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‘Bama prepping to play without Tua

Alabama is about to experience life without Tua Tagovailoa — at least for one game.

For the first time in two seasons, the top-ranked Crimson Tide are preparing for a game with somebody other than Tagovailoa leading the offense. Mac Jones will take the reins Saturday night against Arkansas while Tagovailoa recovers from a high ankle sprain that sidelined him for much of the Tennessee game.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in Mac,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said Monday. “With a week of preparation, I think he’ll do a lot better in this game.”

With Alabama still favored by 33 points over the Razorbacks, the big question is, Will Tagovailoa be back in time for the Nov. 9 game against No. 2 LSU as he pledged to teammates after the Tennessee game? There is an open date in between games and Tagovailoa is familiar with the recovery process from the procedure he had done on Sunday.

It’s the same injury he suffered in the SEC championship game last season, except to the other ankle.

“There’s no real timetable for his return, but the expectation is he will be non-weight bearing for several days and then he’ll be able to come back as his rehab allows him,” Saban said. “We’re hopeful that in a 10-day period, he’ll be back being able to do active-type rehab, and we’ll see how it goes from there. But these things are pretty unpredictable at this point.”

Tagovailoa has been directing the nation’s No. 4 passing offense and spreading the ball around to a quartet of dangerous receivers, among others. Jones entered against Tennessee with about six minutes remaining in the second quarter and finished 6-of-11 passing for 72 yards.

“I think that he didn’t do anything that really hurt us in the game,” Saban said. “I think that he had two balls that were dropped, that were critical situations in the game. The one play that he scrambled on third down where he could have thrown the ball, I would assume that if you asked him he’d say, ‘I wish I would have thrown the ball,’ because we would have made a first down and the guy was open.

“All in all, I thought he handled the situation really well. It’s a difficult circumstance to get thrown into.”

Jones was the third-teamer behind Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts last season, but a number of lopsided games did get him some action in mop-up duties. He was 5-of-13 passing for 123 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.

“I think a lot of people underestimate Mac Jones,” Tide tight end Miller Forristall said. “I don’t think they know how good he’s gonna be or how good he is. That’s something where it’s always been that, ‘What’s going to happen after Tua?’ Mac Jones is really good.”

There could still be a Tagovailoa playing quarterback for the Tide at some point in this game. Tua’s younger brother, Taulia, will be the backup to Jones.

The freshman, who enrolled in January and went through spring practice, completed his only college pass attempt for a 20-yard gain.

“He’s got a lot of talent,” Saban said. “We’ve tried to get him some reps throughout the course of the year in case this happened. So it’s going to be really important that we do a good job of progressing him this week as well.”

Richt suffers heart attack

Former Georgia and Miami coach Mark Richt tweeted Monday that he is recovering from a heart attack.

The 59-year-old Richt is working as a studio analyst for the ACC Network.

Richt spent the past three seasons as Miami coach before surprisingly retiring from his alma mater in December. Before that he had coached Georgia for 15 years.

“I am assuming word travels fast,” Richt posted. “So I wanted to be able to inform everyone that I did have a heart attack this morning. I am doing fine. As I went through the experience I had peace knowing I was going to heaven but I was going to miss my wife. I plan to be at work this week.”

Hoosiers seek bowl eligibility

At Indiana, the countdown is in full swing.

The Hoosiers have chalked up five wins in five consecutive seasons for the second time ever, and now they have five chances to get their elusive sixth win for the first time since 2017.

Around campus, where classes resumed Monday following a brief fall break, everyone knows the story. But inside the locker room, nobody’s talking about numbers.

“We’ll be asked about it, we talked about it this morning in that regard,” coach Tom Allen said during his weekly news conference. “But it’s about having a focus — that’s the mental toughness it takes to be great in our program. I want it to be a point where that’s part of the expectation. I understand it, I understand where we are, what’s in front of us, and so do our players.”

Indiana gets its first shot Saturday with a rare trip to Nebraska (4-3, 2-2).

Nebraska has won five straight in the series, most recently in 2016 in the only game between the schools since 1978. But Nebraska could be short-handed.

Coach Scott Frost didn’t say Monday whether last weekend’s bye allowed starting quarterback Adrian Martinez to recover sufficiently to return to the lineup. He missed the Oct. 12 loss at Minnesota because of an injured left knee. Odds-makers have pulled the game off the betting line.

If Martinez can’t play, Noah Vedral will make his second career start. Vedral was 14 of 23 with 135 yards, had 15 rushes for 49 yards and was sacked four times against the Golden Gophers.

Nebraska hopes to prove its last game was an aberration.

“We weren’t the most physical team on the field at Minnesota,” tight end Austin Allen said. “That started shifting gears last week when we went good-on-good. We came off the ball firing on all cylinders, and that’s going to carry over against Indiana.”

This game also could be a program-changing moment for the Hoosiers (5-2, 2-2).

Indiana hasn’t been above .500 in conference play since starting 1-0 in 2016, hasn’t won consecutive Big Ten road games since the end of 2015 season, hasn’t won three straight league games in the same season since 1993 and hasn’t won in Lincoln since 1959.

“I want to change the way this program is viewed in the lifetime of our current players,” Tom Allen said. “I just want to be able to create that change. And I’ve used the word breakthrough and that’s a foundational vision I have. It has different layers and different meanings, but that hasn’t changed.”

Like Nebraska, Indiana may be without its starting quarterback. Michael Penix Jr. left in the first half last week at Maryland and did not return. Allen didn’t disclose the injury following the game and didn’t shed any more light Monday on what happened to Penix , other than to say he will be a game-time decision.

If Penix doesn’t play, Peyton Ramsey, a two-year starter who lost the job to Penix this summer, would likely make his third start of the season.

If so, Ramsey would get a chance to do something neither he nor the Hoosiers achieved the last two years — win No. 6.

“It’s a little different dynamic than we have been in the last two years,” Tom Allen said. “But you talk to any of our players, there’s no mention of winning six. Obviously you win the next game, you win your sixth game and we understand what all that means. But to me the objective is for us to be at our very best and play our best football in Lincoln, Nebraska.”

Elsewhere

n Syracuse is the lone team in the Atlantic Coast Conference without a league win, yet coach Dino Babers continues to operate on an even keel.

“I don’t think there’s a game in the ACC we’ve been out of, and I’m proud of that part,” Babers said Monday. “I don’t think the guys have quit. Being close — some people think that’s really cool, but we’re not in it to be close. Everybody here wants to get a win.”

Syracuse (3-4, 0-3 ACC) lost 41-6 to Clemson, 16-10 to North Carolina State and 27-20 to Pittsburgh on Friday night. Two of those losses were at home, where the Orange were undefeated a year ago.

One common thread punctuated those losses: sacks. Clemson and N.C. State each registered eight and Pitt had nine, the most for the Panthers since 2001. On the season, Syracuse has allowed 35 sacks, the top mark in the nation, behind its injury-plagued offensive line.

“The thing that we need to do is we need to grow, and we’re not growing fast enough for me,” Babers said. “You have to have more than one protection. Wide receivers are not doing the things they’re supposed to do. It’s all spread out.”

n Nebraska running back Maurice Washington is not with the team and there’s no timetable for his return, coach Scott Frost said Monday.

“There are certain standards we ask our players to uphold,” Frost said. “When those standards aren’t upheld, it doesn’t matter who it is. They aren’t going to be part of our plans that week or potentially longer.”

Washington has been held out of the first halves of two games for disciplinary reasons.

Frost didn’t disclose specifics about Washington’s absence other than to say it is unrelated to child pornography charges he faces in California. The coach declined to call it a suspension.

n After escaping what would have been a crushing home loss to Kansas, Texas and coach Tom Herman face a stark reality: The Longhorns will go only as far as quarterback Sam Ehlinger’s broad shoulders can carry them.

The Longhorns’ defense simply can’t stop anybody.

The Jayhawks were the latest team to shred an inexperienced and injured Texas defense. Kansas scored 24 points in the fourth quarter before Ehlinger bailed Texas out with a late drive for Cameron Dicker’s field goal on the final play to pull out a 50-48 victory .

While Ehlinger continues on pace to smash Texas passing records this season, the defense could rank among the worst in school history. And when an offense has to top 48 points in order to beat Kansas, which changed offensive coordinators midseason and is winless in the Big 12, the rest of the Texas schedule looks like a weekly tossup as the Longhorns fight to get a rematch with No. 5 Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game.

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