After an eventful September and inconsistent October, every preseason Alabama goal remains on the table. The SEC West can be clinched as early as next Saturday but there’s a catch.

It’ll require beating the other two top teams in the division away from home in consecutive weeks when road games have been a particular issue with the 2022 Crimson Tide. From costly midgame slumps at Texas and Arkansas to the 52-49 loss at Tennessee, there’s been a clear issue when this team leaves Tuscaloosa.

LSU’s Tiger Stadium after sunset is notoriously among the loudest stadiums in college football and it will be a foreign environment to almost everyone on the Crimson Tide roster. The 55-17 win in 2020 was played in a practically-empty coliseum because of pandemic-related capacity restrictions

“I’ve seen videos of there when Ed Orgeron was there and their walkout and that stadium how crazy it is,” Alabama linebacker Henry To’o To’o said. “Every SEC school is going to be cray, but definitely going to that stadium at LSU I’m super excited about it. I know it’s going to be jumping. We’ve played in some hostile environments in a couple of away games.”

So, in the wake of players feeling anxiety before the Tennessee game, how is the leadership preparing the locker room for Saturday’s 6 p.m. CT game at No. 15 LSU and next week’s trip to No. 11 Ole Miss?

Quarterback Bryce Young said it comes down to the alphas having everyone’s back when things get difficult.

“We all play for each other,” Young said Monday, “so a lot of it’s in the preparation we have throughout the week and then on game days just making sure that we have a good environment, we have good energy in the locker room and out on the field and we’re always — especially in the leadership group — we’re emphasizing that we’re making sure that we’re supporting each other, making sure we know we have each other’s back and again, especially when on the road in a hostile environment it’s important for us to lean on each other and make sure that we have each other’s backs so there’s been a lot of emphasis on that recently.”

This was a team that broke a school record with 17 penalties at Tennessee on Oct. 15. After the game, players spoke about taking the Neyland Stadium field with anxiety. So, entering the snake pit of Tiger Stadium, will be every bit as hostile as what they found in Knoxville.

To’o To’o said it comes down to preparation and consistent practices.

“I think that’s what causes anxiety,” he said Monday, “going out there not sure what you’re going to do, especially when you’re away, have your backs against the wall, people hate you and want you to lose. I think it’s about how we practice and get the guys going throughout the week so that we don’t have anxiety going into Saturday.”

Before the Tennessee game, Nick Saban said he hoped the trips to Texas and Arkansas would have worked out the road issues but that clearly wasn’t the case in Neyland Stadium. He’s taken a different tone since, stripping down the psychological complexities of playing on the road. Distilling it down to having fun out there, playing without the stress and with the simple pleasure the game provides.

While noting Tiger Stadium is one of the more challenging road tests in the league, Saban touched on the discipline required when the walls start to close in.

“We have to be able to have enough poise to be able to execute in this kind of environment,” he said, “not let it affect us in terms of how we go about one play at a time and how we want to execute and get things done.”

Alabama’s won five straight games in Baton Rouge — all at night — with shutouts in 2016 (10-0) and 2018 (29-0) before routing the defending national champs two years ago, 55-17.

After LSU, it’s on to Oxford where the Crimson Tide won the last three over Ole Miss. The 2020 game, obviously also played in front of a small crowd, was an absolute offensive shootout. Alabama won 63-48 but surrendered the most yardage in modern program history. The Nov. 12 trip to Oxford will kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.