HOOVER, Ala. - Which Alabama team will take the field in 2008?
That must be the question Crimson Tide fans are asking themselves after a 2007 filled with many highs and lows. Alabama finished the season at 7-6 with a .500 Southeastern Conference record.
But it was the way things fell apart at the end - with a four-game losing streak - that sticks out in most people's minds.
"Our team last year probably didn't play with a lot of consistency in performance," Coach Nick Saban said. "We didn't finish games. We didn't finish the season."
Things started well in Saban's first season at the helm. Alabama won its first three games, including a 2-0 start in the SEC after a 41-38 victory over then-No. 16 Arkansas, keyed by a game-winning touchdown with eight seconds left.
The Crimson Tide entered the Top 25 the next week and followed that up with a 26-23 overtime loss against Georgia, who finished the season ranked No. 2. Alabama scored 10 points in the final 6:30 to force the extra period before falling short.
"We need to finish," senior safety Rashad Johnson said. "It's just something that wasn't a mindset for a lot of guys on the team last year."
Four weeks later, the peak of the Tide's season came with a 41-17 thrashing of then-No. 21 Tennessee. But Alabama followed that up with four straight losses, including defeats at Mississippi State and at home against Louisiana-Monroe.
Days after that upset, Saban created controversy when he referenced two moments in U.S. history - the September 11th terrorist attacks and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
"Changes in history usually occur after some kind of catastrophic event," Saban said at the time. "It may be 9/11, which sort of changed the spirit of America relative to catastrophic events. Pearl Harbor kind of got us ready for World War II, and that was a catastrophic event."
That loss against the Warhawks, which hail from the Sunbelt conference, also led to LSU coach Les Miles poking some fun at the former Tigers coach this week.
At a Tigers booster club meeting in New Orleans last weekend, Miles said "not to make too much of that (Alabama) game, as it seems a lot of teams in Louisiana beat that team."
Miles avoided opportunities to add onto that during his turn at media days on Wednesday, characterizing his remarks as a playful joke and instead talked about the "great respect" he had for Alabama.
On Thursday, Saban humbly admitted Miles had a point.
"Well, he told the truth," Saban said. "He told it like it was. We need to earn it. You know that's what the guy told Private Ryan, Private Ryan told Tom Hanks on the bridge after 12 guys got killed getting him out of there, Tom Hanks says, 'Earn this.' We need to earn the respect."
The work to change the team's mentality has already begun.
"Finishing is mental," Johnson said. "Anybody can go and finish and run through the line, but it's all the mindset of how you get through the line. It makes it a lot tougher to be able to finish if you don't get your mind right before the season.
"It's something that (the coaches) have been wearing on us all off-season about finishing, and I think guys are actually starting to get their mind where they know how to finish now."
Saban enters 2008 hoping for more consistency with him entering his second season in Tuscaloosa.
"The expectation of them knowing what to do, how to do it, why it's important to do it that way, and having some consistency in system," he said. "I think there's a lot of things that contribute to trying to get players to play with more confidence, but having a better understanding of what they're supposed to do, how they're supposed to do it, and why it's important to do it that way probably contributes to it as much as anything."
Johnson has seen his teammates become more accustomed to their coach's ways.
"A lot more guys understand what coach Saban wants from players," the safety said. A lot more guys are buying into it. You see guys not missing class, coming out running hard everyday. It's a whole lot different from last year. A lot more guys speaking up when guys are doing things wrong."
Saban knows everyone surrounding Alabama will get an early glimpse of the team's potential when the Tide open with a neutral-site game against preseason darling Clemson, who was picked to win the Atlanta Coast Conference.
"The thing that this game with Clemson does, who has a returning veteran team, who has had success, and who will be a top-10 team, will be a challenge for our team relative to seeing where we are and how we compete and where we need to go to get better - win or lose."
