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Alabama head coach Nick Saban tracks tackling drills during Alabama's Tuesday football practice, Tuesday, September 24, 2013, at the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

-- Speaking to a room full of fans and thousands of others listening at home, Alabama coach

Nick Saban

was direct with his language and frank about how the expectations surrounding the two-time defending national champions have caused "a lot of anxiety" among the players.

"There's a lot of anxiety on our team because of the expectations that everybody has for the team," Saban said on his weekly "Hey, Coach!" radio show. "I think rather than having all these expectations, I think we should turn the expectations into just being supportive."

In the wake of Alabama's uncharacteristically sloppy 31-6 win to Colorado State, Saban said he met individually with five players per day throughout the week. He then implored those players to meet with three other players whom they felt they could "affect and impact."

"I ask them how they feel, tell them you felt like that sometime before and you found out this by the experience you had, so this is what you need to do to improve or get better or whatever," Saban said. "I said 'A, it shows you care, but B, you're going to affect some other guys on our team to buy in to doing things the way we need to do it, which is going to impact the consistency that we're talking about.'"

Alabama had too many mental and technical errors and showed a "lack of focus" in its win against Colorado State, Saban said. Ultimately, the Crimson Tide is "its own opponent," he said.

Saban used quotes from Olympic gold medalist track star

Usain Bolt

-- who has said he "doesn't even know" who he's racing against -- to further illustrate his point.

"I think we need more of that on our team and we need people to be more supportive of this team," Saban said. "I said this team has to create its own identity. Our fans can help us do that by the energy and enthusiasm they have rather than being disappointed in the expectations they might have had because this can be a really good team if we continue to improve."

After Saturday's game, linebacker

C.J. Mosley

, safety

Vinnie Sunseri

and quarterback

AJ McCarron

spoke to the team about

Saban touted his leaders for taking that course of action and said the impact has been positive.

"More of the guys are sort of affecting other people in a positive way. The negative is energy is starting to disappear and there's more positive energy," Saban said. "People are having more fun and feeling better about what we can accomplish as a team."