Ranking Alabama’s hardest games on the 2023 schedule: No. 5

Earlier this week, ESPN released its 25 hardest schedules for the 2023 college football season. Those rankings have Alabama checking in at No. 18 while giving the Crimson Tide the tenth hardest schedule in the SEC.

With there being a total of 12 regular season games, we decided to rank the top six — or top half — of those in order of difficulty. Don’t mistake all six of the games left off for cupcakes though. There’s a reason Alabama’s schedule is considered one of the toughest in the country.

Some of the contests that didn’t make this list are tough road matchups against Mississippi State and Kentucky. There’s also a home game against Ole Miss that surprisingly didn’t make the cut. Checking in at No. 6 was Arkansas. Now, we move on to No. 5 … the Auburn Tigers.

Ranking Alabama’s hardest games on the 2023 schedule: No. 6 [READ MORE]

No. 5 – at Auburn (Nov. 25)

Auburn’s win total for 2023 only sits at 6.5 games. And yet, I don’t think there will be many Alabama fans arguing against Nov. 25 being a tough test for the Crimson Tide. I guess that’s the beauty of rivalry games in college football — or any sport, for that matter. The difficulties of this matchup go beyond just the rivalry factor though.

First of all, the game will be Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Alabama holds a 1-2 record over its last three trips to Auburn, and the lone win was a 24-22 victory in four overtimes. If you recall, that 2021 squad was averaging 44.4 points going into that Iron Bowl, and the Crimson Tide didn’t even put its first points on the board until there were under nine minutes left in the fourth quarter.

That Auburn team didn’t even finish over .500 either.

Alabama can create some lopsided wins against the Tigers when the game is in Tuscaloosa, but it’s been a long time since that 42-14 road blowout in 2011. This is the impact rivalry games can have, especially when the contest takes place in a venue such as Jordan-Hare Stadium. For that reason alone, I don’t think fans will dispute this game’s place on the list.

We have to take things a step further though.

Hugh Freeze is now the head coach at Auburn, and we all know about his history with Alabama. Freeze was the man in charge of Ole Miss from 2012-16, and there were some epic games between him and Nick Saban. After starting his tenure 0-2 against Saban with a combined score of 58-14, Freeze and the Rebels came out swinging in 2014.

Ole Miss won back-to-back games against Alabama with scores of 23-17 and 43-37. That 2016 matchup was another close one, too. After getting up 24-3 on the Crimson Tide, the Rebels allowed Alabama to score 24-straight to take a 27-24 lead in the third quarter. The final score sat at 48-43 in favor of the Tide, but nonetheless, it was an epic back and forth.

Teams coached by Freeze seem to prepare well for Alabama, and that’s something to keep in mind with the team traveling to Auburn on Nov. 25. From a talent standpoint, the Tigers probably won’t be amongst the top-6 on Alabama’s schedule. But that means little when you also include the Jordan-Hare and Hugh Freeze factors.

Keep an eye on all the turnover happening with that roster though.

Quarterback Robby Ashford returns, but the Tigers replaced his top competition — TJ Finley — with Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne. Thorne doesn’t make the splash plays we’ve seen from Ashford, especially with his legs, but he’s a lot more on a down-to-down basis. In two years as a starter, he threw for almost 6,000 yards, 46 touchdowns and 21 interceptions. He’s also added five rushing scores.

Running back Tank Bigsby is gone after combining for 3,351 total yards (2,903 rushing, 448 receiving) and 25 touchdowns in three years. His backup Jarquez Hunter is one of the better returning players at his position in the SEC, but we’re not sure what his future holds after some off-the-field drama this offseason. We’re assuming that he’ll be on the field come Nov. 25.

Losing key defenders such as linebacker Owen Pappoe (leading tackler), pass rusher Derick Hall (sack leader) and defensive lineman Colby Wooden (11.5 tackles for loss, six sacks) is a big blow. But at the end of the day, Auburn usually fields a servicable defense at least. That unit will once again be backed by a hostile crowd, so Alabama will need to be careful.

This final regular season game should be interesting, to say the least.

The post Ranking Alabama’s hardest games on the 2023 schedule: No. 5 appeared first on On3.