2013 Alabama Crimson Tide football schedule: Best case/Worst case scenarios after examining the slate

alabamagamedayr | January 15, 2013 at 2:39 pm | 2 Comments

Alabama Crimson Tide fan Harrison Tyre holds up a sign during the first half of the 2013 BCS Championship game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Sun Life Stadium. (Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports)

The 2013 Alabama Crimson Tide football season kicks off a mere seven-plus months from now. Alright, granted, seven months is still pretty far away, but you can never start planning too early — just ask little Harrison here and his big plans for the Tide’s 2027 recruiting class.

Once again, and for the second straight season, the Tide will be stepping onto the playing field expecting to defend their perch atop the college football mountaintop. That is simply the mindset the program must take and has taken en route to winning three of the previous four BCS National Championships.

However, just because coach Nick Saban and his Bama boys expect to win does not mean the Tide will roll very easily.

The games still need to be played. More importantly, the several elite SEC teams Alabama will be going up against in 2013 must be beaten.

The team returns the nation’s leader in passing efficiency and the nation’s only two-time BCS title winning quarterback in AJ McCarron. The Defensive MVP of the championship game, linebacker CJ Moseley, will also be sticking around Tuscaloosa for one more year. The same goes for one of McCarron’s stellar offensive linemen in Anthony Steen.

Wide receiver Amari Cooper and running back TJ Yeldon are both set to be super-sophs in 2013.

Again, even with those pieces in place, winning all of the games slated promises to be no simple task — no matter the championship pedigrees of those donning the Crimson and White.

In 2013, Bama plays seven games within the comfort of Bryant-Denny Stadium, four games truly on the road and one neutral-site game to open up the season with a bang.

The team’s home slate is relatively easy. There are several cupcakes coming to Tuscaloosa and the team gets to host LSU next year, instead of having to go into Death Valley and sneak out of there with a win like last season: Colorado State (Sept. 21), Ole Miss (Sept. 28), Georgia State (Oct. 5), Arkansas (Oct. 19), Tennessee (Oct. 26), LSU (Nov. 9), Chattanooga (Nov.23).

The way the schedule is shaping up, the team’s two toughest games may be coming in the team’s first two weeks of the season. Bama opens the year in Atlanta to take on what is supposed to be a vastly improved Virginia Tech squad (although saying stuff like that certainly did not hold true for Michigan in 2012) and then in Week 2 the Tide rolls into College Station for a rematch against the Texas A&M Aggies. Feel free to circle September 14 in your calendars now.

The team’s only other road games are fairly straightforward: at Kentucky (Oct. 12), at Mississippi State (Nov. 16), and at Auburn (Nov. 30).

The Tide will be losing star running back Eddie Lacy, cornerback Dee Milliner, and offensive linemen Barrett Jones and DJ Fluker to the NFL Draft, among others. However, as stated earlier, the team should have plenty of returning pieces and fresh faces to navigate the schedule early on before cruising (relatively speaking) the rest of the way until LSU.

Worst Case Scenario: 9-3 and a trip to the Capital One Bowl, Chick-fil-A Bowl, or Outback Bowl.

Best Case Scenario: 12-0 and a second consecutive berth in the SEC Championship game.

Projected: 11-1 — we are simply too superstitious to project a perfect season, especially with the helter-skelter unpredictability inherent in every single weekend packed with college football.