Florida in Neyland is a good tune-up for the Bama game. I think we handle the former no problem at home, and stand a chance against the latter.
That smells of cowardice. I want to play them every single year. Would love nothing more than to be the reason Saban retires still short of Bear Bryant's win record there. Heh.
Might not be. There are gaps. Sep 28th, Oct 5th, and then Oct 26th, Nov 2nd, Nov 9th are all gaps that need to be filled. One or maybe two of them will be byes (two if the Vandy game is Nov 30th).
Plenty of SEC lightweights to soften the schedule up with: in addition to Vandy, there's Kentucky...Miss State...Arkansas...South Carolina...Auburn...and Mizzou, assuming they return to normal form.
What if the full schedule looks like this:
Sat Aug 31- UTC
Sat Sep 7- NC State (Charlotte)
Sat Sep 14- Kent State
Sat Sep 21- @ Oklahoma
Sat Sep 28 - bye
Sat, Oct 5 - @ Miss State
Sat Oct 12- Florida
Sat Oct 19- Alabama
Sat Oct 26th - Kentucky
Sat Nov 2 - Arkansas or South Carolina or Auburn
Sat Nov 9 - bye
Sat Nov 16- @ UGA
Sat Nov 23- UTEP
Sat Nov 30 - @ Vandy
See what I mean? Still tough games on the schedule, but not nearly as bunched together as the OP made them look.