The Opening Kickoff: No. 11 Gators vs. No. 1 Alabama

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — If you were anywhere in the vicinity of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Friday, you know this is not just another game on the schedule.

This is the type of game that wakes up a college town by shaking it from its slumber, tossing it in the air and then pouring water over its head. These are the games that coaches and players wake up in the middle of the night and think about. The kind of game diehard fans will spend a mortgage payment to attend and the most casual fan will ask his neighbor what the score is as he mows the yard.

"Anytime you get the opportunity to play the No. 1 team in the country is a great, great deal," Gators head coach Dan Mullen said.

The No. 11-ranked Gators (2-0) welcome the top-ranked Crimson Tide (2-0) to town on Saturday afternoon in the Southeastern Conference opener for both schools. It's their second consecutive SEC game against one another after the schools met in the SEC Championship Game nine months ago in Atlanta, with Alabama holding off the Gators in a 52-46 shootout.

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— Gators Football (@GatorsFB) September 17, 2021

Mullen and Alabama head coach Nick Saban are still roaming the sidelines, but many of the playmakers from a year ago have moved on to the NFL, including quarterbacks Kyle Trask and Mac Jones. Enter Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson for the Gators, and Bryce Young for Alabama.

With so much emphasis heading into the game on Florida's two-quarterback system and Richardson's tender right hamstring, the Gators' defense likely will have to do something special for Florida to shock the national pundits. The Gators are a 15.5-point underdog.

Saban is aware his offense can't make crucial mistakes and get "The Swamp" roaring like he knows it can.

"You just got to play with poise, and that's one thing that Bryce Young has done in both games," Saban said. "He's been able to keep his poise, he's able to stay focused on things that we need to do, but I think it's the entire offense that has to be be able to keep their poise in their types of situations whether it's silent snap count or whatever, we have to do to be able to operate."

Without further adieu, here is final chapter of The Opening Kickoff.

And if you missed the other chapters, here they are for your perusal:

Part I: Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham, 5 Questions
Part II: Gators Can Snap Alabama's Dominance of SEC East Foes
Part III: Gators Defense Faces Test, Storylines, Players to Watch, Notable Numbers
Part IV: Spurrier on Playing 2 QBs, They Said It, They Wrote It

NOTABLES

This is 42nd all-time meeting between the Gators and Crimson Tide; Alabama leads the series 27-14, including an 11-2 record at Florida Field.
Florida is hosting the No. 1-ranked team in the AP Top 25 for the first time since Miami in 2002; this is the third consecutive time the schools have played when Alabama is ranked No. 1.
The Gators have 12 consecutive games with at least 400 yards of total offense for the first time since at least 1981; UF has a school-record nine consecutive games of 400 or more yards of total offense against SEC opponents.
This is the fifth time in school history the Gators have hosted the No. 1-ranked team in the AP Top 25. The others: LSU (1959), FSU (1993), FSU (1999) and Miami (2002).
Gators head coach Dan Mullen seeks his first career win against the Crimson Tide. Mullen is 0-10 all-time vs. Alabama, with nine of those losses coming while he was at Mississippi State.

Florida is 16-3 at home since Mullen took over the program in 2018.
Gators redshirt freshman quarterback Anthony Richardson became the first FBS quarterback in the last 25 seasons to rush for 100-plus yards, pass for 150-plus yards and complete every pass he threw in the game.
Sixth-year senior linebacker Jeremiah Moon leads the Gators with 11 tackles.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban has 134 SEC regular-season wins, three more than former Gators head coach Steve Spurrier. Only Bear Bryant (159) ranks ahead of Saban and Spurrier.
Saban lost six games in his first season at Alabama in 2007; he has lost six games the past seven seasons, including the first two games of 2021.

INJURY REPORT

FLORIDA— OUT: CB Jaydon Hill (knee, out for season), S Kamar Wilcoxson (knee, out for season); LB Ventrell Miller (arm surgery); QUESTIONABLE: CB Elijah Blades (hamstring), QB Anthony Richardson (hamstring), OL Jean Delance (knee). ALABAMA — QUESTIONABLE: LB Will Anderson (knee); PROBABLE: CB Jayln Armour-Davis (undisclosed), DB Josh Jobe (undisclosed).

BOTTOM LINE

No. 11 Florida vs. No. 1 Alabama. Sound familiar? That is where the two schools stood in the AP Top 25 when they met last December in the SEC Championship Game. Once again, the Gators are a heavy underdog, this time at home. Here is what I wrote nine months ago (italics) when the Gators, fresh off a disheartening home loss to LSU, traveled to Atlanta with most people not giving them a chance: I'm not going as far as saying the Gators will upset the Crimson Tide, but I do expect it to be a much better game than the 2015 and '16 title games in which Alabama outscored Florida by a combined 83-31. Dan Mullen and his staff have shown they are a creative group on the big stage, and look for this one to be closer than expected in the second half. However, if the Gators are to leave Atlanta with a victory, they must force Alabama's offense into some uncharacteristic mistakes. Two different teams this time around with a lot of new faces, but I have the same take on Saturday's matchup in "The Swamp." The one big difference is this one is at home and if the Gators can do something to get the crowd into it early and perhaps rattle sophomore quarterback Bryce Young, the longer the game stays close, the more I like Florida's chances to defeat the Crimson Tide for the first time since the 2008 SEC Championship Game.

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