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.”

Harris reportedly received an improper benefit (a laptop computer) from Curtis Anderson, the same person that took Jones and Ingram deep-sea fishing on spring break.

Each was deemed a minor NCAA violation. But while Jones and Ingram made restitution immediately and cooperated fully with an investigation into the fishing trip, Harris wasn’t as forthcoming with investigators. When it became evident that Harris wasn’t completely up front in the probe, his coverup was deemed much more serious than the original incident.

As a result, he was suspended six games — half the season. The sophomore from Gadsden has worked on the scout team and is expected to play, and perhaps start, this week against South Carolina.

Alabama coach Nick Saban didn’t want to comment on Harris’ suspension, but couldn’t resist, either.

“It is what it is. Players have to learn that when you do the right thing, usually good things happen and when you don’t do the right thing ...” Saban said, his voice trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence.

“I’ve said it before, you have freedom of choice but you don’t have freedom from consequences. We support our players and what they do, but we also want them to learn the lessons that are going to help them be more successful.

“I certainly think Jerrell learned a lot from this and it’s going to help him be a better person and probably help him be more successful in life.”

The Texas quarterbacks collide today when McElroy’s Crimson Tide plays Snead’s Ole Miss Rebels on national television.

“I knew Jevan in high school. We played seven-on-seven together,” McElroy said. “He was at the Manning camp, too, as well, so I spent some time with him there.”

Snead is from Stephenville, Texas; McElroy from Southlake.

Snead played at Texas in the 2006 season but transferred to Ole Miss. McElroy originally committed to Texas Tech, but changed his mind and signed with Alabama.

“I haven’t talked to him. It’s a busy time for both of us,” McElroy said this week. “But I do keep up with him. I keep up with his performances. And I’m always cheering for him.

“All the Texas guys, I want to see do well. Jevan’s obviously one of those guys. I’ve followed his career, starting at Texas and now obviously at Ole Miss. And I’m happy that he’s had a lot of success up to this point. After this game he’ll be a guy I pull for for the rest of the year.”

Both quarterbacks will be marked men in this game. In four games, Snead has completed 54 of 105 passes for 728 yards, nine touchdowns and five interceptions.

McElroy has completed 78 of 119 passes for 1,086 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception in five games.

“He’s a good guy and I forward to playing him,” Snead said about McElroy.

The seven-on-seven tournament in which they went head to head in high school was a while ago. The memory can play tricks. Southlake Carroll won, McElroy was sure of that.

“I believe I had to leave at halftime or else we would have beaten them I’m sure,” Snead said, laughing.

Of course, Snead said McElroy has his T-shirt from the Manning Passing Academy that the quarterbacks attended this summer.

“I need to get that back. It made its way into his bag somehow,” Snead said.

“I put my stuff down by his bag, and he wanted an Ole Miss shirt for some reason.”

Both quarterbacks would gladly trade a T-shirt for a victory today.

So was it the Wildcats’ offense or was it the Crimson Tide adjusting to life without Dont’a Hightower?

It may have been some of both, although the answer to that key question will take more shape Saturday at Ole Miss.

Alabama’s linebacker rotation was OK, but far from the shutdown unit it had been in the first four games.

“We did not stop the run as well as we would have liked to. We didn’t create the situations that we wanted to create,” coach Nick Saban said. “We have to get back to striking people up front and getting off blocks, playing gap-discipline and tackling people better.”

Saban said Cory Reamer, who moved from the sam linebacker spot inside to Hightower’s will position, Eryk Anders, who moved from the jack post to the sam, and Courtney Upshaw, who started for the first time at the jack, will likely be back in those roles against Ole Miss.

“I think they all did a good job in what they did. I think we need to improve in all those positions for us to continue to get better defensively,” Saban said. “I don’t think we pass rushed particularly well in this game. I think they got us off balance early in the game by running the ball on third down and I don’t think we got in the groove of things relative to pressure.”

The coach hinted he sees this alignment as a band-aid, not a cure. He stressed the need for young linebacker talent to develop.

“We need to get more players involved on defense,” Saban said. “I think we need to coach more players, we’ve got to get some young players ready to play because they may get the opportunity to play.”

Alabama could take the redshirt off Tana Patrick. Converted running back Chris Jordan has played in relief of middle linebacker Rolando McClain. Nico Johnson has worked at both inside linebacker spots.

“They’re all making progress. Tana (Patrick) is making progress; Nico
(Johnson) is making progress. We’re really working Nico at both mike and
will, so his learning curve is a little heavier than the rest of the guys.
But they are all doing fine and all are probably going to have to play at
some point.”

Suspended linebacker Jerrell Harris becomes eligible next week against South Carolina.