The Alabama Crimson Tide is now just about a month away from putting toe to leather on what will be a brand new season in the second year of the Kalen DeBoer era.

Even prior to the retirement of Nick Saban, the Tide’s national title drought had reached longer than it had under any period of the GOAT’s tenure, and with Alabama now still title-less since the 2020 season, urgency within the walls of the program is starting to rise no matter who the coach is.

DeBoer finds himself under perhaps an unfair amount of pressure going into the season, but he might just be way more equipped for it this year solely based off the full and complete buy in from his team.

With a number of players who could have chosen to pursue the NFL but instead elected to return, this is a squad with a very clear mission to execute.

Star running back Jam Miller spoke about this in a recent interview with the Next Round:

“When I made that decision to come back, in my mind I’m like ‘the job’s not finished,’” Miller said. “Especially with what happened last year, not winning a bowl game, that kinda hurt us as a team and the coaching staff. This year, we know what our number 1 goal is and that’s winning a National Championship.”

Miller also addressed him taking on more of a leadership role upon deciding to come back.

“Last year, for me I didn’t really step up as I should have being an older guy, but now I know the road I gotta take,” he said. “I gotta take it up a whole other level to bring all the guys together and make sure that we’re all on the same page.”

Miller has rushed for over 1,000 yards in his Tide career with nearly 700 last year and seven touchdowns.

Clearly though, he expects more from both himself and the team, and it should be a fun season watching Miller do his thing.