Another example of why the Alabama Crimson Tide is still 'Alabama'

The Alabama Crimson Tide football program has been different from almost every other program for a long time. Even before the 16 seasons of exceptional success of Nick Saban, Alabama Football had four national championship coaches. Most programs are lucky to ever have two.

The post-Saban story of how Alabama could no longer be Alabama is tired from the retelling. Even when the claim was new, it was driven by the desire for a Crimson Tide downfall, rather than facts.

Kalen DeBoer's Alabama story is maybe a paragraph into chapter one. How it will end no one knows. What we know is, that this Alabama football staff has often talked about how quickly they could see and feel the specialness of the Crimson Tide program.

The University of Alabama in so many ways bungled the management of the Alabama football program between the Bryant and Saban years. Gene Stallings was a success despite the mismanagement, but still left because of it. This history is pertinent because Nick Saban left the Alabama football program in such great shape, that Kalen DeBoer has a springboard. Plus, DeBoer works for the best AD in the business.

Vision and leadership at the top are great but must be filtered down to all levels of an organization. At Alabama, it has for a long time and still does effectively. To understand the strong bond of shared mission, listen to the players. They have been generally saying the same things for years.

This week, Alabama football tight end CJ Dippre was interviewed. Dippre was asked to respond to the difficulty Alabama had against South Florida. Part of what Dippre said was USF had a good plan, "but Bama beat Bama." Obviously, Dippre was talking about plays when USF performed better than the Crimson Tide. Alabama got beat on those plays, but there were not enough for USF to beat Alabama for the game.

Dippre added about USF "They didn't do anything special. Good team. All respect to them. But we kind of just beat ourselves." The Alabama Crimson Tide standard is so high, that winning a game 42-16, can carry the feeling of a loss.

Cedric Burns who worked for Paul Bryant and Gene Stallings, and still works for Nick Saban, was once asked what separated the eight Alabama football coaches he worked for in Tuscaloosa. Paraphrased, Cedric said the championship coaches were all the same and the others were not. The 'same' is the standard; lived not just preached.

Playing to the Alabama Crimson Tide Standard

Players for Bryant, Stallings, and Saban held themselves to the standard of measuring themselves by the goal of being their best. Wins and championships were byproducts of that standard. No matter the opponent, the game, or the play situation, all that counted was what Alabama did or did not do. Nick Saban is out and Kalen DeBoer is in - but the standard has not changed.

This week in Tuscaloosa, the players have focused on, "Elevate. To play to our standard, elevate to our standard and not drop to the level of our opponent, no matter who we're playing."