LSU-Bama focus on teams, not coaches

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 3, 2009 - Page: 1C

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Depending on your location Monday, the inevitable question — although much less so than the past two years and fading quickly — came up at much different times and from different angles.

In Baton Rouge, it was 20 minutes into LSU coach Les Miles’ media gathering before WBRZ sports director Michael Cauble asked it.

The Saban question.

Over in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Nick Saban did his best to disarm the media covering the Crimson Tide by the time he got to the second paragraph of his opening statement.

Yes, Saban coaches Alabama against LSU for the third time when the No. 9-ranked Tigers travel to the Capstone to face the No. 3 Tide. And while that might still generate good fodder on fan-driven Web sites, the novelty — along with the distraction — seems to have run its course within the two programs.

To hear the two program patriarchs speak, the perceived acrimony stirred up when Saban returned to college football at Alabama just two years after bolting Baton Rouge for the Miami Dolphins was never much of an issue.

“It’s truly always been about LSU versus Alabama in my mind,” Miles said in response to Cauble’s question wondering if it was nice that this game is no longer about the two coaches.

Miles began his assessment of the Tide by heaping praise on every facet of the team, including Saban.

“I have a lot going on in my life,” Miles said. “I enjoy what I do, who I work with and who I’m fortunate to represent. I have four kids who are running rampant around Baton Rouge, and even though there may well have been questions centered around that issue, it was never my view.”

Similarly to the past two years before the Tigers and Tide collided, Saban came out firing, immediately trying to steer reporters away from the topic.

Like Miles, he also made a point to toss a bouquet at his counterpart.

“The game is about the players,” he said. “There are a lot of good players. These are two very good teams that have good players on both sides, and there is a lot to talk about in terms of what’s going to happen on the field. Les Miles has done a fantastic job in the five years he has been at LSU. They always play with toughness. They play with great effort. They are well-coached on both sides of the ball as well as special teams.”

Unlike Miles, Saban didn’t field a single question about his connection to LSU, where he coached for five years and led the Tigers to the 2003 national championship.

So either Saban’s pre-emptive diatribe worked its magic, or, perhaps more likely, after two years with the focus on Saban’s first game against LSU and then his first visit to Baton Rouge, the media realizes this week’s showdown is much more about football.

And rife with much more meaning for both teams than the two “Saban Bowls,” as a handful of media outlets dubbed the first two games.

On the topic of the game’s magnitude, Saban and Miles diverged a bit.

True to form, Saban tried to package this week’s battle of top-10 teams and Southeastern Conference West Division heavyweights as just the next game.

“I’m not going to insult anybody here, in terms of talking about this game, but like every other game that we play this year, this is the most important game we’ve played all year long, because it is the game that we play this week,” Saban said.

The Crimson Tide players parroted their coach.

“It’s really big, because it’s the upcoming game,” Bama quarterback Greg McElroy said. “If we were playing the smallest school in the country, it would still be a big game because it’s next. That’s just the way this team operates. In the SEC it doesn’t matter if you play the best team or the worst team, you have to play your best every week; because if you don’t, you are vulnerable.”

Maybe so, but for the Crimson Tide, a victory over LSU sews up the SEC West crown and a spot in the league championship game with Florida for a second year in a row.

Standing in the Tide’s way is the strongest motivation for the Tigers this season, a refreshing change from the past two games with Alabama when most of the focus and accompanying hoopla was on Saban.

A handful of LSU players asked about the Saban-Miles sideshow dying down insisted they didn’t think much of it the past two seasons.

“We never made it that,” senior tailback Charles Scott said. “We never got the feel of that Nick Saban deal. It was always LSU against Bama for us. We never got into that personal thing.”

Junior linebacker Perry Riley downplayed it as well, but also noted that to some former teammates — the older players in 2007 — the first game against Saban did carry some additional meaning.

“I never really listened to it anyway, because coach Miles recruited me and I never really met Nick Saban,” Riley said. “It was never a big deal to me personally. I’m sure from some guys’ standpoints, it’s good we can focus on the game and not Nick Saban.”

The game, of course, has major ramifications attached.

With a victory in Bryant-Denny Stadium, the Tigers would not only prevent Alabama from claiming the West Division championship, but LSU would vault the Tide and move into the driver’s seat in the division with three games remaining.

Whichever team winds up in Atlanta opposite Florida will join the Gators with an inside track on a spot for the BCS Championship Game — a prize the SEC champ has nabbed the past three seasons.

“I can tell you that our football team wants to compete for the SEC Western Division championship every year, and certainly that’s this game,” Miles said. “I don’t think that there is anything other than the want to play well for that reason. I don’t think we need to put other pretense on this game. This is a game that is very significant, and our guys understand it.”

Much like the Alabama players, the Tigers followed their coach’s cue.

“All of us realize this is the most important game of the year,” LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson said. “It’s the Western Division and a battle between LSU and Alabama, which is a rivalry game. … This is the biggest game that everybody wants to see.”