Verne Lundquist discusses Aggies' SEC fit, matchup with Alabama

Notes from Verne Lundquist interview

* When he was first told that he would start calling SEC football back in 2000, he was already sitting pretty comfortable with calling NFL games. His first SEC game was Florida-Tennessee at Neyland Stadium in September of 2000. The Gators won that game in the waning moments of the contest in front of 107,000 fans, and after he was of the air, he leaned to his co-worker and said, “Are they all like this?” and from that point on he was sold on calling SEC games. A&M is finding out that the culture of the SEC is an amazing thing unlike anything else.

* He has been asked since the game where last week’s Alabama-LSU game ranks among the college games he has seen, and there is no doubt that it falls in the top three. He believes that Death Valley is the loudest place in college football on Saturday nights, and the fact that the Tiger fans began tailgating at seven that morning helps their enthusiasm. He remembers saying that Alabama fans couldn’t feel optimistic about their chances going into the last drive because of the poor performance earlier in the game. Alabama was able to make the perfect call against the LSU defense to get the game winning touchdown on the board. When T.J. Yeldon scored, the air was released out of the stadium and it became deathly quiet within a matter of seconds.

* Because of the U.S. Open being scheduled, he was able to watch college football all day long the weekend A&M played Florida. Among the games that he stayed glued to throughout the day, was the A&M-Florida game, and he knew that Florida’s come-from-behind victory was going to increase in value as the season got deeper because of the quality of A&M’s team. A&M is such a great fit for the conference because of the way A&M honors its traditions and history. He was among those that hated to see the A&M-Texas rivalry go away, but he knows that the Aggies have found a home and will be an important and integral part of the SEC for years to come.

* He thinks that LSU’s success on offense last week was a combination of bad play by the Alabama defense and LSU having an extra week to prepare for them. Alabama is very good defensively, but Zach Mettenberger chose a nice night to have the game of his life. He thinks that A&M’s spread offense that Nick Saban doesn’t like will bother their defense. If he was an Aggie, he wouldn’t be as concerned with putting up points as much as he would be concerned with the play of the A&M defense. A.J. McCarron is a solid quarterback and Alabama has a two-headed monster at running back that could cause trouble for the A&M defense. He believes that the game will come down to Alabama’s offense against A&M’s defense.