What Story Alabama's First Week of Practice Tells About the Team

Larry Burton (Panama City Beach, Fl) With Alabama's first week of full practice under their belt, what does it say about this team and their chances to repeat as national champions?

First of all, the man himself, Nick Saban, threw us in the press a curve ball, he didn't say what we expected, he didn't play mind games with us or the team and was simply honest.

We expected him to say the team had a long way to go and that he wasn't pleased that this team had proved nothing or some such diatribe that would convey the message that the team couldn't rest on it's laurels and needed much improvement in every area to motivate his team to work hard.

Instead, he was optimistic and said overall he was pleased and pointed out the obvious, that this team had a lot of talent and some good leaders and the weak points could be worked out.

He pointed out the biggest difference between this year and last year was the reversal of roles between the offense and the defense.

He said the first week ended with the team was "Looking crisper, looking quicker" and overall on offense he was "Pleased with the ability to execute" and that was as it should be with all of their skill guys coming back.

However on defense he did say, "We got some great young players, we have a long way to go. We got lots of men making too many mistakes and maybe don't understand the intensity mentally that they have have to focus and play with on a consistent basis and we'll keep working with them and get them to improve..."

In so many words, what Saban was saying was, the talent is already there on offense, along with the mental focus and intensity. They know their jobs and all that needs to be done there is "knock the rust off" and simply urge them to seek to find ways to improve.

On defense, he said the talent is there, but the mental focus is not there and that means neither is the intensity to be consistent. He said the defense would be for the remainder of spring and into the fall, "a work in progress."

But Saban was nowhere near the doom and gloom that we in the press have come to expect from coaches trying to paint to difficulty in repeating as champions.

"Last year," Saban reminded us, "we had all our guys back on defense and they helped carry the team until the offense came around. This year it's the other way around. We have all of our offense back at the skilled positions and it's up to them to score more and take some heat off of the defense until they come around and they're capable of doing that."

Special teams was an area Saban said had talent. He said they have two guys who can kick field goals, but like the defense, they needed to work on consistency and the same with the punters.

In other words, instead of poor mouthing like most coaches do, Saban didn't insult either the press' mentality or his team's ability by painting them in a bad light. He stated the truth and almost sounded optimistic about the overall ability of this team to be another great one, though Nick Saban would never talk about any end game projections at this point in the season.

Last year, despite losing two key starters on defense, Damien Square and Dont'a Hightower, the Crimson Tide was extremely injury lucky during the season.

Both those players were practicing this year and except for starting center William Vlachos who has a broken foot and is expected to be back for the fall without problems, the Tide starts off healthy this year.

Some players have caught Nick Saban's eye for good and bad reasons early on. Saban praised tight end Michael Williams for his good work so far and that eases a lot a fear for many fans with the departure of Colin Peek and Star Jackson caught the eye of Nick Saban for, as the rumors go, skipping classes and was not allowed to practice until this "situation" was resolved.

Overall, the first week showed us there is no desperation. Alabama is not desperate to keep their grip on the top rung of college football and not panicking over the losses of great players on defense. They are simply relying on their to reverse the roles of last year, let the offense help carry the defense for while and teach a new group of young men what it is to be Crimson Tide player in the Nick Saban system.

Lastly the first week of practice peeled another of insight into Nick Saban character and personality.

In talking about Star Jackson's problem, Saban recounted his own difficulty in the eighth grade, when he refused to sing in front of the students in Mrs. Selmanski's music class. He got a D.

When his dad saw that grade, he was off the basketball team immediately and taken to to coal mines hundreds of feet underground and was told that this is where he would wind up if he couldn't do better than that.

The look of the men in those mines and the taking away of his sports privileges had the appropriate effect on a young Nick Saban.

That story helped us learn two things about Nick Saban. One, that he knows what punishments work on young men and two, that Nick Saban will never open a game by singing the National Anthem.