Finally, after so many months of the celebration of Saban’s newest national championship title, the process is beginning all over again. The top recruits are here (as always), practices have been held in the scorching Tuscaloosa heat, and we are driving down the road to a 17th championship. As the season begins and we await our first home game in the beloved shrine of Bryant-Denny Stadium, there’s really no excuse for the entire university to be super pumped about what’s to come. We have THE best football team, coaches, and staff, so c’mon yall—let’s get rowdy! Here are just a few things you should get excited for this season:
1. Go Get Yourself A Yellowhammer
It’s finally the season where it’s socially acceptable to ask the bartenders for your favorite drink once again. All the tailgates, fraternity houses, and bars (most famously Gallette’s) will be making these drinks all day long, so you better go enjoy one while they last!
2. Go tailgate on the Quad or at fraternity houses
Tuscaloosa is bumpin’ before every game. There are HUGE crowds of alums, Tide fans, and friends set up on every square inch of the Quad and crowded around with their old buddies at fraternity and sorority houses. It’s the day to gather everyone who loves the Tide in one place for some fun community time. Everyone’s yelling “roll tide” left and right all day. It’s like heaven. Not to mention all the fried chicken that everyone has out for the world’s enjoyment.
3. Watch ESPN like it’s your lifeline
I love football season because you can just sit down on the couch at 11AM and watch football until bedtime. ESPN and NBC take charge on creating the most entertaining Saturdays of the year, playing game after game after game for viewers’ entertainment. During the week SportsCenter will discuss the highlights of the weekend and the games to come so you can be fully prepared to watch the next weekend’s games. Watch College GameDay to see whose mascot head Lee Corso will put on during each game; it’s definitely entertaining to say the least.
4. Travel to the away games and support your Crimson Tide
The Tide still needs support if they’re not playing at home in Bryant-Denny! Go visit your pals at other SEC schools and watch us whip their butts on the road. There’s no better feeling than leaving a stadium that isn’t even your own with a smile while all their fans mope about how they “should have won,” making them hate Alabama even more than they already do (out of pure jealousy, of course).
5. Go get some cute gameday clothes
Literally every store in Tuscaloosa gets so excited for football season because they can make bank off of all us girls wanting to look cute on gameday. They carry whole entire sections of black, white, and crimson apparel. They’ve got clothes that say “it’s fall, y’all” but also say “Alabama is still 150 degrees outside.” Needless to say, sweaters won’t be a thing at games until probably late October (if that).
6. Get pumped for the Student Section
The student section at the University of Alabama is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. When you gather tens of thousands of people so passionate about their school and so pumped for football, it’s incredible. I’ve never seen our school so united as I have in that student section watching our team kick butt.
7. Listen to Dixieland Delight on repeat all day every day
If you don’t know every single word to this song by the end of this season (if you haven’t learned it already) you’re doing something wrong. Learn the Alabama remix for some extra fuel to your fire.
8. Learn the fight song!!!
With how many touchdowns we’re going to be scoring this season, make sure you know “Yea Alabama” by heart so you can cheer on our boys.
9. Go to band parties
During football season, the fraternities strategically schedule the most fun bands to play the Friday nights before games and the Saturdays after games. Gameday isn’t just a one-day celebration—it’s a weekend long process full of fun. Band parties are a good time to take your visiting friends and show them the Alabama lifestyle while hanging out with your pals and celebrating the Tide rolling, win or lose.
10. Play for four, stay for four
We go to the best football school in the nation, so we should be proud of and excited for that! The intensity of the games only grows as the clock runs down. Make sure you’re there in the stands to hold up your 4 fingers when Scott Cochran screams at you to get pumped for the 4th quarter. He’s a very strong encourager of getting you to stay and watch your boys play. Saban has indeed said that without the fans, we have no team. We gotta support our boys no matter how much we’re winning or losing, until the clock reads 00:00.
Get pumped for the best football season ever. With one game down in Dallas, we should be more than ecstatic for the best part of the year. We go to school with some of the most talented athletes in the world, so embrace it. You can only enjoy it all for just a few short months during the year, so take advantage of all the fun opportunities Alabama provides as we travel on this road to 17. The Process begins here! Be there!!
