TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — With homecoming this weekend and the Iron Bowl next Saturday, Alabama’s seniors — a group that has experienced both championships and heartbreak on the football field — only have two home games left in their college careers.

This team is No. 1, like many Alabama teams have been in the past, but the rapport this year’s leaders have with younger players feels different than last season.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban and the seniors themselves acknowledged that.

“We have a very good group of seniors this year, we have a very good leadership group,” Saban said. “I think… the best thing about our seniors is they’re really well-liked by their teammates. I think that really starts with the fact that they care and they care about other people on the team and they’re willing to spend time to help the other people on the team…I think that’s made the team chemistry really good.”

Saban has already talked about this team not having any “energy vampires,” which is Saban-speak for players that demand coaches’ attention and distract the team. The players are motivated and communicate well, and leaders have emerged, sometimes surprisingly.

“Some of the guys that are doing a really good job of that, without me mentioning any names, are actually guys that struggled maybe early on being able to do those types of things,” Saban said. “When it was their turn to take a leadership role, regardless of what their role was on the team, they really did it in a first-class way and that’s been very helpful with team chemistry.”

Alabama senior wide receiver Christion Jones said the atmosphere among players is similar to that of 2011 — a national title-winning season. Jones also mentioned Jalston Fowler, Blake Sims and DeAndrew White on the offensive side as guys who have really stepped up.

“Everybody is comfortable with each other from the seniors to the freshmen,” Jones said. “Everybody has a good vibe. We haven’t had any problems on the team amongst each other with dislike or any outcasts.”

This is a different story from a team that had a cloud of disarray around it following last season’s consecutive losses to Auburn and Oklahoma. Former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron repeatedly blamed the younger players on the team for not buying in and called some players on the team selfish. Even Saban said the team needed a hard restart after last season’s poor finish.

Teach chemistry was clearly a problem last year, and it become evident in post-season interviews. But Alabama cornerback Cyrus Jones had only positive things to say about the Tide’s bond this season.

“This year everybody’s so tight; it’s a well-knit group,” Jones said. “There aren’t really cliques on the team, everybody pretty much hangs out with each other all the time, has each other’s backs. Once you have that cohesiveness — especially with the leaders — it just trickles down to everybody else. I think this team is on the right track.”

When a point is repeatedly hammered home without much success, maybe doing the opposite is the trick. At least that’s what Alabama head coach Nick Saban thinks about the team’s fumbling issues.

“We’ve been emphasizing it all year, so I don’t know how you emphasize something that’s so important anymore,” Saban said. “Maybe we ought to de-emphasize it, because we have emphasized it like crazy. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe when you tell somebody something too much, they start thinking that.

“If you say, ‘You’re soft.’ How many times do you emphasize the fact that, ‘You’re soft, and we want you to be tougher,’ and you tell them they’re soft, before they start thinking they’re soft? That make any sense?”

Maybe reverse psychology will work for the Crimson Tide, who have lost 11 of its 14 fumbles this season so far. Alabama quarterback Blake Sims has three lost fumbles on the season. Wide receiver Christion Jones had a difficult run of fumbling also, especially on kick and punt returns. His fumble against Ole Miss led to the winning touchdown for the Rebels.

Running back T.J. Yeldon fumbled in the red zone with the clock winding down against LSU — something he’s done in the past — and sprained his ankle in the process. Saban said Yeldon would be limited in the first few days of practice this week.

Auburn fumbled away its game against Texas A&M, and Alabama almost did the same Saturday.

Obviously, Alabama held LSU to a field goal and subsequently won the game, but at that moment, it seemed like the fumble had cost the Crimson Tide the win.

With No. 1 Miss. State coming to town, along with College Gameday and CBS, the pressure will be on Alabama, and losing the turnover battle to the top-ranked team in the nation is never a good plan of action.

“We’re doing the best we can in every way to try to emphasize the fundamental things that we need to do so that we have good ball security, especially at the end of games, which is critical,” Saban said. “But you’ve also got to say we did a pretty good job of overcoming it in this particular game.”

Next time Alabama might not be so fortunate.

ATLANTA — Alabama came into its game against West Virginia with plenty of questions marks. Saturday evening in the Georgia Dome answered many of them, but it’s the first game and first games can only present so much.

“What you find out in the first game is where you are,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “I like our team’s attitude. I like the way they work, the competitive character that they have. More guys have bought into doing things the way they need to do them, I think, to be successful.”

With Alabama football comes overreactions, which will be thrown around without regard, but in Alabama’s 33-23 win over West Virginia, we did learn some things about this team. The remaining ones will have to play themselves out in the coming weeks.

Other than the fact that Saban was less than thrilled to receive a faux leather football helmet, here are three takeaways from Alabama’s win over West Virginia:

Takeaway One:

Blake Sims is your starting quarterback, and that’s not a bad thing.

The hype around Jake Coker was loud all summer. Even I thought the Florida State transfer would get the start because of the urban legends of his arm and his size, but the predictable, sensible decision actually turned out to be the right one.

Yes, it’s only one game and he did make a few mistakes, but Sims was reliable today. He sidestepped in the pocket, made most of the throws asked of him, and kept plays alive with his feet — something AJ McCarron rarely did.

“I thought Blake settled down in the second half, managed the game a little bit better,” Saban said. “I was really pleased with the way that he was able to perform overall.”

Sims’ experience and connection with his teammates was evident. Wide receiver Amari Cooper especially benefitted from Sims at quarterback and Lane Kiffin calling plays, ending the game with 12 receptions for 130 yards. Not every throw was there, but this was not the Blake Sims of old. This was someone who worked during the offseason, expecting to start.

“[Coach Saban] told me to play with composure,” Sims said. “I told him, when it comes time, I’ll be ready.”

It was not all smooth sailing for Sims, though. During the second quarter, he began to get rattled, calling plays and formations wrong, and forced Alabama into using two timeouts. At that point Saban instructed Coker to start warming up, but the transfer QB never saw the field until late after Saban instructed Kiffin to change up the tempo.

“I said to Lane, ‘Hey, let’s just go no-huddle and it’ll make it a lot simpler for [Blake],’” Saban said. “When we did that, he sort of got it back together and then he was fine after that.”

The Alabama quarterback battle that we all talked about turned out to be simple speculation. Coker, with his left knee heavily taped, was finally plucked from the sideline to hand the ball off twice and end the game, or as we will now call it: The 2013 Blake Sims Role.

Unless something unexpected happens, it’s clearly Sims’ job to lose. Oh, and it also helps when his receivers catch the ball.

Takeaway Two:

Kiffin’s offense came ready to play.

Alabama burned Doug Nussmeier’s play pamphlet in a raging inferno during the offseason, and called in the coolest, sunglasses-est offensive coordinator around to come reinvigorate its offense.

Kiffin’s first try at calling plays for the Crimson Tide resulted in 33 points, but more importantly, 538 yards on 82 plays. Sims looked comfortable, running back Derrick Henry rushed 17 times for 113 yards and a touchdown, averaging 6.6 yards per carry, while fellow rusher T.J. Yeldon finished with 23 rushes for 132 yards, averaging 5.5 yards per carry.

Saban was very pleased with his new offensive coordinator, and emphatically said so after the game.

“You know, the guy is a really good coach now, aight. Y’all need to fess up to that,” Saban said. “Most places that don’t like him is because he left and they were mad because he left. They weren’t mad about anything he did while he was there. Just do a little research on that.”

Cooper, Henry and Yeldon all had 100-yard outings under Kiffin, with DeAndrew White — who left the game with a shoulder injury — and Christion Jones involved as well. The ball could’ve been spread around more evenly, involving Kenyan Drake a bit more, but all things said, it was a successful night for Alabama’s offense. One tweak could be to target O.J. Howard more. His only target was a forced throw into double-coverage resulting in Sims’ only interception.

But weaving no-huddle abilities into Alabama’s already successful pro style paid dividends tonight. That’s something Saban hopes to see more often.

“One thing I found out about [no-huddle offenses] is because everybody else is a spread and no-huddle, people really have a tough time defending what we do because nobody does it,” Saban said. “It allows us to be more physical and it allows us to play more players.”

Takeaway Three:

So, we should probably talk about the defense.

Maybe Alabama hasn’t quite figured out hurry-up offenses yet, or maybe it’s just impossible to totally stop.

Either way, the Crimson Tide struggled again with West Virginia’s offense, allowing runs initially, but mostly getting beaten by passes.

“Not having a linebacker who ever played before that is out there playing against a fast-ball, no-huddle group that had to call the defenses and get the defenses lined up, I just thought there were a lot of critical positions that were going to get tested based on who we were playing and the quality of the team they had,” Saban said.

It’s an odd circumstance when Lane Kiffin’s offense outshines Nick Saban’s defense, but the offense had more experienced players, with a less complicated job.

As bad as it was, it could have been much worse had West Virginia’s wide receivers not repeatedly dropped passes. A high snap that went over Mountaineers QB Clint Trickett’s head also backed them out of the red zone on a critical possession. If WVU made some of those plays, I’m writing a different article.

But the major takeaway is the abysmal secondary play, especially from Bradley Sylve, who will not enjoy game tape sessions during the coming week. But safety Landon Collins accentuated the positives after the game, saying the team will only improve once its system is more ingrained.

“We just have to get familiar with the game plan and we just missed on some of personal packages, but we got the win, so that’s all that matters,” Collins said. “We had a game plan coming in and it didn’t quite work, but in the second half we settled down.”

Speaking of the second half, one key difference between this game and the 2013 Iron Bowl and Sugar Bowl was the Crimson Tide’s defense finished strong and came alive in the fourth quarter, refusing to wilt in the face of a potential comeback.

“When we saw our linebackers were starting to make plays in the backfield, we knew we had them,” Collins said.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter @Jonathan_Biles

(Above: Alabama Wide Receiver Christion Jones obliterates Mississippi State’s Brandon Holloway)

Most of the water cooler conversations on Monday morning will center around “The Prayer in Jordan-Hare” — and deservedly so. Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall’s improbable completion to Ricardo Louis to defeat Georgia will go down as one of the most memorable plays in Auburn football history.

Meanwhile, Bama delivered a lackluster performance in their 20-7 defeat of an overmatched Mississippi State squad.

But Alabama Wide Receiver Christion Jones delivered a devastating hit to open the second half of play in Starkville that will no doubt find it’s way into the pre-game highlight reel at Bryant-Denny.

Jones, a talented return man, is used to making highlights with the ball in his hands, but when the wind caused Cade Foster’s kickoff to hang in the air longer than usual, Mississippi State freshman Brandon Holloway was left vulnerable. Jones made impact just as the ball touched Holloway’s hands. The crowd’s reaction was an audible “Ooooooh!”

Assuming Alabama gets by UT-Chattanooga this weekend, The Iron Bowl at Auburn on Nov. 30th will decide who will represent the SEC-West in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 7th in Atlanta.

Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims