The Highly-Anticipated 2010 Crimson Tide Season

Now that Nick Saban has captured the Coach's Trophy for the second time, the naysayers are beginning to back down and give the man the credit that he has earned with hard work and dedication to the sport he loves.

The circumstances at both institutions that have benefited from the Saban process were completely different. He accomplished the goal of winning a national championship in Year Four at LSU and in Year Three at Alabama.

Saban has recently restated that the hardest year to coach, from personal experience, was the year after winning the national championship.

He only has one year of experience coaching in a year after a championship. This is a second chance for Saban. His approach will be entirely different than 2004. The process has been adjusted to perform better the second time around.

Let's review what happened the first time, and project expectations for 2010 looking through the crystal of the Coach's Trophy ball.

2004 LSU Season in Review

Along with offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher and defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, Saban prepared his Bayou Bengals team to defend their national title against a ranked team on opening day.

No. 23 Oregon State entered Death Valley on Sept. 4, 2004, to do battle with LSU on their turf and on their terms. The Tigers squeaked out a 22-21 win.

The Tigers hit the road and rolled into Jordan-Hare on Week Three after hanging 53 points on the Arkansas State Indians. The Sun Belt Conference team could only manage a field goal against the stout Tiger defense.

Complacency, as Nick calls it, caught up with the defending champs in Week Three. The Tommy Tuberville-coached Auburn Tigers were prepared for the defending national champs and wanted to settle a score from the prior season. They did just that in a classic SEC defensive battle.

LSU battled the entire game, taking a 9-3 lead into the fourth quarter. LSU had scored a touchdown earlier in the game but the PAT was missed, accounting for the six-point lead. With 1:14 left to play, Jason Campbell connected with Courtney Taylor on a 16-yard TD pass to tie the game.

Although Auburn had converted 190 consecutive PAT's, kicker John Vaughn miscued, leaving the score tied. As fortune would have it, LSU cornerback Ronnie Prude was called for a personal foul, giving the Auburn kicker a retry. Vaughn did not disappoint his coach on the second attempt.

Auburn went on to scorch the SEC West and won the SEC Championship game. The LSU victory was the only game the Auburn Tigers came close to losing, and it was oh, so close. Only the Iron Bowl, played in Tuscaloosa, was won by less than eight points.

The Auburn offense rung up 417 points that season and yielded a mere 147 on the 12-game schedule. Auburn finished the season No. 2 in the both the AP and Coaches Poll. Many believe the Tigers should have been awarded a co-championship with the No. 1 USC Trojans.

Two weeks later, LSU headed to Athens after disposing of the MSU Bulldogs 51-0 at Tiger Stadium. The Bulldogs at Sanford stadium had more than just a bark. The No. 3-ranked Georgia Bulldogs bit and tore through the thigh pads of the LSU Tigers and beat them like a chalk-filled eraser with a final score of 45-16.

The Georgia Bulldogs finished their season with a 10-2 record. The two losses were to the Auburn Tigers and to the SEC East Division Champions, the Tennessee Volunteers. Georgia finished the season ranked No. 6 in the Coaches Poll.

Saban took his defeated team back to Baton Rouge and corrected the mistakes. The 2004 LSU Tigers won their remaining six regular-season games. They were rewarded for their accomplishments in the 2004 season by the Capital One Bowl committee.

The Tigers ended the season with a loss to the No. 11 Iowa Hawkeyes, 25-30. Iowa won the game on a pass reminiscent of the 2002 LSU-Kentucky (Bluegrass Miracle) game. Iowa QB Drew Tate completed a 56-yard bomb to WR Warren Holliday as time expired.

LSU finished the season ranked No. 16 in both the AP and Coaches Poll. In the post-championship season, LSU outscored opponents 344-205. Losses in the regular season came at the hands of two excellent top-10 teams. Historically, both teams were close to the best taking the field for the respective institution in the past 10 years.

Looking Forward to 2010: Saban and Alabama

Alabama will open their schedule with two home games. The home opener is a warm-up against San Jose State, leading up to the highly anticipated Week Two matchup against the Penn State Nittany Lions.

The 2009 Penn State team finished the regular season 10-2. Losses came in Week Four against the Iowa Hawkeyes and in Week 10 to the Big-10 Conference Champion and eventual Rose Bowl Champion, the Ohio State Buckeyes. Interestingly, the Nittany Lions ended the season with a win in the Capital One Bowl against the LSU Tigers.

Penn State finished No. 9 in the USA Coaches Poll. The AP ranked Penn State No. 8 at season end. The Penn State offense will lose seven starters, including QB Darryl Clark, RB Evan Royster, and TE Mickey Schuler. While they have depth at the tight end position, the loss of Schuler will be felt in terms of production.

Paterno will need to replace two offensive linemen and both starting wide receivers, as well. On defense, the matriculation is just the same—seven losses to graduation. Defensive end Jack Crawford is the lone returner of the starting front seven.

While the returners are experienced, many are first-year lettermen. In addition, the defensive line depth is a major concern for the 2010 team. Linebackers Chris Colasanti and Bani Gbadyu are three-year varsity lettermen, while Sean Lee is a two-year letterman.

The Tide should be favored, possible by a wide margin in the Week Two contest. Penn State will be a top-20 team with a chance for preseason top-10 ranking. They will contend for the Big Ten title in what may turn out to be the last season for legendary coach Joe Paterno.

Simply having JoePa on the sidelines will make this a classic matchup and one highly anticipated for Coach Saban and the Alabama football program. A win against a storied program such as Penn State in Week Two will firmly establish the 2010 Crimson Tide in the top five of all college football polls.

Week Three is a road trip to Durham, N.C. The most that the Duke Blue Devils can hope for is that the Tide receive a citation for speeding through Wallace Wade Stadium, home of the 1942 Rose Bowl.

That's right, I said Wallace Wade Stadium, the same Wallace Wade whose statue is firmly planted in the "Walk of Champions." Wade left the hallowed grounds of Tuscaloosa to coach the Duke Blue Devils in 1930, after winning his third national championship while coaching the Crimson Tide.

If Alabama should lose to Penn State in Week Two, expect a blowout based on 2004 history. If they arrive in Durham 2-0, they will probably only win by 40.

Week Four will have Alabama moving on to Fayetteville, Ark., to face the Liberty Bowl Champion Arkansas Razorbacks. The pro-style offense of the Razorbacks will be in high gear for this matchup.

Quarterback Ryan Mallett will be intent on sending a message to NFL scouts that he can perform well against a Nick Saban-coached 3-4 defense. Land mines will be all over the field in Reynolds-Razorback Stadium.

The young Alabama secondary must get up to speed by this point in the season. It will be up to the Alabama offense to control the tempo or risk getting into a shootout with the Arkansas offense, much like the 2009 Georgia-Arkansas game.

No team on the early part of the 2010 schedule will prepare the Tide secondary for the air attack that will ensue. They must survive this game, or they will not win the Western Division, much less return as SEC Champions. Mark this date on your calendar.

The schedule for 2010 remains tough for the Crimson Tide for the next six weeks. There is no bye in the schedule until after Week Eight.

Following the road trip to Fayetteville, the Crimson Tide will play Florida in Tuscaloosa, head back on the road to Columbia, S.C., return again to Bryant-Denny to face Ole Miss, and then travel to Neyland Stadium for a confrontation with the Tennessee Volunteers.

Meanwhile, the opponents of the Crimson Tide will be coming off  bye weeks in nearly every contest. It will be a remarkable feat for the Crimson Tide to return to Tuscaloosa on Oct. 24, 2010 without a blemish on their record. Losses are anticipated in Fayetteville and Columbia by many prognosticators.

If the Tide returns to Tuscaloosa 8-0, it will mark the best season of coaching ever, bar none, for head coach Nick Saban and his staff. Defensive coordinator Kirby Smart and OC Jim McElwain have their work cut out in 2010. Quarterback Greg McElroy will put his unblemished record on the line. They won't go down without a fight.

Week 10 puts the Crimson Tide in Baton Rouge. Without a doubt, this game will be nationally televised and highly anticipated. Having two weeks to prepare, Saban will have his team ready to play the LSU Tigers. If the Tide record contains a blemish at this point in the year, a win at Death Valley will put them back on track in the national picture.

Finally, the Tide will hit the home stretch with a three-game stand at Bryant-Denny. Mississippi State and Georgia State will assist in preparing the Men in Crimson for the season finale against the in-state rival Auburn Tigers. Without doubt, this will be the toughest game of the long season.

The 2010 Crimson Tide will be expected to repeat as SEC Champions. Once you lay out what is ahead for this group of young men, you will quickly realize how difficult the task will be for the Tide to simply win the Western Division. The winner of the West will be the front-runner for the SEC Championship, without question.

Meanwhile, what happens outside the confines of the SEC will mold the national picture and determine final season rankings. It is very likely that at the end of the regular season, the No. 1 ranked team in the country will have one or two losses. If that is true, Alabama will contend for a repeat national championship.

An undefeated season is for dreamers. There is nothing wrong with dreaming, but our coach is a realist. A reasonable expectation is for a one loss season, a realistic expectation is that the Crimson Tide will lose two games in 2010.

Without a doubt, Saban will attempt to inspire his team to achieve a repeat perfect regular season, and to repeat as SEC Champions. 

He will have the Tide prepared; expectations will be high but reality will sink in as each game unfolds and a new tapestry is sewn together in the great tradition that is known as Alabama Football.