Click here for linkArkansas’ players are actually getting their second dose of Alabama prep for the season. Coaches used the final week of fall camp to begin installing game plan for what figured to be one of the marquee early season matchups in the SEC.
“You always have that week when you’re back in school and you don’t have a game. So generally we’ll take that week and you teach your players to go through game preparation,” Petrino said. “This year we chose to do it for the Alabama game.”
Getting a head start on Alabama isn’t unique in that sense. It doesn’t signify anything other than Arkansas’ normal approach to the first SEC opponent each season. Had this been Kentucky or Vanderbilt, traditionally two of the worst programs in the SEC, Arkansas would have prepared in advance.
But we all know putting an early focus on Alabama is about more than timing and position on the schedule. Winning a league title and national championship are Arkansas' goals and the road to New Orleans, by way of Atlanta, runs through Tuscaloosa.