TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Almost two-and-a-half weeks after the fact, Alabama football's trip down to visit the Florida Gators in The Swamp is still making an impact.
In the Crimson Tide's 31-29 win, the crowd noise caused a number of communication issues for the team on both sides of the football. On offense, miscommunications due to the overwhelming noise caused four false starts. On defense, blown coverages were a result of the large crowd.
After a 10-game, conference-only season that saw stands in all stadiums with limited capacity, the game at Florida was Alabama's first experience in a loud, hostile environment since arguably the 2019 Iron Bowl. While Alabama ultimately won the game against the Gators, coach Nick Saban and his players have frequently brought up the impact that the large crowd had on their performance.
On Tuesday, three Crimson Tide players stepped up to the podium to speak with the media. All three of them remarked on what a large focus has been since the game in The Swamp: communication.
First up to the podium was offensive lineman Chris Owens, who provided some perspective on how his o-line is working on communication.
"I think the biggest thing we learned — which is something coach Saban has mentioned to us a couple of times — is that you can't allow the home crowd to get back into the game," Owens said. "Especially if you're playing really well because they're just going to feed off of that momentum.
"As you saw in the Florida game, we came out in the first half and we played pretty well. But in the second half, we struggled — especially on offense — like, moving the ball as much as we could and leaving some yards on the field. Especially when we kicked that one field goal."
Since the trip to Florida, Alabama has played back-to-back home games against Southern Miss and Ole Miss. Both games were won in solid fashion by the Crimson Tide, but now the team must face for another tough road test.
This coming Saturday, Alabama will travel to College Station and Texas A&M — debatably one of the loudest environment in the Southeastern Conference. While the Aggies have lost their last two games — to Arkansas in Dallas and against Mississippi State in College Station — the team is still a threat when you factor in its very loud crowd at Kyle Field.
The second Crimson Tide athlete who spoke to the media on Tuesday was linebacker Christian Harris. When it comes to approaching Texas A&M at Kyle Field, Harris detailed what the team knew heading into The Swamp and how Alabama can take that experience and apply it this week.
“What happened in Florida [...] we understand that it was a tough environment to play in and, you know, makes it tough for communication when the crowd gets a little bit loud," Harris said. "You know momentum shifting but you know I think that we're just gonna focus on communication and work on playing faster."
Following the Texas A&M game, Alabama has just two more road trips this season. The first will be to Starkville and Mississippi State on Oct. 16, and the second to The Plains to take on in-state rival Auburn on Nov. 27. Cowbells and voices will be louder than ever for the Bulldogs in that game as it will be the Crimson Tide's first trip there since the hiring of head coach Mike Leach, and the Tigers' environment for the Iron Bowl is always a deafening roar.
In short, including the Florida and Texas A&M games, Alabama will have to deal with loud stadiums on four occasions this regular season.
Defensive back Malachi Moore, the third and final Alabama player to talk about the Florida game with the media, is well-aware of the environment in College Station. To him, preparing for the noise begins in practice.
“It usually starts in practice," Moore said. "We make sure throughout practice that we continue to get everybody the call, and Thursdays, we have crowd noise at practice and I think that’s when communication really shows up big because if we don’t communicate and nobody’s gonna get the call, we’re not gonna be on the same page.
"So I just think we try to emphasize it throughout the week and carry it over to the game.”
Crowds are usually louder when the top-ranked team comes to town, and Alabama is no exception. The Crimson Tide hasn't lost a road game (or neutral-site game) since the 2019 Iron Bowl, and it doesn't look to end that streak this weekend.
Owens acknowledged that by simply doing your job and succeeding on the field, the distractions caused by raucous crowds will soon handle themselves. That being said, silencing the crowd at Texas A&M should be a top priority.
"We've got to be able to not only deal with the noise but also finish the game so that way we can eliminate the home crowd out of it," Owens said. "Because they're a really good team and we know that them coming off of two-straight losses, they're going to be hungry, ready to play a really good team in us and they wanna get back on track."
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Ahead of Texas A&M, Alabama Football Prepares for Crowd Noise - CalBearsMaven
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