All bets on Alabama

With 18 returning starters, the Crimson Tide is favored to repeat as SEC champion.

By JOANNE KORTH

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 28, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Alabama coach Mike DuBose knows the unwritten rule. He realizes coaches with really good football teams are not supposed to admit it publicly.

But he can't help it. "I know I'm not supposed to say this," DuBose said Thursday at the Southeastern Conference's football media days, "but I like our football team an awful lot."

So does everyone else.

Ranked as high as third nationally in preseason publications, Alabama is favored to defend its SEC championship and is among the handful of schools talking seriously about winning the national championship.

"I said a couple years ago my job was to get Alabama football back to where it is one of the seven or eight teams that have a chance to win the national championship," DuBose said. "We slipped away for a few years there. Now, we've talked the talk, and we have to see if we can walk the walk."

Back in the days of legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, such boastfulness was blasphemous. Any coach worth a Houndstooth knew national champions were built one sandbag at a time.

"I think times have changed," said DuBose, who won a national title and two SEC titles as a defensive lineman for Bryant from 1972-74.

"When we've been in this position three, four or five years, we may take a different approach. Right now I think it's critical we continue to focus on the positives."

Alabama has one of college football's richest traditions, with 12 national titles and a league-best 21 SEC titles. But these lofty 2000 expectations represent new altitudes for current Tide players, who enjoy the thin air.

"We don't feel any pressure because we have players who can live up to those expectations," senior defensive tackle Kenny Smith said. "When I got here in 1997, being down the way we were ... it feels good to be ranked so high."

Alabama has endured hard times and shameful admissions the past three seasons under DuBose, promoted from defensive coordinator when fan-favorite Gene Stallings retired.

In 1997, the Tide went 4-7 and failed to win a game at Tuscaloosa's Bryant-Denny Stadium. A year ago, DuBose admitted lying to university officials about an improper relationship with his secretary. On Sept. 18, things hit rock bottom with a 29-28 loss to Louisiana Tech in Birmingham.

"That was a turning point," senior center Paul Hogan said. "If we hadn't lost that game, we might not have become as good as we did."

The Tide regrouped quickly. They snapped Florida's 30-game home win streak with a 40-39 overtime victory on Oct. 2; beat rival Auburn 28-17 to clinch the SEC Western Division for the first time since 1996; and embarrassed the Gators 34-7 in the SEC title game.

In DuBose's first bowl appearance as head coach, the Tide lost in the Orange Bowl 35-34 to Michigan, on a missed extra-point in overtime. At 10-3, 'Bama was ranked eighth in the final AP Poll.

This preseason, everything is positive, especially DuBose, whose personal journey has been as remarkable as the Tide's rise through the national rankings.

"I know who I am, where I am, where I'm going. I like who I am a lot better than this time last year," said DuBose, who spoke and gave testimony at many Alabama churches this past summer. "I had to ask myself those questions -- "Do I like who I am? Where I am? Where I'm going?' -- and last year the answer to all those questions was, "No.' "

Know this: Alabama is talented.

Among 18 returning starters -- nine each on offense and defense -- is perhaps the SEC's most exciting player: versatile wideout Freddie Milons, whose 77-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter shredded the Gators' SEC title hopes and helped him earn MVP honors.

"We need to get the ball in Freddie's hands any way we can," DuBose said. "If that means handing it off, pitching it to him, snapping it to him or making other teams kick and punt to him, that's what we will have to do."

Five Alabama players were voted preseason All-SEC by the media: Hogan, Milons, defensive lineman Kindal Moorehead, linebacker Saleem Rasheed and defensive back Reggie Myles.

DuBose wants to choose early in the season between two capable quarterbacks, either sophomore Andrew Zow or junior Tyler Watts. Zow started 11 games last season, but a late-season injury opened the door for Watts. The two alternated series in the SEC title game.

There are questions. DuBose is uncertain who his kickers will be. And he is not sure who will emerge to replace the leadership of All-America offensive tackle Chris Samuels and All-SEC tailback Shaun Alexander, both first-round NFL draft picks. He has candidates, though, so he is not worried.

He is fresh out of sandbags.

"I can't imagine Tiger Woods going to the golf course and not wanting to be favored," DuBose said. "We need to want that, to cherish that. We still have to back it up -- and that remains to be seen -- but I'm glad we're in this position."

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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