Alabama Football 2012: If Tide Doesn't Win Title It Won't Be Due to Complacency

In 2010, the Crimson Tide were coming off of a 14-0 season, holding the national title belt. Plus, they had a team that folks expected to get right back into the championship game. That team came up short, dropping three SEC games as their hated rival, the Auburn Tigers, rode Cam Newton to the BCS Title.

That team had youth on defense and fought injuries en route to a 10-3 finish.

In 2012, the team looks oddly similar: youth on defense and the projected starter at running back is returning from an offseason surgery. This year, those players who were freshmen and sophomores on the 2010 squad are looking to avoid the same fate.

As Matt Murschel of the Orlando Sentinel reports, Barrett Jones is helping lead the anti-complacency charge, saying, “I don’t think the leaders bought into it. It was our first national championship and we had a hangover from that experience.”

He is joined by another sophomore starter on the 2010 team, tight end Michael Williams, who said, “We didn’t lose those games (in 2010) because we were trying to repeat. We lost those games because we were complacent.”

This Alabama team may not win the 2012 title, but that won't be because of complacency and not buying into the system, because this year is wholly different from last season. No, if this team does not win the title, it will be because a team or teams go out on the field and beat them at their own game. 

For the Tide, this is not their first rodeo.

Where in 2010, the hangover might have been quite real as no one on that roster had ever taken part in something like that, the year's roster does not have that same problem. On both sides of the ball, there are both players who played extensively in that somewhat disappointing 2010, and those who sat and watched as the team fell short of their goals.

On defense, Nico Johnson, CJ Mosley, Robert Lester, Damion Square and Dee Milliner are the most notable bodies who will stop the slide into comfort. For that offense, AJ McCarron sat and watched as Greg McElroy fell short of the repeat. However, Chance Warmack, Michael Williams and Barrett Jones were the men in the trenches slugging it out in the disappointing 2010 season.

Having experience at key positions is invaluable. Having experience in handling difficult situations is priceless. The Crimson Tide have both.

If they come up short in 2012, it won't be due to a lack of effort. This team is focused, and they understand what it takes to be champions. Their leaders also understand just how easily that can slip from their grasps.