Will Anderson Jr. understands Nick Saban’s approach about awards and appreciation, and the star linebacker at Alabama had one way to describe being ranked No. 1 in the coaches poll that came out on Monday.

“I didn’t even know nothing about that until you just told me, so pretty sure the team doesn’t know,” Anderson said at a press conference on Monday. “We don’t know anything about that, so it is rat poison.”

The Crimson Tide received 54 first-place votes from a panel of 66 major college football coaches. Alabama is coming off a loss in the College Football Playoff title game to Georgia.

“Well you know for us, we don’t really know anything about the polls, that’s not something that’s talked about in the locker room, that’s not something that’s put on the board, or like we’re here,” Anderson said. “We don’t know anything about that stuff, and the motivation in the locker room is everything that we did last year, all the bad things that we did last year, that’s the only motivation that we need, that we didn’t get out end goal, that we have a participation trophy sitting in the cafeteria that we have to look at every day.”

About his personal improvement, Anderson said he’s trying to improve on playing in space, especially when he drops into coverage and doesn’t feel like he’s “playing in sand.”