#9 Alabama routs Arkansas in rivalry battle

The Alabama Crimson Tide shot out to a 21-0 lead in their Saturday matchup with traditional rival Arkansas, led 35-7 at halftime and then coasted to a 49-14 victory.

Arkansas may have been suffering some “ring rust” as a result of not having played since September 6th due to a schedule shuffle necessitated by Hurricane Ike.  In any case, it was an uncharacteristically lopsided result in a series known for being evenly contested—the last two meetings, for example, were decided by a combined 4 points.

The Tide broke open the game early behind their two headed rushing attack of Glen Coffee and Roy Upchurch.  Already up 7-0, Coffee seemed to break the back of the Razorback defense when he took a handoff on the team’s second possession and ran 87 yards for a TD.  Alabama added another TD late in the first quarter when Javier Arenas intercepted Arkansas QB Casey Dick and returned it 67 yards for a score. 

The Razorbacks cut the deficit to 21-7 early in the 2nd quarter on a Dick TD pass, but Alabama responded in emphatic fashion by driving quickly down the field.  Almost effortlessly, they extended their lead back to 21 points on a John Parker Wilson TD pass to Julius Jones.  Alabama essentially put the game away before halftime as Razorback QB Dick threw another interception, this time to Justin Woodall who brought the ball back 70 yards in the other direction for another defensive TD pushing the lead to 35-7.

Alabama should move up in the national rankings as they improved their record to 4-0 after the rout.  They’ll have an even bigger test next weekend as they travel to Athens, GA to face the #3 Georgia Bulldogs.  A win would vault them even higher in the polls and from a scheduling standpoint at least Georgia could be ripe for the picking, as the Dawgs have a tricky non-conference affair in Tempe, AZ against Arizona State this weekend. 

For Arkansas, things aren’t going to get easier as they’ll finally make their Hurricane Ike postponed trip to Austin, TX next weekend for a game against the Texas Longhorns.  Then it’s back into the grind of SEC conference play with back-to-back games against Florida and Auburn.