As of this week didn’t have enough intrigue with Bryce Young’s shoulder injury, there’s still the follow-up to the summer spat between Alabama’s Nick Saban and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher. Don’t expect Will Anderson to chime in with his thoughts, though.
The star outside linebacker had a simple answer on Monday when asked how “excited” he was to see Fisher on the opposing sideline:
“I come here to play football and do what my coach tells me to do,” Anderson said with a smile.
“That’s a good answer,” one Tide team official responded.
In May, Saban started a war of words between the two coaches after saying the Aggies “bought every player” in its recruiting class, the highest-ranked of all time. Fisher responded with the nuclear option, telling reporters to “go dig into” Saban’s past in response to Saban’s accusations.
By the time Southeastern Conference Football Media Days rolled around in July, though, coaches had either apologized or moved on. Naturally, in the confrontation has risen again prior to the No. 1 Tide hosting Texas A&M this weekend.
“Like I was saying, I come here to play football. I don’t come here to write tweets,” Anderson said when asked about the “outside noise.” “I don’t come here to go back and forth. People may try to make it a big thing, but at the end of the day, I have a scholarship to play football. Coach Saban brought me here to play football, he bought us all here to play football. That’s our job to go out there and make sure that we bring the best versions of ourselves on the field and make sure that we’re playing up to Alabama standard.”
Last year, Texas A&M pulled off a 41-38 upset in College Station, derailing a perfect start for Alabama through the first five weeks of the season. Is there any motivation to return the loss back?
“We try to approach each game the same, no game is bigger than any other one. Texas A&M is up next on the schedule, so now we will be talking about this game and in previous games, we talked about our other opponents. Texas A&M has a really good team, a really good offensive line, good quarterback. It’s going to be a great challenge for us,” Anderson said.
Alabama is coming off its first SEC road win at Arkansas. Kickoff for the A&M contest is at 7 p.m. inside Bryant-Denny Stadium on CBS.
MORE Tide: ‘You might as well make it up,’ Saban comments on headlines with QB1 in flux
Bryce Young injury update as shoulder evaluation continues
Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at NAlvarez@al.com.
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