How is Alabama football preparing for Florida State? Artificial crowd noise

Before Alabama football left the practice field Tuesday, Aug. 19, the Crimson Tide went through “one of the hardest things we have ever done,” left tackle Kadyn Proctor said.

The Alabama offense installed a 16-play “long drive” buried under artificial crowd noise hoping to replicate what the Crimson Tide will see Aug. 30 at Florida State.

What’s it going to be like on game day where you got 100,000 people doing that 24/7?” Proctor asked.

Sixteen plays straight,” Proctor said. “Don’t matter if you score on five. Bring it all the way back down the field. Go 11 more. That’s how it goes.”

To Proctor, it tested his mental capacity. It forced him, and the rest of the Alabama offense, to “pay attention” and focus.

Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said there’s “a lot to improve on” as the offense adapts to crowd noise, whether artificial or otherwise.

Any time you start getting that in where you are running plays and using motions and all those things, there’s some bumps on it,” Grubb said. “I thought they did better as they got used to it in practice, and we’ll continue to work it. That’s obviously something we’ll have to get ready for

As a wide receiver, Germie Bernard said, with crowd noise blaring, he has to “look into the details:” the signals, the down and distance, the time and whatever else is happening on the field.

But does that practice noise replicate what Alabama plans to see Aug. 30 at Doak Campbell Stadium?

“No,” Proctor said. “It gets you rattled a little bit in practice. But the game environment, that’s something different. You can’t even compare, not at all.”