Alabama Football: Preview of the 2018 regular season games
By Ronald Evans
Going into the 2018 season Alabama football is favored in every game. Check out a preview of each opponent and what to expect from the games.
Alabama football fans are perpetually filled with optimism. Our selective memories discard the occasional bad seasons. August is the month for optimism across the college football landscape. From a fan perspective, the teams we follow invariably look better in August than they did last season.
Even following a national championship season, Alabama football fans expect a better team in 2018 before the season’s end.
Nick Saban will vehemently disagree, but the 2018 schedule is not viewed as stiff as recent Tide schedules. In most estimates, the Crimson Tide is inside the toughest 50 schedules in the FBS. The departure of Lamar Jackson to the NFL weakened Louisville significantly. LSU is being viewed by most experts as a seven or eight-win team. Arkansas, Tennessee and Ole Miss are slated for rebuilding seasons.
In Saban’s mind, everything in the preceding paragraph is heresy. He once defined the importance of preparation for a new season as “we know we have 12 hurricanes coming.” No, the Tide did not play Miami that season but Nick believed every game could be compared to a damaging storm. The very idea anyone can predict an outcome of a future game rankles Nick.
"You guys make all these predictions about everything … I don’t even know why we play. Why do we even play? Why do we even have practice? Why do we compete? Why do we coach guys? Why do we even need to improve?"
As much as we might try, we Alabama football fans don’t always think like Nick. We are almost universally primed for an undefeated regular season, a trip to Atlanta, followed by a two-game sprint to another national title.
Maybe the devil is in the details. Lurking in the 12 regular season games are real dangers. Favorites are not guaranteed victories. As always, Alabama football will be the biggest game of the season for every opponent played.
To aid fan preparation we offer a preview of each regular season opponent – their strengths and weakness, their best players and a best guess of each team’s chance of an upset.