re: Alabama Football Stuff (injury updates, quotes, etc.) - October 20th

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The Alabama-Tennessee game is “a special game to a lot of people,” and Nick Saban knows it.

But Saturday’s installment of the Third Saturday in October will be the Crimson Tide’s fifth home game of the season, and games played inside Bryant-Denny Stadium have not benefited Alabama like they should and have in recent years.

The Crimson Tide has arguably played its best football away from Tuscaloosa this season, posting big games on the road in Arlington, Athens and College Station. At home, UA has given up 67 points (compared to 50 on the road) and owns a 3-1 (1-1 SEC) record.

One of the reasons for that is something new for Saban and Alabama, and it stems from the plethora of external distractions that home games present to the Crimson Tide players.

“I don’t know, I never thought it was an issue until this year but probably the three best games that we’ve played this year have all been on the road, whether it was Wisconsin, Georgia or this past game with Texas A&M,” Saban said. “I think it’s a matter of what I talked about before, being able to stay focused on what you need to do to do your job play in and play out. Just because you’re at home, whether it’s family, friends, the atmosphere, the distractions that that can create – as a mature competitor, you can’t be affected by external factors.

“I’ve talked about friendly fire before but I look at our team and I’m like, we play different when it’s 28-6 than we do when it’s 0-0. Well, there’s not supposed to be a scoreboard. You’re supposed to have enough killer instinct to keep playing at a high level and execute and do your job. It can’t be the scoreboard. It can’t be playing at home. It can’t be the fans.

“All those things should be positive things that enhance your chances of competition, affects the other team. Something that we’ve just got to continue to address and try to get the players to focus better, and do a better job.”

Outside of distractions, though, there isn’t much explanation for the slight shift in play at home and on the road for Alabama, outside of quarterback play. Jacob Coker has thrown for nine touchdowns and six interceptions with a 57-percent completion percentage, while tossing two scores and zero picks with a 72.6-percent completion percentage away from campus.

One thing, though – that was apparent at Georgia – is the pregame talking that has seemed to heighten the players’ senses in unfamiliar territory and supplemented their play.

“I guess it’s the luck of the draw how a guy’s playing, I guess,” linebacker Reggie Ragland said. “I’m just doing my job. Anytime you go into a hostile environment, you gotta play at your best because everybody in the stadium is against you. … You hear the fans talks all that trash, and once you hear all that trash, it makes you want to go even harder.”

The Crimson Tide will play at home and in its eighth consecutive game this Saturday when it hosts the Vols for a 2:30 p.m. CT kickoff, but fatigue shouldn’t be an issue.

“We try to control the work load so that our players can get ready to play each and every week,” Saban said. “We gave the players two days off a few weeks ago so that they could get some rest and recovery. It goes back to ‘How bad you want to do what you want to do?’ Everybody controls their focus. If you can’t jump … You can’t? …We can’t fix it. We can fix your ability to focus. That’s something you choose to do. Anybody can choose to do that.

“You can stay focused in this meeting or you can daydream in this press conference. You can do whatever you want. But that is something that you can get people to do, aight. So if you assume you’re tired and you assume you can’t focus here, then you probably won’t. But if you can stay locked in and do what you want to do, then it’s not an issue and it’s not a problem, because most of that stuff is right here in your head, aight. It’s not anything wrong with you physically.”

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