Written by Ell | 03 October 2008

I was planning to write something about this for the Kentucky game anyway, but several things have transpired that have made it an absolute must. Listen up - If you have a ticket to Saturday's game, come prepared to make noise! The first thing that happened was Kentucky wide receiver Erick Adeyemi gave us this beauty of a quote:

“I don’t think they’ll be as loud (as the artificial noise),” Adeyemi said. “Because when we score, they’ll be kind of quiet.”

Then Kentucky head coach Rich Brooks was paraphrased in the Tuscaloosa News:

Brooks said Wednesday his team, particularly quarterback Mike Hartline and the young offense, will have no problem dealing with the raucous atmosphere at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Brooks said Hartline has proven that he can handle the difficulties of away games with the win against Louisville in his first collegiate start.

And then finally came Coach Saban during Thursday night's "Hey Coach! The Nick Saban Show" pleading for crowd noise. It is time for Bryant-Denny Stadium to be a place that other teams dread coming to. It is time for the atmosphere at Bryant-Denny Stadium to be raucous regardless of the opponent. There have been some great crowds over the last few years - Oklahoma in 2003, Florida 2005, and LSU last year. The crowd noise in those games was deafening at times, and I believe that it truly helped Alabama play at a higher level. So what was it about those games? That's easy. Oklahoma was ranked #1, Florida #5, and LSU #3. So there was an instinctual need to help Alabama "get up" to play an opponent that had more talent than the Tide. There was a desire to do everything possible from a fan standpoint to help the team win. There was a great atmosphere because there was a top five team playing and possible national championship on the line for one of the team's involved. Well guess what... that will be the case this Saturday. There will be a top five team playing, and the outcome of this game could have national championship ramifications. The difference is that Alabama isn't playing spoiler this time. Instead it is the Tide that is ranked in the top five. It is Alabama that has national championship hopes that rest upon this, and every game. So it's time to stop basing the level of crowd noise at Bryant-Denny Stadium on who Bama is playing. It's time to bring the noise and the energy for every game. We expect the players to do it, so we have no excuse to not do the same. The last time that this team dominated a top ten opponent in the state of Georgia they returned home to play a lackluster game in front of a lackluster crowd. Yes, I know that it's tough to get up for Tulane. And I know that it's tough to be loud and excited when the score is 20-6. It's also hard to go on the road to Athens and whip the ever-loving shit out Georgia, but these 18-22 year old kids just did that. These guys have worked their collective butts off to go from being the laughing stock that lost to Louisiana-Monroe  to the team that no one wants to play. Quite frankly, these kids deserve to walk into Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday and hear the type of crowd noise that they heard Saturday night in Athens. These kids deserve to walk into the stadium and hear the type of crowd noise that they heard for the LSU game last year. It doesn't matter that the opponent is Kentucky. I promise you that it doesn't matter to Coach Saban, and the guys have worked just hard for this game as they did for the Georgia game. So why should we, the fans, get to take this one easier? This is a Kentucky team that upset a highly ranked Georgia team in 2006 and followed that up by beating a highly ranked LSU team last year. They are very capable of walking into Tuscaloosa and ruining the party for all of us. To quote Gene Stallings, "If you don't think this is a big game, just go out and lose it." Let's make Eric Adeyemi eat his words. Let's remind Rich Brooks that playing at Louisville isn't the same thing as playing at Alabama. To paraphrase Verne Ludquist from the 2005 Florida game - "There are few truths in an uncertain world but here's one, this ain't Louisville!" It's time to bring the noise and the energy to the stadium... it's time to create that as a fan base, rather than allowing the perceived quality of the opponent supply it. Alabama is #2 in the nation, and every game from this point forward matters. Let's make it seem that way.

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