No. 2 Alabama hosts Louisiana-Monroe after Texas squeaker

By The Associated Press

No. 2 Alabama returns home to face Louisiana-Monroe after narrowly avoiding an upset. The Crimson Tide are huge favorites in this one after needing a field goal in the final seconds to beat Texas. Alabama beat Texas by 20-19 but dropped from the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press rankings. The Warhawks fell 52-10 in their own visit to Austin. But they did famously upset the Tide in Nick Saban’s debut season, 2007. ULM is led by former Auburn head coach Terry Bowden. And several Sun Belt Conference teams are coming off huge upsets. … ULM is 4-49—1 against current SEC members. The Warhawks last beat an SEC team in the 2012 opener, a 34-31 victory over No. 8 Arkansas.