Among Nick Saban’s many mantras and oft-repeated phrases since he has been at Alabama has been the question of identity — the idea that the most successful football teams know both what they are and what they are not, play within themselves and succeed not because they did anything superhuman, but simply because they did their jobs well.

The identity of the Crimson Tide has been well-established since 2008: Alabama is a mean, physical football team with a rugged defense and an offense that won’t beat itself. It sends its best players to the professional ranks year after year, and responds by replacing those pros with top-tier talent that is just as good. And it is basically soulless, a hulking pack of predators that enjoys nothing more than tearing the heart out of its opponent, then spending the remainder of the game feasting on the remains.

Obviously, this is hardly the profile of a program that finds itself in an underdog role very often. As noted again and again last week, Alabama entered last Saturday’s game at Georgia a 1.5-point underdog in most places, marking the first time Bama wasn’t an odds-on favorite since the 2009 SEC Championship Game against Tim Tebow’s Florida Gators.*

*I could’ve sworn Les Miles’ LSU team was favored by at least some prior the 2012 BCS Championship Game in New Orleans, but I can’t find any evidence of it so it’s possible I made that up.

Of course, we know what Alabama did with that underdog role — around the time Eddie Jackson strutted across the Sanford Stadium goal line to put the Tide up 31-3 early in the third quarter of last Saturday’s game (sending UGA scurrying back inside his house to create the saddest and most hilarious meme of the weekend), fans across the league had reached two conclusions:

1. Wait, Georgia isn’t that good.
2. Welp, Alabama’s still Alabama.

The idea that Alabama might even be cast as an underdog is a bit odd — since Nick Saban arrived, Alabama has spent virtually every waking moment inside the nation’s top 10, has won the SEC Championship three times (and played in the game one other), won three national titles and been involved in so many big games, ESPN’s GameDay might as well establish its headquarters there. Alabama is an underdog in the same way that Donald Trump is a political outsider.

And yet, if Saban and his staff can figure a way to make the underdog part of Alabama’s identity, it might work to everyone’s benefit.

Allow me to explain: After his team sleepwalked through a rain-soaked 14-13 win at Arkansas last season, Saban ranted at the expectations of fans and media personalities who found the team’s effort wanting.

It really sort of, if you want to know the truth about it, pisses me off when I talk to people that have this expectation like they’re disappointed that we only won the game, 14-13, and in the way we played.

Really, that’s frustrating. You want to talk about something that’s frustrating. That’s frustrating to me.

Exactly what effect Saban’s rant had on his locker room is unclear. But this much is canon: Alabama won its next game, at home vs. Texas A&M, 59-0.

More than the final result, though, was the difference in the emotion of the sideline. There was a moment during the second quarter of that game when Reuben Foster exploded with emotion following a big hit. The entire sideline poured out onto the field to celebrate with him.

It was clear the general feeling of the team — which previously carried itself as a hulking monolith devoid of emotion or humanity — was different during the latter half of 2014. Alabama rode that emotion to another SEC Championship and a No. 1 ranking.

Whether Saban can capture the same feeling by casting his squad as an underdog the rest of this season is unclear. As of right now the Tide is favored by 17 for this weekend’s matchup with Arkansas, and aside from next weekend at Texas A&M — which may be viewed as a push by analysts and sports books — Bama is unlikely to be cast as the underdog the rest of this season.*

*This includes vs. LSU, which has to come to Tuscaloosa.

Still, if Alabama can play the underdog role, it might allow them a psychological edge for the rest of this season.

Like Nick Saban needs another edge.