In his Monday press conference, Nick Saban said this game would be more challenging for the Crimson Tide because of the physical, aggressive play of the Bulldogs.
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00:00 Alongside Katie Windham, I'm Austin Hannon and this is Bama Central's Just a Minute.
00:04 Katie, Alabama entering their fifth game of the season. It's their first SEC road game of the season.
00:08 And it's the closest school to Alabama. It's the Mississippi State Bulldogs
00:12 over in Starkville, Mississippi. Nick Saban on Monday said something quite
00:16 interesting, I think, saying that this game was going to be Alabama's toughest game of the
00:20 last three weeks, including USF and Ole Miss. Obviously, I think
00:24 many people, most people, would agree that Ole Miss is probably a better team than Mississippi State.
00:28 But maybe Saban doesn't think so. What are your thoughts on him saying that on Monday?
00:32 And maybe what do you think the challenges are for Alabama going on the road like this?
00:36 Yeah, it was certainly interesting the way he phrased it, saying that this game was a bigger challenge
00:40 for them, going to be a bigger challenge than the last two weeks.
00:44 You know, a lot of times he'll have his coach speak jargon when he's doing his opening statement.
00:48 He'll be hyping up a team like Middle Tennessee State, saying how good their quarterback is
00:52 or how well coached they are or whatever. But I thought it was interesting that he said
00:56 that on Monday, specifically saying it was not the last two weeks. I guess he couldn't say
01:00 most challenging game of the season because of already playing Texas.
01:04 But I don't know if he really believes that or if he's just maybe making a
01:08 dig at Lane Kiffin after all of Lane's comments
01:12 last week on social media.
01:16 But in a way, it's a new challenge for
01:20 them going on the road. Yes, they did play at USF, but that was really more like a neutral
01:24 site game. There's a lot of Alabama fans there. Anyone who's been to Starkville
01:28 knows it is a different type of environment with the Cowbells. It is loud and it's going to be
01:32 a late, late kickoff at 8 p.m. So there's challenges in and of itself. You know, the players kind of have to
01:36 sit around all day waiting for the game. Now, as far as the team, do I think Mississippi State
01:40 is better than Ole Miss? No. If you look at Mississippi State's last two games,
01:44 they got blown out by LSU and then kind of went back and forth with the South Carolina team
01:48 that struggled. And they put up a good fight in that game. I think Will Rogers threw for
01:52 when I was looking at it, like close to 500 yards. It feels like he's a guy that's been at Mississippi State for a long
01:56 time. But the last two starting quarterbacks that have gone
02:00 against Mississippi State have gone. Jaden Daniels went 30 of 34 and Spencer Rowley went
02:04 18 of 20. So this could be a big game for Jalen Milrow, maybe
02:08 Alabama's receivers to figure something out. You know, Saban was really
02:12 complimentary of Zach Arnett in his opening yesterday, but it is still his
02:16 first year as the head coach. And so I don't know if he maybe has
02:20 the roster he would want to have. And so there will
02:24 be some challenges for this for Alabama, a first time playing in a louder road
02:28 environment. But in a way, it's good that they're getting to do it against
02:32 a team like Mississippi State, no disrespect to them. But it's
02:36 probably a lot lower
02:40 talent than Alabama is. Alabama should at the end of the day just
02:44 matchup-wise, talent-wise, should be able to beat, even if you have a couple of
02:48 snafus or issues on the road. Yeah, you made a couple of good points there.
02:52 I think there is some kind of something to what he's saying, with it being
02:56 the first real true road game. And the loud crowd and the
03:00 cowbells, and how is Jalen Milrow and the young team going to handle that? So maybe
03:04 it is in that way a bigger challenge than Ole Miss was, but like you said,
03:08 I don't think talent-wise and team-wise that is the case. But another good thing, I think
03:12 this is important that they're getting this game before Texas A&M, because in
03:16 two weeks you're going to have probably even a tougher environment against a better team
03:20 over in College Station. So this is more of a warm-up, I think, for Alabama, which is good.
03:24 Yeah, we'll see what happens. Obviously Starkville is going to be ready to go, and the
03:28 cowbells will be out. We'll see how Alabama handles those in week five.
03:32 So for Katie Windham, I'm Austin Hand. This is Bama Central's Just a Minute. Thanks so much for watching.
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