Alabama’s Nick Saban says ‘rat poison’ is ‘worse than ever’ as Crimson Tide prepare for Utah State

Alabama head coach Nick Saban may be preparing for his team’s first game of the 2022 season against Utah State, but he doesn’t appreciate that some people are overlooking the Aggies before the Crimson Tide travel to Austin, Texas, to take on the Longhorns in Week 2. 

Saban, appearing on the weekly radio show “Hey Coach” on Thursday, said that Utah State is not getting the respect they deserve after winning 11 games and the Mountain West conference championship in 2021. 

“I think the rat poison this year, not to bring up a sore subject, it’s worse than ever,” Saban said Thursday, according to AL.com. “I’ve had more people ask me about how we’re going to do against Texas this week than how we’re going to do against Utah State.

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“I’m like, ‘We don’t play Texas this week!’ So I’m like, ‘What are you thinking about?’ Then I go to church on Sunday and the sermon is, ‘He who exults himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exulted.’ So it’s almost like, if you put rat poison in that same thing, it almost fits perfectly — perfectly! It’s crazy.”

Alabama welcomes the Aggies to Tuscaloosa as 42-point favorites for a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff. Utah State is 1-0 after beating UConn in Week 0, but was unimpressive in the 31-20 win over a Huskies team that won just one game in 2021. 

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The reference to “rat poison” comes nearly a year after Saban criticized Alabama fans for their sense of entitlement when it comes to the program. 

“I mentioned it earlier, there’s more rat poison around than I’ve ever seen before,” Saban said Thursday. “And our fans cannot be that way. If you want to be fans, you need to support the team. You need to have energy and enthusiasm, support the players. They work hard. You go to the game. You’re not always disappointed because you have this great expectation that we’re gonna win the game, 50-0. 

“So I encourage everybody to be positive and create a legacy for what we want to do this season. And you contribute to it in a positive way, not in what I read these guys write all the time about, ‘How can Alabama run the table.’ Can’t you figure out something better to do than that? I mean, c’mon.”

Alabama enters the 2022 season as the preseason No. 1 team and as a massive favorite to win the national championship.