The phrase “trap game” has been thrown around a lot as No. 8 Alabama football prepares to play No. 14 Missouri on the road Saturday.
A rise in media attention and praise following two straight ranked wins over Georgia and Vanderbilt gives ample opportunity for complacency to affect the team.
The weight of a “revenge game” against No. 12 Tennessee in a week further adds to the chance Missouri sneaks up on Alabama.
The Tigers are coming off a bye week, sitting at 5-0. The team has a Heisman Trophy hopeful in running back Ahmad Hardy, who has rushed for 709 yards and 9 touchdowns while averaging 7.1 yards per carry.
Tigers quarterback Beau Pribula also has been no slouch either, completing 75.9% of pass attempts for 1,203 yards, nine touchdowns and three interceptions.
Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer does not seem to agree that this game is a trap. He said Monday that it is “not a surprise” that his team is going on the road to play a Missouri team performing “at a high level.”
The team is tasked with avoiding what legendary former Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban termed “rat poison.”
“Rat poison is anything that distracts you from doing the things that you need to do to do your job,” Saban said. “Whether it’s created by the media, the weather, it could be created by anything.”
Last season, Alabama fell victim to rat poison, losing two trap games to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, with the latter being the knockout blow to the team’s College Football Playoff and SEC championship game hopes.
DeBoer said his team needs to apply the experiences it has been through, including “knowing that going on the road is hard in the SEC” and understanding that “any game in the SEC is hard.”
Like Hardy, Alabama has a Heisman hopeful of its own. Quarterback Ty Simpson has risen to fourth-best in Heisman odds on BetMGM, sitting at +800.
FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt said that if Simpson’s last name was that of Texas quarterback Arch Manning, “we would cancel the end-of-the-season Heisman Trophy ceremony and just do it now.”
Simpson will need to avoid letting praise and pressure get to him and his teammates as the season progresses.
He called the talk surrounding him and the Heisman Trophy “absurd,” adding that he is just trying to win.
“As much as I want to forget the first game, it’s gone, but it’s never forgotten,” Simpson said. “We talk about it all the time, like having a chip on our shoulder. All that is external to me. I just want to go 1-0 and win, you know what I mean? Whatever it takes to win and get my guys to celebrate in the locker room for three to five minutes is all that matters to me.”
No. 8 Alabama travels to face No. 14 Missouri on Saturday. Kickoff is slated for 11 a.m. CT and fans can tune in on ABC.
