TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Following some chatter from across the state Monday, Alabama players are waiting until Saturday to deliver their Iron Bowl message to Auburn.
On Monday, Auburn linebacker Demarcus Riddick kicked off Iron Bowl week by taking a few shots at Alabama. The freshman defender called Alabama beatable and proclaimed that he would never lose to the Crimson Tide.
Riddick also called out Jalen Milroe, claiming he was faster than him while stating the dual-threat quarterback will “not get out of that box this week.”
The message was received but not reciprocated.
“I don't know who that is,” Milroe said of Riddick on Tuesday. “Let him talk. It's a part of it. It's all about just executing what we need to do, so we can be our best us this weekend.”
While Riddick’s comments went viral over social media, they didn’t get much of a rise out of Alabama’s players — at least not publicly.
“I feel like every week somebody on the opposing team has something to say that blows up in the media,” Alabama defensive lineman Jah-Marien Latham said. “That’s something we can’t worry about. Our job is to come out here and put in the work so that Saturday we are able to go out and play. That’s an external factor and things that we don’t need to feed into.”
Malachi Moore was equally unmoved by the opposing trash talk: “They gonna do stuff to put it out there and try to hype the game up. But the game is already hype. It's the Iron Bowl. Can't get no bigger than this. We gonna see Saturday.”
Latham grew up roughly 30 minutes away from Tuscaloosa in Reform, Alabama. Born into a Crimson Tide family, he’s been hearing about the importance of the Iron Bowl for as long as he can remember.
It’s the same way for Moore, who grew up an hour and a half away in Trussville, Alabama. Moore’s mother is an elementary school teacher, and he said this week takes him back to when kids would declare their allegiance in the rivalry by wearing their team’s shirt to school.
“Your friend, the whole year, you don’t know if they’re an Auburn fan or an Alabama fan. But on one day it’s jersey day and he comes in in an Auburn jersey,” Moore said. “You’re like, ‘Hold on, wait a minute.’ Then you’d go to PE. You’d be Alabama and he’d be Auburn and then you’d go at it like that.”
The trash talk is a bit more intense now that Moore is suiting up in the rivalry himself. But, you won’t catch him chirping back to his foes across the state this week either.
“We feel like we play our best football when all of our energy is focused on our assignment, our keys and being connected in with each other,” Moore said. “When we get involved into a lot of trash talk, it kind of gets us off task and off focus on what we’re there to do, and that’s to beat the man in front of us every play and do it as a team. That’s the main thing we try to do.”
Moore doesn’t really need to talk. His success against Auburn speaks for itself. In four games against the Tigers, the graduate safety is 4-0 with seven combined tackles and an interception. An Alabama win Saturday would make more the first Tide player to play in and win five Iron Bowls.
“It would mean a lot,” Moore said. “This is a big rivalry. We hate losing to these guys. I take a lot of pride in it. We take a lot of pride in it. As the state university, everybody here takes a lot of pride in beating those guys over there.”
No. 7 Alabama (8-3, 4-3 in the SEC) will host Auburn (5-6, 2-5) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT. The Tide holds a four-game winning streak over the Tigers and is currently an 11.5-point favorite in this year’s matchup.
