These next two weeks could define the season for Nick $aban and the Alabama Crimson Tide.  Most will look at the matchups and scoff at such a notion.  Pfft...Ole Miss and Tennessee?  HA!  Easy wins!  As a certain football commentator-who-shall-not-be-named often puts it, not so fast my friends.  Have Bama fans forgotten that muggy late September afternoon when the Rebels marched into the Swamp and gave the Gators all they could stand for 4 quarters?  They walked away with a W in what many Gator fans thought would be an easy victory.  Now, Ole Miss finds itself in a familiar situation.  Overmatched, out-coached, and fighting in the SEC on the road.  Check, check, and check.  Been there and done that. 

Everyone wants a piece of Bama right now.  And why not?  Saban has taken a laughable Alabama squad whose fans had expectations that were "unreasonable" and made them a national name again.  But there are no easy games in the SEC.  The Ole Miss/Florida game proved that.  The Bama/Kentucky game proved that.  Every match is a battle.  These teams, the good ones at least, are fighting for survival.  If Bama loses this game, or any game for that matter, they're through...finished...they're out of it.  They could finish running the table, win the SEC in the conference game, and have only 1 loss and they will be out of the picture for the BCS Title Game.  Because that's just the way it is for Bama.  We are not THE Ohio State University.  We do not have the luxury of a strong media outlet like USC.  If we lose, it's over...period.  And don't think for one second Saban doesn't know this.  He'll come out swinging.  He'll get a big lead and try to sit on it with a strong D and a bruising running game that eats up that clock.  It's not the spread offense.  It doesn't have a fancy name with fancy schemes.  It's good old fashioned smashmouth Alabama and SEC football.  Because that's what we do.

So both of the coming weeks are crucial for Alabama before the dreaded LSU game in Death Valley.  Yes, the Vols are god awful.  Yes, Fulmer is on his last leg as coach at Tennessee.  Yes, they can still beat Bama.  This is a rivalry game.  I can't think of any one team outside of Auburn which the Crimson Tide have such utter contempt for.  The sentiment is usually mutual.  Tennessee fans can't stand Bama fans and vice versa.  The whole probation thing didn't help.  Those days are long gone now, though.  Still, Bama can't afford to slip against either team.  They likely won't see number 1 any time this year.  Sure, Texas will probably lose, but Bama will most likely be leapfrogged by the current hot team.  The media and the coaches don't believe in them.  They haven't proven enough.  Their survival depends on making it through the next two weeks unscathed.  They have to win and win big to make people in the media believers again.  To get to that LSU game and walk away unbeaten is the short-term goal.  If they do that, the world can't continue to ignore them.

"Cash Money" Saban isn't sleeping on either Ole Miss or Tennessee.  They will be ready.  They have to be ready.