Texas’s Jeff Banks: Playing at Alabama ‘Just As Hard As Kansas, Iowa State’

Yep, that was a real quote.

Playing on the road at Kansas and Iowa State will be just as hard as playing on the road at Alabama, says former Crimson Tide assistant Jeff Banks.

Banks, who is now on Steve Sarkisian’s Texas staff as special teams coordinator after spending 2018 to ’20 coaching under Alabama’s Nick Saban, was asked about the road game this season against their future SEC foe.

“We’re just going to play another road game,” Banks said, per Anwar Richardson of Orangebloods.com. “Just as hard in Kansas and Iowa State as it is going to be in Tuscaloosa. It’s just bigger and more people.”

That’s certainly one way to look at it.

Alabama is expected to once again compete for an SEC championship after missing out on the conference title game last season. The Crimson Tide is replacing starting quarterback Bryce Young, but another strong recruiting class and a good base of young talent to pair with new offensive coordinator Tommy Rees should give Alabama a chance to try to knock Georgia from its perch as conference champions.

In theory, Texas will be playing a much tougher team in Tuscaloosa than in Ames, Iowa or Lawrence, Kansas, but if Banks thinks that quote will motivate his players, more power to him.

Here are some of the best social media reactions to Banks’s comments.

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— Jim (@MacarthurTexas) August 1, 2023

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— Terah (@milam_i) August 1, 2023

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— Lee Roy Jordan Stan Account (@CapstoneCowboy) August 1, 2023

“Just as hard in Kansas and Iowa State” is about to be plastered everywhere in the Alabama football facility. https://t.co/zSCKITRh6a

— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) August 1, 2023

Well that was just about the dumbest thing he could have said https://t.co/Jafk5h90yA

— Nick Perkins (@NickyPerkss) August 1, 2023