BATON ROUGE, La. — The relief on the University of Alabama sideline was palpable.
It didn’t come until there was just one minute, 52 seconds remaining on the clock, when Alabama knew it could run it out. Everyone sort of exhaled emotionally and started celebrating, especially the players recruited out of Louisiana who still have hometown bragging rights.
Alabama had survived its test against LSU, again, this time 10-0, and like usual the game was nothing short of a grind. Although neither side notched a point through the first three quarters, which is about as unlikely a score as you’ll see in college football these days, no one who has followed this rivalry since Nick Saban landed in Tuscaloosa in 2007 could have been surprised.