This coming Saturday, Utah State will be at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to play the Alabama Crimson Tide, the top-ranked team in the country entering the 2022 college football season.
It isn’t often the Aggies play on such a national stage, and they will be facing off against arguably the greatest college football coach of all time in Nick Saban, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner in Bryce Young and quite possibly the best team in America.
Few, if any, expect Utah State to prevail Saturday, but Saban and Alabama expressed respect for the Aggies.
“Blake Anderson has done a really good job there,” Saban said Monday in his weekly press conference of Utah State’s head coach. “This team (Utah State) can play really in any conference and do well.
“They ended up a top 25 team a year ago. They won 11 games. They beat a couple of Pac-12 teams. They beat Oregon State in a bowl game. They have 12 starters back and the quarterback (Logan Bonner) is back, who is a really good player.”
Saban went on to give further praise, reflecting on Utah State’s success on both offense and defense from a season ago.
“They were one of the most effective passing teams in the country a year ago,” Saban said “These guys are very aggressive on defense, they create a lot of negative plays, they get a lot of turnovers and they have their specialists back.”
What Nick Saban thought about Utah State’s win over UConn
Saban also addressed the Aggies’ season-opening win against the UConn Huskies.
“So they had a game obviously and they beat Connecticut 31-20,” Saban said. “They got off to a little bit of a slow start but then played really well as the game progressed.”
Nick Saban on if Utah State has an advantage after already playing a game
The question was posed as to whether Utah State would have any edge over Alabama after playing a game already, potentially shedding from rust, while Crimson Tide will be opening their season this Saturday.
“I think it is always a good thing to play a game,” Saban said. “You find out where you are and they probably found out a lot about their team. You usually improve a lot from Week 1 to Week 2. From that standpoint, it is probably an advantage to have had a game.”
What is Alabama’s approach heading into the game against Utah State?
Alabama is the national powerhouse it is and Saban is considered arguably the top college football coach of all time, so ultimately — in Saban’s mind — the game against Utah State is much less to do with the Aggies and a lot more to do with Alabama.
“This (game) is really kind of about us,” Saban said, “and how we prepare to play against a really good opponent.”