Tide players don't lack confidence

TUSCALOOSA | The last time the University of Alabama football team lost two games in a row, it was the start of a four-game losing streak.

The end result was a 6-7 record in 2006.

There’s no sense of panic in the Crimson Tide locker room despite back-to-back losses to Florida State and Georgia the last two weeks. Alabama players are confident they can turn things around Saturday against Houston in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“The only way to rebound is to go out and win on Saturday,” junior safety Rashad Johnson said. “I don’t think confidence is an issue. Everybody is confident in what we’re doing. We’ve just got to go out and execute better.”

Alabama lost 26-23 in overtime to Georgia two weekend ago and fell 21-14 to Florida State last weekend in a game where the Tide struggled for three quarters before trying to rally in the final period.

Those heart-wrenching losses have taken a toll, but Tide players don’t expect any of the angst to carry over to the Houston game.

“That’s still not going to stop us from coming out and playing hard,” junior linebacker Ezekial Knight said. “I don’t think it’s going to be an issue.

“We just made a lot of mistakes we didn’t capitalize on that we have to correct.”

Senior linebacker Darren Mustin believes Tide players need to concentrate on the task ahead, not the results of recent weeks.

“We have to,” he said. “We have no choice. We can’t sit around high from the Arkansas game [a 41-38 victory] or down from the Georgia or Florida State games.

“We know we can compete. We will not quit. We’ve just got to work harder.”

While last season’s collapse may still hang over the program, players don’t fear a similar breakdown this time around. They have put 2006 behind them.

“We need a win,” sophomore offensive lineman Antoine Caldwell said. “Everybody knows that. We’ve just got to go out there and do what we do and hopefully get back on track.

“It’s a totally different football team. We don’t think about last season. It’s over with. We know how bad last year went. We don’t like to talk about it.”

Alabama head coach Nick Saban is taking an optimistic view of the Tide’s 3-2 start.

“You can look at the glass half empty or half full and say we should be really confident in thinking that we can beat anybody that we played,” Saban said, “or you could say, ‘Since we’ve lost a couple of games maybe we can’t beat anybody.’ I look at it like the glass is half full.

“I think that if we do things correctly and make the corrections that we need to make and do it right, play with a little bit more discipline, little more consistent with our intensity, our toughness, some of the intangible things that are important — that we could have won these games and we could win a lot of games in the future. So there’s nobody here that’s down on our team, that doesn’t believe in our players; that doesn’t think if we get it right that we can do it right and be successful.”

The back-to-back losses eliminated any chance that Alabama might take Houston lightly.

“We’re not going to take a breather,” Johnson said. “We’re going to go out and play like it’s another Florida State or Georgia game.”

Said Caldwell, “We’ve taken two on the chin, but we’ve got some big games coming up.”

At least one player is ready to do something about it rather than talk about it.

“It comes a point in time where the talking has to cease,” senior defensive lineman Wallace Gilberry said. “It’s more about showing than telling.”

Reach Tommy Deas at tommy.deas@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0224.