Based on Aggies’ insiders who should know, Alabama Football coming to College Station is no longer a big deal. Many A&M fans are prepared for an inevitable loss to the Crimson Tide. No doubt Texas A&M players think otherwise. The proud Aggies will not go down without a fight.
Jimbo Fisher and his staff will do everything they can to prepare their team to win. There is a fair chance, a ‘nothing-to-lose’ mentality is exactly what Fisher’s players need to battle the Crimson Tide.
Nick Saban will certainly not look past Jimbo’s team. He knows the Aggies have talent enough to make Saturday night a tough game.
Jack Williams, who knows a thing or two about A&M football made an interesting observation. Williams said Jimbo has been and is continuing to talk about, the ‘mental’ challenge his team faces. It is well known the Aggies have had physical problems most of the season. The offensive line has been juggled due to injuries and it was learned on Tuesday a key offensive lineman, Luke Matthews is now out for the season. Two starting cornerbacks have been lost to injury. Early in the Aggies’ second game, starting quarterback, Haynes King was lost to injury. There is hope King can return before late October, but he will not play against the Crimson Tide.
So Fisher had every right to talk about his team’s physical problems. That he didn’t is interpreted by Williams to indicate, what is foremost on Jimbo’s mind is building for next season. A guess is, that is like saying, ‘let’s get through Saturday night with our fighting spirit intact’ and take the seven games that follow as a precursor to 2022.
Any such thinking about Jimbo and the Aggies – west of the Mississippi (as in near the banks of the Black Warrior) is nothing but rat poison. Such a suggestion would elicit a Saban explosion. He would be right, of course. He always is.
On Saturday night, Alabama Football must play to its potential. If any thought is given to how the Aggies will respond to back-to-back losses, it should be an expectation the Aggies will play to their potential.
Long ago, in the hills of West Virginia, Nick Saban learned to take nothing for granted and leave nothing to chance. For Saban and Alabama Football, there is no time to ponder how the Aggies will or will not respond to what Jimbo calls their “mental challenges.”