College Football Preview: Saban prepares Alabama for another title run in 2014

Last season clearly illustrated just how fluky NCAA football can be. Even though Alabama has dominated for the better half of a decade, the team looked fallible last year; however, that’s not all together true, considering Auburn’s wild and highly unlikely win. Perhaps more accurate, the Crimson Tide (11-2, 7-1 SEC) was just unlucky.

Now with only nine returning starters, Coach Nick Sabin gets to reinvent his team all over again.

Saban said, “We have to reestablish our identity as a team at Alabama. It’s going to take every player to have a tremendous amount of buy in for us to be able to do that. I think you basically need to check your ego at the door, all of us in our organizations: players, coaches, everybody in our organization. You know, really trust and believe in the things that have helped us be successful.

“Have enough humility to understand our role, what we need to do to help the team be successful, and certainly have the willingness as a family and a group to serve each other and help each other so that we have the best opportunity to accomplish this.”

Regarding the offense, Quarterback A.J. McCarron has left for the NFL. His replacement appears to be either Florida State transfer Jacob Coker or McCarron backup Blake Sims. The Tide continues to churn out NFL-ready running backs with Derrick Henry and T.J. Yeldon being the next in line. Also returning is wide receiver Amari Cooper.

Whereas the offense is full of questions, that’s definitely true on defense where the team returns only three starters. The hope is linebacker Trey DePriest and safety Landon Collins will become key figures on the 2014 defense.

At this point it seems like a foregone conclusion the Tide will be in the mix for the first ever College Football Playoff.

ODDS to win the National Championship: 13/2