Will Anderson on criticisms of Alabama's issues in 2022: 'We're still the standard'

Will Anderson recognizes Alabama isn’t going out and destroying the competition, but he’s out to remind the college football world that it’s still the Crimson Tide and then everyone else.

While the Crimson Tide are No. 3 in the nation and undefeated, they’ve had some close calls this season. Regardless of what the media may be saying about them, Anderson stated that Alabama is still the standard of the college football world.

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“Honestly, I never find out what the media says until I do media interviews, or talk to somebody, any type of thing like that,” explained Anderson, on The Paul Finebaum Show. “I think the guys, we do a really great job of not focusing on that stuff, because we’re the ones that having to go out there and play. We’re the ones that’s going out there and sacrificing our bodies, doing what we need to do to win games. Every win may not be in a way that’s a blowout, but at least we’re going out there, we’re working hard, efforts great.

“Yeah, we have some mental errors, but we’re still Alabama. Great defense, great offense, still playing to the standards of Alabama. We have some stuff to work through, but at the end of the day, we’re still the standard.”

While that standard may not feel like it’s being reached in the eyes of the national media, Anderson added that it simply doesn’t matter what anybody outside the team’s building thinks.

“For us, we have a standard. The Alabama standard is always going to be the Alabama standard. No matter what the media says or anybody else says, we have to play to our standard, no matter what they say or what they may think. It’s all about us,” added Anderson. “So we really can’t control what other people think or what their expectations is about us, or what they want the standard to be. I think as long as we’re playing the football that we know how to play inside this building and what Coach Saban wants us to play in this building, and his expectation and his standard, I feel like we’ll be a good football team.

“But when we start letting what the media say and all these other people say, all this other stuff about how we should be playing like this, I think it affects our team, and it could affect our team if we listened to it. … We have to go to the standard that Coach Saban and his staff wants us to play to.”

Indisputably, it sounds like Will Anderson is more motivated than ever, ready to prove everyone outside of Tuscaloosa wrong. The perfect way to do that would be to defeat an exhilarating Tennessee squad, and they’ll have that chance this weekend.