TUSCALOOSA - As if he isn't menacing enough in a football helmet, as if he isn't intimidating enough wearing a perpetual scowl, rugged and sullen Rolando McClain walked into the Alabama football team's media interview room on Monday with a Viking helmet on his head. It was the goofy kind with white plastic horns protruding from each side.

This couldn't have been Rolando McClain. He wore a smile. He didn't want to take the helmet off for television interviews, but media relations folks insisted that he check his hat at the door.

It turns out McClain isn't as good at college football games on a video screen as he is on a field. He lost a friendly bet Sunday to a former Decatur High School teammate who now plays basketball at Shelton State Community College. The payoff was wearing the helmet on Monday.

When McClain wages a battle in the real game, it would take guts to wager against him.

He's lean, he's mean, and he's as serious about football as anyone could be.

Lean? The program says he's 6-foot-4 and weighs 258 pounds. Does he really weigh 258?

"Yep," he said, seemingly offended that someone would ask.

Then his percentage of body fat must be extraordinarily low.

"Nine percent, I think," he said. "That was about a month ago."

And his time in the 40-yard dash?

"This summer, I ran a 4.59 and a 4.63," he said.

Size. Speed. Power. Strength. Don't forget intelligence. That's always the quality that Alabama coach Nick Saban mentions first.

So which of these gifts makes McClain special? What makes the introspective middle linebacker an All-American? What makes NFL scouts and executives count the days until next spring, when they expect the junior to turn pro?

"It's a little bit of everything," McClain said. "A lot of guys have size. A lot of guys have speed. When you put it all together and you can watch film and dissect plays and know what plays they run out of each formation, it makes you a lot better."

But when he watches film of himself, he is not impressed.

"I don't go, `Wow,'" he said. "I expect myself to make plays. Sometimes I don't see how I made some plays, how I got off this block. I've just got to give all the credit to Coach Saban. He's made me what I am. He's pushed me to be a better player."

Saban knows he has more than an exceptionally talented player. He has a leader.

"He is very smart," Saban said. "He has got great knowledge and understanding of football. He's got great knowledge and understanding of what we do.

"He does a great job of implementing it in a game, in terms of his performance as well as the leadership that he provides for others."

McClain, Saban added, "usually plays his best in the biggest games. That is always something you like to see in great players."

A big game is days away. At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, the third-ranked Crimson Tide (5-0, 2-0 in the Southeastern Conference) visits 20th-ranked Ole Miss (3-1, 1-1) in a game that will be televised nationally by CBS.

Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt gushes about the star of the nation's second-ranked defense.

"Rolando McClain: 6-foot-4-and-a-quarter, 260 pounds," Nutt said. "And as fast as he wants to be. He gets to the ball carrier and he arrives in a bad mood every time I see him. ... You feel like he's the heartbeat of their team. Brings a lot of energy. But you don't see anybody blocking him. He stays unblocked, refuses to get blocked and he goes and makes the play."

Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy gushes about his teammate.

"Week in, week out, the best linebacker we go against is No. 25 on our team," McElroy said.

"He does such a great job of getting players in position. He does a great job of encouraging guys. He's a fantastic leader. He does so many things that go unseen."

No matter how good McClain is, he burns with a desire to be better. He had a good game Saturday at Kentucky. With 12 tackles (eight solo), an interception and a forced fumble that was returned for a decisive touchdown, he earned SEC defensive player of the week honors. Kentucky coach Rich Brooks called him a "man-child."

"I expect myself to make good plays," McClain said. "When I watched film yesterday of the game, the interception and all that, I looked over it, but I looked at the two tackles that I missed and the two mental errors that I had, and I just beat myself up about it."

It makes for an interesting relationship between a perfectionist player and a perfectionist coach.

"When I first got in, he would always yell at me, like the first week or so," McClain said of Saban. "And then he just stopped. I mean, I didn't understand why.

"Then he took me into his office and he talked to me. He's like, `It's hard for me to yell at you.' I was like, `Why?'

"Because I beat myself up so bad when I make a mistake, I'm on myself worse than he can."

It seems like a foregone conclusion that McClain will not return for his senior year. But McClain won't acknowledge the speculation.

"That ain't something I'm really worried about, really," he said. "I don't even really care about it. I ain't thinking about it."

A minute later, he was out of the room and off to prepare. His Viking helmet was back on his head, but his game face was back in place.