There’s a bit of an odd family reunion motif that permeates this national title game between Georgia and Alabama. For one, there’s the obvious ties among the coaching staffs, with Alabama assistants who’ve coached at Georgia (Jeremy Pruitt) and Georgia coaches who’ve coached at Alabama (Kirby Smart and about three quarters of his assistants). There are the players, most of whom were recruited at some time or level of intensity by the other school. There are the institutions themselves, which have cross-polinated to a great degree and share many similarities. And the fanbases, who share a rabid love of SEC football and hatred of a common little brother (I won’t mention its name, but it rhymes with “Gaw Durn.”

And there’s a similar filial bond between the SB Nation sites covering the two teams, the one you’re reading and Roll Bama Roll. Dawg Sports and RBR are among the original SB Nation college blogs (numbers six and eight in order of establishment if I remember correctly, which I may not because that was over a decade ago and a lot’s happened since then). At various times writers from each site have collaborated and crossed battle lines as well. I’m also proud to say that both sites have among the most engaged and knowledgable readerships around. In short, we’ve got a heckuva lot more in common than we do different.

So there’s a certain deep satisfaction that comes with this week’s matchup. That’s heightened by the chance to talk Bama football with my colleague Erik Evans, Editor in Chief and Viking in Residence at Roll Bama Roll. Erik knows SEC football and speaks fluent Gump. He’s an Alabama fan but doesn’t view the world through Crimson lenses. In short he does a lot of what I try to do from this side of the state line. In the first of this two part question and answer session Erik catches us up on the miseducation of Jalen Hurts, how Alabama Fans view Kirby’s “Tuscaloosa East” project, and reminds you that mayonnaise has no damn business anywhere near pork barbecue and anyone who disagrees is a damn heathen, and not in a good way. Let’s get started.

MD: How is Jalen Hurts a different quarterback this time around? Are there any areas in which he’s taken a particular leap forward as a sophomore, and in which areas has he not progressed?

EE: I’d like to report that, as happens with most quarterbacks, he’s made his biggest adjustments between year one and year two. I cannot.

Oh, to be sure, Jalen does some things better this year than he did last. First, he’s cut down on turnovers. Alabama was seven games into the season before it had its first turnover, and a lot of that had to do with Hurts being a little less cavalier with the ball and keeping his eyes upfield more. He was never particularly reckless in the passing game; where turnovers happened because of his inaccuracy or fumbling in the pocket. The option miscommunications still happen on occasion, but those largely occur with Bo Scarbrough in the game.

And, where he’s thrown interceptions in 2017, again generally miscommunication with the receiver is to blame, though there have been a couple of head-shaking decisions particularly against Auburn and Clemson. That said, we’d like him to perhaps be a little more reckless in the passing department. Hurts has in some ways regressed, or at least taken bunny steps: Two hops forward, one back. For instance, last season, he didn’t necessarily know the stripped-down offense, but was still willing to try and make a play with his arm or quickly read his one/two options and then scramble or throw the ball out of bounds.

This season, he’s doing a somewhat better job of going through his progressions and looking for the second and third receiver. But, as of his 28th game last week, he is still too slow making those reads and then far too tentative on the throw. He has had a world of time back there, but he will hold the ball far too long before taking a sack, or scrambling out of bounds for a loss -- the entire time missing some open, and I mean wide-open, receivers. If he’s going to put the offensive line in that kind of position or the offense in that kind of down-and-distance, it would be far preferable that he just try to make a play with his feet.

He gets a lot of criticism, and a lot of it is unwarranted. Jalen generally makes smart decisions, protects the ball, makes big plays when the Tide needs him the most, and has the confidence of the team (for the most part; though there have been some signs of frustration.) Let’s just say, for all practical purposes, this may as well be his first full year as a true quarterback and it shows at times.

Compounding his general trepidation and having to learn the position is having to learn a second offense in two seasons, going through three offensive coordinators in the same amount of time, and a generally pitiful performance by many Tide’s veteran secondary receivers. I don’t want to call them busts, but one reason Hurts goes to Ridley so often is because Calvin is one of the few players on this team that you know will generally come down with a grab.

So, let’s call say performance from year one to year two has gone from B- to a B. The real concern however is that a solid B may be his plateau: The quarterback spot is definitely up for grabs in 2018 and that competition will begin about 90 minutes after Monday’s trophy celebration.

All of that said, trailing by six, you definitely want that guy in the game. I’d put my money on him making a play or a few plays that put the Tide in position to win...and that’s what it comes down to at the end of the day, and is the primary reason he’s still the starter: he wins games.

MD: What is Alabama’s injury situation heading into this one? I know there were some banged up and bruised defenders late in the year, but is the Tide essentially at full strength now?

EE: LOL. Not even close. In my pre-college days, I was a musician working as an EMT to put food on the table (Surprisingly, death metal isn’t the most lucrative career path.) But, even working rotations, I didn’t see as many bodies on the floor as the ones that Alabama has left behind on fields across the nation this season.

The attrition at linebacker has been especially appalling: it’s like a WWI Tommy in the trenches: Three guys may go over the top, but the odds are good you’re losing at least one. Definitely absent for this game are linebackers Shaun Dion-Hamilton, Anfernee Jennings and Dylan Moses; probably RG Lester Cotton; maybe utility back Josh Jacobs. Also likely absent is senior SS Hootie Jones and reserve corner Nigel Knott (Editor’s note: I’m opening a bar in the Virgin Islands called “Hootie & Nigel’s” one day. That’s a bucket list item).

Also gone is the Tide’s most reliable TE, Miller Forristall, And, hurt but playing is the nation’s Defensive Heisman winner, all-everything leader Minkah Fitzpatrick. Fitzmagic bruised his kidney early in the physical Clemson semi, but played through it. Of all the injuries, this one obviously gives us the most pause. He’ll undoubtedly be moved all over the field, as he just does so much at Star: blitzing, run support, shutdown corner, roving safety. Get that man some Vicodin and extra padding: Alabama needs him. The Tide’s depth has never been tested like it has this year. This isn’t Nick Saban’s best team by a long shot, but it may be the best job he’s done in 11 years at Alabama.

MD: What is the general take of Alabama fans on Kirby Smart’s success this season at Georgia? Do Alabama fans feel a sense of pride in the role their program played in molding him as a coach, or is he just another adversary at this point?

EE: I honestly don’t know too many people who have taken a perverse pride in Kirby having a hot start in Athens (aside from the delusional portion of the fan base who thinks he’d leave a top tier SEC job at his alma mater to come back to Alabama when Saban retires). He’s a well-known negative recruiter, and probably the best recruiter Alabama’s ever had for the Atlanta region: that is where his loss has been felt the most.

It’s helped to frame him as a mere adversary given the fact that he tried to take everything that wasn’t nailed down in the Mal Moore complex on his way out the door: Scott Cochran, Mel Tucker, even Alabama’s graphics and slogans now plastered prominently across posters in Athens locker rooms. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the tampering/Maurice Smith thing that really, really left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. So, while it’s not personal, it’s certainly not personable either. Obviously, you don’t want “one of ours” to fail, but nor do you want him to succeed too much either.

MD: At 37.9 points per game Alabama leads the SEC in scoring offense. Are Alabama fans pleased so far with the Brian Daboll era, is there a sense that he’s benefited from opportunities created by a lockdown defense and the talent inherited from Lane Kiffin, or is the jury still out?

EE: For all the grief we gave Lane Kiffin, Brian Daboll is running the ball even less than the Dreamy One. Part of that has been conscious: by hook or by crook, he’s trying to drag Jalen Hurts into at least a 1980s passing offense, with varying degrees of success.

Part of it has been finding his way as a first-year playcaller. Alabama is at its best when it lines up, wears teams out, takes its shots with opportunistic passing, and stays ahead of the chains. There have been far too many three-passes-and-out sequences for the Tide offense this season. It was especially noticeable in the very winnable Auburn game where Daboll had maybe his worst day on the sideline: Bo Scarbrough and Damien Harris combined for 15 touches, if I recall correctly. That is simply unconscionable.

I think it finally came to a head last week when Alabama was up 18 points with most of the 4th quarter to play, and Daboll called three straight passes and quickly put the Tide defense back out on the field. That’s just bad percentage football; even Oklahoma tries to control the clock there. It’s taffy soft loserball. Your foul-mouthed 12 year-old NCAA ‘14 opponent on XBox Live wouldn’t do that.

Fortunately, ESPN had just zoomed in on a gloriously upset Nick Saban walking to Daboll and screaming “run the f’n ball.” And so we did. Public shaming may help him this week. He gets some leniency with the learning curve and trying to develop the quarterbacks, a job Lane Kiffin did poorly last season BTW, but at the same time, like most offensive coordinators, he’s got to prove his inherent genius about 15-20% of the time. (I dislike offensive coordinators on principle.)

MD: Are you enjoying talking to Auburn fans this week as much as I am?

EE: By, the grace of God, I actually don’t know very many IRL Auburn fans (full disclosure: my daughter is in the honors college at Auburn, but they pay her to do so and she hates football and everyone she’s surrounded by, so there’s hope for her yet.) Anyway, they’ve been a suspiciously quiet lot this week on social media. That’s a blessing either way, because I’m honestly not sure when they’re at their cultish worst: when they win or when they lose. They’re the only fanbase in America with absolutely no sidewalk fans, and they’re the only school with a creed, and they’re the only place with students who actually enjoyed their college years, donchya’ know?

MD: If you’re Daboll, how do you attack this Georgia defense? Did you see anything in the Oklahoma game that you hope he filed away for this Monday?

EE: In terms of this matchup, I actually don’t take as much away from the Oklahoma game as much as I do the Notre Dame and Auburn games (and, to a lesser extent, South Carolina). Like Georgia, Alabama’s identity will begin and end up front. The Tide don’t run the ball nearly to the extent that the ‘Dawgs do. and that’s a mixed blessing for this one. The Tide will work early-down passing in the mix for sure. It’s been a staple all year long. The last thing you want is to have seven-eight guys pinning their ears back on third-and-long.

Georgia’s secondary has been lights-out in obvious passing situations, so early play-action passing is a must. I would not be surprised to see Alabama work some misdirection in along the edges too, including a few jet sweeps and screens to the backs. When Georgia’s defense has been a step behind or has missed tackles, they’ve come by players backs in space at the edge or after some Bulldog overpursuit. The UGA defense doesn’t quite have the depth that Alabama does, so you want to make those guys run around hash-to-hash, with a pulling guard greeting them, and tenderize them so to speak, for long drives even if no points come from it. Then, as Auburn did, you apply a less subtle hammer-to-face running game up the middle.

And, lastly, when the secondary does bite or overcommits, as they all do on occasion, Alabama must be decisive with the ball early and take advantage of the window of opportunity. In other words, just play good old-fashioned, high-percentage football: Play the first three quarters to win the fourth and capitalize when you get the opportunity. Execution will be key. I don’t think you’ll see too many wrinkles here.

MD: Name an Alabama barbecue restaurant better than the original Dreamland. And you know as well as anyone that Memphis ain’t in Alabama.

EE: This is going to drive the “white barbecue” people insane, but it’s trash. Mayo doesn’t need to be on pork, and barbecue sauce doesn’t need to be defiled. If you’re in Birmingam, then Saw’s is pretty good. It’s tasty; really tender pulled pork, but nothing terribly special. The real go-to is, of course, Archibalds’ in Northport. There’s not a better plate of ‘cue in the state. I plan visits around Archibald’s hours when I’m in town. Do yourself a favor and spend $12 on the large mix plate (white bread, sauce, sliced butt, ribs) and add a Grapico. Now I’m hungry.

Thanks to Erik for his thoughtful answers, some of best we’ve had to one of these in a long time. And there’s more where that came from. Tune in later for the second installment, and. . .

Go ‘Dawgs!!!