Jumbo Package: Nick Saban and Kirby Smart try to pass the rat poison

Happy Tuesday, everyone. Alabama basketball plays tonight against Clemson, and we will be along with full coverage of that later on.

We got some info about next year’s football schedule.

ESPN will take over premier games next fall, airing a weekly matchup on ABC. The SEC will be paid $300 million annually for 10 years for the network’s right to air. The full schedule is expected in December.

Other matchups revealed include an Oct. 19 date at Tennessee. Keeping with tradition, the Tide will be in Neyland Stadium on The Third Saturday of October. Alabama will be at LSU on Nov. 9. UA will head to Norman and face conference-newcomer Oklahoma on Nov. 23. The Iron Bowl will be on Nov. 30.

Georgia comes to town on September 28, and I don’t think we’ll hear any bitching about a cupcake game the week before Auburn.

Many have wondered why Alabama didn’t get another touchdown on Saturday.

While Arnold celebrated his would-be pick-six in Jordan-Hare Stadium’s end zone following the game-ending play, however, officials reviewed it. Though it had no affect on the outcome, they determined he ultimately did not score a touchcown, which would have given Alabama a 33-24 win. After the touchdown was reversed, it gave the Crimson Tide its ultimate 27-24 win over Auburn in the Iron Bowl.

Officials determined Arnold stepped out at the 3-yard line after being tackled by Auburn running back Jarquez Hunter. The pick by Arnold was perhaps the easiest of his college career, as the throw by Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne fell directly into the cornerback’s lap as the clock hit all zeroes:

There you have it.

Kirby Smart and Nick Saban are doing their best to pass the rat poison.

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe has made strides throughout his first season as the team’s starter, and he has Georgia coach Kirby Smart’s full attention as the Bulldogs prepare to face the Crimson Tide on Saturday in the SEC Championship Game. During his Monday press conference, Smart went so far as to liken Milroe to Baltimore Ravens star quarterback and former Louisville Heisman winner Lamar Jackson, comparing Milroe’s elusiveness to a video game-like advantage for Alabama.

“[Milroe] is like when I used to ask my sons on ‘Madden’ — they wanted to play with the Ravens, and I’d ask ‘Why are you playing with the Ravens?’” Smart recalled. “They’d say ‘I’ve got Lamar Jackson, and nobody can tackle him.’ This guy is a bigger, more physical version of that. He is playing in a different speed than anybody else when you watch him.”

“All these sort of you call them rivalry games, some of them are instilled in the culture like the Auburn game, the Iron Bowl,” Saban said. “That’s part of the culture. People have been watching that game for how many years? It’s always going to be that. And then some of these other sort of rivalry games, as you call them, aren’t traditional rivalries, but because there are two really good teams playing, and it’s been historically that way for a while, they become those kind of games. That’s kind of what this has become. You don’t get an opportunity to play against a team that has won 29 straight games very often.”

“Having the opportunity to play in the SEC championship game is — I’m very, very proud of this team for the progress that they’ve made, the work that they’ve done to give themselves an opportunity to play in the SEC championship game. This is one of the most competitive, best venues in college football, and we’re obviously playing one of the best teams in college football, if not the best team in college football. Kirby’s done a fantastic job there. I don’t think people realize how hard it is to win 29 games in a row, or even be 12-0 in a season.”

“So, they’ve got really good players. They’re really well-coached. They’re one of the most prolific offensive teams in the country in terms of yards, points, ability to run, ability to pass. They’ve got good players at every position. Defensively, they’re the number one team in the SEC. Got good players, well-coached, do a really, really good job. And they also do a great job on special teams. They’ve got good specialists. This is a team that doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses. That’s why they are who they are and what they are. And it’s gonna be really important for us to do a great job of executing and do what we do the best that we can do it.”

Kirby is spot on with the Lamar comparison for Milroe, and Jalen is actually throwing the ball substantially better than Lamar did in college.

Nick also hopes that the team learned a little something in Auburn.

“I went to church yesterday. The first thing I said was, ‘Thank God what could have happened didn’t happen,’” Saban said. “A little bit of a reality check. One of the things that we wanted to do in the game was channel our passion and our energy into positive execution on the field.

“When we did that, we played really, really well. But, there were some times where we didn’t, and it was very costly in terms of some of the errors that we made, whether they were penalties or mistakes on defense.”

Needless to say, they can’t have those mistakes this week if they want to win.

Check out the rest of Nick’s press conference below.

That’s about it for now. Have a great day.

Roll Tide.