabama in the SEC in most categories, suggesting the potential for a low-scoring game at the Georgia Dome. But Florida’s defense faces the tougher challenge: Alabama is the third highest-scoring team in the league.
AT THE DOME IN YEAR 1
Only two other people have done what Florida’s Jim McElwain has accomplished: Reach the SEC Championship game in his first season as a head coach in the league.
He joins LSU’s Les Miles and Auburn’s Gus Malzahn with that feat. Miles’ team lost to Georgia in his first trip to the game in 2005, while Malzahn’s team beat Missouri in 2013.
McElwain isn’t a stranger to the SEC title game: He was Alabama’s offensive coordinator for the 2008 and 2009 games.
Those were the first two of his four seasons on Nick Saban’s staff.
McElwain said lessons he learned from the Alabama coach included the importance of having an “overall plan for the whole organization, not just the football specific, and how it all ties (together) and how everybody has to have one common goal and no independent contractors.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling popcorn or calling plays; everybody has got to be on the same page going in the same direction,” McElwain said. “That something (Saban) has done an outstanding job of, obviously.”
When McElwain left to become head coach at Colorado State in 2012, his parting advice from Saban was: “Mac, whatever you do, make sure you do it with your personality and put your thumbprint on it.”
“That’s a great piece of advice,” McElwain said this week.
REPEAT CHAMPS RARE
If Alabama defeats Florida, the Crimson Tide would become the first team to win back-to-back SEC championships in 17 years — and the first Alabama team to do so since 1978-79.
Tennessee was the last team to repeat as SEC champion, winning the league title game in 1997 and 1998.
Alabama won back-to-back national championships in the 2011 and 2012 seasons but didn’t win the SEC in 2011, when LSU won the Western Division and defeated Georgia in the conference championship game. Alabama then defeated LSU in the national-title game.
Overall, Alabama has won 24 SEC championships, including three in the past six seasons.
The Crimson Tide returned 12 starters, including seven on defense, from last season’s conference champions.
AGAINST MUTUAL OPPONENTS
Alabama and Florida played four mutual opponents this season — Georgia, Tennessee, Ole Miss and LSU. Against those opponents, both Alabama and Florida were 3-1.
Both teams beat Georgia handily, Alabama winning by 28 points in Athens and Florida winning by 24 in Jacksonville. Both beat Tennessee narrowly, Alabama winning by five points at home and Florida winning by one point at home.
Against Ole Miss, Alabama lost by six points at home on Sept. 19 and Florida won by 28 at home two weeks later. Against LSU, Florida lost by a touchdown on the road Oct. 17 and Alabama won by two touchdowns at home three weeks later.
UNDERDOG MENTALITY
Florida’s players don’t put much stock in prognostication after winning the SEC East despite being picked fifth in a preseason poll. So being a 17 1/2-point underdog to Alabama — the second biggest underdog in the 24-year history of the SEC Championship game — draws little more than a yawn from the Gators.
“I know a lot of fans and expectations outside of this program thought we wouldn’t be here at this point of the season,” offensive lineman Trip Thurman said. “But we’re happy to be here and ready to compete.
“Obviously, the whole country has us as underdogs. No, it doesn’t bother us. … It’s something we take in one ear and out the other.”
Gators cornerback Vernon Hargreaves wasn’t aware of the point spread until a reporter told him.
“I could (not) care less about a point spread,” he said. “But some guys may use it as motivation.”
The only bigger underdog than this year’s Gators in SEC title game history was the 1995 Arkansas team, which was a 24-point underdog to Florida. The Gators won that game 34-3.
PAST MEETINGS
Series history: Alabama and Florida have met 38 times previously, with Alabama winning 24 of the games and Florida winning 14. The Crimson Tide has won the past four meetings by a cumulative score of 143-50.
Last meeting: Alabama defeated Florida 42-21 last season in Tuscaloosa.
SEC Championship game meetings: Alabama and Florida have have met seven times previously in the league title game, making this the most common matchup in the history of the event, which started in 1992. The Gators have won four of the seven meetings. The teams last met in the championship game in 2009, when Alabama won 32-13.
STATISTICAL COMPARISON
How Alabama and Florida compare in various statistics, with the teams’ SEC and NCAA ranks, respectively, in parentheses:
Category / Alabama / Florida
Scoring offense / 34.5 (3) (34) / 25.3 (10) (92)
Total offense / 421.3 (6) (51) / 351.9 (12) (104)
Rushing offense / 206.2 (3) (28) / 137 (13) (103)
Passing offense / 215.2 (5) (73) / 214.9 (6) (74)
Scoring defense / 14.3 (1) (3) / 15.5 (2) (5)
Total defense / 264.6 (1) (2) / 283.6 (2) (5)
Rushing defense / 78.9 (1) (1) / 111.3 (2) (7)
Passing defense / 185.7 (5 ) (16) / 172.3 (4) (9)
Turnover margin / +7 (3) (27) / +10 (1) (12)
HOW THEY GOT HERE
NO. 2 ALABAMA (11-1, 7-1 SEC)
Sept. 5: defeated Wisconsin 35-17
Sept. 12: defeated Middle Tennessee 37-10
Sept. 19: lost to Ole Miss 43-37
Sept. 26: defeated Louisiana-Monroe 34-0
Oct. 3: defeated Georgia 38-10
Oct. 10: defeated Arkansas 27-14
Oct. 17: defeated Texas A&M 41-23
Oct. 24: defeated Tennessee 19-14
Nov. 7: defeated LSU 30-16
Nov. 14: defeated Mississippi State 31-6
Nov. 21: defeated Charleston Southern 56-6
Nov. 28: defeated Auburn 29-13
NO. 18 FLORIDA (10-2, 7-1 SEC)
Sept. 5: defeated New Mexico State 61-13
Sept. 12: defeated East Carolina 31-24
Sept. 19: defeated Kentucky 14-9
Sept. 26: defeated Tennessee 28-27
Oct. 3: defeated Ole Miss 38-10
Oct. 10: defeated Missouri 21-3
Oct. 17: lost to LSU 35-28
Oct. 31: defeated Georgia 27-3
Nov. 7: defeated Vanderbilt 9-7
Nov. 14: defeated South Carolina 24-14
Nov. 21: defeated Florida Atlantic 20-14 (OT)
Nov. 28: lost to Florida State 27-2
THROUGH THE YEARS
The SEC Championship game has been played annually since 1992 and in Atlanta since 1994:
Year / Score / MVP
1992 / Alabama 28, Florida 21 / Antonio Langham, Alabama
1993 / Florida 28, Alabama 13 / Terry Dean, Florida
1994 / Florida 24, Alabama 23 / Ellis Johnson, Florida
1995 / Florida 34, Arkansas 3 / Danny Wuerffel, Florida
1996 / Florida 45, Alabama 30 / Danny Wuerffel, Florida
1997 / Tennessee 30, Auburn 29 / Peyton Manning, Tennessee
1998 / Tennessee 24, Miss. State 14 / Peerless Price, Tennessee
1999 / Alabama 34, Florida 7 / Freddie Milons, Alabama
2000 / Florida 28, Auburn 6 / Rex Grossman, Florida
2001 / LSU 31, Tennessee 20 / Matt Mauck, LSU
2002 / Georgia 30, Arkansas 3 / David Greene, Georgia
2003 / LSU 34, Georgia 13 / Justin Vincent, LSU
2004 / Auburn 38, Tennessee 28 / Jason Campbell, Auburn
2005 / Georgia 34, LSU 14 / D.J. Shockley, Georgia
2006 / Florida 38, Arkansas 28 / Percy Harvin, Florida
2007 / LSU 21, Tennessee 14 / Ryan Perrilloux, LSU
2008 / Florida 31, Alabama 20 / Tim Tebow, Florida
2009 / Alabama 32, Florida 13 / Greg McElroy, Alabama
2010 / Auburn 56, S. Carolina 17 / Cam Newton, Auburn
2011 / LSU 42, Georgia 10 / Tyrann Mathieu, LSU
2012 / Alabama 32, Georgia 28 / Eddie Lacy, Alabama
2013 / Auburn 59, Missouri 42 / Tre Mason, Auburn
2014 / Alabama 42, Missouri 14 / Blake Sims, Alabama
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