Alabama players react to Auburn’s trash talk before Iron Bowl

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – After some talks around the state on Monday, Alabama players are waiting until Saturday to deliver their Iron Bowl message to Auburn.

On Monday, Auburn linebacker Demarcus Riddick opened Iron Bowl week with some shots at Alabama. The freshman defender called Alabama beatable and proclaimed that he would never lose to the Crimson Tide.

Riddick also called out Jalen Milroe, claiming he was faster than him while also declaring that the dual-threat quarterback “won’t be coming out of that box this week.”

The message was received but not returned.

“I don’t know who that is,” Milroe said of Riddick on Tuesday. “Let him talk. It’s part of it. It’s about just executing what we need to do so we can do our best this weekend.”

While Riddick’s comments went viral on social media, they didn’t resonate much with Alabama’s players — at least not publicly.

“I feel like every week someone on the opposing team has something to say that gets some attention in the media,” Alabama lineman Jah-Marien Latham said. “It’s something we can’t worry about. Our job is to get out here and work so we can go out and play on Saturday. This is an external factor and things we don’t have to take into account.”

Malachi Moore wasn’t impressed by the opposing trash talk either: “They’ll do everything they can to get it out there and spice up the game. But the game is already hype. It’s the iron bowl. It doesn’t get any bigger. We’ll see on Saturday.”

Latham grew up about 30 minutes from Tuscaloosa in Reform, Alabama. Born into a Crimson Tide family, he has heard about the importance of the Iron Bowl for as long as he can remember.

For safety reasons, the same goes for Malachi Moore, who grew up an hour and a half away in Trussville, Alabama. Moore’s mother is an elementary school teacher and he said this week takes him back to the days when kids declared their allegiance to the rivalry by wearing their team’s jersey to school.

“Your friend doesn’t know whether he’s an Auburn fan or an Alabama fan all year long. But one day it’s jersey day and he comes in wearing an Auburn jersey,” Moore said. “You say, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute.’ Then you would go to sports. You would be Alabama and he would be Auburn and then you would approach it that way.”

The trash talk is a little more intense now that Moore himself is getting into the rivalry. But you won’t catch him tweeting all over the state this week either.

“We feel like we play our best football when we focus all of our energy on our task, our keys and our connection to one another,” Moore said. “If we engage in a lot of trash talk, it kind of distracts us from the task at hand and we can’t focus on what we’re there to do, which is beat the man in front of us on every play and get it done as a team . “That’s the most important thing we’re trying to do.”

Moore doesn’t really need to talk. His success against Auburn speaks for itself. In four games against the Tigers, the graduate safety is 4-0 with seven combined tackles and one interception. A win at Alabama on Saturday would make it more the first Tide player to win five Iron Bowls.

“That would mean a lot,” Moore said. “It’s a big rivalry. We hate losing to these guys. I’m very proud of it. We are very proud of it. As a public university, everyone here takes a lot of pride in beating the guys there.”

No. 7 Alabama (8-3, 4-3 in the SEC) hosts Auburn (5-6, 2-5) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT. The Tide is on a four-game winning streak against the Tigers and is currently the 11.5-point favorite in this year’s matchup.