Bowl invite not a certainty for Bama yet
Ken Rogers/Dothan Eagle
TUSCALOOSA — Suddenly, a bowl trip for Alabama’s football team isn’t the sure thing it appeared four weeks ago.
With a three-game losing streak, Alabama is 6-5 going into the regular-season finale.
The Southeastern Conference has agreements with eight bowls. So far, 10 of the league’s 12 schools have won the required six or more games to be bowl eligible. An 11th, Vanderbilt, could also become bowl eligible if it beats Wake Forest on Saturday.
The most bowl eligible teams for the SEC had been nine in 2000, 2001 and 2006.
The SEC’s bowl tie-ins are a BCS bowl, followed by the Capital One. The Outback, Chick-fil-A and AT&T Cotton Bowls will work with the league to determine picks three through 5.
The AutoZone Liberty and Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowls are the sixth and seventh selections. The PetroSun Independence Bowl gets the eighth SEC team.
Seven SEC teams already have seven or more victories. An Alabama win over Auburn this week will certainly put the Tide in a bowl, somewhere.
But a loss puts Alabama at 6-6, behind a number of teams. And if it loses, a four-game slide would hurt Alabama if it ends up tied with Mississippi State, South Carolina and Vandy at 6-6 for the eighth SEC bowl.
“I haven’t thought about that too much, honestly,” senior guard Justin Britt said. “I’ve just thought about this game. Everybody’s been thinking about this game, and not worried about a bowl. I guess we’ll worry about that afterwards, but right now we’re worried about beating Auburn.”
Players of the Week: Alabama did name players of the week despite its loss to ULM.
“Our players of the game for this game, (tackle) Andre Smith and (tight end) Travis McCall played very well on offense,” Tide coach Nick Saban said. “Wallace Gilberry had 10 tackles in the game and four tackles for loss, and Darren Mustin had 14 tackles, two tackles for loss, one pass breakup. Those two guys were the defensive guys. On special teams, Corey Reamer had three knockdowns on special-team, return-type blocks, and has done a good job for us all year.”
Injury update: Return specialist and nickel- and dime-package defensive back Javier Arenas, who wore a black (no-contact) jersey, was on a stationary bike on the sidelines during Monday’s practice.
Saban said Arenas, injured during Saturday’s loss, “is probably doubtful for this game.”
“I don’t think he has an ankle that needs surgery, but he’s got a pretty severe high ankle sprain, and those things usually take more than a week to respond,” Saban said. “But every individual’s different, and we’re hopeful that he will be able to get back sooner than later. We’re hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
“He’s done a really good job for us all year. He’s a great young man and it’s really important to him — he cares about it — and we’d love to have him get back for this game.”
