What Alabama players have to say about playing in Mercedes-Benz Stadium
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — For Georgia native Miller Forristall, next week’s opener inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta will be like coming home. If things go right for the Crimson Tide this season, the shiny new state-of-the-art stadium will become a familiar place to the rest of Alabama’s players as well.
After all, Mercedes-Benz Stadium will also play host to the SEC Championship Game as well as the College Football Playoff national championship, two destinations the Tide plans on making this season. Before all that, No. 1 Alabama will meet No. 3 Florida State in the first college football game played inside the stadium.
“I grew up watching the Falcons play in the Georgia Dome, watching the SEC Championship, and now we get to be one of the first teams to play in the new dome,” said Forristall, a native of Cartersville, Ga. “That's pretty cool."
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The 71,000-seat stadium offers several eye-popping features, including 83,000 square feet of LED screens, the largest video board in the world and an eight-panel retractable roof that opens and closes similar to a camera lens.
To be fair, the roof will not be fully functional by the time of the game and will be closed for the opener. All the more motivation to make a return trip in Dec 2. for the SEC Championship Game.
“It kind of hurt me when I saw that,” Forristall said with a smile when asked about the roof. “But it's all good."
While players are sure to be dazzled by the new venue, Alabama is no stranger to playing in flashy stadiums. The Tide has opened the past two season inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The home of the Dallas Cowboys, AT&T Stadium has its own awe-inspiring aesthetics, primarily its gigantic scoreboard which weighs 1.2 million pounds, contains 30 million light bulbs and spans 180 feet by 72 feet.
That’s nice, but even it falls short in comparison to the 58 foot by 1,100 foot screen that wraps a complete 360 degrees around the center of the roof at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“It’s just exciting to be just walking out there and seeing the crowd,” Alabama cornerback Anthony Averett. “New stadium, new field, new smell. It’s different.”
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With so many new attractions, Alabama players were asked if they felt it would be hard to stay focused on the task at hand come game time next week. While Alabama linebacker Anfernee Jennings admits to being impressed by what he’s seen in videos, he confident that when it comes to game time all focus will be set on the Seminoles.
“At practice, we practice all different kinds of situations so we can not be mesmerized by when we get in different situations than we’re used to,” Jenning said. “So it doesn’t bother us.”
That being said, it’s not like Alabama has a 63,800 square foot halo board hanging around in its practice facility.
“That’s something you probably can’t prepare for,” Jennings conceded.
Nevertheless, it's safe to expect Alabama to be ready by kickoff. Since the arrival of head coach Nick Saban in 2007, the Tide has opened up in a neutral site seven times, winning each one. In fact, games like this are a big reason why a lot Alabama players chose to attend the university.
"You always want to play on the big stage as you're being recruited,” Forristall said. “Knowing Alabama plays on the big stage and in those big games, you want to go play against the best.”
In cases like the one next Saturday, playing in the best venue is just an added bonus.