Nick Saban Says This Year’s ‘Rat Poison’ Is ‘Worse Than Ever’

The Alabama coach wants his team to focus on one game at a time instead of looking ahead at the schedule.

Alabama coach Nick Saban brought back his infamous metaphor on Thursday night while discussing the upcoming college football season.

Alabama faces Utah State on Saturday for its first 2022 season game, yet the focus of questions Saban answers are on the team’s Week 2 game against Texas.

The 70-year-old refers to this outside media noise as “rat poison,” because the questions on games far in the future and other outside narratives distract his team from the upcoming game. He brought his famous phrase back while speaking on the Hey Coach and the Nick Saban Show on Thursday.

“I think the rat poison this year … it’s worse than ever,” Saban said, via AL.com’s Mike Rodak. “I’ve had more people ask me about how we’re going to do against Texas this week than how we’re going to do against Utah State.”

The national championship runners-up want to focus one game at a time and not get too far ahead of themselves. Apparently this year, the focus on the Week 2 game is a big problem, based on Saban’s quote.

Despite what Saban wants for his team and his fans to focus on, fans seem to be more excited about Alabama facing Texas with its new quarterback in Quinn Ewers. Additionally, Saban will face his former assistant Steve Sarkisian, who now works as the Longhorns’ head coach.

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