Written by Ell | 05 September 2008

There has been a lot of talk this week about Alabama avoiding a let down after a big, emotional win against Clemson. Truth is, had the game gone the other way, there would be a lot of talk about Alabama trying to rebound after the let down of an emotional loss to Clemson. Either way the Clemson game went, there was going to need to be a refocusing by the Alabama football team this week as it moved from a game against a top 10 team to two games against non-BCS conference schools. The Tide was going to have to move on from one game, adopting Coach Saban's "24 hour rule" and focus on the next opponent. Last year this was a problem. After the Tide dropped a close, emotional, and physical game against LSU the season might as well have been over. Bama looked lost and lackluster in the three losses that closed the regular season, including one to a team similar in football stature to Bama's next two opponents. So how do you avoid it? What did Nick Saban and his staff do to try and keep that from happening to the 2008 Tide? First and foremost, it didn't start after the Clemson game. Building the type of mental and physical toughness that allows you to avoid let downs doesn't happen in a week. This started prior to the bowl practice last year. We saw a lot of comments being made, many of them by Wallace Gilberry, about Alabama players finally "buying in" to Nick Saban's system. Alabama didn't reinvent the wheel prior to playing Colorado last season, but there was a different feel to the Bama squad that took the field in Shreveport to the one that left the field at Auburn. It really kicked into gear when Alabama began its "4th Quarter Program" after the bowl game. No one outside the program knows exactly what the now infamous 4th Quarter program entails, but the goal is clear - creating mental and physical toughness. Going through that type of off-season program has another benefit - team unity. In Coach Bryant's days there was Junction and the small group of guys who actually returned to play for him at Texas A&M. In today's world of limited off-season contact with coaches and restrictions on practice time, a situation like Junction couldn't happen. Instead you get things like the 4th Quarter Program. You get Nick Saban bringing in people from the Pacific institute to give motivational speeches to the team. The Sports Illustrated cover story on Alabama this week gives us an example:

Those who spent the summer on campus were enrolled in a dozen mental conditioning classes, designed to improve, in Saban's words, the "self-actualization, self-confidence [and] self-esteem" of his players. Instructors from the Pacific Institute led the players through a series of exercises and affirmations. This sampling appeared recently in The Birmingham News: "Our team is a family. We will look out for each other. We love one another. Anything that attempts to tear us apart only makes us stronger."

Antoine Caldwell's reaction, again in the SI article:

While this chanting and forced introspection had many players squirming and uncomfortable at first, "that was the point," says Caldwell. "It's all about leaving your comfort zone. Since January we've put a lot of emphasis on improving the team chemistry." That included the elimination of cliques. "We've been bowling, shooting pool, playing cards, different things just to get everybody feeling comfortable together. We're closer this year than we've ever been."

We told you about the Tide football team going as a group to see a movie on a Thursday night the week before the Clemson game. That's happening again tonight as the entire Bama team will make its way to Tuscaloosa's Hollywood 16 Cinemas to see the Don Cheadle movie "Traitor". Each of these things as an isolated event wouldn't get the job done. Working guys hard, pushing them beyond what they thought was capable helps. Trying to get them to understand the mental aspect of the game helps. Doing exercises that try to form unity helps. It is the combination of these things, along with the relentless pursuit of excellence by the man at the top that pushes a team to a championship level. Did you find it odd that there were so many positions on the official depth chart released last week that included the word "or" and several players listed as the back up at a position? That is a part of it. Jerrell Harris saw Chavis Williams get playing time against Clemson while he did not, despite the fact that they were both listed as #2 at the Sam linebacker. Do you think that Harris is working hard this week to try to move back even with, or possibly ahead of Williams? Do you think that Williams will have any type of let down, knowing that if he does, Harris will slide right past him? It's not just a matter of having competition at each position. That certainly helps because it pushes everyone to be better. But there is also the manipulation of the media to help create that competition. Any of those players that have the "or" next to their name on depth chart know that if they have any type of let down this week, or next week, then they will get passed. They also know, because those "or"s were made public, that everyone will know why they got passed. And despite what some would have you believe, players do care what the fans' opinion of them is. When Nick Saban was hired he used the word "process" to describe what would have to transpire over the next few years for Alabama to become a championship level program. Over the last 21 months the use of "The Process" has become a joke to media members and to fans of other teams. Even some Alabama fans use it as a joke, a playful way of reminding people that Alabama is not quite ready to compete for the NCAA Championship. But folks, it ain't a joke. What we've witnessed over the course of the last 11 months (since November's catastrophe) is something that hasn't been seen at Alabama in a long time - possible since 1958 when Coach Bryant took over. Sure, there have been changes at Alabama since then. But there has been no change for the positive nearly as radical as the one that we have seen since Alabama began to practice for the bowl game last year. The difference in attitude is obvious to anyone who is around the program. The difference in physicality was very obvious last Saturday night in Atlanta. Tomorrow night Alabama has a chance to make obvious the difference in mentality. The Tide has a chance to come out and make a statement against Tulane that the opponent does not matter. The chance is there to show Bama fans, and everyone else in college football, that Alabama will give championship caliber effort every time they step on the field, whether it is Tulane or Tennessee; Arkansas State or Auburn. Am I worried about a let down? No. I would be shocked if Bama came out flat. I would be shocked to see anything other than the same type of physical precision and domination that led to a big win last week. Why? Two words: The Process

< Prev		Next >