Bama-LSU game has championship implications

TUSCALOOSA — The last time Alabama's football was on the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, it was as a No. 1 team enjoying a rock star's exit.

"I haven't been in very many competitive venues where it was a better place to play a football game than it was that day," Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said.

But throughout a bye week, a question has been left unanswered: Was Alabama's 12-10, last-second victory over Tennessee two weeks ago a grim warning or merely a speed bump in a run for the roses? The Crimson Tide (8-0, 5-0 SEC) is now No. 3 in the nation and searching — for answers offensively and a way to again prove its elite status on a big stage — when ninth-ranked LSU (7-1, 4-1) visits today for a much-anticipated 2:30 p.m. showdown on CBS.

For the first time in a while, Saban's squad encounters an opponent that has as much to gain or lose as it does. Not only will Alabama and LSU essentially decide the SEC West today, they also will likely knock a team out of the chase for a national title.

"Every year it's come down to LSU," Crimson Tide senior linebacker Cory Reamer said. "It's been a big game, and it's always lived up to the hype. Each team wants it just as badly as the other, and they've got the same stuff riding as we do."

The game's importance on a national scale has overshadowed the old storyline of Saban facing his former team. Only one current LSU scholarship player — sixth-year senior defensive tackle Charles Alexander — was a member of one of Saban's teams.

Both Saban and LSU coach Les Miles have not been subjected to the barrage of coaching questions that have preceded these teams' past two meetings, though the old emotions are still there, bubbling occasionally to the surface.

Asked about appearing in his old role as LSU's coach in a Hollywood movie, Saban replied this week: "My heart's here. So nobody has to worry about any of that stuff, especially this week."

"It's important because it's the next game, but it's LSU," Alabama cornerback Kareem Jackson said. "Coach came from there. So going in, there's always that extra, whatever you want to say, cherry on the top that kind of gets us going.

"They're going to come out ready to play physical, so we're going to have to match their intensity and play as hard."

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