That’s the case this week when the Crimson Tide plays Chattanooga in its home finale.

“I’ve kind of gotten used to this, having a game like this late in the season where you’re really into playing conference game after conference game,” Saban said.

When he came into the league at LSU from Michigan State, he was a proponent of the Big 10 style of scheduling, with four non-conference games early, then the conference season.

But the SEC spreads out matchups throughout the season.

Saban said a non-conference game is different.

“It’s a little different mindset for the players, but it is what it is and I’ve gotten a little used to it,” he said.

“We all have to do it. Everybody has games like this. So I think it’s something we have to adapt to and adjust to and the players have to have the right mindset and the right respect for their opponents and continue to work and focus on making improvement.”

Senior guard Mike Johnson said this week is ideal for Alabama to work on Alabama, not look ahead.

“I think this week, more than any other game like this, it’s important for us to improve heading into this last stretch after this game,“ Johnson said.

“Regardless of who we’re playing, we need to get better. Try to get a victory this week and keep improving on down the road.“

Of all the things to like about Alabama’s convincing 31-3 victory over Mississippi State on Saturday night, the most encouraging was the Tide’s willingness to rumble.

Alabama let State swing first and took its best shot early.

The Crimson Tide’s big-play counter punches were not answered by the home team.

The Tide displayed a relentless defense that contested everything and an offense that looked determined to spread the field and gashed the Bulldogs with big plays.

Mark Barron had two interceptions and Marquis Johnson added another.

The street fight ended in a knockout as State was out on its feet in the fourth quarter. By then, the Bulldogs’ eyes matched their jersey color of choice.

“Jamar (Chaney, middle linebacker) asked me at the beginning of the season if we could wear black uniforms at some point this year,“ first-year State coach Dan Mullen said. “I said absolutely not. ... I wanted to give back to the seniors and so something special so we wore the black jerseys. I thought they looked pretty good, actually.“

But the jerseys couldn’t cover up the talent disparity that was evident after the game’s emotional peak subsided.

“They made some big plays,“ Mullen said. “That was the difference in teh game. They had completed passes for 42, 48 and 45 yards. A 70-yard touchdown by Mark Ingram. We hold them to 79 yards if we take away that touchdown run. Our defense played really hard. Their guys came out and make a couple of big plays.

“We had a couple of opportunities to make some big plays and we didn’t come down with them. That was a big difference in the game. We are going ot work on that and get better. Prety soon we will be making those big plays.“

He had just thrown an interception that sent the Tide into the locker room down 7-3 at the half.

“That’s about as bad a play as you can make, and I was so mad at myself,” McElroy said this week. “I was throwing water bottles, kicking stools, acting like a child.”

But his night would get better. Alabama took the opening possession of the second half and scored a touchdown. He threw his first touchdown pass in four games.

The lesson?

“You’ve got to shake it off, and you’ve got to understand that negative things are going to happen, especially when you’ve playing a great defensive football team,” McElroy said. “So you’ve got to take it in and move on, clap it off and move on. We were able to do that, get some points out of it and get a victory.”

McElroy said the pressure other people put on him pales in comparison to what he demands of himself.

“I put more pressure on myself than anyone could ever put on me, more so than the coaches will put on me, more so than the other players will put on me,” the quarterback said.

“When I miss a pass, I promise you I’m more mad at myself than any fan, any reporter, any player, any coach, anything. I’m more upset because I know I let myself down, and I let my teammates down. And that’s the pressure that I was facing for those couple of weeks. I put a lot of pressure on myself, and I expect the best for myself. I expect full effort, which I always try to give, and I always give full effort. But sometimes your execution can’t be perfect.”

McElroy often gives examples of what he’s talking about through the NFL.

“Go back and look at Donovan McNabb last night,” he said. “He played the Cowboys, and he missed three wide-open guys in the flat, easy passes that he’d make 99 times out of 100, but they happen. He’s at the highest level. He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League, and even those guys make mistakes. So you’ve got to take it with a grain of salt and realize you can’t be perfect every time and just try your best every time out there, and you can always look back in the mirror and be proud of what you accomplished.”

Mark Ingram went home and “just chilled” with his family.

No matter how they spent last weekend, Alabama players were grateful for a respite from the intensity of a football game.

“I can’t say enough about those days off. They do wonders in the middle of a season,” left guard Mike Johnson said.

“I think we were more tired mentally than physically. ... We’ve done a good job these first few weeks and those three days off are going to help a lot for this last stretch of the season.”

Ingram went home to Flint, Mich. “Kind of cleared my head and got re-focused a little bit. Just chilled like that,” said Monday before the Tide returned to practice after a three-day weekend.

“I feel good,” Ingram said. “I think the bye week did a lot of us a lot of good just getting our bodies back healthy. Getting a little rest and getting a chance just to clear our heads a little, get away from everything, get refocused and make a strong push this second half of the year.”

Even laser-focused head coach Nick Saban said he got out of town — but managed to stay connected.

“Well, I got away, but I also took my computer and had lots of tape to watch,” Saban said. That’s what I did for most of the time.  It rained for two days, so it was a good time.”

Saban said he actually did his share of channel-surfing, flipping between college games and the World Series on Saturday.

“(I) really sort of enjoyed seeing what everybody in the world goes through on Saturday, rather than what I go through,” the coach said. “My wife’s yelling at me the whole time because we’re not watching what she wants to watch.  So, I understand. That’s the first time that’s happened all year or for many years, that I can remember.”

Not only does he know the difference from the traditional Cover 2 defense and the Tampa 2 generally credited to Tennessee defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, he offers explanations why it was so effective in the NFL.

“Tampa 2 is actually a form of Cover 3,” McElroy said. “You actually do it when you have a very good middle linebacker, somebody like coach Kiffin had at Tampa in Derrick Brooks. The safeties get extremely wide off the hash and the middle linebacker shoots straight to the back, so it actually develops a three-deep look.”

McElroy knows Monte Kiffin developed that defense.

“I never thought I’d be playing against him. That’s pretty neat,” McElroy said.

Tennessee hasn’t played a ton of Tampa 2, but Alabama and has seen it this season.

“We’ve seen that look on numerous occasions. It’s a very popular defense, especially at the college level,” McElroy said. “It’s just a good way to develop things and disguise. It’s something that we’ll be ready for and it’s something we’ll spend a lot of time on this week. It’s something that we’ve been around and had glimpses of.”

McElroy sees more of it from the Alabama defense.

“Our defense plays quite a bit of it. We’ve had some looks against it,” he said. “Especially when you have a middle linebacker like Rolando (McClain). He’s so rangy, he just gets back there so fast. It starts with a middle-open look and you think, ‘OK, we can get maybe a post down the middle or something like that.’ And the linebacker will just fly out right underneath it and catch you off-guard, and you have to do a double-take.”

McClain and Tennessee strong safety Eric Berry both affect offenses.

“The two best defensive players in college football are playing in this game,” CBS analyst Gary Danielson said. “The two defensive players that will be drafted the highest in this year’s draft are playing in this game: Eric Berry for Tennessee and Rolando McClain for Alabama.”

What’s more impressive is that McClain and Berry are both juniors. Neither has said what his NFL draft plans would be. However, it would be difficult to turn down the draft if, indeed, they would be the first two defensive players chosen.

But I bet they’ve taken notice of his comments in Gainesville.

Kiffin has said he loves Alabama’s downhill, in-your-face, physical style. My story in Friday’s Dothan Eagle quotes Kiffin saying that’s what he wants his team to be someday.
Asked if he was saying that because he’s playing Alabama this week, Kiffin discussed why he prefers Alabama’s style to Florida’s.

“I think there’s different ways to do things,“ Kiffin explained. “Florida is a great program, very successful, won a couple of national championships. They just do it a little different way. They play a different style. We want to play the way Alabama plays. Alabama comes more at you. They don’t try to trick you. They’re very physical on both sides of the ball. They play more like NFL teams do. Florida’s completely different.“

He added that Alabama deserves it’s No. 1 ranking in the AP poll.

“I think it’s real easy. I think if you watch film and you pay attention to football, Alabama’s the number one team in the country,“ the coach said. “Just look at the difference when they play Arkansas. It’s very obvious to me. When they’re both great teams, one team kind of beats you in all three phases: Alabama. The other team will beat you at times, but then a lot of times nobody’s open and the quarterback runs around, makes the play. These guys are much more balanced.“

The entire debate perfectly fits both coaches.

Nick Saban doesn’t go for gimmicks. He could not care less what color jersey Tennessee wears on Saturday.

He’s referenced on several occasions the Notre Dame mystique and the green jerseys the Irish used to wear in big games — and noted that didn’t have any factor in the outcome.

If Saban thought the Vols wouldn’t play as well in orange jerseys, he would dye them himself. But the jersey color isn’t going to help Alabama win either way, so there is no reason to change. None.

On the other hand, does allowing Tennessee to wear orange jerseys help Alabama win? Nope. So, no, the Vols will wear white.

All of this also helps Lane Kiffin, too. It gives him another log to throw on the fire. “I wanted to acknowledge the great tradition of this series — but Alabama won’t go along,” he can say.

Poor guy.

So that’s a series of questions he doesn’t have to answer about solving Alabama’s defense, about protecting his quarterback, about stopping Mark Ingram, about why his team is a 17-point underdog, about how far away his program is from reviving this series into what it once was.

It’s a great fan debate — and it’s got absolutely nothing to do with who is going to win Saturday.
In other words, it’s a win-win for both head coaches.

With his team 18-0 in the regular season since 1997 and currently ranked No. 2 in the country, you could say things are going pretty well.

The coach, who earlier this year agreed to a contract extension that will have him leading the Crimson Tide through the 2017 season, said his family is happy in Tuscaloosa.

“We love it here. Terry loves it here,” Saban said after practice Wednesday. “We have a nice home, a beautiful place. We’ve developed a lot of relationships with a lot of people, which I think is the most important thing about feeling comfortable about a place.”

Saban said in his business, the love he gets from fans “is conditional, mostly whether you win or lose.”

“We understand that very well, but we also appreciate all the positive energy that everyone has given us,” Saban said. “Not only do we enjoy being the coach here, but we also enjoy very much being a part of the community, we enjoy very much giving back to the community, and that’s very important to us, so other people understand they are important to us.”

Told a couple in Hartselle recently named their son after him, Saban thought a moment and shook his head.

“Certainly it’s an honor to have anybody named after you, but I can think of a whole lot of … people they could have chosen that might have
been a little more positive image for their child growing up,” he said.

“I guess if they never see me at practice, and they never see me get angry, and they never see the not so good things, I guess it’s OK. And if we ever lose a game I hope they’re not disappointed.”