It’s been a long weekend for the Crimson Tide. However, Nick Saban is expecting a big response from his team.

On Saturday night, Alabama fell to the Texas Longhorns 34-24 in Bryant-Denny Stadium. While Saban hasn't spoken to his team since the disappointing loss, the head coach is expecting his players to rise to the occasion moving forward.

"I would be shocked if this team doesn’t respond in a really positive way — to try and get better, to try and do the things they need to do to get fixed," Saban said during his Monday press conference. "But we have to have better execution. We gotta do simple things better — whether it’s pass protection, blocking, controlling the line of scrimmage, not giving up big plays on defense."

Following Saban's press conference, Alabama players backed up their head coach's expectation as starting left guard Tyler Booker was spirited when asked about the feel of the locker room at the moment.

“The mindset of the team, we’re pissed off I’m not going to lie, nobody wants to lose at home,” said Booker. “But there’s only been two undefeated teams to win a national championship at the University of Alabama and all of our goals are still attainable.”

Though a Week 2 loss will not determine the outcome of the season, it is the player’s job to stay focused on the goal at hand, and Booker believes everything they set out to do is still possible.

After suffering a tough loss such as the one on Saturday, the identity of the team can be in question. However, sophomore offensive lineman Tyler Booker and junior linebacker Dallas Turner have not given up.

“This was just a wake up call for us,” Booker said. “We’re all taking heed to what Coach is saying and we understand that in order to be who we are, we need to be prepared to play and execute.”

With the goal in mind to re-establish an identity, the mindset of the team is also crucial to how the rest of the season can result for a team with high playoff aspirations.

Turner is also not phased by the early season loss.

“I mean, you know, it’s Week 2, it’s still early in the season,” he said. “We still have a lot of time to create the identity we want to create as a team.”

Traveling to Tampa this weekend to face off against South Florida on Saturday afternoon, Alabama has a clear-cut opportunity to prove a point and regroup as a team. With Saban’s expectation for a big response coming, the Crimson Tide will be a team to continue to keep an eye on.

"The future is now, Saban said. "We’ve got to do it now — that’s the main thing.”