The Crimson Tide's color analyst Phil Savage commented that the national media left Texas A&M for dead after its opening loss to UCLA. The initial thought becoming: Texas A&M this season didn't have the same quality of talent as previous years.

Savage, however, believed that Texas A&M had shown improvement after defeating Arkansas in overtime and clinching a hard fought game against South Carolina.

Savage joined Wimp and Barry Sanderson Inside The Locker Room to comment on the Tide's performance against the Aggies, as well as preview his latest book, 4th and Goal Every Day: Alabama's Relentless Pursuit of Perfection.

"I think what happened Saturday night was that Alabama had a firm grip on that game, Savage said. "They were up 24-3 and looked like they were on their way to a 38-3 win."

While Savage pays credit to Texas A&M, he thinks that the main reason why they were able to come back against Alabama to make it a closer game was because the Crimson Tide started to lose focus mid-game.

"They had a penalty, a dropped pass, and a fumble," Savage said. "The first turnover in 37 quarters, and that was enough to at least trigger A&M to respond."

Savage doesn't dwell on the mistakes, instead he believes that the Crimson Tide needed to face some sort of adversity head on to fully develop and be prepared for important games down the stretch.

"The key is going to be playing to a certain standard and competing against themselves," Savage said. "For the most part, Bama has mastered that better than anyone else in the country. So that last 20 minutes of the game against A&M absolutely helps them get ready for this next stretch of games."

Savage also explained the reason why he started working on his latest book, 4th and Goal Every Day: Alabama's Relentless Pursuit of Perfection.

"What really happened was when I came to the radio booth it never really crossed my mind that I would want to write a book about the experience."

Savage molds multiple years of experiences from three unique perspectives together in this book: from growing up in Alabama during Bear Bryant's era to his previous work experience at the Browns with Nick Saban and Bill Belichick, combined with eight years of experience as Alabama's color analyst.

Savage is convinced that we are witnessing college football history.

"Over the years Bama has had an incredible run of success," Savage said. "I felt like 50, 75, 100 years from now people are going to look back on this era of college football and say 'man how did they do that'.

To hear Savage's full interview, check out the video below. As always you can listen to “Inside The Locker Room” week days from 7-9 a.m. Don’t forget to download the new Tide 102.9 app so that you can listen from any location.

 

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