HOOVER, Ala. — Fifth in a series previewing SEC football teams
Alabama, eager to pile on to its football glory, would like to bypass a lull like the one from 2010 and deliver back-to-back BCS national championships.
The Crimson Tide have won two of the past three national titles, and analysts consider Nick Saban’s club among the top tier of teams in the hunt for this year’s title.
Alabama has lost only four games in the past three seasons, with nearly all of them coming in the Tide’s slip to 10-3 as defending BCS champions in 2010. It’s the type of letdown season they hope to avoid this fall.
“Most of us now were there in 2010 and we saw what can happen, what complacency did to us,” tight end Michael Williams said. “We’re very intent to not let this happen to this year’s team.”
Center Barrett Jones, the reigning Outland Trophy winner, said the message this year is the same as what Saban preached leading into 2010.
“I think the difference was the first time, Coach Saban said ‘no complacency’ and warned us what was going to happen the year after winning a national championship. But for some reason, we just didn’t buy into it,” Jones said. “This year it’s started with the older guys talking to the younger guys.
“It’s not going to sneak up on this year. ... We have a lot of guys from that 2010 season, and we all had a bad feeling from that season and we don’t want to feel that way again.”
Saban has managed to instill a win-every-week approach at Alabama, whose last nonconference loss was 31-17 to Utah in the Sugar Bowl after the 2008 season. The Crimson Tide have averaged 12 victories per year the past four seasons.
“The most important thing we’ve learned is you’ve got to stay on top of the little things,” Saban said. “Things don’t happen by accident. You don’t win a play by accident. You don’t win a game by accident. You don’t win a division by accident.”
Much like in 2010, the Crimson Tide must replace a large number of personnel on a defense that ranked No. 1 against the run (72.2 yards per game) and pass (111.5 ypg), in scoring (8.2 points per game) and total defense (183.6 ypg).
Linebacker Nico Johnson, second-team All-America safety Robert Lester and defensive linemen Damion Square and Jesse Williams are the only returning starters on defense, though players such as linebackers C.J. Mosley and Trey DePriest and defensive back Dee Milliner earned quality time as reserves a year ago. Mosley and Milliner started six games each last season.
The offense, with new coordinator Doug Nussmeier calling the shots, brings back junior quarterback AJ Mc-Carron, the offensive MVP in last year’s BCS title game, four offensive linemen, with tackles D.J. Fluker and Chance Warmack joining Jones and guard Anthony Steen, and Michael Williams at tight end.
Eddie Lacy, who has recovered from foot surgery, and Jalston Fowler are expected to take the bulk of the carries in place of Trent Richardson, who rushed for 1,679 yards last year. Players such as Kenny Belly, Christion Jones and Kevin Norwood are expected to rise into prominent roles as pass catchers in the new offense. Lacy averaged 7.1 yards per carry and Fowler 6.9 yards per carry last season.
McCarron completed an SEC-best 66.8 percent of his passes in 2011 while passing for 2,634 yards and 16 touchdowns with only 5 interceptions. The junior picked apart LSU’s defense in the BCS title game, and he’ll enter 2012 with more authority to audible at the line of scrimmage.
“AJ was a plug-in to the offense last year because he was a new quarterback, and now he’s in a leadership role and getting the right plays called for the right situations,” Michael Williams said.
“The way he came into Beaver Stadium before everyone against Penn State, you could just see he was going to be a leader,” Barrett Jones said of McCarron. “We threw more responsibility on him as the year went on, culminating in the national championship.”
At SEC media days, Saban spoke of sports dynasties such as the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s and the New York Yankees and talked about sticking with championship standards when discussing the challenge facing the Crimson Tide this season.
“If everybody doesn’t buy into those principles and values, everybody doesn’t buy into the standard, there’s no way you can have the type of team chemistry to be successful, especially at an elite, high level,” Saban said. “High achievers don’t like mediocre people; mediocre people don’t like high achievers. So everybody has to buy into the same principles and values.”
Alabama faces significant hurdles on its schedule. The Crimson Tide open the season against Michigan at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. They open their SEC schedule at Arkansas in Week 3 and face defending SEC champion LSU on the road on Nov. 3.
NEXT Vanderbilt
About the Crimson Tide
LAST YEAR 12-1, 7-1 (second) in SEC West RETURNING STARTERS Offense 6, defense 4, specialists 2 SURE THINGS Offensive line, running back UNSURE THINGS Secondary, receivers OFFENSIVE MVP Running back Eddie Lacy DEFENSIVE MVP Safety Robert Lester
SEC TITLE SCENARIO It’s logical to expect Alabama’s running game to be strong and for quarterback AJ McCarron to be improved, so if he gets on the same page with his receivers , the offense should be fine. Defensively, inexperienced players in the secondary must come along. If the Crimson Tide can defeat Arkansas or LSU on the road, they should challenge for the SEC West title that eluded them last year.
Sports, Pages 21 on 07/22/2012