Two biggest ?s going into the Bama game.

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The biggest question is if they can get over the mental hurdle

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That's on the coaching staff

The mind of a 19 year old is a fickle beast. The Richt led teams were fickle to the point of being schizo: all emotion. You never knew which personality was going to show up or show up and vanish with the first sign of adversity. I don't see that in Kirby's teams. He has tamed the fickle beast to a large degree to the point that they expect to get punched in the mouth and know they will respond. Night and day difference. For the most part the last games with Bama have been cage fights with us battling it out to the bitter end. Agree we can't let Bama get up on us like they did last year or the Vols did last game. IMHO both of those instances were due more to coaching lapses and major luck on the opposing offenses and had nothing to do with our psyche. Indeed, we fought back admirably in both games and won one of them. In short I feel Kirby's teams believe in themselves and not voodoo, lucky charms, or hexes. The fan base however, is another beast entirely.

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The biggest question is if they can get over the mental hurdle. This feels like Florida in the 90s and 00s where Georgia is down 14-0 before the game kicks off.

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I'm thinking back and I honestly don't think there's an apples/apples compairison for this game from a mental hurdle standpoint.

2024- we started slow, which we did most games. There was probably a bit of "here we go again" involved sure, but it was on the road at night which is a big deal. And we ended up settling in and evening out.
2023- many of our best offensive players were out or limited, we have always struggled to contain mobile QBs, and bama was gifted a free TD just before half which changed the game. WE lost but I don't think it was mental
21 SECCG- This would definitely qualify IMO becuase kirby for some inexplicable reason that I'll never know as long as I live completely and fundamentally altered what our best defense in history had done the prior 12 games. Saban was absolutely in his head for that gameplan.
20- on the road at night and bama was simply teh much better team
18- bama was the much better team, it's actually surprising we were even in it as long as we were
17- teams were damn near equally matched and the results bore that out. The difference was elite 5* talent. They brought in najee harris, tua, and more young bucks off the bench to provide a spark and ti worked. Meanwhile our best OLB and RB were banged up down the stretch


FAct of the matter is, the vast majority of the time these teams have played in the 21st centruy bama has simply been better, and often times A LOT better. How many times have we bene relative equals playing in Athens? None.

We can say all we want about mental hurdles or whatever, but this will be THE FIRST time we have played them on even talent/coaching footing in athens since I don't even know how long. I have to think that bodes well in our favor.

I have enjoyed the Kancer Dawgs being in relative remission this week, but I know all glory is fading.

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The biggest question is if they can get over the mental hurdle. This feels like Florida in the 90s and 00s where Georgia is down 14-0 before the game kicks off.

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Well, we did spot them 21 points last year. It seems like a trend that we start off slow in big games.

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No, sounds like Hughley will start

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Jahzere Jackson was the backup right tackle to start the season and got the start against Austin Peavy.

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Jahzere Jackson was the backup right tackle to start the season and got the start against Austin Peavy.

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and he sucked absolute arse. Isn't he the basketball player turned football project?

Hughley has at least looked serviceable when in. While I'd prefer some combo of dontrell/gaston/greene all healthy in there, I can at least accept hughley. Jackson should never see the field.

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Well, we did spot them 21 points last year. It seems like a trend that we start off slow in big games.

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Last year's Alabama game is the only Alabama game that the majority of our players have experienced. Oscar Delp is the only offensive player in the box score from the last time we played against Saban.

I agree that if anything, last year's Alabama game will give our players confidence not to flinch if we get off to a slow start on Saturday.

The crowd can groan and bite their fingernails if we start losing, but it wouldn't really make a frick.

I think this game being at home (at night) is going to be far more of a factor than people may realize. Smoe of bama's players, ryan williams included I believe, have publicly said they suffer from anxiety and nerves in hostile environments. Their only loss this year was to an ACC team and they looked like dog crap most of the game. They lost 4 games last year, all of which were away from tuscaloosa.

They are a much different animal on the road, and we're a much tougher team playing at home. Ty Simpson is going to be in an environemnt he's never seen before. Granted you could say the same about gunner just last week (or carson beck at AU in 23), so that doesn't always instantly mean loss. But he's definitely going to be more uncomofrtable than he's been in any other gmae of his career thus far.