Alabama coach Nick Saban is a guy who likes to talk about the "process" of building a championship team, not immediate results or day-to-day evaluation.
That's probably a good thing, considering the way the Crimson Tide finished with a 7-6 record and closed out the regular season with four straight losses, including an explicable home loss to Louisiana-Monroe, a second consecutive loss to Mississippi State and a sixth straight loss to rival Auburn.
At Alabama, the process better lead to championships. In his second spring on the job, Saban didn't define where the Tide is in that process but he did insist the program had made progress.
"Our goal was to get every player to improve as we can have more guys play to their potential," Saban said. "We (wanted to) improve relative to effort, togetherness and responsibility and we made a lot of progress in those areas.
"Our second goal was to make some decisions about what our strengths are and what our needs are for the future."
The most immediate strengths appear to be the offensive line, the running game as a whole, the secondary and experience at quarterback. The primary questions come with the lack of depth throughout most of the depth chart and the lack of proven players at receiver and linebacker.
Based on those strengths and weaknesses, the Tide won't enter the season as a favorite to win the SEC West. Based on what Saban sees building from the inside out, the Tide could be a lot better than outsiders expect.
"We wanted to build leadership and team chemistry," Saban said. "We've made some progress in that area. It starts with everybody understanding what the expectation is as far as representing this institution and understanding why that is important.
"We're seeing more players starting to affect other players. We're seeing that peer pressure can work in some cases and that does have an effect."
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Everyone go to AL.om and read about how he got red flagged for his ACT. This is not as bad as it seems(I hope) but GD GD GD. Give me a MF break. Get your SH*T together and play ball!
The Tide is rising. Its unstoppable. Its inevidentible. Its the natural order of how things are meant to be. Inspired by Bamas NUMBER 1 recruiting class, WE dedicate this thread to Bamas triumphient return to National dominance.
This year we have an experienced team and I got to thinking what Bama needs to do to get those tough wins. Clemson, UGA, Arky, and LSU got me thinking 1 thing. STOP THE RUN. I dont think Clemson has that great of a passing game and is supposed to have a decent running back, UGA has Moreno and i am still not sold on Staffords passing ability, Arky doesnt have a prov
I'm sure everyone has heard about the new recruiting rule.The rule prohibits coaches from on-site evaluations during the spring evaluation period, which is a big deal to Saban's recruiting process. Saban was asked if this new rule was directed at him. Saban is known in coaching circles as a very aggressive recruiter. “I’d rather not answer that,” he said.
It took about a month or two for it to happen, but finally one coach has fessed up that "the Saban Rule" was for the benefit of lazy coaches.
Minnesota recruiting coordinator Dan Berezowitz said the so-called "Saban Rule" limits the demands on "coaches who don't want to work and evens the playing field with the ones who do." He is eager for coac
I heard a very promising rumor this weekend about Nico. I have a lot of friends from andulusia and coming from one of them that knows Nico's brother. It is a done deal. He will be playing for the tide next year, but he wants to go through the recruiting process before he annoucces anything. More or so for the experience than anything else. Supposedly it has nev
