Tide expects a hostile environment at Jordan-Hare
November 24, 2007
An early arriving crowd greeted the first four Alabama players out of the locker room with a thunderous ovation — deafening boos.
Long snapper Brian Selman, placekickers Leigh Tiffin and Jamie Christensen and punter P.J. Fitzgerald started warming up an hour before kickoff.
Bama fans cheered and the Million Dollar Band played, but fans in orange were louder — along with the decibel-pounding scoreboard atop the south end zone at Jordan-Hare Stadium blaring a Bon Jovi tune.
But it is exactly that crowd intensity that is part of this storied series.
Asked this week if he would tell his teammates how important this game is, Alabama senior linebacker Darren Mustin said, “I think they know. I don’t think there is a guy who doesn’t know the seriousness of this game. I don’t think there is a person on this team who doesn’t know how big this is for us. How we need this game for our future, for our present, ... for our coach, for everything.”
Mustin said Alabama was going to have a great week of practice after last week’s debacle against Louisiana Monroe.
“Everybody has a mindset to work,” Mustin said. “Everybody, I know, everybody in that locker room was hurting. Everybody in that locker room felt embarrassed after that game, I know I did.”
Asked about Nick Saban’s blowups, Mustin shrugged and said, “Coach Saban blows up all the time. They all the same to me. You just learn to treat them like water under the bridge. He’s not trying to tear you down, he’s not trying to break you, he’s trying to install a sense of urgency in you. Like one of my coaches said, ‘You hear what you have to hear out of that conversation, and you just let the rest go in one ear and out the other.’”
Mustin said developing mental toughness is part of Saban’s message.
“I think he’s preparing you for a stadium. People booing and cussing at you and calling you names,” the senior said.
“If you can learn to tune Nick Saban out? That’s nothing.”
The atmosphere Mustin described is exactly what Alabama will face tonight.
