By Chris Sprow
ESPN Insider
When these two got together just over two years ago, Nick Saban and Alabama football, perhaps it truly was the perfect marriage, but mostly because, in retrospect, a merging of their recent imperfections made sense. There was Saban, coming off a failed stint in the NFL, and there was Alabama, leaving behind failed flirtations with the next great coach.
The results of this combination were brilliant because both parties, we always knew, were brooding giants. And in short order, the swagger is back, and Saban is basking in Bama mystique. He's even recently mentioned scheduling a round-robin tournament with other elites like USC, Texas and Penn State. Call it the Mystique Club.
Saban knows the Tide belong once more.
But in 2009, the returning Bama swagger and mystique is nearly all on defense. As good as the Tide were last year, the only two losses on their schedule were to the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the final AP and BCS polls, those players left in the lineup able to score the ball doesn't compare with who's left to stop it.
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The Tide return nine starters from a defense that allowed 14.3 points a game last season, second in the SEC, seventh nationally. They may have to be even better this season to compensate for a young offense, but with their lynchpin back, they should be.
Terrence Cody, the 6-foot-5, 365-pound defensive tackle, who could give Gilbert Brown an inferiority complex and is also pegged as a first round pick next year, is back in the middle. And the run stops there.
According to ESPN Stats & Information, Alabama faced more runs up the middle than any other direction, but teams found it difficult to run there. The reason is Cody.
"He's pretty much impossible to move," Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt said of Cody. "It opens [Alabama] up to do a lot of things."
Nutt would know because last year, Ole Miss nearly came back to beat Bama after Cody went down with a knee injury. The Rebels and LSU figure to be the Tide's biggest hurdles in the SEC West this year, and Bama has beaten Ole Miss by just 3, 3 and 4 points in the last three meetings between the two teams.
Where Cody and a loaded defensive line may be most valuable is in allowing the best group of linebackers in the country to roam free. The Bama backers are led by Rolando McClain, who looks like an NFL prototype, and Saban has quipped about his leadership recently. He told reporters, "[McClain] needs to affect other people on the defense in a positive way. It's something we're lacking from a leadership standpoint. Can he be that guy? Can he make that impact on others?"
It's a good question because during the summer, the internal leadership of the players in the program takes over. And if Saban's assembled talent is anything, it's young. The man has quickly turned around the recruiting here, but the fruits aren't all ripe.
When Saban arrived, he was late for luring the best of the 2007 class but still inked the 17th-ranked group. Saban landed the third-best class in ESPN's recruiting rankings in 2008, the No. 2 class last season and may be on pace for No. 1 in 2010.
His latest class is loaded with athletes, which will help support the one area of defense that could be exposed. The secondary lost Rashad Johnson, but it still has a likely first rounder in next year's NFL Draft, Javier Arenas. Still, in the SEC Championship Game against Florida, Tim Tebow exposed them. When Tebow had 10 or more yards to go for a first down, he completed 12 of 15 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns.
The SEC was a scary league defensively last year. Ask coaches in any league and they'll tell you it's not because of a lack of offensive inventiveness, with six teams holding opponents under 20 points a game. (To compare, the Big 12 had one defense under 24.5 points a game: Texas.)
And while Saban likes a steady, mistake-free quarterback, he'll be starting a kid in Greg McElroy, who has completed 16 passes in two years on campus. What's more, Saban has to replace the heart and soul of the offense. An Andre Smith-led offensive line that mauled opponents last year lost four starters last year, and was totally exposed in the Sugar Bowl against Utah with Smith suspended.
Admittedly, they block for a super-talented young backfield led by Mark Ingram, and the Tide do have, perhaps other than A.J. Green of Georgia, one of the truly unstoppable forces in college football at wideout in Julio Jones. But it's going to be a mystery early on. Virginia Tech kicks off the schedule, and scoring on the Hokies might be tough. But with a fair SEC slate, things set up pretty well for wins. Only the cashier needs to show up for home games with North Texas, Florida International and Chattanooga.
In many ways, based on Saban's efforts thus far and the work still yet to be done, the program still looks a year away from starting a dominant run. It's no indictment, just the reality of growth.
But that's what we said before last season, and the Tide came in anyway. This time around, fans might be better served to mimic the coach and just fold the arms and start expecting excellence.
