Nick Saban raves about Williams-Brice Stadium, South Carolina atmosphere: 'It's a hard place to play'

Nick Saban didn’t lose many games at all during his time at Alabama and especially not by double digits. But South Carolina handed Saban and the Crimson Tide a 14-point loss back in 2010 in a game that Saban still remembers well for all the wrong reasons.

Marcus Lattimore, Stephen Garcia, Alshon Jeffery and company pounced on No. 1 Alabama, jumping out to a 21-3 lead in the first half and earning a 35-21 win.

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As Saban alludes to, Alabama was the reigning national champion and had won 19 straight games before falling to the Gamecocks.

Nick Saban was back at Williams-Brice Stadium on Friday as he joined Pat McAfee during his show from inside the stadium. The college football coaching legend discussed just how tough it is to go to South Carolina and win.

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“Well, this is a hard place to play. I mean once way back in 2010, I think we had won 19 games in a row. We came here and played, and I mean we got the lining kicked out of our butt, boy,” Nick Saban told Pat McAfee. “It’s a hard place to play. It’s noisy. They always seem to play better here. So I think this is going to be a real test for LSU tomorrow.”

Saban and the entire ESPN College GameDay crew are in Columbia for South Carolina’s matchup with LSU on Saturday.

The game wasn’t viewed as one that was expected to be too exciting during the preseason, but after the Gamecocks pounded Kentucky last week, College GameDay made the decision to come to Columbia for the matchup with the Tigers. GameDay was set to be in Lexington for Kentucky’s game against Georgia on Saturday before the Gamecocks pulled off the upset last weekend.

Pat McAfee said during his show on Friday that he has never attended a game at Williams-Brice Stadium, but he has heard from everyone he has talked to that it is a tough place to play. It will be interesting to see if the South Carolina crowd does indeed create chaos and help the Gamecocks pull off another upset against LSU.

South Carolina has been good at home under Shane Beamer, including stunning Tennessee and keeping the Vols out of the College Football Playoff back in 2022.

Beamer also joined McAfee on Friday and shared his message to his team ahead of the huge game.

“We’ve been talking about it all this week, like that game last week against Kentucky, we’re either going to look back at that game in nine weeks or 10 weeks and say that game really propelled us to a special season. Or we’re going to look back and say, ‘You know what, what an opportunity wasted after that performance at Kentucky,’” Beamer said.