Communication is the key to the drill.
Alabama football learned a lot from its close matchup with Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The crowd noise affected the communication of its offense and defense, and it led to mistakes. Alabama pulled out a 31-29 victory, but the experience should pay dividends for this weekend. Kyle Field, the home for Texas A&M, is a unique atmosphere in terms of hostile environments.
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The press box shakes, the fans move from side to side, students have a midnight yell party before the game, and there is a lot of screaming during games. Opposing teams find it difficult to function, and the Crimson Tide takes on the challenge. Since joining the Southeastern Conference in 2012, Texas A&M has not beaten Alabama at home. Nick Saban is 4-0 at Kyle Field, including a 41-23 victory over the Aggies in 2015. Despite new renovations to the venue, Derrick Henry ran wild on Texas A&M’s defense.
Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies suffered back-to-back SEC losses to Arkansas and Mississippi State. During the preseason, media pundits chose this matchup as the SEC Game of the Year. Texas A&M had one blemish in 2020, and it came at Bryant-Denny Stadium versus the Tide. It has no dreams of the College Football Playoff or winning a conference title; however, the Aggies and its fans can spoil everything for Alabama. The people of Aggie Land have their goal, but the student-athletes for the Crimson Tide know how to combat it. On Tuesday, Chris Owens, Malachi Moore, and Christian Harris spoke to reporters for media availability.
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Owens, a sixth-year senior, said Alabama must finish the game.
“The biggest we learned versus Florida, which is what Coach Saban has mentioned to us, is you can’t allow the home crowd to get back into the game, especially when you are playing well,” he said. “They are going to feed off that momentum. As you saw in the Florida game, we came out in the first half playing pretty well. We struggled in the second half, especially on offense. We left yards on the field, especially when we kicked the one field goal. We have to be able to not only deal with the noise but also finish the game. They (Texas A&M) are a good team and will be hungry, especially coming off two losses. They want to get back on track.”
Moore and Harris had the same message for reporters: Communication.
“Since the Florida game, we have been better at communicating in loud environments,” Moore said.
“We have to continue to play for four quarters because we have not done it this year. I think that is our main goal and to communicate better in tough environments. We are going to Texas A&M and we know their fan base is going to be rocking, so we have to handle to noise better and get everyone on the call.”
As for Harris, he has chosen to not dwell on what happened against the Gators.
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“What happened during Florida week was whatever it was,” he said. “I know it was a tough environment for us to play in. It makes it tough on communication when the crowd gets loud and momentum-shifting, but we are focused on communication. We are working on playing faster and handling whatever happens this week.”
Coach Saban has been waiting on a complete performance from this team. The players are locked in on their responsibilities, and it should be a fun matchup at College Station, Texas. Saban is going after the 25th victory over one of his former assistant coaches.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
