Alabama Enters LSU Game with Historic Spread, Mariota Continues Heisman Lead
Last week, the #2 Florida State (8-0, 6-0) vs. #11 Miami FL (7-1, 3-1) game brought the largest point spread in history for a matchup of two top ten teams at this point in the season. The spread sat at -22 for Florida State late in the week and at the end of the day, the Seminoles grabbed a 41-14 win.
It’s a new week and a new historic point spread. This time it’s #1 Alabama (8-0, 5-0) hosting #13 LSU (7-2,3-2). At the start of the week (Nov. 3), the Tide was an 11-point favorite over its rival–the largest spread for a game between the two schools since 2006 and in the Nick Saban and Les Miles era when they started meeting at their respective schools in 2007, according to AL.com’s Andrew Gribble.
At the time of this writing, the spread is now -12.5.
Nick Saban
Saban has a 4-3 record versus LSU since taking over at Alabama and in this this series, only one game has been wider than a 10-point differential. This came in the 2011 BCS Championship with an Alabama 21-0 win.
But Alabama under Saban’s leadership is used to being the favorite against LSU; it has happened every time except for one. The exception is the first year under Saban (2007) where LSU was the favorite at -6.5 and won 41-34. It was an off year for Alabama as they went 7-6.
Keep in mind, this spread for Saturday’s game is the second-lowest one this season for Alabama. They were eight-point favorites against Texas A&M (7-2, 3-2) Â and won that game 49-42.
This week, both teams will be well rested as they just had bye weeks. Alabama’s last game was a 45-10 rout against Tennessee (4-5, 1-4) and Saturday’s will represent its first one against ranked opponent since Sept. 28 against then #21 Ole Miss (5-3, 2-3), 25-0.
LSU’s last game was a 48-16 win over Furman and its most recent ranked win came against then #17 Florida, 17-6 (4-4, 3-3) on Oct.12.
Miles said of Saturday’s game via USA Today, “I think this team, kind of historically at LSU, looks forward to playing Alabama. I think it’s the same this week. I think our guys are really looking forward to playing the best against their best opponents. There is just a little more energy in the step of your team. Their attention to detail is greater. I enjoy it very much. I’ve always enjoyed the competition with some of the better teams in this country, and certainly Alabama is that.”
Will LSU be able to pull off the upset? The team is 3-1 and 2-0 in OT at Tuscaloosa.
Mariota Still Leading the Heisman Poll
Last week #3 Oregon (8-0, 5-0) had a bye week but quarterback Marcus Mariota still saw his vote total increase three percent from last week in this week’s USA Today Heisman Poll.
Leading his team to a decisive 41-14 win last week, Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston remained in the second spot again and from 26 potential first-place votes, Mariota got 20; Winston saw five and Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel grabbed one.
Marcus Mariota
Here’s a look at the ballots (again all quarterbacks). Note: three points come with first-place votes, two for second and one for third.
Mariota (Oregon): 20-4-2 = 70
Winston (Florida State): 5-14-6 = 49
Manziel (Texas A&M): 1-8-9 = 28
AJ McCarron (Alabama): 0-0-6 = 6
Bryce Petty (Baylor): 0-0-3 = 3
From Vegas via Bovada, Mariota is the leader to win the Heisman at 2/3, followed by Winston (6/5), Manziel (14/1), McCarron (16/1) and Petty (28/1).
For Oregon, they’ll kick off their November play against #5 Stanford (7-1, 5-1) on Saturday. Last year’s meeting represented the team’s only loss of the season, a 17-14 OT one on the home field. The win snapped Oregon’s three-year stint as the Pac-12 champion and ended its BCS Championship dreams.
Again this year, Stanford will try to stop Mariota. Good luck as his stat line includes the following:Â 2,281 passing yards (64 percent pass completion), 20 touchdowns, 587 rushing yards and nine scores. Perhaps his most impressive stat is zero interceptions.
Mariota has been hard to stop and this week it will continue with another Oregon win (-10.5).
