Once top 10 teams, Alabama and Missouri square off as they fight for their playoff lives

Those top 10 rankings have fallen by the wayside for Alabama and Missouri.

Still clinging to now-precarious playoff hopes, the 15th-ranked Crimson Tide (5-2, 2-2 SEC) and No. 21 Tigers meet Saturday in Tuscaloosa for what amounts to an elimination game.

“The sense of urgency is definitely up now,” Alabama defensive lineman Jah-Marien Latham said, “knowing that the chances of getting to the playoffs are slimmer than they were early in the season.”

Alabama started the season ranked fifth and spent a week at No. 1 after beating No. 2 Georgia. Then came losses at Vanderbilt and No. 7 Tennessee over the past three games with a 27-25 win over South Carolina in between.

Missouri (6-1, 2-1) can certainly relate after edging struggling Auburn, 21-17, last weekend. Missouri was seventh to open the season but fell 41-10 to now-No. 14 Texas A&M in the team's first road SEC game. Now comes the second.

“I think the first thing is we can’t play overanalyzing every situation," Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “We can’t have too many checks on both sides of the ball. We can’t have too many what ifs, you know, we can’t have if they do this, then we’re going to do this ... .”

Expectations were baked into the Alabama program after Nick Saban's run of six national championships in his 17 seasons, which makes the recent struggles under his successor Kalen DeBoer hard to swallow at 'Bama.

“We know that being a championship football team is hard,” DeBoer said. "We all signed up for it. We all want to continue to improve our awareness, our intensity, and that’s not just intensity on the football field and all that. That’s just everything we do. It takes everything we’ve got and that’s what we signed up for.”

Cook's heroics

Missouri quarterback Brady Cook rallied the Tigers to two fourth-quarter touchdowns in the win over Auburn after an early ankle injury that sent him to the hospital for an MRI.

Milroe’s struggles

Alabama's Jalen Milroe has struggled after a torrid start. Milroe has three touchdown passes and five interceptions over the last three games while having minimal success running the ball, too.

Williams & Burden

Both teams have dangerous receivers who were coveted prospects. The Tigers’ Luther Burden III was a second-team All-American as a sophomore even if his numbers this season are less gaudy. He has 37 catches for 447 yards and four touchdowns, with his only score of the last three games coming on a 61-yard run against Massachusetts.

Williams leads FBS freshmen with 649 yards on 31 catches with seven touchdowns. He was the top recruit for DeBoer.

“Special player, special talent,” Drinkwitz said, adding that it doesn’t matter at this point that Williams is only 17.

“I don’t know that age is that big of a factor when you have those kinds of gifts,” the Tigers coach said.

Replacing Sabb

Bray Hubbard could have to step in as Alabama's starting safety with Keon Sabb appearing likely out with a lower extremity injury. Hubbard has 20 tackles this season, including a career-high nine against Tennessee. The ex-high school quarterback was a two-time Class 6A Mr. Football in Mississippi.

His goal for the week: “Just prepare the best and be there for my teammates,” Hubbard said. “Don’t want to let them down.”

Familiar faces

Missouri defensive coordinator Corey Batoon served in that role for new Alabama DC Kane Wommack at South Alabama for the past three seasons. He also worked under Wommack’s father, Dave, at Mississippi.

“He worked for my dad for a number of years so obviously system, scheme wise there’s a lot of similarities,” Kane Wommack said.

DeBoer spent four years with Missouri offensive coordinator Kirby Moore at Fresno State, with DeBoer first as a fellow assistant and then when he returned as head coach in 2020-21.