Alabama Football: Time for Crimson Tide to get its mind right

Alabama Football coach Nick Saban has always devoted many of his lessons for players to one small area of their anatomy. That small area resides between the ears. The ability to shape thinking and teach how to translate thinking into action has made Saban, not only a great coach but also a great leader of young men.

The 2021 season has been one when player development and improving physical and mental skills have had a slow learning curve. Saban, at least publicly, has been somewhat patient as players gradually improve. Three regular-season Saturdays are all that is left. One, maybe two of the remaining games may offer a stiff challenge. Alabama Football will be favored in each of those games and should finish the regular season at 11-1.

Next would be a contest being talked about across college football. Outside of the Crimson Tide Nation, not many think the Crimson Tide is on equal footing to the Georgia Bulldogs. So far in the season, Kirby Smart’s team has appeared to be the only elite team.

How far is the Crimson Tide from being elite? In the minds of many Alabama football fans, the gap is great enough for discomfort. To the extent the Tide still needs considerable improvement, no one understands that better than Nick Saban.

As always, Saban is focused on what is next. The next practice, the next rep, the next video review session. Getting ahead of ‘what is next’ is not part of Saban’s vaunted Alabama Football process. In the video below, the legendary coach exhorts his players to get their minds right.

The core message to the team was clear.

"(The media says) We’re supposed to be in the Playoffs. We’ve got no business being in the Playoffs until we earn our way to get into the Playoffs."

Of course, Saban is correct. That is exactly the basis from which this team must still grow, individually and collectively. Whether it can improve enough is not known. There is talent, even in the least, well-performing position groups. There is no luxury of time but there is enough time.

On Wednesday Saban implied there might be changes on the offensive line. Speaking on the SEC Teleconference, Saban said,

"I do think we have competition at the position. Chris (Owens) has played there before, but we also have some young guys that have played the position that have done very well. We wanna evaluate and see what gives us the best chance to be successful in the game, and we’ll do that throughout the week."

Who Saban is talking about, and what that means is not known. The Tide head man was more clear when talking about the defense. While he acknowledged improvement, he still called that side of the ball a “work in progress”

Saturday’s New Mexico State game will be a good opportunity to test some position group changes.