For the second time this season, fans will file into Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night to watch Alabama football meet a non-Power 5 opponent.
But two days before a game against Southern Miss that lacks the juice of the Tide’s four upcoming SEC games this season in Tuscaloosa, coach Nick Saban made a stronger-than-usual plea to fans.
“I don’t want to be negative — I’m not trying to be negative with anybody, aight — but we cannot take for granted, aight, that we’re always just going to have a good team,” he said during the final minutes of his weekly radio show Thursday night.
“Ohio State’s coach [Ryan Day] said it this week about this team. Just because you put an Ohio State uniform doesn’t mean you’re going to go beat the other team. There’s certain things that you have to do, aight, as a competitor and as a player, to be a good player and be able to dominate the competition, and we have tremendous competition in our league.
“But there’s also a spirit and a passion that people who support the program and people who come to the games provide a spirit and a passion that affects the players.”
Saban then made reference to the crowd of more than 90,000, the fifth-largest in the history of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, that greeted Alabama for its 31-29 win last Saturday.
“We just lived through that in Florida,” Saban said, the tone of his voice rising. “I don’t want anybody to ever say, aight, that it’s harder to play someplace else than it is to play here.
“Let’s just get some practice on what we got to do to fill the stadium, have some spirit and passion for our team — we don’t have a perfect team right now, we’re a growing and developing team — so we can get to where we want to go.
“I’d appreciate that from everybody if we can do that. I’ll do the best I can to get these guys to grow and develop and do their part. But let’s everybody be a part of the team. We’ve always been that way.”
It was the second time this week Saban has asked for passion from fans. He said during his Wednesday news conference that it would be “helpful” to players for fans to bring energy and enthusiasm.
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.
