HOOVER, Ala. — As Nick Saban saw his Alabama football team lose to Ole Miss last season, it was pretty obvious what the problem was.
He praised the Rebels and the job coach Hugh Freeze has done of putting some quality teams on the field. But losing to the Rebels for a second-straight year, Saban felt like his team didn’t help themselves out.
“We had five turnovers last year. They played on a short field and scored a lot of points,” Saban said at Southeastern Conference Media Days Wednesday. “They made a couple of big plays that we didn’t defend very well. We had some breakdowns in the secondary.”
The Tide lost 43-37 to the Rebels last season in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Rebels took advantage of home field advantage in 2014 to win 23-17. The two losses are a part of three in the last two seasons for Alabama. Alabama lost 42-35 to eventual national champion Ohio State during the 2014 playoff.
Last year, the Tide threw three interceptions and fumbled two times. Those miscues led to 24 Rebel points.
“We had too many mental errors and turnovers,” rising senior defensive lineman Jonathan Allen said. “You can’t have five turnovers and expect to beat any team. If we cut back on the mental mistakes and the self errors, I feel like we’ll have success against them.”
In 2014, the Ole Miss game was the fifth game of the season and second SEC game for Alabama. Last year, it was the third game and first SEC game.
Continuing that trend of early season games, the game will be third game and the first SEC game for the Crimson Tide this season. Alabama and Ole Miss play Sept. 17 in Oxford.
“It’s a mental aspect, it’s a mind-set,” rising senior tight end O.J. Howard said. “We have to have a mind-set to finish. It’s probably that our mind-set isn’t there. We just have to be more mentally tough when we play those guys.”
Outside of Ole Miss, Alabama has dominated the SEC. Even with both of those losses, Alabama won the 2014 and 2015 SEC championships. The Tide went on to win the the 2015 national championship.
Although Alabama is focused on repeating as SEC and national champions, the Ole Miss game is circled on the calendar. It will be a good measuring stick for Saban.
“If you’re going to play well against those kinds of teams who are very prolific offensive teams and play good defense, you got to play good field position,” Saban said. “We’re going to have to do a better job of eliminating the big play so they don’t score so many points.”
Another Allen at Arkansas
While at the Manning Passing Academy, Austin Allen caught the eye of one of the best college quarterbacks ever.
The Arkansas quarterback was surrounded by some of the more talented quarterbacks in the game. But when Arkansas coach Bret Bielema heard from Archie Manning, he got really excited about his future quarterback.
“Archie shot me a text a day or two later saying, ‘He’s one of the more impressive players there and one of the best QBs to show up,'” Bielema said. “I think Archie knows a few things about QBs.”
Allen will take over for his brother, Brandon, at the position this season. Brandon, who was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars, was a three-year starter.
Austin was his older brother’s backup the last two season, and saw very little action. He appeared in five games in 2014 and three games last season. Austin has completed 9-of-19 passes for 188 yards and one touchdown against one interception.
Although he is inexperienced, Bielema feels confident, mainly because of how Austin handled the last few seasons.
“For three years, Austin sat there and watched his older brother go through a lot of success and a lot of failure,” Bielema said. “I just talked to him, ‘As this thing unfolds, you may even be in there the next play. It may not be this week. It may not be next week. It may not be this year, but when it happens, you’ll be much more prepared if you take advantage of it.'”
There have been similarities drawn between the two Allen brothers. Rising senior tight end Jeremy Sprinkle says the younger Allen has shown the same improvement the older Allen did during spring practice.
Sprinkle wouldn’t be surprised if Austin is successful right away.
“It’s like (offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach) Dan (Enos) said, ‘He can come in and succeed pretty quick,'” Sprinkle said. “It’ll be fun to seem come in and succeed.”
Brandon was a big reason the Razorbacks went 8-5 overall and 5-3 in the SEC last season. Many expect Austin to be exactly like Brandon, but as Bielema pointed out, they are not always similar.
“They are different cats. They have different personalities, different temperament,” Bielema said.
Kentucky culture change
Mark Stoops sees changing the climate within a program easy. The culture though, is another story.
Stoops took over the Kentucky program in 2013. Although Kentucky is a basketball school with a history of losing in football, Stoops believed that he could rejuvenate the fanbase and get football back on track.
The culture, he believes, starts with the players and the amount of time they put into making themselves and the program better.
“Quite simply, our players need to do more,” Stoops said. “Whether it’s in the classroom, to have that attention to detail in the meetings, in the football meetings to pay attention longer, to have attention to detail longer within our meetings, longer training sessions, harder workouts, harder weight room workouts and training harder this summer.
“We had longer spring practices. We need to have a tougher two-a-days, a tougher camp and continue to expand our capacity to handle more to endure what it takes mentally and physically to compete and win in this league.”
The Wildcats went 2-10 overall and 0-8 to finish seventh in the SEC Eastern Division in Stoops’ first season. The last two seasons, the Wildcats have won two league games and been one game shy of becoming bowl eligible.
That’s frustrating for Stoops and his players, but the last two seasons have shown them they are heading in the right direction.
“That is not an easy thing,” rising senior center Jon Toth said. “You don’t wake up and overnight it’s been changed. As you can see, it’s been a multi-year process and we have been working day-to-day to achieve that.”
Changing the culture takes strong leadership, but not just from the coach. Now in his fourth year, Stoops has some leaders at his disposal.
One of those is rising senior running back JoJo Kemp. The DeLand, Florida, native split time with Stanley Williams at running back. Williams led the team with 855 yards and six touchdowns. Kemp rushed for 555 yards and six touchdowns.
Entering his final year with the Wildcats, Kemp feels like it is his obligation to lead and help change the culture.
“The difference between this year and last year, I am a more vocal leader,” Kemp said. “(I’m) taking it upon myself to take the younger guys to the other side, telling them the expectations we have here at Kentucky and just doing the little things the coaches ask me to do for the younger guys.”
The culture is almost changed at Kentucky, but having a winning season and going to a bowl game will go a long way in helping Stoops’ cause. The Wildcats have been close in the past, but that’s not enough.
“We’re tired of being close,” Stoops said. “Our players are doing what it takes in expanding that capacity, expanding everything we’re doing to give us a larger margin to not have to play a perfect game all of the time.”
Missouri transitioning to Odom
Michael Scherer’s transition to his new coach has been fairly easy.
The Missouri rising junior linebacker played under Barry Odom last season as he was the Tiger defensive coordinator. When Gary Pinkel decided to step down after the 2015 season, Odom was promoted.
That promotion excited Scherer, mainly because there was a comfort level there.
“I knew him very well. We’ve developed a great relationship,” Scherer said. “I know what he expects of me, and I kind of know what he expects from this team this year, just from being in the same room with him so much and having so many conversations with him. It’s less of a change for me.”
After spending 10 seasons at Toledo, Pinkel spent the last 15 with Missouri in both the SEC and Big 12. He was 118-73 at Missouri and 191-110-3 overall.
Odom is no stranger to Missouri. Along with serving as the defensive coordinator last year, he was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach from 2012-14. He held numerous positions at Missouri from 2003-11 before being promoted to lead the defense.
During this transition, Odom says it’s not about him, but his players.
“The most important thing is building really true, trusting relationships,” Odom said. “It’s important for me to do everything right for them, because they want to have success and I’ve got the chance to do that.”
Scherer, who was second on the team with 93 tackles last season, said Pinkel was the type of coach that was good with delegating and allowing his assistants to coach. He wasn’t very vocal in practice and the players mainly heard from their position coaches.
But that’s not the case with Odom.
“Coach Odom is a very passionate guy,” Scherer said. “He’s been coaching on the field for a very long time and he can’t get over not still doing that. You’ll see him running around the practice field at different positions.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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