Jumbo Package: Alabama players talk toughness, but play will speak louder
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Happy Friday, everyone. We got word yesterday that basketball has finalized the non-conference slate, adding Arkansas State and Oakland to round it out.
11/3 vs. Sam Houston
11/6 vs. Arkansas State
11/9 vs. Oakland
11/13 vs. Seton Hall
11/17 vs. Kennesaw State
11/24 vs. Baylor − 9 p.m., Players Era Festival, Las Vegas, Nevada
11/26 vs. Gonzaga/Kansas State − Players Era Festival, Las Vegas, Nevada
11/27 or 11/28 vs. TBD − Players Era Festival, Las Vegas, Nevada
12/2 at Miami
12/8 vs. Houston (NYC)
12/12 vs. St. John’s − C.M. Newton Classic, Birmingham, Alabama
12/16 at South Florida
12/21 vs. Iowa −Casey Center, Des Moines, Iowa
12/29 vs. Samford
It’s difficult per usual for Nate Oats, but they will have a few opportunities to tune up before jumping into the fire.
Wrapping up media days, Alabama’s player reps seem to be saying the right things around toughness.
“Bringing your work hat,” Coleman-Williams said.
Junior defensive back Zabien Brown, who has intercepted passes in some of the program’s biggest wins over the past two seasons, said the standard in the SEC never really changes: every game comes down to a handful of plays and whoever executes when it matters most usually wins.
“The work you put in every day,” Brown said.
Hubbard, a senior safety who is finishing a master’s degree in December, said he has tried to lead by staying even-keeled regardless of whether the team is riding high or facing adversity, something he said his teammates watch for and mirror. He also credited two years of shared reps in the secondary with Brown, safety Keon Sabb and defensive back Red Morgan for the communication that lets the unit play fast.
“Play physical all, all year long,” Hubbard said.
May we see it on Saturdays.
The defensive backfield is expected to be the strength of the team, and the experience they have playing together is a chief reason.
“I think that’s just with how much we’ve played together,” Hubbard said.
But trust is ever growing. The more time Brown spends with Hubbard, Sabb, Lee and Morgan, the more comfortable he is and the more he trusts them.
“We’ve been able to communicate more of being, me personally, more comfortable with being like, ‘What did you see right here? And when you see this, tell me that,’” Brown said. “Just little things like that, being able to build our trust definitely builds our communication.”
Neyland was rated by players as the toughest place to play.
The home of the Vols barely edged out the Aggies and Gators, but Tennessee took the crown.
Neyland Stadium, with a capacity of 101,915, gets the title of toughest place to play in the SEC.
“I feel like it’s extremely loud,” Alabama cornerback Zabien Brown said. “Stacked on top of each other and it’s a hostile environment for sure.”
Texas A&M linebacker Daymion Sanford called it the loudest stadium outside of Kyle Field.
“They had returned a punt return, and I looked up, and it said crowd noise, it had the little meter,” Sanford said. “It was going through the roof.”
Last, Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban told a funny story about Miss Terry.
“Even though you’d been back at LSU at this point,” Kiffin said. I’m walking on the sidelines at LSU game. They still dislike him at this point, and the fans are yelling at him. [Miss Terry] is putting this stuff on the ground and I’m like, what are you doing and she’s like, “There’s real voodoo here at this stadium and they don’t like Nick [Saban] here. So I gotta spread this stuff out.”
Saban quickly replied, saying it was holy water that Miss Terry was putting on the field at LSU, something SEC Now analyst Ben Watson hoped there would be visual evidence of.
She’s a national treasure.
That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.
Roll Tide.
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