Clark Lea reacts to Alabama using rat traps as motivational tool ahead of Vanderbilt game

Vanderbilt is up next for Alabama, and coming off a charged, emotional win, the Crimson Tide are making sure to not fall into a trap or consume the “rat poison,” as Nick Saban coined it, of excessive praise.

Alabama was so dedicated to this idea that this week, the player personnel staff put rat traps around the football facilities. But while that’s gotten plenty of attention, Commodores head coach Clark Lea has kept the blinders on and is trying his best to get his team ready to spring that trap.

But mostly, he’s not paying much attention to the mental exercises of his opponent, even if he understands the effort.

“I have not,” Lea said on the SEC coaches teleconference about seeing the stories from Tuscaloosa. “I pretty well keep myself insulated and just focused on my job and what we need to do here. I think any coach anywhere is going to understand that after a really emotional game and an emotional win, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing next, there’s inevitably a chance for a game in which you don’t represent yourself the right way.”

For Alabama, that means trying to stave off a let down on the road against the Commodores — usually among the worst teams in the SEC — after besting Georgia in a Top 5 showdown the week before.

But whatever ploys are going on for their opponent on Saturday, Lea has that all tuned out.

“So, I don’t really have many thoughts on it. I think they’ve gotta do what they think is best to motivate their team, we do the same on our end,” Lea said.

Alabama players got the message loud and clear

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.”