Alabama Football: Who Can Be the Leader Nick Saban Needs in 2015?

Nick Saban didn’t hold back when talking about the downfall of his 2014 Alabama team to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports.

After every Crimson Tide team that doesn’t win a national championship, there is some sort of complacency narrative, but the Alabama coach has never quite laid it out this bluntly:

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“I'm really anxious to get back to the team being the most important thing,” Saban told CBSSports.com. “In the beginning … the first four or five years of the program … there was no doubt regardless of the player … the team was the most important thing.”

Does that mean the 2014 team lacked those qualities?

“I'm not saying that. I'm anxious to reemphasize, we didn't finish well the last two years,” Saban added. “That's when the distractions become greater for the guys whether they're going out for the draft, staying in. Seniors that are going to get drafted …

“Teams win championships, individuals don't.”

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It’s easy to see where that mentality could come from. Just about everyone on Alabama’s roster has experienced a national championship, won a state title or been the top player at their high school at some point. They’ve grown up being the best.

Dave Martin/Associated Press

And sometimes individual goals aren’t always on track with team goals, hence Saban’s frustration.

If Saban and Alabama get the change they want, it’s going to have to come from within. It’s one thing for coaches to preach a certain mentality. It’s another to see a fellow player, a peer, set an example or confront you directly.

“You have leadership that's supposed to reinforce the principles and values of the organization,” Saban said during the 2013 season about leaders stepping up. “When people don't buy in and do those things and make the commitments that they need to make, I think leadership, guys on the team, peer intervention, peer pressure, whatever you want to call it, is something that every good team has.”

So who can be that player for Alabama this year? It could do worse than looking to the guy who should have the football in his hands a lot.

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Derrick Henry has been a model of that team-first player Saban is looking for since he got to campus.

He was one of the most-hyped players in the 2013 recruiting class after shattering national high school rushing records and has carried that momentum over into college, running for almost 1,400 yards in two seasons.

Now, he’s primed to be the No. 1 ball-carrier and a major face of the program, if Alabama’s offseason marketing is any indication:

Saban couldn’t stop gushing about him during the spring.

“Well you know, I love Derrick Henry. He's one of the hardest workers on our team," Saban said. "If you were going to give a most valuable player in the offseason program for just finishing, running hard, winning every race, finishing the drill, he'd have probably got it or been in the top three at least. I think that he has a real burning desire to be a really really good player and works really hard at it.”

John Bazemore/Associated Press

Henry has shown what happens when a 5-star, slam-dunk player (of which Alabama gets a handful of every year) comes in, works hard, waits his turn and makes the most of the playing time he earns.

This year, he’ll be a force for Alabama carrying the ball. But almost more importantly, he can set an example off the field of the kind of work ethic and attitude it takes to play the football Saban is talking about.

It started in offseason conditioning, where Saban called him the team’s MVP. It’s carried over into the offseason, where he hasn’t let up.

"I accept that role as being a leader,” the soft spoken Henry said at the start of spring practice. “Like I said, I just want to make everybody better around me and just get them to push themselves because I'm going to give it my all every time I'm out there and just try to make the team better."

Only time will tell whether the 2015 Alabama unit, which should be as talented as any it’s had under Saban, can meet its full potential and get the program another national title.

Like Saban said, the issue has been finishing, which Alabama hasn’t been able to do the last few years. The 2014 team looked like his most resilient until it had a month off and ran into Ohio State in New Orleans.

His tone-setter for the mindset he wants to see on this year’s team will be Henry.

Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes and reporting were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.