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PHOENIX, Ariz. — My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
Alabama coach Nick Saban has preached a Tide-centric version of that quote from President John F. Kennedy since his team looked out of sync in a 42-35 loss to Ohio State in last season’s College Football Playoff.
Used to be, Saban said, four- and five-star recruits flocked to Tuscaloosa to find out what they could do for the Tide. Players like Julio Jones, Mark Ingram and Marcell Dareus. After three national titles between 2009 and 2012, it became about what Alabama can do for the players.
“I think when you win the first championship it becomes the standard of the organization,” Saban said Saturday. “Then it’s a matter of do people buy into that standard in terms of not feeling entitled or feeling complacent about past success. Continuing to get people to embrace the challenges of the future. Which we’ve had some issues with through the years with some of our teams.”
This summer, Saban explained that his players seemed too complacent after winning the 2014 SEC championship. That the defense seemed worn down after a faster offensive tempo equated to additional plays. That some players found out about their potential NFL draft status and played the Buckeyes with one foot out the door.
The USA Today headline on July 15, 2015, was no anomaly. But it summed up the feelings of many national media members at the time: “Nick Saban breaks out lame excuses for Alabama’s lame finish last season.”
To be fair, Saban’s points, especially strung together, sound like excuses. Also to be fair, the media and the fan base asked — repeatedly — for him to explain how the Tide could dare lose by a touchdown in the national semifinals to the eventual champion. And so the coach did explain, with the best reasons he could muster.
The truth, ascertained readily if you’ve watched every Alabama game since the ’12 season title, is that every season is a grind for the Tide. Opponents dream of knocking them off all offseason. It’s a constant parade of emotional highs on the other sideline. And to boot, opponents seem to get bye weeks before playing Bama seemingly ad nauseam.
Whatever reasons you ascribe to the Ohio State loss, from Saban’s point of view, the team’s vibe just didn’t feel right.
“I think when people buy in or are accountable to what you’re trying to help them accomplish, it does make you feel at least like — the most difficult thing as a coach is when you feel like you’re more committed and you’re trying harder than some of the players are, because they don’t seem to buy in or think the things that you’re trying to emphasize are important to being successful,” he said Saturday.
“I think that’s a little on the disappointing side.”
Alabama brings its ‘A’ game — lathered up, wide-eyed and in full attack mode from the opening kickoff — two or three times a season at this point. A perpetual favorite, the Tide entered 72 consecutive games as such in Vegas before sportsbooks made the program an underdog at Georgia earlier this season. It’s just not possible to sustain peak performance for 15 consecutive games.
That’s what is so glaring about the 2015 Alabama team: There’s still a sharpness and an edge to them. It was noticeable during the 38-0 beatdown of Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl. It has been one of Saban’s biggest themes all season. And it has been readily apparent here in Phoenix.
These players saw what happened last year. A few of them went out a little too much in New Orleans prior to last year’s Sugar Bowl. The rest of them know that if history repeats itself, either Saban will verbally peel off their skin or the media will hound them for another full year about their complacency.
Saban and Alabama claimed the last five mythical recruiting national championships, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. His staff is loaded with head coaches, both past (Lane Kiffin, Mario Cristobal) and future (Kirby Smart). He’s probably won more big games than any coach in the country, including Urban Meyer.
In other words, the Tide at its best is as close to unbeatable as a team can be in this era. All indications are this team will be at that level against Clemson tonight.
“When you have a team like this that has done things like you want and done it pretty much as a total group, that is very satisfying,” Saban said. “But at the same time, you’d like to see them make sure that they do it and finish it the right way.”
Alabama is 60 minutes of football from doing just that.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
