Gene Stallings made it a point during his coaching days not to give an opponent any ammunition.

The former Alabama and Texas A&M coach figured if his team was going to get beat, it was going to be on the field, not because of some form of extra motivation or bulletin board material.

While the storyline of Jimbo Fisher’s war of words with Nick Saban was all the talk of the offseason, now that No. 1 Alabama (5-0) hosts Texas A&M (3-2), the luster of the extra motivation has died down. Still, Stallings has a word to the wise.

“The less you say, the less you have to take back,” Stallings told me on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 in Mobile on Thursday. “Jimbo has said a few things about Alabama that I imagine he’d like to take back, but you can’t.”

Stallings always has a unique perspective of this matchup. A former player and coach at Texas A&M, Stallings coached the Crimson Tide to the 1992 national championship. Which is to say he has allegiances to both programs.

“I think it’s going to be a tough game,” Stallings said. Anytime you lose a guy that won the Heisman (in Alabama quarterback Bryce Young), you’ve got to step back a little bit. They’ve lost a lot of good players in the past, and they’ve always had someone to take their place.

“It will be a competitive game.”

In the end, Stallings has been consistent when breaking down Alabama games.

“The best team usually wins, and Alabama’s the best team,” he added.

Check out the full interview here.

Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.