BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama coach Nick Saban began Southeastern Conference Media Days by addressing reporters with some questions of his own.”I want to make sure I’m in the right year. I want to be in the moment here today. Is it 2010?  Am I right about that?” Saban asked. “Because everything I hear has always been about last year.”It is in fact 2010, and Saban’s Crimson Tide reigns as the current national champion. But just around the corner is the start of a new football season.SEC players begin reporting to campuses as early as Aug. 1 at Georgia and Aug. 4 for LSU.Saban said he doesn’t look at this season as “defending a title.””We’re not really defending a championship,” Saban said. “The championship is part of history … We really can’t look in the rearview mirror.”Alabama returns junior running back Mark Ingram, the 2009 Heisman Trophy winner, along with senior quarterback Greg McElroy. The Crimson Tide faces an uphill battle with the loss of 11 starters, including eight on defense.With the high turnover in college football, schools league-wide face challenges in replacing players. This year’s challenge is particularly large after NFL teams drafted an SEC-record 49 players.Some of those include Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and center Maurkice Pouncey, who has recently been the subject of an NCAA investigation.”I see probably the two teams that lost the most just on paper is probably Alabama and Florida, who played in the championship game last year,” Saban said. “I think there will be more parity in the league. And it will be more difficult week in and week out.”Replacing Tebow won’t be easy, but Florida coach Urban Meyer said he has faith in junior quarterback John Brantley because of his experience.”Instead of all the focus being on John, it’s certainly not our focus, we’re very well aware what he can do,” Meyer said. “One common characteristic of a great quarterback is the personnel around him. I think we have it, but it’s not been identified yet. So it’s going to be a big job for us in training camp.”Florida center Mike Pouncey, Maurkice’s twin brother, said the offense won’t change much, minus a little less running by the quarterback.”We’re not going to run our quarterback as much. He’s not as big as Superman was,” Pouncey said with a laugh. “But we’re looking for great things out of our offense.”Expectations are sky high for every school in the SEC West from Alabama, whose fans expect another national championship, to Mississippi State, who had a 5-7 record last season.”We’re coming off a 5-7 season, not a national championship season last year,” Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen said. “But our fans have really bought into our program and the future that they see that we have to build a championship program.”The Bulldogs finished their season with a 41-27 pounding of Ole Miss, which Mullen referred to as “that school up north.” Mullen said he hopes to carry the energy of that finish into this season, hopefully culminating in a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game.”Our guys believe, how we played last year, they can compete with any team in the league,” Mullen said. “How we finished the year off, I believe they now believe they can beat any team in this league.”A winning attitude is something rookie head coach Joker Phillips hopes to bring to Kentucky. Phillips has had a whirlwind offseason since being hired as the Wildcats’ head coach.”Not only am I a letterman, alumnus, a Kentuckian, for me to be able to lead the program I truly love, I’m living the dream and carrying it out,” Phillips said.Phillips said he has introduced something called “Operation Win” to Kentucky, which emphasizes winning in the classroom.”Has everybody bought in? No,” Phillips said. “But the ones that haven’t bought in, they will either be no longer with us or they’ll be the best conditioned player on our football team.”—-Contact Katherine Terrell at [email protected]