Why Alabama Players Aren't Concerned About Early Start to Day in Starkville

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer announced during his Monday press conference that his team would be traveling over to Mississippi State the day of the game for an 11 a.m. CT kickoff.

"We've had some success with those morning games but we got to go on the road and travel that morning, so it's gonna be a little different -- different set up that way, too," DeBoer said. "Just being intentional. Challenging our guys. These guys all care. They care so much. They'll put the work in. They'll be intentional. They'll bank some sleep some extra hours to make sure they're ready to go on Saturday."

The two campuses are less than 90 miles apart, the closest geographically of any two schools in the SEC. Starkville has the smallest population of any city in the conference, so there aren't as many hotel options as some other cities around the league.

Because of that, the staff has made the decision to have the players sleep in their own beds Friday night and get up early on Saturday to drive over to Mississippi with a police escort. Alabama doesn't release their travel itinerary, but with an 11 a.m. kick, it will obviously be an early morning for the players. But these players are already used to that.

"We’re a morning practice team, so I don’t think it’s really going to affect us as much as people are worrying about right now," defensive lineman Kedrick Bingley-Jones said. "We have to do what we have to do.”

Every Alabama player we talked to after Tuesday's practice said something similar. Their bodies are now accustomed with waking up early and getting out on the practice field around 9 a.m. It's also somewhat similar to what the team does when it plays at Auburn.

"We’re used to being up early and getting everything going," Alabama safety and team captain Bray Hubbard said. "I don’t really know exactly the whole schedule of what time we’re leaving and stuff. We were just talking about it with Coach a second ago. We’re here during the week for practice, we usually get here at 6 o’clock and are in meetings by 7. We’re used to waking up early and having to get our engines going for an early practice. Obviously we’ll stay here in Tuscaloosa, but it’s a quick little bus ride over there. It’s kinda similar to if we were playing in Auburn. We always would drive over from Montgomery to Auburn. It’s very similar in that way.”

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