Saban's Plan for 'Bama Revival Working

When Mike Shula was fired after a 6-7 season in 2006, Nick Saban was brought in to restore Alabama's suddenly dysfunctional football program to glory.

Saban says he didn't have a timetable or expectations of how quickly that would happen. In fact, Saban continues to remind himself each day to solve one problem at a time, whether it's in the game plan, the kicking game, recruiting, personnel, or whatever. Saban reminds those around him to stay tuned to the task and take pride in their performance.

Well, Saban's mantra is working. The ultimate micro-manager has won 10 games in consecutive seasons for the first time in his career, and his top-ranked Tide return to practice Sunday to continue preparations for the BCS title game against No. 2 Texas.

"I think that each year we've made progress in that regard and we win because we have good players that have good attitudes and work hard and are good at what they do," Saban said.

Saban, the program's sixth head coach since 2000, has the Tide on the brink of its first national championship since the 1992 season.

Entering the Jan. 1, 1993 Sugar Bowl against the largest spread in a matchup of 1-versus-2 ranked teams, 13.5-point underdog Alabama defeated Miami 34-13 en route to its 12th national championship.

That seems like an eternity of disappointments and headaches ago.

"I have had two head coaches and three offensive coordinators in four years, so it has been difficult," said redshirt junior quarterback Greg McElroy, whose Tide has been tabbed an early favorite over the Longhorns.

"I understand as a player how hard it is to experience coaching changes. You feel unwanted at times. You feel upset at times, but the main thing is, this university belongs on top of the college football world and we're fortunate to have Coach Saban now and the coaches that come before obviously led us to Coach Saban and things have worked out."

Alabama's seniors are preparing for their last game. They have experienced the highs and the lows, the good and bad times. Javier Arenas couldn't have scripted it any better.

"I think it's something that we'll notice after the season when we look back on it as seniors, 'Dang, look how that that happened,' " said Arenas, an All-American cornerback and the SEC's career leader in punt returns (1,733 yards) and return touchdowns (seven)

"We're going to pride ourselves on it, and it will make you a better person in the future. Not playing football, but as a person because you'll know what kind of hard work you put in, and know what the results are if you do that (work hard). It's a special time for a lot of seniors. The underclassmen might see it the same way when they come back."

Of course, the Tide's attention is on the present, just like Saban preaches.

"You create an opportunity for yourself, so your focus should be on what you need to do to take advantage of it," Saban said. "I'm not worried about winning a national championship, and I don't want our players to worry about it, either.

"What I want our players to focus on is playing their best football and to assume that they're going to play the best football team they've ever played and they're going to be playing against the best player they've ever played against, and that's what they should be working to do and what they should be focused on."

"You create an opportunity for yourself, so your focus should be on what you need to do to take advantage of it."
-- Nick Saban Alabama, which stressed fundamentals in five practices last week, will begin to implement its gameplan this week following a three-day break for Christmas.

The Tide will hold five practices in Tuscaloosa, Ala., concluding on Thursday and departing for Pasadena, Calif., on Friday. Alabama will begin its normal game-week preparations on Saturday for the Jan. 7 title game in the Rose Bowl.

The showdown is shaping up to be a classic.

On one side you have the No. 1 team in passing efficiency in the Big 12 (Texas) against the No. 1 team nationally in passing efficiency (Alabama); the No. 1 scoring offense in the Big 12 (Texas) against the No. 1 scoring defense in the nation (Alabama) and the No. 1 rushing defense in the nation (Texas) against the Heisman Trophy winner (Alabama's Mark Ingram).

All-American senior guard Mike Johnson, who has made 40 consecutive starts and played in a school-record 53 games, believes the Tide must be stronger up the middle against the Longhorns. Texas is about as balanced in its front seven as you will find in college football. The Longhorns have 41 sacks compared to Alabama's 31.

"We'd really like to work on some of our power plays up inside as an offensive line," Johnson said.

"It's something that we took a lot of pride in as an offensive line last year having the big bodies. We lost a little bit of weight from last year to this year. We haven't been as successful up the middle as we've liked to. We've had a lot of successful runs, but not just as dominant as we like to be.

"We'd like to improve there. We're able to run the ball a lot, but a lot of it is on the perimeter and stuff like that. We really want to get things done inside and be able to take games over like that."

Alabama's defense, meanwhile, held six of nine SEC opponents under 100 rushing yards this season, and the Tide has not allowed an opposing running back to rush for more than 100 yards in 33 games, dating to October 2007.

Overall, Alabama surrendered just nine touchdowns in nine SEC games, holding five teams to single-digit scoring.

Texas, of course, is Texas.

The Longhorns have won 26 of their last 27, the defeat last year to Texas Tech on Michael Crabtree's last-second catch.

Naturally, Saban is one of the best at what he does. He also abhors the "clutter" that can distract from a team's preparation.

"They are obviously a very good team," said linebacker Rolando McClain, one of six Tide All-Americans.

"They have a great quarterback who has good receivers around him. We just have to do what we've been doing this entire year and that is just playing our style of football.

"Coach (Nick Saban) always says it is not about what they do, it's about what we do. So we just have to go out and play our game and I think we'll be alright."