Cover Story: Aggies, Tide get set to collide

The moment has finally arrived.
 
Sumlin versus Saban. Manziel versus McCarron. Texas A&M versus the Tide.
 
Yes, after what felt like the longest offseason in Aggie football history, it’s time.
 
On Friday, top-ranked and defending national champion Alabama will arrive in College Station, Texas, in preparation for the most highly-anticipated regular-season college football game in years. By the time the Aggies and Crimson Tide kick off at 2:30 on Saturday afternoon, the contest may very well be the most hyped, talked about and dissected non-BCS Championship game that the sport has seen.
 
The list of reasons why is endless. American sports are about drama, entertainment and the highest of stakes and, at the end of the day, “Texas A&M-Alabama Round II: The Rematch” is great theater.
 
When Kevin Sumlin and Nick Saban match wits on Saturday with the nation watching, worlds will indeed collide, beginning with a fascinating clashing of styles.

During the first couple of years of Saban’s Crimson Tide dynasty, late-season upsets allowed ‘Bama to avoid BCS Championship game matchups with the likes of Oregon and Oklahoma State, leaving the country to wonder how the Tide would have fared against the poster programs for the up-tempo spread that had taken root around the country but had yet to infiltrate the defense- and run-dominated SEC.

Last November Texas A&M provided the answer, shocking the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa after racing out to an unimaginable 20-0 first-quarter lead.
 
Since that date ten months ago, Saban has made it his life’s work to prove that what happened in T-Town was an anomaly — nothing more than a post-LSU letdown — and the Tide simply not having an answer for a freshman quarterback who he and Kirby Smart did not yet ‘have the book on.’

That’s what Saint Nick wants you to believe. He wants you to believe that because, if last year’s outcome wasn’t a fluke and the A&M offense once again rolls the Tide, then Saban — in the middle of perhaps the greatest college football dynasty of all-time — will have lost much more than just a game.

If the Ags get the better of ‘Bama the second time around, then not only do the Crimson Tide’s chances of winning a fourth title in five years take a huge hit but the spread-you-out, up-tempo style will officially become the superior style of play, knocking off Saban and Alabama’s tried-and-true ‘win with defense and by running the football’ approach.

One of the most successful college coaches of all time has spent most of his offseason railing against the safety of the fast-paced style of play that is taking over the game and, with so many programs around the country and even within the SEC gravitating towards NASCAR in cleats, a second loss to A&M in as many years would cement Saban’s crusade as a lost cause.
 
Of course, A&M’s crusade is being led by Mr. Anti-Establishment himself, which is why this particular SEC West showdown has become even more of an event than 2011’s “Game of the Century” between LSU and Alabama. Johnny Manziel not only went into Tuscaloosa last year and ran circles around the vaunted Tide defense, he also won the Heisman Trophy at its expense … along with tainting an otherwise perfect season.

Johnny Football may have spent the entire offseason as the center of the media storm, but not even ESPN spent as much time obsessing over the first freshman Heisman winner than did Saban and the entire Alabama program. On numerous occasions, Saban has stated that the Tide spent virtually every day of the 2013 offseason preparing for Manziel and the Aggie offense.

Saban even reportedly resorted to ‘consulting’ with coaches around the country — both college and pro — in an effort to figure out how to contain Ags’ singular talent. 

Over the past five years, Alabama has stopped every opposing offense dead in its tracks … with two notable exceptions: Auburn with Cam Newton and Texas A&M with Manziel.
 
While on the subject of Alabama’s year-long obsession with all things Aggie, shall we address the elephant in the room (pun intended)? Everything about Texas A&M makes Saban and the Tide uncomfortable. Sumlin and Manziel have no desire to ‘kiss the ring,’ nor does any player in the Aggie locker room fear Alabama. Along with LSU — the only team to beat Alabama twice in a row under Saban — A&M is the rare opponent that ‘Bama will face that doesn’t enter the game at a significant mental disadvantage.

Rather, the Aggies will be playing with both confidence and about 90,000 12th Men behind them. There’s the up-tempo offense and Manziel’s passionate, emotional and, to some, offensive style. One team thrives on chaos while the other preaches ‘The Process.’ On top of everything else, I don’t think there’s any secret that these two teams have quickly grown to not like each other.
 
Yes, there seems to be some real, old-fashioned hate on both sides. Saban and ‘Bama don’t like the idea of an SEC newbie threatening an unprecedented run of conference and national dominance while Sumlin, Manziel and the Aggies aren’t stupid. The Aggie head coach and his team — and especially his quarterback — have been subtly and, at times, not so subtly disrespected ever since last year’s stunning upset.

Everything from the ‘LSU hangover’ to not knowing (at the time, mind you) how to defend Manziel to the competitive disadvantage created by the up-tempo offense has rankled any and everyone within the program. Without so much as saying so, Saban, A.J. McCarron and Co. have thrown logs onto the ‘fluke’ fire throughout the offseason.
 
Speaking of McCarron, the senior may as well have worn a shirt during SEC Media Days reading “I am a better person and better teammate than Johnny Manziel.” Post-press conference backtracking aside, that’s essentially what the two-time defending national champion quarterback said. I’m also of the (strong) opinion that A.J. threw the Aggie quarterback under the bus following the Manning Camp saga in attempt to protect his own reputation.

On that day in mid-July, McCarron made Saturday’s game about himself versus Manziel. It’s the type of head-to-head battle that Mr. Football lives for and also the very thing that Mr. Team hasn’t had to deal with very often in his career. An interesting set of talking points in Hoover that seemed pre-planned and designed to cast McCarron as Manziel’s polar opposite.

We’ll see how much, if any, those comments, impact Saturday’s clash of the titans.
 
Words, feelings and hype aside, A&M-Alabama is all about the matchups. With so much on the line, including both teams’ SEC and BCS Championship hopes, it’s more than a little odd that we know so little about each team. Alabama has played just one game, a 35-10 win over Virginia Tech.

While the Tide cruised to an easy win over a name opponent, the Alabama offense barely managed 200 yards, struggled to run the football and produced just two touchdowns. Both McCarron and the ‘Bama offensive line looked shaky and, were it not for a pair of sensational punt returns by Christion Jones and a pick-six by Vinnie Sunseri, the game would have been uncomfortably close throughout.

A&M, meanwhile, has beaten two overmatched opponents by a combined margin of 58 points. However, a suspension-riddled defense gave up an alarming number of big plays to the likes of Rice and Sam Houston and the defense has looked frighteningly porous against the run. The Aggies will have starters De'Vante Harris, Steven Jenkins and Julien Obioha (he sat out SHSU with an injury) back for Alabama, but concern over cohesiveness, rhythm and playing with gap integrity and making an open field tackle have to be keeping Mark Snyder up at night with T.J. Yeldon and Amare Cooper coming to town.
 
Perhaps the one wild card in all of this is the fact that Alabama and Saban have little idea of what to expect from the Aggies on Saturday … on either side of the ball. A&M played two very unconventional offenses in weeks one and two and the Aggie defense was incredibly shorthanded, working without several pieces of key personnel.

Offensively, the Ags scaled things back in the first two games to the point of hiding plenty of formations and weapons. Does Kirby Smart focus on last year’s game, does he pour over the LSU and Florida tape from last season, does he focus on the Ags’ first two games of 2013 or does he spend a good portion of his week watching West Virginia footage from last fall?

After all, no matter how bad the Ags have looked on D or how pedestrian the Crimson Tide looked on offense against the Hokies, this game is all about Manziel and the A&M offense against C.J. Mosely and the Alabama defense.

It’s the irresistible force taking on the immovable object; we won’t know until Saturday evening whether or not the Aggies can fare well enough to engage Bama in the one type of game that the Tide are not used to playing: An up-and-down, high-scoring shootout.

On paper, at least, that would seem to be A&M’s best (and only) chance of making it two in a row versus the Tide.
 
If the Aggies are able to accomplish said feat, the upstart top-10 program will have emerged as a bona fide national power and will officially join the likes of Alabama, LSU, Georgia and (for as long as Will Muschamp can hold it together) Florida as Southeastern Conference royalty. In addition to cementing their status as the bane of Nick Saban’s existence, Sumlin, Manziel and the Aggies will have — no offense to LSU (in either direction) — found their SEC rival.

Come to think of it, it’s hard to remember the last time two teams have become so singularly-focused on one another after just one meeting. Beginning today, the entire country will feel the same way Saban and the Tide and Sumlin’s Aggies have throughout what at times seemed like a never-ending offseason: It’s all about A&M-Alabama.

Since the last time the two teams played, and for better or worse, the national spotlight has been focused on Manziel and the A&M program. This week, College Station and Aggieland will serve as the epicenter of college football. If A&M can somehow find a way to beat the odds and make it two in a row, then that spotlight will shine bright for the foreseeable future.
 
Will it be payback or punctuation at Kyle Field on Saturday? For now, the only thing certain is the question that the entire country will debate between now and then.