The Citadel has played some big games in recent years, including at Clemson and South Carolina. The Bulldogs also have a game set next season with Georgia Tech.

But coach Brent Thompson said he’s looking forward to the atmosphere this week at Alabama and appreciates that the game is not the last one on the schedule as it’s been in recent years. The Bulldogs play Charleston Southern next week.

“It’ll take all that we can do just to be able to move the football and stop them from scoring, but I’m certainly thinking we’re going to give them everything that we’ve got,” Citadel coach Brent Thompson said at his press conference this week. “We’ve gotten beat before.”

Thompson said he talks about these types of games with recruits, and it’s good for the program, not just because of the big check, but also an experience in that big stadium atmosphere.

“Obviously, this is a very important football game for us for a lot of reasons,” Thompson said. “We want to go out there and make a great showing, compete our butts off as best we possibly can on such big and grand stage. It’s going to be an exciting atmosphere for us. They’re a very, very good football team, the best we’ve probably ever seen.”

He didn’t avoid the large mismatch between the teams, and revealed how he approached it with his players

“It’s difficult, it’s very challenging. But like I told the players, don’t worry about them, let’s just worry about ourselves,” he said. “Let’s just go out there and worry about what we can control, and what we can do and give them our best possible game and we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”

“We’ve gotten beat before,” Thompson continued. “You want to go up there and compete and give it your best and see where you stack up against some of these (elites). Just like it was last year against Clemson. It certainly didn’t feel good, but at the end of the day when you get a chance to go up there and compete and show what you’ve got, we’ll be ok with that.”

However, he’ll be glad to one day play a team that’s not coming off of a national title. The Bulldogs have played Florida State, Clemson and now Alabama all fitting that description.

“It’s a bit of a badge of honor, but I’ll be happy not wearing that badge from here on out,” he said. “It’ll be difficult, but on the other hand, those games are close, regional games for us.”

Candidly, Thompson admitted what The Citadel is up against, but that it’s also not shying away from the challenge.

“There’s not a whole lot of deficiencies of either side of the ball,” he said of Alabama. “They’re extremely fast. They’re extremely physical. They play very strong. It’ll take all that we can do just to be able to move the football and stop them from scoring, but I’m certainly thinking we’re going to give them everything that we’ve got.”