Alabama Football Embracing Home Invasion Mentality For First Road Game

The Crimson Tide heads to Madison for the first time since 1928 this weekend.

Sep 7, 2024; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; General view of Camp Randall Stadium during the third quarter of the game between the South Dakota Coyotes and Wisconsin Badgers. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

The Alabama Crimson Tide embarks on a new chapter to its 2024 season this week as it officially checks "First Road Trip" off its list of experiences for the year in a special fashion. The Crimson Tide hasn't played a regular season game in a Big 10 stadium since 2011 but this weekend will step inside Camp Randall Stadium and jump around with the Wisconsin Badgers.

Alabama and Wisconsin will serve as this week's selection for Fox's Big Noon Sports as both programs are looking to continue building early season momentum in the season's third week.

"Early wake-up, we'll be ready for that," Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson said. "Wisconsin definitely is a hostile environment. First road game. Just trying to make sure the guys are locked in knowing it's us against the world when we go in there. We're just preparing the same way. This game is just like any other game, just on the road. Have yourself ready to go."

Alabama defeated Penn State 27-11 in Happy Valley in 2011, but primarily spent its non-conference matchups under former coach Nick Saban in marquee neutral venues, making this weekend's game even more interesting.

Alabama beat South Florida 17-3 and Texas 20-19 in the last two regular season non-conference road games Alabama played in 2023 and 2022 respectively. The Crimson Tide went to Tampa as a 34.5-point favorite and Austin as a 20.5-point favorite but escaped both road environments by the skin of their teeth. Alabama heads to Madison this weekend as a 16.5-point favorite, but shouldn't take the Badgers lightly, despite what the handicappers predict.

"A school like Wisconsin, they're a really tough school, when I played there when I was in the Big 10 it was like negative eight degrees, storming, coldest game I've ever played in," Alabama tight end CJ Dippre said. "Luckily, we're playing them earlier in the season. Weather shouldn't be a problem. Temperature should be similar to what we have. So they're going to be a tough football team. They're going to come hit you in the mouth. So we've just got to be ready and just Bama play Bama ball."

The Crimson Tide needed "Gravedigger" to salvage a road game in Auburn and used a strong second half to win at Texas A&M in 2023 by six to maintain a perfect regular season road record, but it hasn't been easy for Alabama post-COVID-19. Alabama lost at Texas A&M and played Florida and Auburn to two-point games respectively in 2021 and lost to Tennessee and LSU while beating Texas by just one point in 2022.

Despite more frequent close calls, the Crimson Tide still knows how to run a team out of their own stadium, beating Mississippi State and Kentucky by four scores or more last season.

"Since I've been here, Saban, and every coach we really had talked about just emptying the stadium," Alabama bandit Jah-Marien Latham said. "Like, there's no feeling like when you go to somebody else's stadium and they start the game turned up, everybody jumping around and by fourth quarter there's barely any fans in there. That's one of the best feelings I would say about going on a road game."

The Alabama faithful get to experience one of college football's best traditions this week in Camp Randall as the home stadium blasts House of Pain's 1992 classic "Jump Around" to close the third quarter and begin the fourth. It's not quite "Dixieland Delight" but the song has been a Badger staple since throwing off Drew Brees and the Purdue Boilermakers in 1998 making it something to look forward to from a fan perspective, but prepare for from a player's standpoint.

"The ["Jump Around"] factor is definitely a thing," Dippre said. "Like, I said, schools like this, they don't have a lot of huge games all year, so a school like Alabama is going to play up there, out of conference, they're going to be filled. Absolutely filled. I believe their students, it's not like everyone's there at first. They start coming in the second quarter is their biggest thing. Then you have the "Jump Around' in the third and then - they're going to be psyched. We're already listening to crowd noise outside at practice and so just being ready for that and being able to adjust to the noise."

The Alabama veterans have big road games under their belts and while almost no one on the Crimson Tide roster has played in Camp Randall Stadium the team expressed excitement to go prove themselves in a hostile environment.

"Road games are always fun for me and our team," Alabama safety Malachi Moore said. "It's almost like a home invasion type of mentality. First one of the year. So I'm excited to go into a hostile environment, play with my brothers and go to war with them. Our mindset every time is to empty the crowd, every time. So that's what we're going to prepare to do this week."