Alabama heard TJ Finley's comments before beating down on Western Kentucky: 'Little disrespectful'

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Questions about how the Alabama Crimson Tide would fare without its legendary head coach, Nick Saban, entering the 2024 season were squashed on Saturday when they blew out Western Kentucky, 63-0, under new coach Kalen DeBoer. 

The Crimson Tide heard all the skeptical jargon about them entering Week 1, and Western Kentucky quarterback TJ Finley was among them. 

Finley, who played at LSU, Auburn and Texas State before joining WKU in his fifth collegiate season, said before the game that Alabama "might not be who they think they are."

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Alabama offensive lineman Tyler Booker speaking at Omni Dallas Hotel. (Brett Patzke/USA Today Sports)

Alabama linebacker Tyler Booker admitted that was just fuel to the Crimson Tide’s fire. 

"It was a little disrespectful, we definitely saw what he said," Booker said, via SI.com. "That wasn't the main motivation for going out there and hanging 63 points on them, obviously, we're going to play to our standard but that just added a little fuel to the fire.

"When one of their players says something along the lines of, '[They] might not be who [they] think [they] are,' our whole purpose of the game is to just show 'em who we are and who we say we are. I feel like we accomplished that and I think he'd say the same."

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Alabama, the fourth-ranked team in the country entering the new season, was electric with Jalen Milroe, their veteran quarterback who wasn’t among the many who entered the transfer portal following news of Saban’s retirement, throwing for 200 yards and three touchdowns on