• Football has a message for skeptics this season. • • Here’s what it means. •

• 2023 Bama Football 2023 •  Tuscaloosa, AL For the keen-eyed watchers of Alabama football games or practices, once in a while, you may catch a player holding his index and pointer fingers together, sticking their thumb and waving their ‘l-shaped’ hands after a big play. No, the Crimson Tide isn’t calling anyone a loser like a schoolboy. Instead, they’re signaling to each other and rallying around a team acronym: “LANK.” “Let A Naysayer Know." I think it was something we built throughout the offseason,” quarterback Jalen Milroe said. “We came as one unit to try of think of something, a motto, that’ll push our team. There’s a lot of doubt that took place throughout the offseason and a lot of things took place. That was one thing.” Many pundits and fans forecasted the end of the Nick Saban dynasty after the Tide went 11-2 a year ago and failed to make the College Football Playoff. The Tide hasn’t won it all since 2020. Milroe — cornerback Terrion Arnold called him his ‘LANK Brother’ when speaking to reporters on Monday — represented the uncertainty at the quarterback position. But as a motivating tool, LANK has turned into a calling card. Milroe became the first player in UA history with three passing touchdowns and two rushing scores in the same game against Middle Tennessee. Arnold posted on Instagram with the phrase as his caption after the Tide’s 56-7 win. Technically, the saying doesn’t mesh with Saban’s message of self-reliance. The head coach has famously decried external motivators, making the argument if you can play so well against one opponent or one batch of naysayers, then why can’t that be replicated? But overall, “LANK” is another example of the 2023 roster looking for an edge that has been missing in recent seasons. Like JC Latham and Dallas Turner spoke about expectations and reasserting Tuscaloosa as the sport’s mountaintop at SEC media days. “Kind of like everybody disrespecting us and everybody doubting us,” Arnold said of the phrase. “Kind of like with us addressing all the disrespect and really taking it personal like we really take that personal. So this is the part when you go out there. Like coach Saban says, you play to the standard. You LANK ‘em.” “I’m waiting on the right opportunity and the right moment to kinda introduce it to (Saban),” Anrold said. “We say it in practice, a couple guys on the team we throw it up like LANK.” • ROLLING WITH THE TIDE •