You never have to question Nick Saban's motivation level when it comes to winning.

And that explains the near permanent scowl on the face of a man who has turned Alabama into college football's superpower during his tenure, relentlessly trying to keep his foot on the gas in recruiting and staff building while Dabo Swinney and Clemson have used the same formula to become another titan.

January's blowout loss to the Tigers didn't sit well with Saban or anyone inside the program, fuel that Alabama used throughout spring practice, he says.

Saban touched on the Crimson Tide losing the "Alabama factor" earlier this year, but further detailed what he meant behind those comments and the program's renewed focus on excellence during a recent SEC Network interview with Greg McElroy.

"We’ve always played with a lot of discipline. We’ve always had people do their job at a high standard on a pretty consistent basis and we’ve always had people being responsible and having accountability in putting the team first,” Saban said. “From the LSU game on last year, I (think) we lost our humility, which can create a little complacency and a blatant disregard for doing what’s right.

"We had a lot of internal distractions from people in terms of, “Am I going out for the draft or am I taking another job?’ It was a little disappointing that we couldn’t keep it together. Obviously my responsibility is to keep everybody up to snuff in all those areas. But I think sometimes when you lose, people are much more willing to say, okay I’m going to look in the mirror now and what is the truth about what we did or didn’t do.”

There's always motivation to win at a program that has established itself as a modern-day dynasty during Saban's tenure, but even he admits there was a bit of overdrive this spring in terms of effort.

And when you've won as much as the Crimson Tide, that's not always easy to acquire.

“I don’t think anybody feels well about how we ended,” Saban said. "It’s not just that we lost. We didn’t play very well. And we didn’t play very well in some of the games that we won. People are realizing that if we really want to do this the right way and the way it’s been done for a long time, we’ve got to change. We’ve got to buy in and do things the Bama way.”

Preseason media darlings alongside the Tigers, Alabama is expected to be a near double-digit favorite in every game this season, much like their College Football Playoff front-running brethren from the ACC. Everyone is expecting Alabama-Clemson Part V in the final game once again, but this time, Saban hopes his team regains its edge.