Everyone knows it: football in Alabama is just different.

It’s not just a perception, either. Fans in the Yellowhammer State are more football-crazed than even their neighbors in the SEC. A recent, fairly unscientific study by the New York Times showed that more people in Alabama “like” a college football team on Facebook than in any other state, further proof of the love Alabama has for its college teams.

The players at Alabama and Auburn feel the love, too. No matter where they come from, they feel the passion that emanates from the stands.

“I can definitely tell that football is a huge part of the culture,” said Alabama’s JK Scott, a Colorado native.

Scott, a freshman punter, earned attention all on his own with his stellar season. The Ray Guy Award nominee finished third in the country in punting average. Even playing a significant role for a high-profile team as a true freshman, he didn’t anticipate the kind of attention he receives.

“It’s a much bigger deal (in Alabama),” Scott said to SDS at the Home Depot College Football Awards. “All aspects of football, you know, special teams, the punting, I guess you’re going to get attention.”

Alabama fans proved that in spades as Scott walked the red carpet before the awards show, as the punter was unable to go more than a few feet at a time before one of the Crimson Tide faithful lining the barricades would scream for him to stop for a picture or autograph.

And that’s life as one of the more unrecognizable players on the team — Scott says his fellow students don’t usually recognize him around campus yet. Amari Cooper and Landon Collins, both on hand as nominees at the College Football Awards along with Scott, received even bigger receptions from the fans at Walt Disney World, and draw far more attention on a regular basis.

On the awards’ red carpet, Cooper and Collins kept interviewers waiting as the adoring Crimson Tide fans called their names. Cooper, for one, appreciates all the love the fans give to the team.

“Since my freshmen year, they’ve been treating everyone on the team like they love them,” the record-breaking receiver said to SDS.

Just like Coopoer came from Miami to Alabama to play football, he knows that plenty of his classmates came to Alabama to watch him and his teammates play.

“The fans in Alabama love football,” the Biletnikoff award winner said. “The students love football. It’s part of the reason they come to the school.”

Cooper, Scott and the rest of the Crimson Tide have made any students who based their decision to attend Alabama feel pretty smart this year. Just as they reward the fans who come out by the thousands every Saturday, the fans give the love right back.