CJ Dippre doesn’t know the difference between white noise, brown noise and crowd noise.
“It’s just loud,” he says.
Crowd noise has been the latest addition to Alabama’s practice playlist as it prepares for its first road environment of the season, and a tough one at that. The Crimson Tide will travel to Big Ten country to face Wisconsin on Saturday.
Wisconsin is well known for having a loud and hostile environment, particularly at the end of the third quarter when House of Pain’s “Jump Around” begins blaring inside Camp Randall Stadium. Fans shake the venue jumping up and down while the Badgers join them on the sidelines.
Alabama players and coaches are well aware of the tradition. Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said his players should “recognize some of the greatness of college football, then go play the game at a really high level.”
Others don’t plan on acknowledging Wisconsin’s end-of-third-quarter antics.
“Everybody needs a motivation factor,” Alabama defensive lineman Jah-Marien Latham said. “So at that point, we don’t pay attention to that too much. Everybody feels like they need something to get them going and that’s what they like to do. We’re just going to come out and play ball like we do every week.”
“Road games are always fun for me and our team,” safety Malachi Moore said. “It’s almost like a home invasion type of mentality. First one of the year, so I’m excited to go into a hostile environment, play with my brothers and go to war with them. Our mindset every time is to empty the crowd, every time. So that’s what we’re going to prepare to do this week.”
Dippre, who faced Wisconsin at Camp Randell in 2022 when he was with Maryland, said that the Jump Around tradition is a big factor for the Badgers. Now at Alabama, Dippre also acknowledged that every team wants to “knock off the top dog and that’s us right now."
“Schools like this, they don't have a lot of huge games all year,” Dippre said. “So a school like Alabama is gonna come play up there out of conference. [The stadium is] gonna be filled. Absolutely filled. I believe their student [section] — it’s not like everyone’s there at first. They start coming in, the second quarter is their biggest thing, and then you have the Jump Around in the third. They’re gonna be psyched.”
Wisconsin will be Alabama’s biggest test of the season so far, both on the field and with its environment. Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer — who has some familiarity with Wisconsin himself thanks to his Midwest ties — has his team prepared to match up with a physical Wisconsin defense. Crowd noise at practice can only prepare his side so much before it faces the real thing on Saturday, but DeBoer is looking forward to exposing his players to a top atmosphere before the gauntlet of conference play begins.
“It’s going to be a great atmosphere up there,” DeBoer said Monday. “I think it’s one that when you’re preparing to go play those games, and we’ll of course have that many times here with the SEC schedule too, that hostile environment, taking it on and just knowing that it’s you versus everyone there. I think our guys are looking forward to the challenge.”
