Nick Saban established Alabama’s No. 1 goal of spring practice Friday during his first spring press conference: to re-establish the Alabama Factor.

The Crimson Tide started spring practice this past week, and Alabama will hold 15 practices that will conclude on A-Day, April 13.

“We have to re-establish the Alabama Factor,” Saban said Friday evening.

“We’ve always been a team that plays with a tremendous amount of discipline, had a lot of responsible and accountable guys who could go out there and do their job and be dependable. And everybody’s always put the team first. The result of that has been we’ve been able to win a lot of games, guys have got a lot of individual accolades, got a lot of opportunities to play at the next level, and we’ve been able to win a few championships.”

The Alabama Factor is an edge that the Tide have going into every game, and its foundation is how they approach practice every day. It’s also interwoven into Saban’s Process. No doubt that losing to Clemson created a sense of urgency within the program, too. That’s certainly not a bad thing.

The biggest challenge in the Tide re-establishing their “Factor” may not be the returning players and filling holes left by departing players; it may be its new assistant coaches.

Saban hired seven new assistant coaches to develop the Tide’s 2019 team, and how well they gel and mesh with the returning roster and newcomers will be vital. Alabama has the talent advantage over virtually every program in the nation not named Clemson. Putting these players in the right position to succeed is the job of the Tide’s staff.

Alabama’s standard isn’t winning SEC Championships; it’s winning national championships. And the Tide fell short of that standard last season.

You can watch Saban’s full press conference below: