Guarding against overconfidence was not an issue for Alabama coach Nick Saban when his Crimson Tide suffered early-season losses to Ole Miss in 2014 and again in 2015.
Alabama posted its third consecutive win over Ole Miss on Saturday night with a 62-7 ravaging in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The program with five national championships in the past nine seasons has made Southeastern Conference history this year by scoring 50 or more points in its first three games, so Saban's opening monologue Monday during his weekly news conference did not come as a surprise.
"I still think that after looking at the film that there are a lot of things that we can improve on," Saban said. "The most important thing for our team right now is to maintain the standard of excellence and not allow outside voices and influences to affect our intensity and our focus on preparation. We need to understand our standard in everything we do every day."
In other words, avoid rat poison.
The top-ranked Crimson Tide will face their first ranked opponent Saturday afternoon in Bryant-Denny Stadium when No. 22 Texas A&M visits. The Aggies are 2-1 this season, having thumped Northwestern State and Louisiana-Monroe and having lost 28-26 to Clemson.
Alabama had a similar aura of invincibility last season with opening routs of Florida State (24-7), Fresno State (41-10), Colorado State (41-23), Vanderbilt (59-0) and Ole Miss (66-3), but the sixth game was a trip to Texas A&M and a 27-19 escape.
After last year's win in College Station, Saban used "rat poison" to describe how his players had been hearing how great they were from the outside world.
"It's like climbing a mountain," Saban said Monday when asked to reflect on that moment. "The higher you go, the more challenging it gets and the greater the focus needs to be. This is the best team we've played so far, and hopefully we'll be able to improve.
"In a different way, and I'm trying to be diplomatic, I'm sort of saying the same thing today."
Gearing up for the Aggies should not be a challenge, given how they performed against Clemson. Texas A&M sophomore quarterback Kellen Mond has completed 56 of 89 passes for 824 yards (62.9 percent) with six touchdowns and no interceptions, while junior running back Trayveon Williams leads the SEC with 399 yards through three games and averages 6.8 yards a carry.
Alabama is seeking its sixth straight win over the Aggies, who previously were coached by Kevin Sumlin but now are under the guidance of former Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher.
"They're a completely different kind of team than they've been in the past," Saban said. "They try to run the ball and have really good play-action passes, but they still have some elements of the spread. There are a lot of similarities to Florida State technically and in the style of what they do.
"They obviously have different players, and one of the things Jimbo does is feature the talent that he has. They have a really good receiving tight end, and he's been really effective for them, but systematically there are a lot of similarities."
Saban added that Texas A&M will provide more multiple looks for his defense, which will require adjustments that were problematic at times in the opening win over Louisville.
Fisher was Saban's offensive coordinator at LSU in 2003, when the Tigers won the national championship. Fisher went on to win a national title at FSU in 2013, but he has contributed with last September's loss to Alabama in Atlanta to the 0-12 record that Saban's former assistants have against him as head coaches.
"He's created a culture," Fisher said Monday in his weekly news conference. "They expect to win, and they know how to win."
Tide tidbits
Alabama's home game next week against Louisiana-Lafayette will be televised at noon EDT by the SEC Network. Saban will be coaching the Tide for the 66th time as the Associated Press No. 1 team - former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes held the mark at 46. Alabama scored 15 non-offensive touchdowns in 2016 and has four this season through three games. Saban said Monday that a couple of guys would be "slowed in practice" but that there were no significant injuries.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.