Alabama Football: Predictions, keys to victory in SEC title game vs Florida

Prediction

While it might be tempting to believe Alabama will easily win and take the over on the spread, Florida has the stars on offense to keep up with the Tide.

More than just the statistics, Trask is a great quarterback who can place the ball where only his guys can get it, and his touch on some throws is very impressive. Obviously, Pitts will draw the attention, but Florida has enough athletic receivers that Trask likes to spread the ball around to everybody when possible.

Credit also must go to offensive coordinator Brian Johnson who needs to be recognized as one of the best assistants in the country. His ability to read defenses due in part to Florida’s use of motion before plays has helped make this one of the most explosive teams in the country. Despite having great athletes on defense, Georgia even struggled to keep up with Florida’s offensive concepts which require constant communication and discipline.

While Alabama’s defense has been improving since some early season struggles by only giving up 8.8 points on average over their last six games, keep in mind that they have not exactly faced a murderer’s row against Tennessee, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Auburn, LSU, and Arkansas. Even the Crimson Tide are susceptible to being caught off guard on occasion as evidenced by a couple of defensive misalignments/miscommunications against LSU which led to long touchdowns.

However, the biggest concern for Florida remains getting the ground game going as exemplified by incredibly only generating 19 total rush yards in their recent game versus Tennessee.

Any hope for an upset over Alabama has traditionally meant having a Heisman trophy winner on your squad (Newton, Manziel, Burrow). Based on his performance on Saturday, Kyle Trask could turn this into reality.

That said, I feel that Alabama has the edge on both offense and defense in this game as the final margin likely depends on how often Florida’s offensive line can keep Trask clean.

Final Score: Alabama 45, Florida 28