Alabama coach Nick Saban is a guy who likes to talk about the "process" of building a championship team, not immediate results or day-to-day evaluation.

That's probably a good thing, considering the way the Crimson Tide finished with a 7-6 record and closed out the regular season with four straight losses, including an explicable home loss to Louisiana-Monroe, a second consecutive loss to Mississippi State and a sixth straight loss to rival Auburn.

At Alabama, the process better lead to championships. In his second spring on the job, Saban didn't define where the Tide is in that process but he did insist the program had made progress.

"Our goal was to get every player to improve as we can have more guys play to their potential," Saban said.

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The players new Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino named as the Razorbacks' most improved in the spring might be surprising to most Arkansas observers.

Quarterback Casey Dick, tight end D.J. Williams and receivers London Crawford and Carlton Salters entered the spring as suspects and somehow became prospects along the way. The same was true on defense for defensive ends Antwain Robinson, Jake Bequette, Damario Ambrose and Adrian Davis.

The Razorbacks started over with Petrino and a new coaching staff in the spring and the result was a fresh start for many players who often struggled under the old coaching staff.

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With two new coordinators, a new quarterback, a completely different look on offense and the loss of four NFL draft choices from the defense, it would be easy to dismiss Auburn from serious contention in the SEC West.

Coach Tommy Tuberville, now entering his 10th season at Auburn, is convinced his team has what it takes to win the division.

"This group has a great opportunity, but it all depends on the next few months," Tuberville said. "How hard do they want to work to get to Atlanta and win in Atlanta (for the SEC Championship Game)? There's a lot of other teams out there with a lot of talent.

"This could be a good group if they come together, continue to get better, do all their work in the offseason, come back and have a positive two-a-days."

Spring brought a season of change for the Ole Miss football team. Some of it was tough. Some was encouraging. How well the Rebels handle it over the summer will go a long way toward determining their fate this fall.

The first big change came when new coach Houston Nutt and his coaching staff turned up the heat under the Rebels and demanded more accountability.

"Change is hard for some. It's something new whether it is a new coach, a new system, or the new terminology," said Nutt, who agreed to resign at Arkansas on Nov. 25 after a tumultuous past two years and took the Ole Miss job the next day.

"We had to change their attitude, and to me that is changing the little things.

Even though Mississippi State finished 8-5 last year and won the Liberty Bowl, it often had to make do with a limited offense that suffered from the lack of consistent pass production and big plays.

The spring game didn't exactly look like a step forward for the Bulldogs as they stumbled through a sloppy performance, but coach Sylvester Croom took stock of the entire spring and insisted the offense had taken a big step forward.

"No question," Croom said. "We have worked extremely hard on our play-action passing game and throwing the ball up the field. We intend to throw the ball down the field this year."

The Bulldogs had to throw quarterback Wes Carroll into the fire as a true freshman last season and he made significant progress in his first spring.