Being the No. 1 team in the country comes with a constant stream of positive stories that can be compared to rat poison — at least in the eyes of Alabama head coach Nick Saban.
“I’m trying to get our players to listen to me,” Saban said. “Instead of listening to you guys. All that stuff you write about how good we are. All that stuff they hear on ESPN. It’s like poison… Rat poison. I’m asking them, ‘Are you going to listen to me? Or are you going to listen to these guys about how good you are?’”
The Crimson Tide rolled through their first two games of conference play, outscoring their opponents 125-3. However, the Tide’s 27-19 victory over A&M came with a lot more effor.
“We’re not going to beat everyone 66-3,’ Saban said.
Saban started his postgame press conference with high praise for the A&M crowd which is notorious for being loud and has the largest student section in the nation. Saban said the 12th Man played a major factor in the outcome of the game.
“It was a tough game, tough atmosphere we knew coming in here that this was going to be the best team we’ve played,” Saban said.
There were a lot of season firsts for the Tide, one of which was turning the ball over which led to an A&M touchdown late in the third quarter cutting Alabama’s lead 24-10.
Despite the victory, Saban said he was not impressed with the way the team played. He said in the team meeting following the game, he made sure his players knew that he expected more from them.
“My biggest disappointment in the game is that we didn’t finish the game,” Saban said. “We were ahead 24-3 and we didn’t finish the game. That’s not how good teams play. We wanted to prove that we were a fourth quarter team and play in a tough environment and be able to sustain and finish.”
One of the biggest trouble makers was Texas A&M freshman quarterback Kellen Mond. Throughout the game, Mond was able to extend plays simply by scrambling to buy time.
Junior Alabama safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said despite Mond’s young age, he was able to make a lot of plays using his legs.
“He has a lot of composure, kind of reminds me of a young Jalen [Hurts],” Fitzpatrick said. “He has that cool, calm, collected feel to him and just does his job.”
In the days leading up to the game, Saban reiterated A&M was not the same team it was to start the season. Saban said that while the Tide won, they knew from the beginning that this game wasn’t going to be a blowout.
“They learned something when they lost against UCLA,” Saban said. “We knew they would play hard for 60 minutes and compete. They did that. We just didn’t do a good job finishing the game and that’s disappointing.”