Taking on easy opponents early in the season is always a good way to build confidence, but there’s nothing that prepares you better than facing off with a top-team early on.

Alabama is getting that this weekend as it takes on Texas in Tuscaloosa.

Taking on the Longhorns will not only be a good early test, but will also be a good chance to gauge where the team is at.

“This is a really good team all around,” head coach Nick Saban said in his press conference Tuesday. “It’s going to be an opportunity for our team to — where are we as a team, where are you as a player, you’re going to play against a really good player. That usually says ‘where am I as a player.’ This is going to be a good barometer for us to find out where are we as a team. We’re going to focus on doing a great job of trying to get our guys to prepare, to play a great game and do a good job in terms of execution.”

Alabama took the matchup at home against Texas last season, but Saban expects to see a whole new team this year. What he can count on being similar to last year’s matchup is the philosophy the Longhorns approach the game with.

“You’re always looking at what a team does technically,” Saban said. “It’s always most interesting to see, you know, what was their philosophy of what they did technically. Whether it was play defense against you or attack you offensively or what they did on special teams. I think you use that information as a history of maybe what you might see again and other things they did periodically that changed. I don’t think you look back at the game from as much of a psychological standpoint as you do a technical standpoint.”

Alabama cruised past MTSU in its Week 1 game, but the Tide will have to up the intensity this week as they take on Texas. The game kicks off at 7 p.m. Saturday.