Where Does Nick Saban and Alabama Go From Here?

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) Saturday's game at LSU left Alabama down and out of the SEC championship and took away any shot at repeating as national champions. So you may ask yourself, what does the Tide have left to play for?

First of all, they can still play to finish in the Top 10, they can play hard to be second in the SEC, but most importantly they can play like Alabama and still attract the top recruits that could sign this year and years to come.

In 2008, after losing to Florida in the SEC Championship Game, Alabama came out flat in the Sugar Bowl and was subsequently bounced by Utah. That feeling of losing bothered the Alabama players, many of whom are still on the team and remember.

"We didn't have any intensity in that game," Mark Ingram said. "We were flat from the close loss to Florida and we never got over it."

Will history repeat itself this year?

Alabama has not just one tough game left with Auburn, but a tough game with Mississippi State coming up next.

That game should show both the staff and team just how they'll deal with the LSU loss. That game will show if they have the heart to face Auburn and make it one for the ages or one for the garbage.

This game will show which players will stand up and which will roll over and play dead.

But more importantly, how Alabama chooses to finish this season will say much about how it will be perceived at the start of next season.

Maybe Alabama can build an identity as a team slowly and off the national radar for a while.

Next year's team could be a different look indeed or the NFL could have a lockout and keep some juniors in school for their senior years, but that is another story for another day.

What's important now is what do these men do now with four more games remaining in the season and the jury still out on this team and its place in history.

Nick Saban and his staff have their work cut out for them, not in coaching the Xs and Os but in dealing with the minds of these players who are now wondering what went wrong and how this happen to a team that almost everyone believed had the best shot of repeating as national champions in a very long time.

The offensive line gave up big plays, especially the one fumble by quarterback Greg McElroy that was caused by an untouched rusher. Wide receiver Julio Jones had some more drops, and the young defensive secondary gave up huge plays with blown assignments.

The defensive line continued to let quarterbacks elude sacks, Ingram and Trent Richardson were less than billed, and even the special teams had a ho-hum day.

There was a lot more that went wrong than anything that went right.

So where does Alabama go from here? Back to work, back to basics and back to winning.