What Alabama's doing to avoid another 'rat-poison' game against Texas A&M
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama running back Damien Harris has heard more “rat-poison” speeches from his head coach than he can count. This week he’ll likely hear another.
Almost a year removed from coining the now-famous phrase, Nick Saban was asked Monday about any potential “rat poison” his team might encounter following its 62-7 victory over Ole Miss last week.
No. 1 Alabama hosts No. 22 Texas A&M this week in a rematch of last year’s sloppy 27-19 victory in College Station which prompted Saban to compare the media’s praise of his team to a deadly toxin.
"I'm trying to get our players to listen to me instead of listening to you guys,” Saban said following last year’s game. “All that stuff you write about how good we are, all that stuff they hear on ESPN, it's like poison. It's like taking poison. Like rat poison.”
Alabama enters this week’s matchup in an almost identical position as last year. Then the Crimson Tide was fresh off a 66-3 win over Ole Miss. This year, Alabama became the first SEC team to score 50 or more points in its first three games.
“The standard of excellence cannot be affected by outside voices in terms of your preparation, your intensity, the level of focus you need to have,” Saban said Monday. “Because what you did yesterday really doesn’t matter, it’s what you’re going to do today, what you’re going to do in the next game. It’s like climbing a mountain. The higher you go, the more challenging it gets and the greater the focus needs to be and the more treacherous it can be.”