Alabama Football: What games to watch and not this weekend

Week two of the college football season will not be highlighted by Alabama football hosting New Mexico State. Check out some games worthy of watching and not.

At the risk of sounding like a whiny Alabama football fan, I will say me not being in Bryant-Denny Saturday will be a blessing. My season tickets have been given away to very good use. One of them will allow a second-grader and Alabama football fan to see his very first college football game in-person.

I hope Jeremiah loves every minute of the experience.

Instead of being in Tuscaloosa, I will be home in front of three screens that will mostly be tuned to college football throughout the day. I will not miss the scorching 97-degree heat of a West Alabama late summer. I will not miss the traffic jams coming and going. I will not miss the concession lines and I certainly will not miss the restrooms.

I suppose my enjoyment of in-home comfort may signal a weakness. To some all-in Alabama football fans, my admitting to preferring certain creature comforts may be heresy. My defense is my heart and my cash goes to the University of Alabama but sometimes my butt prefers to be elsewhere.

For others who will not be Tuscaloosa Saturday, I have prepared a viewing guide for the day. It is not ‘the’ guide but ‘my’ guide to how to best spend an early September Saturday.

Early Saturday for Alabama football fans

Sleep in. You don’t have to high-tail it to Tuscaloosa so enjoy some extra rest. Game Day is optional.

The morning games

There are three interesting 11:00 AM CST games. Army is at Michigan, Vanderbilt at Purdue and West Virginia at Missouri. Watching the Cadets confound Jim Harbaugh is a must-see. Rooting against the Wolverines’ blow-hard comes easy and Army football is an absolute treasure.

Vandy, as always, is in dire need of a win. How can you not root for the Commodores, particularly when they could knock off a B1G team? Go Dores! Missouri also needs a win after dropping an opener to Wyoming. The East Division Tigers could do the SEC a favor by taking down a Big 12 team.

At 11:30 AM CST, keeping up with the score of Western Carolina vs. North Carolina State will be mildly interesting until the Catamounts are blown out. It will not take long.

The afternoon slate

The Alabama Crimson Tide rolls at 3:00PM CST. A half-hour earlier Southern Miss takes on Mississippi State and Texas A&M battles Clemson. They will be good background games (with the sound off) while the Tide plays.

Late afternoon and evening

Though not worthy of a stream, following the score of the 5:00PM game between North Carolina A&T and Duke is worth some slight attention during late-game, commercial breaks in Tuscaloosa.

The highlights of the evening will be at 6:00 PM CST as the Vols go to 0-2 against BYU AND the big game of the day – LSU at Texas. The Bengal Tigers can do the Crimson Tide a favor by winning. It should be fun to see if they are up to the task.

There will still be more choices late from the West Coast games. It is hard to get too pumped about a Pac 12 game but Stanford at USC might bear watching.

Don’t care for our viewing slate? Choose your own and enjoy another great week of college football.