College football: No. 2 Southern Cal upset by Stanford. 4C
Sports
S U N D A Y , S E P T E M B E R 16 , 2012
SECTION C
WWW.TUSCALOOSANEWS.COM
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BACON BITS
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No. 1 Crimson Tide dominates from the start; forces five Razorback turnovers in SEC opener
INSIDE
PHOTO | JASON HARLESS
Overpowering Alabama offense flexes its muscle against Arkansas | 5C
Quarter glance Breakdown of each quarter | 5C
Scoring summary Complete game statistics | 5C
STAFF PHOTO | DUSTY COMPTON
Shut down, shut out Alabama’s defense holds Arkansas offense at bay | 6C
Inside the numbers Numerical breakdown of the Tide’s effort against Arkansas | 6C
STAFF PHOTO | DUSTY COMPTON
Alabama running back Eddie Lacy scores a touchdown in the second quarter against Arkansas on Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark. Lacy scored three touchdowns in the No. 1 Crimson Tide’s 52-0 rout of the Razorbacks.
Tide defense pitches second straight shutout By Cecil Hurt Sports Editor
STAFF PHOTO | DUSTY COMPTON
Analysis Young defensive secondary passes first big test | 7C
Breakdown History shows Alabama’s offense steps up big against Arkansas | 7C
Four downs How the Tide answered four questions from the start of the week regarding Saturday’s game | 7C
For video and a photo gallery of Saturday’s game go to www.tidesports.com
Dangerous opponent Tide should worry about is itself
FAYET TEVILLE, A RK . | If it had all gone right for Arkansas — if Tyler Wilson had stayed healthy and the Razorbacks had played error-free football — it might have been interesting. They didn’t — and it wasn’t. Instead, Arkansas played without Wilson, committed five turnovers and took a monumental 52-0 loss at home. It was the fi rst time Arkansas was shut out in Fayetteville since 1966 and the fi rst time the Crimson Tide (3-0) recorded back-to-back shutouts since 1980. “I think you have to understand that Tyler Wilson is one of the best quarterbacks in the country and their whole team is built around him,” Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said. “It was a tough circumstance for them.” Most of Saban’s attention, though, was on the efforts of his own No. 1-ranked team. “We have really been fighting against allowing ourselves PHOTO | JASON HARLESS to accept average,” he said. “I thought we started out a little bit average today, but I was pleased that we got better as the Alabama’s AJ McCarron was 11 game went along. With the weather situation, playing our of 16 passing for 189 yards with SEE SHUTOUT | 5C one touchdown.
Willis runs wild in UWA victory
FAYET TEVILLE, Ark. yler Wilson doesn’t play defense. He doesn’t snap on punts, or block for himself. So it is debatable, at best, as to whether Arkansas would have had any chance at all with Wilson playing quarterback against Alabama on Saturday. He would have helped, certainly, had he been able to hang in for four quarters. Bigtime quarterbacks can make a huge difference for teams that otherwise would struggle to stand a chance in the Southeastern Conference. See Eli Manning at Ole Miss, for instance. But 52 points is a lot of difference to make. CECIL There was one thing, however, that HURT stood no chance at all in this game — gamesmanship. All week long, Arkansas played coy about Wilson’s status, but in the end it seemed to have only one effect. It sent a message to both of the available Arkansas quarterbacks, Brandon Allen and Brandon Mitchell, SEE HURT | 6C
T
Gators’ offense erupts to rally past Volunteers
By Cameron Kiszla
By Steve Megargee
Special to The Tuscaloosa News
The Associated Press
LIVINGSTON | Matt Willis ran for 101 yards and a touchdown on 18 attempts in the fi rst half as West Alabama dominated Mississippi College 41-3 Saturday night. Willis sat the second half with a sore shoulder, but his teammates picked up where he left off, racking up 353 yards on the ground. “We got Valdosta next week, and we wanted to rest him,” Tiger coach Will Hall said. “And we have got some other PHOTO | MICHAEL CLEMENTS good backs who wanted to get some work. Javae Swindle showed some things late, as well as Dakota Daniel and West Alabama defenders, from left, Deon Lacey, Danny Hobbs is a great running back, too, and did some Shontral Ford and Bryant McGowan bring down SEE UWA | 8C Mississippi College running back Denzel Dabon.
KNOXVILLE, T ENN. | Jeff Driskel threw a pair of touchdown passes and Trey Burton rushed for two more scores as No. 18 Florida scored the fi nal 24 points to beat No. 23 Tennessee 37-20 on Saturday night and run its winning streak in the series to eight straight. Mike Gillislee ran for 115 yards to lead a 336-yard rushing effort for the Gators (3-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference), who have outrushed Ten-
nessee in each game of the streak. Burton added 91 rushing yards on only three carries and Driskel ran for 81 yards on eight attempts. Tennessee (2-1, 0-1) seemed intent on ending the streak for much of the night in front of a sellout crowd at Neyland Stadium. The Vols led 20-13 and had a chance to take a double-digit advantage midway through the third quarter after an unsuccessful Florida fake punt attempt gave the Vols possession at the Gators’ 47-yard line. SEE GATORS | 3C