What Do the 2010 Alabama Crimson Tide Have To Fear?

These are certainly high times in T-Town. There is still an afterglow of winning the national championship still radiating, a seasoned coaching staff in place to go along with all that returning talent both tested and incoming.

But despite all the reasons to be happy, to be hopeful, to be be expecting more glory, there is a great fear in the mind of fans and the mad scientist who put all these forces in motion, Nick Saban. It is a fear that he knows all too well. He fears it because he's lived through it once before and he knows it's all too real.

To Nick Saban and to knowing players and fans the greatest thing to fear in 2010 is apathy.

You could define apathy as the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion.

A great thinker once said, "It's much easier to get to the top, than to stay on top". Coaches over the decades would all agree.

The 2003 season saw Nick Saban and LSU overcome great adversity and win the national championship. The 2004 team was expected to be another great team and possibly be a contender for the championship again.

But it opened the season with a sluggish overtime win against Oregon State, a team they should have manhandled and their third game saw them lose to an Auburn team 10-9. Then just two games later, they were absolutely steam rolled by Georgia 45-16.

They came back with some winning games before almost losing to Troy University, at that time barely a division one school before ending the season with a loss to Iowa.

Yes Nick has seen it happen before and knows it could happen again.

I had a coach tell me once, "It's much harder to lift those weights in the off season with that championship ring on your finger. It's harder to run those wind sprints when you've already finished the biggest race of your life."

Florida recently had a national championship with a young freshman named Tebow. They has every reason to think they could repeat. Indeed, the next year, that young quarterback won a Heisman Trophy, but his team lost four games that next year.

It took that embarrassing season to re-focus that team back to the things it took to with the championship and the next year they were back as national champions. When they almost lost that focus yet again, it was that same Tim Tebow who re-focused not only himself, but that team. The concern, excitement, motivation, and passion were back.

Can Alabama hold all that together one more time? This season will tell.

They have the players, they have the talent, they have the coaches, and everyone said this was the year they were supposed to be at the top of hill, not last year. But do they have that apathy now that they've already won it all?

Yes, there are a few other things for fans to be nervous about, playing six SEC teams that are coming off bye weeks should be just one of them, but it's easy to think this team is up to the challenge.

Only one school has won back to back unquestioned consensus national championships more than once. But it's been 30 years since it was last done. They did it in 1964 and 1965 and again in 1978 and 1979.

That school is Alabama. If any team can do it again, it is this one.