TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Since last season’s loss to Clemson in the national title game, Alabama head coach Nick Saban said his team’s No. 1 goal is to re-establish the Alabama factor.

To junior right tackle Jedrick Wills, that means “commitment, discipline, effort, toughness, pride and then developing yourself to be relentless for 60 minutes in the ballgame.”

But four days after the Crimson Tide lost to now-No. 1 LSU, a 46-41 thriller in Bryant-Denny Stadium, Saban was asked if his 2019 team is playing up to that Alabama factor standard.

“I think that the players are certainly trying to do things the way we’d like to do them,” Saban said. “I think we’ve had a lot of adversity to overcome this season from a personnel standpoint, especially at critical positions, whether they’re signal-caller positions on defense or whatever. We’ve had to play a lot of young players who they don’t even know what the Bama Factor is.

“They’re just learning how to do that.

“I think we have a lot of players on our team who have really done a great job of playing with discipline and playing with toughness and being able to sustain in games and all that. And we have a lot of young players that it’s been a little more challenging for.

“But we’re working with every individual day in and day out to try to get them to understand not only how you have to play in the game but how you have to prepare to get ready to play in the game so that you have the best opportunity to do that.”

Alabama (8-1, 5-1 SEC) is playing without three starters on defense and has had to use true freshmen in their absence. But a mixture of confusion, mental errors and missed tackles led to LSU converting 8-of-15 third-down tries and piling up 46 points and 559 yards of offense.

Saban said he and his staff counted 25 missed tackles in the 5-point loss to the Tigers.

“We obviously need to get better,” Saban said. “I think we’ve got to do a better job, everybody in the organization. I’ve got to do a better job with them. The coaches need to do a better job with them. We’ve got to keep getting these guys to play with more confidence and play together, tackle better on the perimeter, get more turnovers, be able to execute and understand that everybody has to do their job for us to be successful.

“You can’t have any blinking lights. It’s not OK for one player to break down on this play and a different player the next play. So, you’ve just got to work hard at it.”

Alabama head coach Nick Saban

After the loss, the Crimson Tide lost control of its postseason fate and was ranked No. 5 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings behind No. 1 LSU, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Clemson and No. 4 Georgia. Alabama will need to win the rest of its regular-season games and receive some help from other teams if it wants to make a sixth straight playoff appearance this year.

The team will look to bounce back on the road this weekend when it travels to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi State for an 11 a.m. CT game on ESPN. How has Saban been able to read the team’s response psychologically coming off a disappointing loss this past week?

“We’ll see when we play the game on Saturday,” Saban said. “I always say you learn a lot more when you don’t success and you have failings than you do when you are successful. It’s more difficult for people to buy into doing things the right way when you’re having success because they look at you and say, ‘If we’re having success, why do we have to change anything?’

“But when you don’t have success and you don’t play like you’d like to, I think more people are much more willing to take notice and try to do things the right way so that they have a chance to improve. So far this week, it’s been pretty positive.”

FORMER MSU ASSISTANTS RETURN TO STARKVILLE

It’s not that Brian Baker is a quiet coach. It’s just that at Wednesday’s practice, he was difficult to ignore. The former Mississippi State defensive coach had a message for his new players.

“You think they’re afraid of you?” Baker bellowed. “I’ve been there. They’re not.”

Baker is one of two current Alabama assistants that coached in Starkville, Miss., last year along with running backs coach Charles Huff. The two joined Saban’s staff this offseason after serving as the Bulldogs’ defensive line coach and running backs coach, respectively, in 2018.

Baker's leadership was evident in his three seasons at MSU as the Bulldogs' produced multiple first-team All-SEC defensive linemen for the first time in school history in 2017 and repeated that accomplishment the very next season in 2018. Both Jeffery Simmons and Montez Sweat earned the nod on the Associated Press and Coaches' teams in each of the last two seasons. It represented just the second and third times since 2003 that an SEC West school produced multiple first-team All-SEC defensive linemen (Alabama, 2015).

Huff's one season in Starkville as the assistant head coach, run-game coordinator and running backs coach at Mississippi State produced an effective rushing attacked that averaged 223.6 yards per game to rank second in the SEC and 20th nationally. Kylin Hill and Aeris Williams carried the load at running back averaging 6.3 and 6.2 yards per carry, respectively.

“Both guys are good coaches,” Saban said. “They’re very enthusiastic. I think they have good relationships with the players. They’ve brought some good energy, new ideas. Both are very bright. And I think they do a good job technique-wise of coaching their players on the field. So, we’re excited to have them on the staff, and they’ve been very pleasing to me, the job that they’ve done.”

Alabama tight end Jahleel Billingsley

BILLINGSLEY IS ‘NEXT MAN UP’ AT TIGHT END

With tight end Miller Forristall set to miss the remainder of the regular season with a voice box injury that required surgery, Alabama has used another true freshman quite a bit more on the offensive side of the football in Jahleel Billingsley, a 4-star signee from Chicago.

Billingsley was the No. 2 tight end in last week’s LSU game behind starter Major Tennison. The Crimson Tide also used offensive linemen Chris Owens and Kendall Randolph as extra blockers in the loss to the Tigers. Although he has yet to catch a pass, the 6-foot-4, 228-pound Billingsley has seen his reps increase more and more as Alabama’s season has progressed.

“He’s kind of the next man up when Miller got hurt,” Saban said.

“He has a lot of ability, and we’ve been trying to develop him all year long. And the big issue for young players is you’ve got to know what to do, you have to know how to do it, you have to know why it’s important to do it that way. He doesn’t have a lot of experience, so we want to keep working with him and keep developing him, and hopefully, he’ll be able to make a positive contribution at a position right now where we’re a little thin on personnel.”

Against LSU, Billingsley appeared in his fifth game this year, so he can no longer redshirt.

TIDE DUE EARNS CoSIDA ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT HONORS

Alabama football offensive linemen Landon Dickerson and Jedrick Wills were both voted to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District IV team, it was announced Thursday. It was the second such honor for Wills and the first for Dickerson.

Alabama football has now tallied 19 CoSIDA All-District honors since 2009.

Dickerson, who earned his undergraduate degree in management with a 3.68 GPA at Florida State, is now pursuing a master's in business administration (MBA). Wills carries a 3.44 while pursuing a degree in finance.

In addition to earning CoSIDA Academic All-District IV honors last season, Wills is a 2019 Preseason and Midseason All-American and is on the Outland Trophy Watch List. Dickerson, in his first season with the Crimson Tide, has started every game in 2019 and was named SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week following the South Carolina game.

Both student-athletes now advance to the national ballot with a chance to be voted to the Academic All-America Team later this season. Alabama football players have earned Academic All-America honors eight times under Saban, the most notable being Barrett Jones, the only four-time honoree in CoSIDA Football Academic All-America history.

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).