Alabama Crimson Tide

All of a sudden, Robert Lester is the veteran in the Alabama secondary.

It seems like yesterday that he was one of the unknowns trying to crack the rotation and prove himself.

“In 2010, I was that guy who hadn’t played yet,” Lester said. “I had been around the program, but I hadn’t really played. I was hungry to go out there and make my mark.”

Lester did just that with a team-leading eight interceptions as a sophomore, and was playing in a secondary that included eventual NFL draft picks Mark Barron, Dre Kirkpatrick and DeQuan Menzie.

It’s also a secondary that was gutted from the year before. The Crimson Tide lost seven defensive backs off their 2009 national championship defense.

Mental breakdowns plagued the Alabama secondary in 2010, and they were glaring in all three of the Tide’s losses.

“You’ve got to remember that we had three guys back there who had never really played in a game -- me, Dre and Menzie,” Lester said. “We were all inexperienced and pretty young, too.”

So when Lester is asked if he sees a lot of similarities between that secondary and the one Alabama will put on the field in 2012, he’s not necessarily ready to make that comparison.

Sure, the inexperience factor is there, but he also thinks this secondary will be ahead of the one in 2010 because the guys stepping in have been around the program longer and have a better understanding of the defense.

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The watch is on around the rest of the country.

When will somebody other than the SEC win a national championship?

The SEC will look to extend its streak to seven straight BCS national titles in 2012, and the two teams most likely to keep that streak alive are the usual suspects.

Alabama has won two of the last three national titles, and LSU will also start the season in the top 3 of the polls after going 13-0 last season and then losing to the Crimson Tide in the BCS National Championship Game.

The SEC’s critics insist that it’s top-heavy and that it’s really a league comprised of two or three heavyweights and a lot of mediocre teams after that.

But when you look deeper, the parity speaks for itself.

Nobody has repeated as SEC champion since Tennessee in 1997 and 1998, and four different SEC teams have won national titles during the league’s current streak.

LSU received a blow last week when coach Les Miles announced that star cornerback and return specialist Tyrann Mathieu had been dismissed and wouldn’t play this season.

Mathieu was a game-changer for the Tigers, who will undoubtedly miss his playmaking skills on defense and special teams.

Alabama had to retool its defense after losing seven starters off a unit that led the country a year ago in all four major statistical categories. The Crimson Tide are also replacing their top rusher and four top receivers on offense.

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From now until kickoff in Arlington, Texas, we'll be counting down the days before Alabama and Michigan get the season started. Today, we move to No. 15 and what it means to UA football. See all the previous editions here.

The University of Alabama and successful running backs have become synonymous in recent years. The last two starting tailbacks have played their way to New York City for the final Heisman Trophy voting. Mark Ingram became the first Alabama player to ever win college football's most prestigious award, and Trent Richardson was beat out by a pair of high-profile quarterbacks: Robert Grifffin III and Andrew Luck. But Alabama's success in developing quality running backs goes further back than Richardson and Ingram. It stretches beyond Shaun Alexander's run as well. A total of 15 times Alabama has had running backs reach 1,000 yards rushing in a season.

In 2012, it's junior Eddie Lacy's turn to carry the torch, though a 1,000-yard season may be in doubt. Given the loaded backfield -- Jalston Fowler, Dee Hart, T.J. Yeldon, Kenyan Drake -- and health concerns, there's a sentiment that Lacy won't get as many carries as most feature backs.

For Lacy, the number of carries doesn't matter, though. Neither did Alabama's history of producing tailbacks. Coach Nick Saban's no-nonsense attitude was enough to lure one of the top prospects in Louisiana to Tuscaloosa.

"My mom liked Coach Saban right off the bat," Lacy said. " I mean, he's very strict. So when she found that out, it was Alabama from there."

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Nick Saban hustles from one station to another at practice. He plants his foot and throws passes to the cornerbacks and shows safeties the proper technique by doing it himself.

Day after day, he's there in his straw hat running with the defensive backs, shouting directions as he fires the ball down the sideline. After some 40 years of coaching, the CEO of the University of Alabama football program is still working on the ground floor, getting his hands dirty.

Saban was a defensive back in college at Kent State and worked his way through the ranks coaching the position, taking charge of the secondary at Ohio State, Michigan State and then with the Houston Oilers. He was the defensive coordinator for Bill Belichick, who himself coached defensive backs, with the Cleveland Browns from 1991-94.

It's safe to say that Saban knows how to work the defensive backfield. It's no mistake that he has had seven defensive backs drafted by the NFL since 2009 -- three taken in the first round.

Still, some cornerbacks and safeties come to Alabama and aren't ready for Saban's full attention. Such was the case with Ha'Sean Clinton-Dix.

"I had no clue," the sophomore safety told reporters after Thursday's practice. "Just when we first got in meetings and he was in there with us."

The shock of seeing his head coach in meetings and actually taking part in practice took some adjustment. Learning Saban's playbook took some time, too.

"It’s a lot to learn," Clinton-Dix said. "Just have to study your playbook, get help from your teammates and like I said, Coach Saban is there to help you as well. When he’s on you pretty hard, you better pick it up quick."

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Former Alabama center William Vlachos recently spent time with TideNation's Alex Scarborough to discuss how he's doing with the Tennessee Titans, how Alabama prepared him for the NFL, and what to expect from Barrett Jones' move to center.

Scarborough: How is preseason camp going?
Vlachos: It's going well. Coming from Coach Saban's program, it prepares you to give that little bit extra for that jump to the NFL. I think the two biggest things it's done in helping me prepare me for this is, one, the structure of the program and the actual description of what we did is very similar to the things we do now here. So obviously I think Coach Saban set up a pro system. And the second thing is the Xs and Os. The schematic approach of offense and defense is very professional-like. The offense we run here isn't identical but it's extremely similar, especially relative to concepts. That prepared me, obviously, for making the transition mentally.

Scarborough: The transition must have helped coming from the SEC.
Vlachos: Exactly. That certainly helps. The SEC is known for defense and exceptional personnel, and certainly defensive linemen. I think if you follow the draft and if you follow NFL teams, the last couple of years their fronts usually have an SEC guy on it. I know there are two guys from Auburn on the Titans right now that I practice against everyday that I played against in college. That certainly, from a physical standpoint, going against some of the people I played in college, that definitely makes the transition not as hectic, I guess.

Scarborough: Have you and Barrett Jones talked about what he's going through right now, learning a new position?
Vlachos: Me and Barrett talk all the time. ... They wouldn't have made that move if he wasn't capable of doing a great job. He's not the only center in Tuscaloosa right now. There are other people who can play there. Really, it was a no-brainer for the coaching staff. As soon as I departed, it was kind of understood that he was going to step into that role. He's going to flourish at that spot, just like he has at every spot he's played in his career. From a physical standpoint, if you can play left tackle in the SEC, you can certainly play center. Then mentally, I think that's the biggest jump. There's not a better guy in the world to handle that than Barrett.

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From now until kickoff in Arlington, Texas, we'll be counting down the days before Alabama and Michigan get the season started. Today, we move to No. 16 and what it means to UA football. See all the previous editions here.

Funny how things can change so drastically in a year's time. Case in point: AJ McCarron.

This time last year McCarron was in a battle with Phillip Sims for the starting quarterback job. Now McCarron is on the Davey O'Brien Award watch list and Sims is playing for Virginia.

McCarron came on strong in 2011-12, tossing 16 touchdowns in his first season starting under center. The then-sophomore threw for 2,634 yards and five interceptions. He completed 66.8 percent of his passes.

Entering his junior season, McCarron feels like a different and improved quarterback.

"I feel like the game has slowed down a lot," he said. "When you first get into this game you want to throw touchdowns, you don’t always take what the defense gives you. I feel like I do that, do a pretty good job of that as now, and I just have to keep doing that. Just keep growing as a leader. Coach I met with him the other day, we were just talking about the scrimmage, and just keep taking what they’re giving me, like one of our old saying, ‘Take what they give you and eventually they’re give you the game.’ Basically that’s just what I need to do."

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Year 1 vs. Year 2

John Parker Wilson

• Year 1: 17 TD, 10 INT, 2,707 yards, 57.0 completion percentage
• Year 2: 18 TD, 12 INT, 2,846 yards, 55.2 completion percentage

Greg McElroy

• Year 1: 17 TD, 4 INT, 2,508 yards, 60.9 completion percentage
• Year 2: 20 TD, 5 INT, 2,987 yards, 70.9 completion percentage

AJ McCarron

• Year 1: 16 TD, 5 INT, 2,634 yards, 66.8 completion percentage
• Year 2: ?

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Behind the green fence and inside the high walls of the indoor practice facility, there's something taking shape. The University of Alabama, fresh off a national championship in January, is tuning up for another run to the BCS in secret.

The Alabama defense lost three-quarters of its starters from a season ago, the offense its leading rusher and top three receivers. The new faces are familiar, yet unknown. A bevy of four- and five-star recruits appear to be ready to make an impact, but their roles are still a mystery.

Damion Square has seen what's coming, but like everyone around the program, the defensive end treats the matter as if it were information only accessible to those with the highest clearance. In other words, those drawing up the game plan to beat Michigan in Week 1.

"Some of these guys are a secret," Square said. "Some guys don't know exactly what we got over here at the university. They're kind of downplaying, but I know what we have and I know what it looks like. I know that we got something real special here."

When H-Back Brian Vogler walked into the media room on campus Wednesday, he brought up Michigan five times, all without giving so much as a hint of what to expect against the Wolverines.

"The things that we can do in the passing game are ... it's hard to explain," he said. "I guess you guys will see during Michigan."

The world will get its first glimpse of Alabama on Sept. 1 against the Wolverines. Preseason polls rank UA anywhere from No. 1 to No. 3. But with so many players gone from a year ago, the number of questions outnumber the number answers available, like who will start at safety, linebacker or defensive end? Who will start at receiver, H-Back or on special teams?

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We have all heard the cliché that defense wins championships. Nowhere is this saying more exemplified than at the University of Alabama. The Crimson Tide ranked in the top three in scoring defense and top five in yards allowed during each of the last three seasons. During that time, they won two of the three BCS National Championships.

In fact, the only season that Alabama did not rank in the top seven in both scoring and total defense under Nick Saban was 2007, Saban’s first season in Tuscaloosa. It was also the only season that the Tide did not win 10 games under their two-time national coach of the year.

Since the start of the 2008 season, Alabama is 48-6 with all six loses coming against opponents ranked in the top 20. Three of the six eventually played in the BCS National Championship Game.

With all of the great defenses that Alabama has had under Nick Saban, last season might have been the gold standard. The Tide held opponents to 8.2 points per game, the best scoring FBS defense since Auburn in 1988 (7.2). Georgia Southern was the only opponent that scored more than 14 points against Alabama in 2011.

The Tide allowed 12 touchdowns last season in 158 possessions, which is the lowest touchdown percentage (7.6) of any team in the last eight seasons. Three of those 12 touchdowns were scored when the defense was not on the field.

It was virtually impossible to move the ball against Alabama last season. The Tide held opponents to 3.3 yards per play, the lowest average of any team since 2000 and they allowed just 75 plays of 10 yards or more. That is 47 fewer than any other FBS team and it was the lowest percentage (10.4) of such plays allowed by any team in the last eight seasons.

Alabama ultimately forced a “3 & out” on 61 of its opponents’ 158 possessions (38.6 percent), the most total possessions and the highest percentage in the FBS. In the last eight seasons, only Ohio State in 2007 (40.1) and TCU in 2009 (39.0) forced “3 & outs” at a higher rate.

Everyone involved seemed to contribute, but the most impressive part of the Alabama defense might have been the play of the secondary.

The Tide’s opponents had a combined pass efficiency of 83.7, lowest in the FBS since the 2001 Miami Hurricanes. Alabama allowed 15 completions that gained 20 yards or more--10 fewer than any other FBS team--and on throws that traveled 20 yards or more downfield, the Tide had the same number of interceptions (seven) as their opponents had completions.

Alabama returns just four starters from last season’s dominating defense according to ESPN’s Chris Low. If Nick Saban and the Tide are able to replace the other seven, Alabama could roll toward its third national championship in the last four seasons.