Tide Looking For Identity

TUSCALOOSA — Nick Saban thought he knew what his team was about when it put together 60 minutes and drilled Tennessee.

But going into the season finale against Auburn at 7 p.m. Saturday night, not even Alabama’s head coach is sure about the Crimson Tide’s identity.

His players aren’t sure about that identity, either. Or if they are, they don’t like what they’ve become in the last month of the season.

“It’s not good. It’s not good,” defensive end Wallace Gilberry said. “We started out strong. We started out there building in summer training. It’s kinda like a roller-coaster. But, like I said, we can finish with a bang and the guys next year can build off this last game and hopefully a bowl coming.”

Inside linebacker Darren Mustin, like Gilberry a senior, wasn’t as diplomatic.

“Honestly, right now, it’s that we don’t finish. That’s been our identity for the past 4-5 years,” Mustin said. “And I want to change that. God, I want to change that. I want to be known as the team that finished the season out — finally. I want to be known as that.”

They were on that track. Saban said Alabama displayed toughness and character for most of the season.

“This team had come a long way in developing identity that they can be proud of and feel good about and were viewed by the way they competed whether they won the game or not,” Saban said. “They were viewed probably as guys that were trying to play winning football and doing the right things to be winners. Whether they always succeeded at it our not, it was still recognized that way.”

Then came the Tide’s three-game losing streak — a close loss when first place in the SEC West was on the line to now top-ranked LSU, a bizarre loss to Mississippi State the next week and last week’s “catastrophic” loss to the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

“Since the LSU game, I haven’t seen the spirit, I haven’t seen the same commitment, I haven’t seen the same perseverance, I haven’t seen the same work ethic, and that’s something that we’ve got to right. That’s really important,” Saban said.

Free safety Rashad Johnson said the LSU loss took a greater toll on the team than expected.

“It looks like we lost that game and lost our focus on the rest of the season, which shouldn’t happen,” Johnson said. “We still had an opportunity to have a great season and end with 10 wins after the bowl game and end up in the Top 25 after this season.”

Quarterback John Parker Wilson said the team’s identity hasn’t changed, they just need to locate it.

“I think we had a good picture of what we thought we were early in the season,” Wilson said. “Now, we’ve been struggling lately and we’ve got to find it again. After the Tennessee game, it hasn’t been the way we’ve wanted it to be. We’ve got to find that again.”

Senior guard Justin Britt laughed when asked about Alabama’s identity.

“Not very good, obviously,” Britt said. “We don’t have the identity that we wanted and what it needs to be. ... We were on the way after the Tennessee game. And then … I don’t know. It wasn’t there.”

The turnaround was as stunning to Britt as it was to anyone.

“I didn’t expect for that to happen at all,” Britt said. “It wasn’t good. We didn’t finish.”

But the Tide has one lifeline left. And it’s a biggie. Beating Auburn in this Iron Bowl would speed the healing process quickly.

“We have an opportunity to do something great,” Mustin said. “I don’t know … it might take a catastrophe to actually turn things around. I’m hoping that’s true. But we had a catastrophe.”

Mustin said the key to winning any game — but particularly the Auburn game — is a great week of practice.

“In order to win these games, you got to prepare during the week,” said the senior, a former walk-on. “You got to win these games Monday through Friday. You don’t win the game Monday through Friday, you’re definitely not going to win it on Saturday, and that was clearly shown this past Saturday (against ULM).”

Mustin, from Brentwood, Tenn., perhaps had the best quote this week about the Iron Bowl’s importance.

“Last year, during that game, I really felt the crimson blood started running through my veins,” Mustin said. “For the first time, I really knew what it felt like, what it meant, to wear that ‘A.’ What it meant for the University of Alabama.”

Mustin said Auburn’s five-game winning streak is frustrating, but that’s not the motivating factor for him this week. Being in the game gave him a bigger picture.

“(Losing) was part of it, a very small part,” he said. “It’s just, I didn’t know what it meant to be Alabama, you know? Yeah, I knew a little bit. But once that game hit and I saw, it was like, ‘Oh, man.’ I mean, the year before that I was in the stands, being a fan, you know?

“This game is something that’s deeper than just a football game,” the linebacker said.

It’s a game that not only displays character, it reveals it. The lasting impression of Alabama’s identity in the 2007 season will also be revealed.