Alabama is coming off a massive home win over Georgia and, naturally, trying to avoid a letdown. Playing usual SEC bottom feeder Vanderbilt — albeit the Commodores are feisty in 2024 — only adds to the possibility of a flat, upset-worthy performance.

So the Crimson Tide are trying to avoid the trap game and falling victim to the “rat poison” of consuming too much praise, as former head coach Nick Saban coined the term. To help hammer home the message, though, player personnel director Josh Chapman got some useful props: Actual rat traps.

“It was yesterday, Chap walks in, throws a bunch of rat traps down. ‘It’s a trap game, y’all!’” Offensive lineman Parker Brailsford said on Tuesday.

And to Brailsford, the message was well received. He knows now is the time to button down and weather the storm of taking the best shots opponents have to offer.

“I mean, I agree. These are definitely games that — I wouldn’t even say it’s a trap game, I would just say I think Vanderbilt’s a good team and I think we’re just going to get everybody’s best like always,” Brailsford said. “Like I said, the standard’s the standard, we’re going to play ball.”

Alabama catches Vanderbilt coming off a week off and, to some extent, reeling after a 2-0 start turned in to a 2-2 stretch to open the season. The most recent outing from the Commodores was valiant, though, a double overtime loss to Missouri that was poised to go to a third until Vanderbilt missed a game-tying field goal attempt.

Either way, the rat traps serve as a reminder: Any team Alabama plays in the SEC can beat them.

“It’s all about just making sure respect the team we’re playing and not just being like, ‘Oh, it’s just Vanderbilt.’ Vanderbilt is a very good team,” linebacker Que Robinson said. “They took Missouri to double overtime. And we just gotta respect that, you know? You just can’t go out there moseying around, you gotta respect the team and go out there and play our standard of football.”

And while the “rat poison” term was coined and popularized by Saban, the message didn’t need translating for newcomers to the program like transfer safety Keon Sabb.

He first noticed some rat traps in the locker room and quickly got the gist.

“It got to me right away,” Sabb said. “Once you see it, you know, ‘OK, it’s not an infestation in here. It’s something else.’ I got it real quick.”

And Sabb shared that for him, at least, the rat traps are having the intended effect.

“Once you see it, it’s like, ‘OK,’ something in your brain that every time you see one, you know it’s not one of those games,” Sabb said.

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