The Alabama Crimson Tide’s national reputation is on the line Saturday if they lose to the Ole Miss Rebels at least according to ESPN’s Greg McElroy.
McElroy thinks that if Alabama loses to the Rebels, then people’s perception of the program will change.
“I think perception is a big one,” McElroy said, regarding what’s at stake for Alabama on Saturday, via ESPN’s Get Up. “Obviously, Bama forever, most of the time, when people stepped on the field before they even kicked it off because Bama had an intimidation factor over pretty much everybody that they played. Well, that intimidation factor is right now kind of in the balance.
“Now, they still have excellent players, but the margin for error is significantly smaller than it’s been in the past. Partly because Bama isn’t as deep as they once were because of the portal era, but also because of so many other teams, those teams that were way behind, have now caught up.”
McElroy still thinks the Tide can beat anyone on their schedule, but they have to bring their A-game every Saturday, which has been missing of late.
“So I think it’ll have a pretty big impact on just how Bama is perceived moving forward,” McElroy said. “I still think they can beat everyone on their schedule, but they’ll have to play their A-game to do it. Whereas back in the day, they could play their B-minus, C-plus game and still win comfortably against pretty much everyone they played.”
It will be interesting to see if Alabama can bounce back and look like the Bama of old against Ole Miss on Saturday.
{Get Up}
