The big news over the summer, ahead of the Florida State/Alabama game, was the trash-talking of Seminoles transfer quarterback Thomas Castellanos.
Castellanos made comments disparaging the Tide, saying they won’t have former head coach Nick Saban to save them anymore.
When asked about it again, Castellanos doubled down on his comments. One person we haven’t heard from is Saban, and his thoughts on what was said.
Saban has not and never been known as a trash talker, even as a head coach, but he did have an interesting response to what Castellanos had to say about his former team.
“I’m not there to save them. I am here to save you all,” Saban joked on ESPN’s College Game Day.
When Saban was asked about how he felt about Castellanos challenging the Tide’s manhood, his response was Bring it!
“This is the one (game) I’m most excited about,” Kirk Herbstreit said. “You applaud the effort and maybe you shock the world. It’s a different team. ... How do you handle that if you are (Alabama coach) Kalen DeBoer. He comes out and basically challenges your manhood.
“Do you use it or ignore it?” he asked.
“I always use it,” Saban said. “I loved it when somebody said something like that.”
This is not the first time a team has trash-talked the Tide before a game, ask Vanderbilt.
Nifae Lealeo trash-talked them before their match-up in 2017
“We expected to get this,” Nifae Lealeo said at the time. “When you come to our house, we show you how to play some SEC ball. It don’t matter where you from. You’re going to know what ball we play. We’re going into next week ranked. That’s fine. Alabama, you’re next.”
The result: 59- 0 Alabama victory.