Déjà vu anyone?

It’s early October and No. 1 Alabama is a big favorite to beat a two-loss Texas A&M team that’s missing preseason expectations. The 2021 and 2022 headlines are interchangeable as the Crimson Tide enters an eerily familiar scenario.

Only the back end of this time warp comes with the lesson and baggage of everything that followed Alabama’s arrival in College Station. The intersection of underestimating Texas A&M and a remarkable Aggie reversal of fortune was a stunning 41-38 upset.

The parallels are remarkable.

Texas A&M entered both seasons with a No. 6 AP preseason ranking only to lose a pair of early-season games. Appalachian State replaced Arkansas this September while a disheartening loss to Mississippi State immediately preceded Alabama both years.

Where the Aggie offense entered last season’s Alabama game 76th in yardage and 101st in scoring, this version is 105th and 108th, respectively this fall.

Jimbo Fisher on Monday recognized the similarity in scenarios while noting how well Texas A&M practiced between last year’s 26-22 loss to the Bulldogs and Alabama’s arrival.

Nick Saban would say the opposite was true of the week of preparation in Tuscaloosa a year ago, a memory certainly fresh on his mind to begin installation Monday.

“You know, we could go say it was the same situation a year ago,” Saban acknowledged in his opening statement for a Monday news conference that got steadily more heated as it progressed.

Later asked about how Alabama players handle social media pressure opened the door for Saban to drive home his larger point related to last year’s letdown.

“Obviously, at times, we haven’t handled it very well because I was talking about rat poison last year when we played this game, and nobody wouldn’t listen,” Saban said. “Players wouldn’t listen, y’all didn’t listen. They had lost the week before. We were big favorites. It was like no big deal, just show up for this game and go play the next game.”

The fact Alabama opened as a three-touchdown favorite Sunday after losing with an 18-point spread last October likely wasn’t the tone Saban wanted to set in the battle for a mental edge.

As with most trips to the press room podium, Saban had a few subliminal messages to players.

“The middle of the season is not the time of the season to think about getting rest,” Saban said as part of an answer to a separate question. “You rest at the end of the season. The season is a grind. Practice is a grind. Preparation is a grind, mentally and physically, on players. But you’ve got to make a choice: Are you going to grind through that and continue or can you learn from the lessons when you win as well as when you lose? Or do you have to lose to learn the lessons?”

The five player interviews over two days that followed Saban’s presser didn’t give any indication Alabama would overlook A&M again.

“I think they definitely feel some type of way about it,” running back Jahmyr Gibbs said of teammates who experienced last year’s game since he was still at Georgia Tech at the time.

Safety DeMarcco Hellams confirmed that Tuesday.

“It left a really bad taste in my mouth, other guys on the roster’s mouths,” he said. “It’s something we definitely remember from last year and it’s definitely helped in our preparation for those guys this year.”

Hellams had an interception at A&M last year but the personnel who’ll be on the field Saturday is where some of the comparisons end. Much of the Aggies offensive awakening was attributed to quarterback Zach Calzada’s 13-for-14 first-half passing that included two touchdowns and built a 24-10 lead. He’s now at Auburn while the recipient of two of those touchdown passes, Ainias Smith, is out for the year with a leg injury.

Both teams have uncertainty at quarterback after starters Bryce Young and Max Johnson got hurt in last week’s games. Of the 28 passes Young completed last year, 23 went to Alabama players who either graduated or left for the NFL draft so the turnover is significant in both locker rooms.

That said, Saban’s challenge this week is to silence the noise that apparently impacted the preparation and contributed to Alabama’s upset loss in College Station.

There are external factors that cannot affect how you think as a competitor in terms of respecting winning, respecting what you have to do to win and how important it is, knowing that we’re going to get the other team’s best game because they can all get well beating us,” Saban said. “So that’s how I try to handle it. Does anybody listen? Sometimes, sometimes not.”

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