TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It was about a month ago that University of Alabama coach Nick Saban told his players that he wanted them to have more fun on Saturdays, but he probably didn’t quite expect this.
Last week, when the Crimson Tide played at home for just the second time since September, there was a different feel to Bryant-Denny Stadium, and definitely different sounds.
Although the stadium speakers in the north upper deck weren’t working, players were jumping around to the music being played, the Million Dollar Band’s microphones were turned up, and there was a lot of energy in the stands during the first half especially.
“Really, it’s the D-line,” senior safety Nick Perry said. “The front seven, those are monsters, and when they’re hyped and they’re jumping up and down and when they’re putting pressure on the quarterback it makes our job a lot easier.
“So whatever can get those guys hyped like that, whatever song they’re playing, they need to continue that.”
Cue music like “Stand up and Get Crunk” by The Ying Yang Twins, “We Dem Boyz” by Wiz Khalifa, and the instrumental beginning of a C-Murder/Snoop Dogg song.
“We’re already a fired up team, so you play music we like we jam up to it and get more fired up with it,” said sophomore defensive A’Shawn Robinson, who at 6-foot-4, 320 pounds might be one of the most intimidating players to ever put on a Crimson Tide jersey.
Robinson also gave a hint as to who may be behind the music changes when he said: “We listen to it in the weight room, listen to it in workout, and when we get out there we try to get into the music.”
Strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran runs the music for workouts and when the new weight room opened last year he boasted that having a quality sound system that could drown out even his yelling had been on the top of his wish list.
“That was the number-one thing I asked for,” he said at the time during one of his rare interviews. “I’m big on the jock rock.
“It’s hard not to turn that thing up.”
Also heard during Saturday’s 25-20 victory over Mississippi State was the entrance music of former World Wrestling Entertainment’s “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and “No Flex Zone” by Rae Sremmurd.
“We kind of remixed it to call it ‘No Fly Zone,’” Perry said. “So in our head, every time they play that, ‘No Fly Zone,’ it’s like this song is definitely for us.”
It made such a difference that the Mississippi State players started jumping around on the sideline while trying to come back from a 19-3 halftime deficit, and Saban was asked about it during a press conference this week at Alabama began preparing for Saturday’s game against Western Carolina (4 p.m. ET, SEC Network).
“That is off the wall,” was his immediate response to the question. “First of all, I can’t answer the question because I know nothing about it. If it’s helping us win, I’m all for it.”
Saban then couldn’t help but have a little fun himself: “I never really put that down in my notes that I thought that was a significant factor in how we played, but it very well may be, and we need to probably put it on the film so we can analyze that and look at the plays that we run. Then we’d probably have a better idea of how it’s working.”
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
