Alabama co-offensive coordinator JaMarcus Shephard snapped at the media for publishing “rat poison,” the phrase coined by legendary Crimson Tide head football coach Nick Saban, during a November 20 press scrum.
“The guy who used to be in this spot all the time (Saban), used to say that’s rat poison,” Shephard said (h/t AL.com). “That’s the stuff you guys are trying to put into the heads of our kids and putting it online because you know they’re going to read it. You’ve got them worried about the wrong things. Even in a time right now we are pushing forward to try and complete this season in an excellent fashion, I don’t care about those things. I care about you doing your job exactly how it’s supposed to be done the way we are asking you to do it.
“Did you get the proper depth on your block?” Shephard asked. “Did you get the proper depth on your route? Did you pull for the right person? Did you read everything the right way?”
Shephard believes Alabama’s locker room is handling the “rat poison” as well as they could be.
“Great,” Shephard said. “I think it’s a testament to the culture Coach DeBoer has built here. They’ve handled it extremely gracefully.”
Alabama cannot take final games against Oklahoma, Auburn lightly
Alabama has two games left on their schedule that appear to be cakewalks: Oklahoma in Week 13 from Norman and the Iron Bowl in Week 14 from Tuscaloosa.
Neither the Sooners nor the Tigers should be taken lightly.
Oklahoma cannot fire Brent Venables. Well, they can, but it’ll cost them over $40 million. With the Sooners sitting at 5-5, there may not seem like much motivation for the home team, but an upset in a game that was projected to be one of the SEC schedule’s biggest games of the year with OU and Texas onboard would make good on Greg Sankey’s massive investment on the two schools.
Meanwhile, Texas A&M’s Mike Elko dished out rat poison of his own ahead of the Aggies’ Week 13 matchup with Auburn; saying he’s not looking past Texas while discussing the Tigers. Auburn being overlooked is going to galvanize the locker room, and if AU can upset TAMU, they’ll be playing Alabama with a chance at a bowl game.
Just because the College Football Playoff is off the table for their opponents, doesn’t mean the Crimson Tide can expect easy pickings against Oklahoma and Auburn down the stretch.
