Alabama ready for chance to chill out

TUSCALOOSA — Alabama senior defensive end Bobby Greenwood has spent the past 13 weeks flinging his body at large offensive linemen.

There was a grueling training camp before that.

He welcomed two weeks to prepare for Alabama’s season finale against Auburn.

“I was real sore. Perfect timing to have a bye week,” the senior from Prattville said. “I feel a lot better today just having an off day yesterday.”

The Crimson Tide returned to the practice field Tuesday after a long weekend. The emphasis was on individual fundamentals, but the benefit was team-wide.

“Everybody’s tired. Everybody’s beat up. We’ve still got to find a way to get an edge in this off week and that’s what we’re trying to do,” senior center Antoine Caldwell said Tuesday night.

Caldwell said this late in the season, the physical break an open week provides is better than the mental break that comes with it.

“You wake up in the morning and everything’s poppin’ before you get going,” the center said. “I’ve been blessed this season. I’ve been really healthy, and this offensive line as a whole has been really healthy. It’s been good for us.”

Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said the emotional rest shouldn’t be overlooked.

“We’ve had a lot of tough games this year,” the coach noted after Saturday night’s victory over Mississippi State. “Our guys put a lot into it. They’ve played with a lot of intensity, a lot of toughness, a lot of intangibles and probably challenged themselves a little bit more maybe than most teams that I’ve coached.

“I really do appreciate that, and I’m proud of the way they compete. They’ve overcome at lot and improved a lot. But at the same time, I think that it’s a good time for us to be getting a little emotional break as well.”

Still, the guys with the bumps and bruises are thankful they’ve got some time to heal up.

“There’s a lot of people beat up, especially myself,” said senior tight end Nick Walker, who added it was nothing serious, just normal wear and tear. “Just a little sore ... body aches from hitting all the time. The extra week’s gonna help to get a lot of people rested up and ready so we can play with high energy the whole game.”

Another senior tight end, Travis McCall, said the fundamental work is also overdue.

“You never go wrong when you work on your basics. That’s an important part of what we do,” McCall said. “I think it couldn’t hurt to have an open date. I think it’ll help out a lot. Pretty much everybody in America’s beat up right now.”

Javier Arenas sees the open date as a luxury.

“We get the opportunity to rest. A lot of teams don’t get the opportunity to rest,” Arenas said.

That includes Florida, which will have a game each week leading up to the Dec. 6 SEC Championship Game against Alabama in Atlanta.

Of course, Florida talk is almost non-existent in Tuscaloosa this week.

“We’re going to prepare this week to get ready to get ourselves better, then next week we’re going to prepare as hard as we can to play Auburn,” Caldwell said.
“Ain’t gonna be no overlooking this game. Not for anybody on this team. Especially when you haven’t beaten your own rival for however long it’s been.”

The Tigers have a six-game winning streak. Caldwell and his teammates are already very well aware of that.