Rat poison worse than ever as Alabama opens season

Alabama is a double-digit favorite in every game this season. But don’t tell that to Nick Saban.

“I think the rat poison this year, not to bring up a sore subject, it’s worse than ever,” Saban said on his radio show this week. “I’ve had more people ask me how we’re going to do against Texas this week than how we are going to do against Utah State. I mean, I’m like, ‘We don’t play Texas this week.’”

The Aggies come to Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night before Alabama goes to Texas in a marquee Week 2 matchup.

Saban, who has derided “rat poison” frequently in the past, connected his hatred of media hype to the Bible, reciting Matthew 23:12.

“Then I go to church on Sunday,” Saban said, “and the sermon is, ‘He who exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exalted.’ So it’s almost like, you put rat poison in that same thing, it almost fits perfectly.”

That wasn’t the last Saban — whose team is considered the favorite to win the national championship — had to say on a subject that has brought passion out of him before.

“We’ve got to play one game at a time,” he said. “‘How can Alabama lose to this team? How can this team beat Alabama, three months from now?’ Who gives a s–t? How about this game? How about the church of what’s happening now? Now. Can we focus on what’s happening now? How come no one is interested in now?”