8:47 am April 15, 2010, by Tony Barnhart

Tuscaloosa, Ala.—Nick Saban likes golf analogies. He has two when he talks about the potential of the 2010 team at Alabama, which hopes to repeat as college football’s national champions.
“Look at Phil Mickelson,” said Saban. “It took him a long time (12 years) to win his first major. He found every way he could to lose the big tournaments. But he finally broke through (in 2004). Now he’s won four.
“Look at Tiger. He wins his first Masters when he’s 21 years old (in 1997). What does he do? He changes his swing because it’s not good enough. Now he’s won 14 majors.”
The point? For great athletes, said Saban, success does not breed complacency. It creates a hunger for more success. That was the challenge Saban put in front of his team at the beginning of Spring practice, which ends on Saturday with the annual A-Day game at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“I asked them what was harder to do: Win a championship or repeat as champions? They all said ‘repeat.’ Why is that?”
Alabama’s players say they have gotten the message.
“I think this team is hungry BECAUSE of what we’ve accomplished,” said quarterback Greg McElroy. “We’ve been to the pinnacle of the mountain. We’ve experienced what it is like to win a championship and we refuse to settle for anything less. We understand what it will take. We understand that it will be difficult. But this team is also prepared to handle it.”
Last season Alabama saw first-hand how heavy the national championship crown can be. This time last year Florida was in this very same position and the weekly pressure on the Gators was evident. Despite the stress Florida went 12-0 and was still No. 1 when the Gators met No. 2 Alabama in the SEC championship game. Florida was an emotionally drained team and Alabama, which had lost to the Gators the year before in Atlanta, was the hungry team and dominated the game 32-13.
“It’s harder to repeat because you know you have a bulls-eye on you and you have to deal with complacency and people being satisfied,” said running back Mark Ingram, the 2009 Heisman Trophy winner. “Our attitude is that the majority of that team is gone, except on offense. We have a lot of young guys on defense and special teams. What happened last year is history.”
Alabama is going to be very good on offense. Birmingham News columnist Kevin Scarbinsky recently suggested that it could be Alabama’s best offense ever (right now that distinction belongs to the 1973 Alabama offense which averaged 480.7 yards per game).
A couple of spots have to be filled up front but O-line coach Joe Pendry has some very good young players. If there is a better running combination in the country than Ingram and sophomore Trent Richardson, you’ll have to show me. McElroy is 14-0 as a college quarterback. Wide receiver Julio Jones is finally healthy after limping on a bad knee for most of 2009. He had only 45 touches on offense in 2009. He’ll get more in 2010.
The questions come on defense, where nine starters from a year ago are gone. Included in that number was the splendid linebacker, Rolando McClain, and the unmovable nose tackle “Mount” Terrence Cody.
But there is a lot of talent here. Dont’a Hightower, who missed all but four games with a knee injury last season, returns and takes McClain’s spot as the heartbeat of the defense. There aren’t many 6-4, 260-pound inside linebackers with speed. He’s one of them. When last we saw defensive end Marcell Dareus (6-4, 296), he was returning a Texas interception 29 yards for a touchdown and earning MVP honors in the BCS championship game. Remember that name folks. This guy is really, really good.
Up front Alabama will be fine on defense. The secondary, however, is a real concern. Junior safety Mark Barron will be counted on to stabilize a group that is missing eight of its top nine players from a year ago. The NCAA suspension of safety Robby Green (media reports speculate that he failed an NCAA mandated drug test) plus an Achilles tendon injury to JUCO transfer Dequan Menzie do not help DC Kirby Smart rebuild the back end of the defense.
“We have a lot of really good players on defense,” said McElroy. “I think they will reload.”
It’s going to be an interesting season at Alabama. The school is in the middle of a stadium expansion that will bring Bryant-Denny to over 100,000. The opener is with San Jose State on Sept. 4 but the following Saturday Penn State and Joe Paterno come to Tuscaloosa. If Alabama is going to become the first team since Nebraska (1994-95) to repeat as national champions, we should get an indication then.
“We have a lot of guys on this team who know what it feels like to walk off the field as a national champion,” said McElroy. “We want to feel that way again.”

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Can Alabama remain a hungry football team? | Mr. College Football