We’re only three games into the 2012 football season, and the comparisons have already begun to fly about this version of Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide.
Because this reloaded version has been so dominant, you can’t compare it to other teams in college football and must settle for comparing it to other versions of itself.
Is this the best Alabama team Saban has had during his tenure as the Tide’s head football coach? In short, the answer is to be determined. Ultimately, the 2012 version of the Crimson Tide will have to qualify for and win the big game in Miami in order to truly measure up.
The jury is still out on this year’s team, as they have yet to prove anything other than what everyone else already knew: Alabama has a pretty damn good football team.
After the Western Kentucky game, Coach Saban and the team were upset with the overall performance. Now another week has passed, and Alabama has dominated another opponent, pitching a shutout against SEC foe Arkansas. Saban and the team were a little more pleased, but they know winning three games and outscoring your opponents 128-14 isn’t the goal.
“We’ve really been fighting with this group since the Michigan game about allowing ourselves to accept average and getting them to demand more of themselves,” Saban said.
Get this: Alabama didn’t play anywhere near its potential and still drug the Razorbacks through the mud – literally. Yes, Arkansas was banged up. Yes, they were without starting quarterback Tyler Wilson. But Wilson can’t block for himself. Wilson doesn’t tackle. Wilson would not have made up for the 52-point crater that separates Alabama from Arkansas and most other teams of the college football world.
Can anyone beat this Alabama team? Is anyone even close to the Tide’s level?
Those questions may not be answered until Nov. 3 in Death Valley.
The schedule between now and then has what would be considered trap games for most teams (Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi State), but not this Alabama team. Maybe in 2010, but not in 2012.
This team is so balanced offensively that nine receivers caught passes on Saturday. The rushing game produced six touchdowns. The kicker made a 50-yard field goal. The defense forced five turnovers.
Got the point yet?
No single player had a breakout game against Arkansas. In simple terms, the collective group of talent completely schooled the Razorbacks and their (temporary) head coach John L. Smith.
Why is Alabama so good? What makes them different from other programs that consistently bring in four and five-star recruits? Look no further than the headman leading the team out of the tunnel every Saturday. Saban holds everyone on the team and his staff to the same standard.
“I yelled more at the second team than I did at the first team because we practiced all that stuff, and they don’t go out there and do it right in the game,” Saban said. “They don’t think they’re going to play. Well, you’re one play from playing and then we got to count on you. Can we count on you? And if you have no other motivation in the world, your motivation should be ‘I don’t want to be the guy that screws up.’
“It does them good when they get their butts chewed out a little bit. It helps their mental toughness, I think.”
But Alabama isn’t perfect (yet). The Tide still has yet to play its best football. That’s the part that should scare the rest of the nation.
“There’s always room for improvement, and the sky is the limit for this team,” offensive lineman Chance Warmack said.
World, you have officially been warned.
