Alabama football coach Nick Saban wants more of the same from his team in at least one regard.
He hopes the second-ranked Crimson Tide ignore the oddsmakers ahead of Saturday night's game against Vanderbilt, which they seemed to do fairly well in an obvious mismatch with the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
"I was really pleased with the energy that our players played with in the last game," Saban said of a 63-7 win against ULM last weekend, when Alabama scored on a blocked punt, a punt return and an interception return. "They could have come out and just said, 'Look at who we're playing,' and not played to the standard that we're trying to create, which we tried to emphasize."
It might be easy for the Tide (3-0) to overlook the Commodores (3-1), who have dropped the past 22 series meetings and 21 consecutive Southeastern Conference games. It's the SEC opener for both teams, and Alabama is listed as a 40.5-point favorite.
Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea's second team has already topped last year's two wins. This could be a gauge of how far the program has come in that short period, even if Alabama makes for a tough measuring stick.
Saban thinks Lea, a former Commodores fullback, has "changed the whole culture of the program" in his short tenure.
"Their guys play with a lot of confidence," the Alabama coach said. "They play well together as a team. You can tell they've got really good team chemistry."
Lea was Notre Dame's defensive coordinator when Alabama beat the Fighting Irish 31-14 in the Rose Bowl that was a semifinal for the 2020 season's College Football Playoff. His first start as a Vanderbilt player two decades ago was against Alabama at home, and Lea said the Tide apparently circled his number and planned to kick to him. Lea had a 10-yard return and a 24-yard return and was met by coach Bobby Johnson halfway off the sideline, unhappy that his fullback was handling kicks.
Lea is confident freshman quarterback AJ Swann is ready for the test of facing the Tide.
The coach named junior Mike Wright the starter during the SEC's preseason media event in July, but in the fourth game of the season, Swann got the starting nod against Northern Illinois and became only the second SEC true freshman to throw for at least four touchdowns in his first career start. He also became only the third Vanderbilt quarterback to throw for at least 250 yards and four touchdowns on the road since 1996, doing so as the Commodores rallied from a 14-point third-quarter deficit to win 38-28.
And now Swann heads to Bryant-Denny Stadium.
"There's no stage too big," Lea said. "I mean, he's shown it from the day he set foot on campus, the first practice, the first workout."
He might be facing a defense with a little extra financial incentive for takeaways.
Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr. won the turnover pool with his pick-six against ULM.
"It's crazy because in the locker room before the game, we were talking as a defense: Everybody has to put in $20 for whoever gets the first turnover," Anderson said. "I got the first turnover, so it's like everybody has to give get me $20."
As of early this week, he was still waiting to collect.
"They keep bringing up this NIL stuff, saying, 'Will Anderson doesn't need it,'" he said. "That's horse crap, so I'm going to get my $20 out of everybody.'"