Through all the Game(s) of the Century and Saban Bowls, through all the SEC West battles and national championship matchups, there has never been an LSU-Alabama battle like the one this weekend. The College Football Playoff virtually begins Saturday night in Death Valley.

Alabama (6-2, 3-2 in the SEC) travels to Baton Rouge to face LSU (6-2, 3-1) with the CFP playoff likely on the line. Even though both teams have the same records Alabama ranked 11th in the first CFP rankings and LSU also ranks 15th in votes; Alabama’s victory over Georgia in September. But as this victory fades further in hindsight, Alabama and LSU both need to avoid that crucial third defeat.

The two teams have met 88 times since 1895, with Alabama leading by a score of 56-27-6. No season defines the Alabama-LSU rivalry more than 2011, when No. 1 LSU beat No. 2 Alabama 9-6 in the regular season…and then a rematch through the magic of upsets, voters, computers and the BCS started. The road to Alabama in January. Eight years later, with LSU and Alabama once again ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively, the Tigers’ Joe Burrow outdueled the Tide’s Tua Tagovailoa to send Alabama to the playoffs as part of LSU’s utter dominance of college football in 2019. left him out of the hunt. season.

This year, the college football juggernauts are Georgia and Oregon, not Alabama and Louisiana. The Tigers and Tide struggled with inconsistency and focus, which directly led to two losses. LSU fell in its first game against an inferior USC team, then Lost battle with Texas A&M for SEC lead. Alabama got beaten by the state of Tennessee, A breakthrough defeat against Vanderbilt. and later Running out of gas against volunteers.

Both coaches said the right things at the beginning of the match. “Every week in the SEC is an incredible challenge and we are going to have to come up with our best game of the year,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly said this week. “It’s a great excitement to have GameDay here, and a game broadcast in prime time on national television certainly creates great excitement. “But with that said, you have to do a great job in your preparation and focus on playing outstanding football in four quarters.”

“I see a team with great athletes offensively, defensively and explosively,” Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said of LSU. “He is well trained. “I’ve been through fires, been at home, away, in close games.”

The Tide is preparing to play in one of the most hostile environments in college football. “The offense has been tired of hearing one speaker for the last two weeks,” DeBoer said on “Hey Coach.” “I’ve probably lost some of my hearing in the last two weeks.”

This might be for the best, considering what Tiger fans have to say about the Tide. There’s a bit of a dissonance of hatred here; While LSU fans consider Alabama their most hated rival, Alabama fans rank LSU well behind Auburn, Tennessee, and possibly even Georgia on the list of most hated programs. That’s partly because Nick Saban left LSU for the NFL after winning a championship for the Tigers… then immediately came back and moved back to the SEC West when Alabama opened a bank vault for him in 2006.

Alabama’s relative disregard for the Tigers stems from the Tide’s acquisition of Saban, and also from the fact that Alabama largely owned LSU during the Saban era; The Tide had a 13-5 record since Saban’s first season at Alabama, including the national championship game against LSU.

But Saban is no longer on the sidelines, even if Kelly implies that Saban is still “the man behind the curtain” at Alabama, as he said this week. “I don’t want to take anything away from Coach DeBoer because it’s his team,” Kelly added, “but you feel like Nick is there a little bit.”

Alabama could use some of the old Saban magic on the sidelines; The team’s inconsistency and inefficiency was reflected on both sides of the ball. Quarterback Jalen Milroe has as many interceptions (6) as he did last season. Alabama, on the other hand, ranks 128th out of 134 teams in penalties per game; Only Ole Miss fares worse in the SEC.

Meanwhile, LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier is improving; He leads the SEC in both completions and attempts, and his 20 touchdowns are seven more than Milroe has to date. (Interesting side note: Nussmeier’s father, Doug Nussmeier, was Saban’s offensive coordinator on the 2013 national championship team in which Alabama blew out the Brian Kelly-coached Notre Dame team. “Yeah, he brought it up,” Kelly laughed on Wednesday. ” “So I told him to shut up and not bring it up again.”)

Alabama is a 2.5 point favorite in the matchbut it’s worth noting that Kelly was 13-0 in as many night games at LSU. Someone’s going to ruin someone else’s year in Death Valley on Saturday night, a little earlier than usual.