Click here for linkAfter Alabama won a national championship in 2009, it knew what it wanted to do the following season.
Repeat.
The Crimson Tide didn't know how to do it, because the experience was new to every player on the roster.
The experience wasn't new to Alabama coach Nick Saban, who won a national championship in 2003 at LSU. He told the Crimson Tide to focus on playing to a high standard.
Repeat: Focus on playing to a high standard.
Saban repeated and repeated and repeated the message, to no avail. The Tide lost three games in 2010.
And now here Alabama is coming off the 2011 national championship. It knows what it wants this season.
Repeat.
And this time, it knows how to do it, because it has a roster full of players who have experienced how not to do it.
"We have a lot of players that understand fully what it takes to be great," said Chance Warmack, who was a freshman in 2009 and has started since 2010 at left guard. "That makes us who we are now." ..............