It is not often that a team prefers to play Alabama.
But in Notre Dame’s case, the Tide may be the ideal foe.
At least that’s what Tim Brown says. He was hoping Alabama would beat Georgia in the SEC title game last month to set up Monday’s BCS National Championship showdown with Notre Dame.
“I really thought that Alabama was a better matchup than Georgia because Georgia had more explosive receivers,” the SiriusXM Radio host and former Notre Dame All-America receiver said.
“Alabama’s running backs are dynamic, but the strength of [Notre Dame’s] defense is the front seven. If they can put 200-300 yards rushing up on our defense then God bless ’em ,they just won their third national championship in four years. That’s how I look at it.”
Vegas does not look at it that way, installing the Tide as a 10-point favorite. But in Alabama, Brown sees a team more vulnerable than the one that dominated LSU in last year’s national title game.
“I still can’t figure out the 10-point thing,” Brown said. “You’re looking at an Alabama defense that’s given up points and yards all year. To think that Notre Dame’s offense can’t do something is unfair. All of a sudden, they are going to shut them down when they haven’t really done that to anyone good all year.
“Then you look at Notre Dame’s defense — one of the best run defenses in the country — and besides the Pittsburgh game hadn’t given up 20 points to anyone all year. I don’t quite understand that, but if Notre Dame needed extra motivation they’ve got it now. After going 12-0, they are still getting disrespected.”
Part of the reason No. 1 Notre Dame has lacked respect is because the Irish squeaked out close wins against mediocre teams such as Purdue, BYU and Pittsburgh. But they have leaned on Heisman finalist Manti Te’o and their defense all season.
Brown’s concern is if freshman quarterback Everett Golson and the offense suddenly feel they have to carry the team when the status quo should be good enough to carry them to their ninth national title, which would equal Alabama’s total in the poll era.
“They just need to keep doing what they’ve done, play great defense and not turn the ball over on offense,” he said. “Because the defense has been so solid this year they’ve been in every game even when the offense isn’t clicking. … No one has to play like Superman in this game.”
Though that appears to be a similar attitude to the one the Tigers brought into last year’s title game when they thought solid defense could carry them as it had in a regular-season win over Alabama. Instead, Tide quarterback A.J. McCarron picked apart LSU in a shockingly easy 21-0 win.
“Obviously, the big part for Alabama is their quarterback,” Brown said. “No one expected him to play as well as he did last year and when you look at it he may have been the best player on film and that makes it very interesting to see what he’s going to do this year with the experience that he has.”