Alabama coach Nick Saban wants Crimson Tide fans to play a meaningful role in Saturday’s showdown with Tennessee.
The Volunteers run a fast-paced offense under coach Josh Heupel that requires communication between the quarterback and receivers who are split out wide. Tennessee scored quickly and easily against Alabama’s defense last year, resulting in a 52–49 victory in Knoxville that culminated with a goalpost being dumped into the Tennessee River.
However, Saban knows crowd noise can disrupt Tennessee’s offensive tempo, which is why he made an ardent plea to fans Thursday evening at the end of his weekly radio show, “Hey Coach.”
“You can have a huge impact with the noise that you make,” Saban said. “This team’s trying to go fast. They run 2.7 plays every minute in the game. So you can affect that and disrupt that by making noise.”
Check out the clip:
Nick Saban ended “Hey Coach” with a mini rant on the impact fans can make on Saturday
— Brett Greenberg (@BrettGreenberg_) October 20, 2023
“Everybody is on the team, all the fans everybody … you create the momentum … don’t worry about the player’s creating it ... you create it for them … one time I’m asking you to do that” pic.twitter.com/pRKdpxIPcw
“Everybody’s gotta stay with it ,and you gotta play the next play, stay in it as fans,” Saban continued. “You create the momentum of the game by what you do. Don’t worry about the players creating it. You create it for them. One time, one time I’m asking you to do that.”
Saban added that loud crowd support will give his players energy and help them maintain intensity, which they lacked in last week’s 24–21 win against Arkansas.
No. 11 Alabama hosts No. 17 Tennessee at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. The matchup will be televised on CBS.
